i miss . . .

• long plane rides
• the feeling of takeoff
• watching random movies on the little tv screens
• looking out the window at night and staring at the plane wings
• standing in the aircraft lavatory/bathroom and feeling like the plane is constantly tilting this way and that
• the extremely loud flush of the dry toilet
• the soap they use and the way you have to quickly push the trash can door open and drop the paper towel in
• the ‘ding’ of the seatbelt sign going on or off
• the sound of flight attendants coming onto the intercom
• the tangy taste of orange juice on your lips
• those airplane biscoff cookies
• having to squeeze out of your seat to get somewhere
• walking down that aisle and looking at all the sleeping faces on either side of you, wondering what their stories are
• waking up with those boogers in your eyes after you’ve had a 4-hour-long pseudo-sleep and you’re finally at the destination
• how once you enter an airport, you lose all sense of time and space. the entire world fades away. it’s not 9pm, or 2am, or 1pm - it’s Airport Time
• wandering around aimlessly, vaguely looking for the baggage claim or gate b2 or the restroom, but mostly just taking in all the shops, the people, the languages, the high ceilings that echo with the sound of heels against the floor
• the sound of blurry chatter is constant, all around you, in thousands of different dialects and twists of the tongue
• everyone is heading somewhere yet heading nowhere.
• i miss car rides in the night, gazing out the window at the unfamiliar scenery of neon lights against the dark sky
• the light conversation with your taxi driver
• hotels, the feeling of checking in
• looking around at the glittering chandeliers or the comfortable warm colors of the sofas in the lobby
• first unlocking the door to your room & turning on the light
• collapsing on that perfect white bed and ruining the sheets
• taking a shower there and having to figure out which way to twist the shower thing so it’s the perfect temperature
• getting used to the strange pressure of the showerhead
• reaching for those little tiny 2-in-one bottles and accidentally taking the body cream one before realizing you’ve just applied it like shampoo
• the feeling of walking through the suite hallways
• taking the elevator and pressing the buttons 15 times
• wandering the place and finding the pool and the bar and the mini-restaurant
• and of course, i miss the scenery
• the tourists
• the awe
• the angled and colorful architecture
• the strange traffic laws or the narrow winding streets or the statues and towering monuments
• looking around to find the perfect place to eat lunch, and getting sleepy partway through your meal
• going back and taking a 5-hour-long nap, i miss jet lag.
• feeling like you’ve taken too many photos, irrationally worrying you’ve run out of storage
• awkwardly trying to recall the teensiest bit of the foreign language you learned in middle school
• waving and smiling and talking and laughing
• i miss it all