Date: 6/16/11 - Location: Dublin Airport - Time: 9am

The flight out of Chicago O'Hare was a success. It was the longest flight I have been on to date BUT it had the right tools to keep you occupied: games, movies, music, food -- just not enough sleep. I could have used a few more winks of that. Melissa let me sit by the window (nice girl) and we marveled at the cumulus clouds and the sunset above them and eventually at the glowing effervescent moon. As we were landing in Dublin I watched the landscape change from bubbly endless clouds to calming vast farmland - fisherman were out early this morning having a great day, no doubt, as I could eye the little ripples in the bay made by the numerous fish touching the surface. What a great day to be alive.

The airport is an interesting place - mixed with bittersweet emotions - a place that brings together as it tears apart - a place of relief - excitement - yearning - but overall waiting. You wait. You wait. You wait some more. Sometimes you do that waiting standing, sitting, sometimes with a breakfast sandwich in hand, sometimes on the phone with your mother as she tells you her embarrassing customs story when she tried to bring a plant from Holland back to the U.S. There she was sternly instructed that you couldn't bring into the states anything "growing."

All in all, I feel extraordinarily lucky to be here...waiting for our plane to Paris.