day two written somewhere else

Day two of the Adventure day four of the journey; 25 February 2009.



Right now I am flying over the mountains outside of Sofia. Eight hours and twenty-seven minutes into the 12-hour flight into Riyadh. Mom is sitting in the aisle in front of me; we both get to spread ourselves over tree seats for sleeping. This enormous 747 is only carrying around 70 people. When I turned on the TV in the forward headrest I was confused at what I saw, constant blurredness. Beverly Hills Chihuahua was playing but the actress’s bodies were blurred out. IF it was knees or above, or chest or shoulders you cannot see it. I found this strange and distracting at first but once used to it other things were clearly missing. The man at the bar was not staring at bottles on the wall or at the own drink in his hand; instead he was looking into a fogged glass with unknown things behind. Things to wretched to be seen; things such as skin and alcohol. Scenes cut from familiar movies, no kissing at all, words such as “Jesus”, “Devil”, “sucks” and “Damn” all stricken from my vocabulary. As this flight went on and the movies ran together this no longer seemed weird. The modesty of the women around me is charming, seemingly forgiving is everyone when I forget my place and steal a glance at a passer-by.