Flying High

My trip to Pennsylvania seemed overrated and useless when I took off the week at work. What a big pain to have to sacrifice my normal life in Orlando for my adventurous grandmother who loves to visit family in Pennsylvania. Well, God sure got me on this one, letting me think that everything would be boring and that I wouldn’t experience a great deal of growing up. I sure was misled. I learned so much, experienced more than I could have imagined in one week. And this all occurred just after I found a new love in my life. I wonder what took so long or what happened in order for this plethora of goodness to just all of a sudden catch up to me and smother me with happiness?
Number one: I saw snow for the first time. And how the irony played itself out arrive at such an experience. The main purpose of this Pennsylvania journey consisting of a seventeen hour drive through most of the eastern coastal states was to see my cousin Netty. It was her 40th birthday and she deserved the best surprise party a miracle woman could get. I say that because she is fighting a hard battle with cancer and she is the most optimistic, fun loving cousin I could ever ask for. She has two beautiful daughters, one which I got to know a lot better as being my 16 year old cousin Jaime and her sister Kristy. She has everything to live for in life and not once did she deny that and feel as if she should give up and no longer deal with the struggle of being a loving mother, wife, cousin, sister, and inspiration to us all. Oh, yeah, the snow; forgot about that. So, we traveled up to Pittsburg from the hell hole of Reading where we were staying with my crazy great aunt and uncle. We arrived at a hotel and later attended the party. When my cousin Netty walked in, her face lit up in astonishment. She had presents, I’m sure, but the biggest gift was having her entire family there, especially her aunt Caroline from Florida. My grandmother put the biggest smile on her face. And at that moment when the two embraced, the first snow of the season let loose with white snow flurries. How perfect and beautiful of a thing to take part in as a first for my experience with the snow?
Number two: I already mentioned briefly my cousin Jaime. Well, I had spent the whole trip to Pittsburg and back with another 16 year old girl cousin of mine by the name of Ana Rose (just Ana really). The three of us all together formed the group of teenagers who knew how to have fun. I just didn’t realize at the time that I would get drunk off of that excitement, literally. I opted to spend the night at Netty’s house with my two chick cousins after the after-party at her house. We talked a bit, shot some shit (as my great uncle Tom would repeat consistently throughout my whole visit at their house, ugh), and stayed up till 12 when Jaime’s mom finally went to bed. Ana and I were just about to crash when Jaime suggested that we stay up. Hey, why not? It’s only every so often that I get to see my cousins, and I was really getting to know them this time. I enjoyed their company and high school drama stories, needless to say. So, I called my girl Emily and talked to her a bit, and meanwhile my girls were already on their way to getting drunk. It wasn’t awkward at all, because my friends all did stuff relating to altering one’s consciousness in some way and I was just accustomed to seeing it and not doing it. Well, I felt gutsy and figured I’d take a swig of some of this Smirnoff tasting stuff just because my cousins were having fun. I’d eventually get drunk one day because my girlfriend does it and I respect her, so it must not be bad. So about half a bottle of wine (1/4 of a peach-tasting wine and ¼ of a red wine), three look-alike malt liquor beers, and three tingly shots of Bacardi later, I had outdrank and outdrunk my cousins, and I was “faded”. Laughing, talking about our feelings of life, trying to walk a straight line, and being close together on each other’s shoulders, I couldn’t help but enjoy every twisted, spinning second. I’m a good drunk by the way: I am completely aware of what’s going on around me and I can talk while still making sense, but I just can’t drunk dial. Ana did that for me, and I called Emily because she wanted to hear me drunk. Gotta love that girl! But all good feelings come to an abrupt stop or some type of bump in the road: It just so happened that the bump in my stomach wanted to come up. Barely straight up, I stumbled to the porcelain part of the evening and threw up what I had wanted to keep down. And then I did it again after I stupidly ate bread. That was the stupid part in me from being drunk: listening to my dad’s suggestion to eat bread when you are drunk. Or maybe I was too wasted to realize that he meant it for the next morning. Oh, well, I got drunk, I loved it, and want to do it more often. It is truly a social thing to do with great company of friends and loved ones. Now I just gotta move out so I don’t have to start drinking at noon to get home competent.
Number three: As I look thirty six thousand miles below me, all I can see is visions of Christmas and a sea of clouds. It kind of reminds me of when I had taken a cruise on the blue waters of the Bahamas, especially at night when the sea shone by the light of the moon; same effect on the clouds when they scour over the city. Odd that there is a parallel amongst travel on sea to that in the air; even the bumpy ride is the same. Spots of electricity illuminate the ground filled with lively city-life and sleeping households. It’s funny how most of the electricity is concentrated in the more populated areas of the world, as if each heart generates that power and glows brightly for everyone to map out when they see the world (or portions of it) as a whole beautiful creation. And although the sights are quite charming, I connect the dots of light to my beautiful Emily in Tampa, waiting for me to get off of this plane ride in the clouds and come back to earth to travel right back into the clouds with her. She drives me to do crazy things that I would not normally do unless I had reason in my life. She is the reason. I trust her already so wholeheartedly, and I’ve only known the girl for more than a month. Strange, or just meant to be? Time is already decided for us, yet it will still be the way to tell. I’m on my first ever plane ride and really if I didn’t have to get back to her, I’d be waiting in Reading with my grandmother, her sister and her brother-in-law for her car to be fixed. This is because on Monday night of our Thursday-to-Thursday planned vacation she got hit by some idiot driver or she pulled out in front of someone trying to make their way home safely. Which of the two it is, I couldn’t tell you because I was not with her (even though I was originally supposed to drive…freaky!). But she was ok (Thank you God) and her car was barely damaged, but is un-driveable until the careless insurance people pick up the pace and actually give a shit about someone who needs to get home before Christmas to be with her family. But I got out of there because all I could think of, hope for, dream of, and ponder was the next time I would see my beautiful girlfriend. Tonight when I get off of this experimental trip, she will be waiting for me past the terminal with her eyes all aglow, her hair freshly cut, a bright-shining smile to accompany, her fragrance flowing towards my olfactory glands, and her lengthy arms wide open. I get to sleep with her tonight for the second time as well and it seems that my mother is ok with that. Should that be Number four? And tomorrow we are going to meet her family in the quickest way possible and walk (as well as drive) down the Memory Lane that was built specifically for her in Brandon within Tampa where I’m going now. I do not even care that I am blowing off work on Friday for her and probably not go home till Saturday morning (which my parents don’t know yet…whoops). Love is more important than anything that can give you money, ever! Plus, Emily will pay me with kisses. I could use that for a longer period of time, because money just burns away in your pocket, or just helps you find those kisses easier and under more thrilling circumstances. I couldn’t be any higher than I am now in my life. This plane doesn’t even reach the heights to which I have exceeded 50 million times over. I crave craziness! I love love!