Ok, where to begin?
My trip to Houston was fine. None of the jitters from last time, and less of that feeling of time travel, like being in the TARDIS. I didn't really visit places that remind me specifically of my old life. What was nice was to have the freedom of driving around and I did a lot of shopping this time, as chronicled before.
The tough part was in Dallas, the day before the event. I was up until 3 am working on stuff, assembling press kits, getting the news release ready to go at 6:30 am.
Friday was the day of the event, but I had planned to attend Anna's birthday party with Puck and Ryan that night in Brooklyn, so I caught an early flight out of Dallas. Unfortunately, the plane was delayed getting into Dallas, so we took off about 45 minutes late to Milwaukee, and missed our transfer to Newark. So instead of getting to Newark at 4 pm, which would have given me time to go home and change before meeting Puck at Penn Station, I had to get on a later flight to La Guardia that didn't land until 6:30 pm. After a bus trip through Queens and Harlem and a subway ride I was finally home around 7:30 pm and too exhausted and frustrated to contemplate going all the way to Brooklyn via mass transit by myself.
So despite all my plans to do so and not staying to see the event to completion, I didn’t get to attend my reason for leaving early in the first place. It reminds me of Alan Moore’s landmark Batman story, “The Killing Joke,” except I didn’t turn into a homicidal maniac. It was enough of a reward just being home after 10 days in Texas, and having a full weekend to recover. If I’d stayed in Dallas for the event, I might not have made it home until Saturday.
Spending all this time in airports, I watched the entire Firefly series once again over the past week. That always makes me happy. But it also makes me think about wanting to be part of a more interconnected group, like the crew of the Serenity. I also realize that, to a large extent, my life is a lot less adventuresome than it was during transition. In a lot of ways that’s good, but I’m wary of being too comfortable, too settled. I left Houston partly because I didn’t want to live my whole life in one place. Maybe someday another opportunity to move will appear – I just hope it doesn’t involve a fire.
