I looked down at my heavy leather jacket and pondered carrying it all through my travels to Jamaica. It seemed silly. So I found a lightweight windbreaker (easy to wad up in a ball) in my car’s trunk and swapped it with the leather jacket. This would later prove to be a costly or brilliant choice, depending on how you look at it.

The Northwest line was a fraction of the size it had been the day before. I breezed through. The security checkpoint wasn’t a problem. I grabbed a chai and a banana and settled in to wait.

JoAnn called from Jamaica to tell me that I didn’t need to arrange my own cab ride to Negril. Scott would be arriving at the same time and we could just split the cost of the ride. She didn’t give me much more information than that but it was understandable because she was paying $2 a minute for the call. It was pretty nice of her to bother making arrangements for me on the day before her wedding.

The flight to Memphis was on a CRJ900. A little advice: if you are 5′ 10″ or taller, get an aisle seat. I had a window seat in coach and the curve of the wall made me scrunch up in a shape that resembled the letter C. I know I sat next to someone but I can’t remember anything about them. The flight was over mercifully quickly and it was back to waiting in the airport.

The next flight was to Montego Bay, Jamaica. The window seat in the Airbus A320 was much more bearable. I sat next to an art teacher who had gotten married in September and was headed to Jamaica for his honeymoon. He was sitting away from his wife so I ended up loaning him my Lonely Planet Jamaica Travel Guide while I studied my camera manuals. We did our customs paperwork, looked down at Cuba as we passed over it, and glided into the Montego Bay airport without incident.

As we left the plane we were immediately shunted to a lower level where we seemingly walked for miles through empty, echoing hallways. (Later I realized that the boarding gates were one flight above us and that floor was filled with shops, restaurants, and information. This lower level just served to get out out as quickly as possible.) I declared nothing, grabbed my bags, and walked out into the mid-80s daytime heat of Jamaica.

The exit from the airport is crammed with taxi drivers and other vendors competing for your attention. I quickly made my way to the edge of the crowd and looked around for Scott. No luck. The board said his flight had arrived but there was no sign of him. For the next half hour I wandered the edges of the crowd looking for him. There were many offers for taxi rides. My favorite went something like this.

“What you need, mon? You need a taxi?”

“Nah, I am just waiting for my friend.”

“I’m your friend, mon. A friend who leave you waiting ain’t a friend. I can take you where you want to go.”

“No thanks, man. I’ll just wait for him.”

“Okay, but you remember me. I give you good rate.”

And so it went. Eventually Scott popped out of the airport with our driver in tow. We packed our bags in his minivan and we were off.

The hour and a half drive to Negril was a new experience. Jamaicans drive on the “wrong” side of the road. (One saying is, “In Jamaica, the left side is the right side. The right side is suicide.”) Horns are used all the time but not in an angry way. Roads are very narrow. And the bit about driving on the right is not exactly a rule. As we were leaving the airport, Dean (our driver) was faced with both of his lanes being blocked with stopped traffic. He snuck around to the other side of the concrete median and merrily continued into oncoming traffic to get around the blockage.

The drive had some pretty good scenery. We could see the ocean for most of the drive and we hit a few interesting towns.

Dean dropped us off at the Xtabi resort where most of the wedding party was staying. We found them at the bar/restaurant/swimming area where the wedding would be held the next day. Hugs all around and then they started the rehearsal.

JoAnn was sporting a tiara as the sun set over the ocean. I pulled out my camera and equipment. As the wedding party rehearsed the wedding, I rehearsed taking wedding pictures (with mixed results).

The rehearsal dinner was a gentle introduction to Jamaican cuisine. I had the Jamaican chicken which had a much more subtle flavor than I expected. The key lime cheesecake was very tart though.

Rob’s dad flagged down a cab for me to take me the half mile to my resort for $1. The problem was that the cab already had another passenger and they were headed in the opposite direction. After he dropped the other guy off he told me he couldn’t go all the way back for just $1. I was too tired to fight much so he managed to get another $2 out of me.

At the desk they asked me for a voucher from my travel agency. I had no clue what they were talking about but I promised to find out. They gave me the key to my room and the security guy escorted me to the room.

The room was nice enough. “Serviceable” would be a good word. It was right underneath the pool and bar so the bass from the sound system filled the room. But it had air conditioning and a bed which was everything I needed in the world. I nodded off with my head hanging off the foot of the bed. I woke up, took off my pants, and fell asleep again on top of the covers. I was still planning to brush my teeth, take off my shirt, turn out the light, etc. It was not to be.

I headed off to the airport. The previous night’s snowfall was still fresh on the ground and I slid through an intersection or two. As I got closer to the airport I realized that I didn’t actually know where the entrance was. I ended up traveling pretty far out of my way. When I got to the check-in counter, it was completely empty. Except for Northwest. Which had a line of breathtaking length.

All of those things combined meant that I got the the front of the line with less than 40 minutes before my flight left. No check in for me. Instead I got to make some phone calls.

First I called Travelocity. They said there was no way to get me to Jamaica that day. They offered to get me to the Twin Cities and then to Memphis where I could stay overnight and take the final leg to Jamaica the following day. I countered by asking them if I could just take the Madison-Memphis flight on the next morning and then take the same Memphis-Jamaica flight that they were suggesting. They sounded surprised and then decided that my plan made more sense. They booked it for a slight fee and that was that.

I gave Endo a call as I left the airport letting him know I wouldn’t be meeting them at the Montego Bay airport to share a taxi.

I grabbed some cheap fast food, went home, and was back in bed before 8 a.m. I slept, slept, and then slept some more. My mistake cost me a day in Jamaica but it got me some rest and it let me prepare a little bit more.

I slipped on my headphones and tuned to the local oldies station. The show was just starting; Madison’s annual Rhythm and Booms fireworks show set to music. I looked across the bay at the skyline highlighted by the capitol building dome only a mile and a half away. The larger fireworks blooms were just peeking out above the skyline.

The warm breeze blew by as I looked around at the fireworks, the skyline, the fireflies, the kids with sparklers running around in their yards…

After the show was over I walked the tracks back to the main street and went by the coffee shop, pet supply store, the art restoration shop (coming soon), and the other little shops until I got back to my front door.

Madison makes me smile in different ways like this almost every day. I don’t wish that I was somewhere else. I don’t feel like I should be somewhere else. It feels comfortable. It feels right. It’s where I am supposed to be.

“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.”

– Samuel Johnson

As long as I am posting quotes, I may as well add this one. It really had a chilling effect on me when I first read it. It always makes me wonder when I drive through the back roads of Wisconsin.

“Good heavens!” I cried. “Who would associate crime with these dear old homesteads?”

“They always fill me with a certain horror. It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.”

“You horrify me!”

“But the reason is very obvious. The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard’s blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.”

     – The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)

     – Sherlock Holmes in “The Copper Beeches” (Doubleday p. 323)

“One”

“Thank you for calling AT&T. Goodbye.”

So last night I got a call at 11 pm that Rhinelander was down. I couldn’t do anything until 8 am so I set it aside. At 1 am I got a call that Tomahawk was down. I decided to wait that one out too. At 2 am Tomahawk came back up. I napped for an hour or two until 5 am when I had to switch over a circuit for a customer. Back to sleep at about 6 am. Up at 9 to check Rhinelander. It was still down and the people at the site couldn’t do anything to fix it. (Hey, they are lawyers, not system administrators. What can you expect?) So I hopped in the car and drove 100 miles north. I moved some power cables around and headed back south to my office in Wausau. I took care of various stuff that needed doing and actually got pretty much caught up.

So I should have been feeling pretty cruddy. A little sick, not much sleep… But I was actually feeling pretty good. While I was on the road I got to listen to a lot of the podcasts that were filling up my iPod. I saw my first Segway in person. (Apparently an Einstein marketing promotion of some sort? I was driving by too quickly to tell.)

More importantly, I was feeling good because I was being productive. It felt nice to be going places, fixing things, handling issues, etc. I was the only person that could handle these things and I was doing a damn good job of it. I haven’t done that in awhile and I didn’t realize how much I missed it.

When I wandered outside, there was a concert in the park next to our building. I stopped and listened for awhile. Then I drove to Barnes and Noble and read some of their books for free. I drove home listening to “Duo in E” by Jacques Offenbach. I almost never listen to classical music but when I caught that piece as I was flipping through the stations, something about it grabbed me. (The next piece of his that they played, “Les Belles Americaines”, has a more interesting backstory but wasn’t as interesting to me musically.)

I also heard Johnny Cash’s new album American V on the All Songs Considered podcast. Apparently he wrote and recorded it in the months prior to his death. He knew death was coming and he faced it in his songs.

They played part of “Like the 309″ on the podcast. When it starts out he is singling slowly and quietly with few instruments. His voice is weak and it’s hard to recognize him as Johnny Cash.

It should be a while before I see doctor Death
So, it would sure would be nice if I could get my breath
Well, I’m not the cryin’, nor the whinin’ kind
’til I hear the whistle of the 309, of the 309, of the 309
Put me in my box on the 309

Then the song picks up, more instruments come in, and it takes on a different tone.

Take me to the depot, put me to bed
Blow an electric fan on my gnarly ol’ head
Everybody take a look, see, I’m doin’ fine
Then load my box on the 309
On the 309, on the 309
Put me in my box on the 309

It’s eerie to hear a man singing about his impending death and it certainly hit me a little hard. But it’s comforting somehow, the way he sings about it. He almost sounds cheerful about it.

So I am feeling healthier, more productive, and more clearheaded than I have in almost a month. Hopefully that will continue and I can take charge of things again rather than just kind of wandering around in a daze.

I am looking forward to it. My first trip west of Las Vegas and my first chance to actually touch an ocean (I’ve flown over the Atlantic and been under Boston Harbor but I’ve never actually touched an ocean). I am not sure what we’ll be doing but Matt has hinted that he has plans. It should be fun.

So, now what? I’m not entirely sure. Over the years I have had several plans for post-graduation. Now none of them really apply. My unexpected stay in Madison has kind of reconnected me to my original childhood plan of wanting to live in Madison. My uncle recommended checking out Epic Systems (which looks really cool). The job hunt will start in earnest soon. We’ll see what it turns up. (If nothing else, I need to pay for my car repairs…)