The flight

[Giovanni] I guess we never finished that last entry. We’re on the plane now, to the west of the mountain range bordering Temecula. We connect to the airport in Dallas, Texas, then head for Birmingham, Alabama. The mountain ranges are beautiful. Like this, up here, you can just start to get a sense of their grand scale and majesty… Everything’s so dusty, like a photograph left out in the desert. Are these the landscapes that he loved so much? Didi… loved the desert. But I think that came from Kyle more than anything else. He loved Nevada…

[…]

We’re in Arizona now, over the San Pedro River. The seat-mounted tablets have Bejewelled on them… I ate eggs and rice, packed, the utensils I asked a flight attendant for. Startin’ to get sleepy… I’ll talk about the server later…

[…]

We’re on an American Eagles flight now. I guess it’s a budget subsidiary of American Airlines. There’s less turbulence on this flight. The plane is older, no [chair] screens or AC outlets, there are “no smoking” lights… Everyone’s voice sounds like it’s been processed into a sawtooth wave. The plane’s smaller and the seats are cramped… But they’re actually more comfortable for me! But it’s difficult to write, the shadow cast by my hand obscures the word I’m on…

[Tolly] Earlier, at the LAX, I met a woman with a small service dog. He’s been flying with her for thirteen years. She has epilepsy. Remarkably calm creature. He was definitely some kind of terrier (which are hyperactive and more aggressive than most other types of dogs), yet he was totally relaxed, at ease with the chaos and noise around him. She herself was wearing a tee, grey with the Buddha printed on it and captioned, “Let go of that shit.” She was very proud of that shirt, and that philosophy, as she showed it off to me. Older woman. That easygoing lackadaisical attitude reminds me of I.… Completely disabled by his epilepsy, lives with his mother, early to mid-thirties now, loves his service dog O. dearly and is the archetypal otaku. Friendly and caring, but plagued by a complete disregard for social mores.

Ansel and Bedi are asleep.

The airport at Fort Worth is so much more welcoming than the LAX. There is colour in the interiors, the gates and terminals are more human-scaled, areas are broken into definite corridors and open areas by little architectural details, so it is easier to get a handle of one’s bearings and one’s progression within the airport.

We’re landing now. Talk later…