Smeagol is Free!
A hermitudinal view of...stuff...


7.30.2005  

Boss :(

Honolulu International Airport has always been one of those places that people remember. Whether it's the old couple who've saved their entire lives so that they could vacation in Hawai'i, or the lone sojourner making a pit stop in the middle of the Pacific, the airport just off of Nimitz Highway imprints itself upon the mind.

These days, however, that indelible quality takes on an entirely different tune. I noticed it in January, when I left home once again. I was sitting at my gate, waiting for the Delta Airlines employees to commence the boarding process. I was still very much in Honolulu, not yet exposed to the frigid temperatures of the mainland in the middle of winter. Nevertheless, I was about as far from home as I could have been.

To say it was torturous would be an understatement. I could see the lights of the city, and I could hear Keola and Kapono Beamer singing Honolulu City Lights to me in my head over and over and over again. I cried as I sat there, wondering why I had to leave. Again. Wondering when I'd get back, and if I'd get back only to leave. *Sigh*...a week and a half at home hardly constituted enough time. Come to think of it, whenever it's time to leave home, I've never had enough time.

That's what Boss and I talked about. He was at the gate, waiting for the boarding process to start. He'd been crying; I joked with him that I'd turn his bawling into a blog post :) We talked for roughly twenty melancholy minutes, commenting on how we never feel like we're ready to leave. We always feel like we want to be able to sneak in just one more Mini BBQ Chicken order from Gina's, one more session out at Marine Lands, one more Midnight Special from Sushi King...always just one more. I think I'm naming this disease the USS - Uchida Surf Syndrome. The shirts will read, "One more wave!"

He was about to get on a flight to Japan, to Fuji City in Shizuoka Prefecture. How long will he be there? Only the Lord knows. That's part of what makes this all so hard to bear. It's not as if he's going only a month, or even a definite year. Will he be back for the wedding? That's still up in the air, too. (We'll get a lifesize Gimli cardboard cutout if not...and we'll put him up on a box.) What's odd is that I'm over 4,000 miles away, and it still feels like I was right there with him, watching him walk past the security gate and into Jim Country.

After I'd left in January, he told me that as he drove away after dropping me off at the airport, he was thinking about the next time we'd see one another...whenever that is. It's strange, 'cause we both had that feeling all over again when we talked yesterday. When will I see Boss? We don't know. It kind of stinks...well, no, it really stinks. He asked me how I deal with the pain of getting on the flight and going. I told him that I had to remember that if I didn't go, the pain would be worse, because I'd be disobeying the Lord. I told him that I had to remember that I have the exact same hope as David Livingstone, who at the end of his life said, "I never made a sacrifice." I told him that it's the same reason he would get on that plane, 'cause if he didn't, I'd be mad at him and wouldn't talk to him.

Well, not really. But I would still be upset :)

posted by Bolo | 10:12 PM
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