salt lake city- the layover from hades

i've been here now for six and a half hours. the carnage involves a finished book, a devoured and unpurchased issue of the trashy magazine "us," lunch, afternoon coffee, partial viewing of the keira knightley version of pride and prejudice (aka "if jane austen took speed before writing") and two phone chats. i woke up at 3:30, was nicely installed in the super shuttle van at 4:10 and stood in a killer long line for international, meeting a nice couple from ohio.

twenty minutes before my layover in salt lake city is set to take off, the monitors switch our gate to another terminal! i'm booking it as nicely as i can without lopping off the head of innocent poorly positioned toddlers and doing my best to not bump grandma as she's walking on the human conveyor belt. almost out of breath and within five minutes shy of feeling uber-late, i arrive to find we have been delayed an hour. another hour. now three more. our proposed plane's landing gear refused to comply with the maintenance men. don't get me wrong, i'm glad to pass up an opportunity like that anyday. so now they announced a new plane coming to fetch us. grouchy and sleepy, rife with self doubt brought on by my gnawing sleepiness, i ended up hanging up on my mom and cutting the convo. short with my friend.

once on the plane, i ended up getting my own row... things were definitely looking up. i began a lively chat with kara, the girl sitting in front of me also with her own row, who looked like a willowy jewish version of me. we would be great friends. if situations were different most likely. we swapped school stories and she girded me with a laundry list of cold weather clothing i need before heading out to new hampshire in january. i fell asleep, listening to sting, lying down with legs crossed indian style.