Friday, July 2, 2010

Day 1: The Albuquerque Airport

With my dissertation successfully defended, I will embark on a two-week tour of LDS Church history and U.S. History sites across the country, beginning on Monday.

Today, however, I am in Albuquerque, laid over on my way to Las Vegas to spend a couple of days with my family before the tour starts. As I did when I went to Japan, I will do my best to document this trip as it happens, so that those of you who follow this sort of thing can experience it as it happens.

So, right now, I am in the airport. And, thus far, here are the things I have noticed:
  • A man on the other side of the aisle from me reading Hold Me Tight, by Sue Johnson. Middle-aged, married. Some kind of businessman.
  • An older woman wearing a blue duster, giant rhinestone earrings, and a huge bun on the top of her head, who was on my flight from Lubbock. I don't believe in taking pictures of strangers for the purpose of mocking them, but I was tempted.
  • The Albuquerque airport itself provides many clues as to why Texans have a general disregard for the state of New Mexico. That's all I will say.
  • While, in general, I think we as a society have found all kinds of ways to distance ourselves from one another, occasionally, I still hear people who don't know one another talking on airplanes and in airports, and it gives me hope that we might make it as a society after all. As I type this on my laptop with my headphones shoved in my ears.

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