The Bohemian Diaries

Chapter 1

The "Journey" Here

I snapped awake as the pilot's voice rang out over the speakers, "Ladies and Gentlemen this is your pilot speaking; we will be landing in Phoenix, Arizona in roughly 30 minutes so get ready to feel some slight turbulence, its 12:14 right now, about 97 degrees out today and very sunny so I suggest breaking out those sunglasses and sunscreen. You will be let out at Gate 40B, from there take a left, pick up your bags and enjoy your time here in Phoenix. We'd like to thank you for flying with Delta Airlines" As he hung up I felt my mother shuffling groggily on my shoulder, "Mmmhhh... Arizona.... Beautiful Arizona" she said whimsically. I rolled my eyes and petted her soft blonde hair, "Yep, don't fall back asleep, you heard the man were landing soon, here," I said shaking her off "Get your shit together." "Don't curse! There's a family with like 6 toddlers behind us" she whispered, still gathering her bearings. I rolled my eyes and started wrapping the chord of my headphones around my phone, I then thought better of it and unplugged them all together as Nirvana started blaring at full blast. That woke Melody up, "Shit! Turn it off, TODDLERS!!!" she shouted, gesturing at the family with 3 small children sitting behind us, I caught the woman giggle and roll her eyes at her husband.

Melody met the three children behind us in the Cinnabon at the airport in Florida and gave them a piece of our Cinnabon to make them stop fighting amongst themselves, when she saw them settling into the last few rows of the plane she rushed to the back, leaving me in the dust, to go play with the kids. But later into the flight she fell asleep on my shoulder, leaving the kids kicking my seat to get her attention as the parents nodded off. It had been a long flight. I chuckled at the memory and hurriedly turned the speakers down all the way before unlocking my phone and pausing it. Right as the seatbelt light flashed back on, I felt the oh-so-familiar feeling of landing, the harsh turbulence, the offensive sounds of the engine dying, and finally, the feeling of the wheels harshly hitting the ground and rolling in "smoothly", the entire experience was rather frightening, but once doing it several times a year, it became one of few routines.

Melody and I are very good flyers, we've become masters of "packing light and sitting tight" as Melody used to call it. I had recently "purchased" (cough cough stolen) an iPad so my carry-on consisted of a portable IPhone/IPad charger, and my headphones. Since I mainly just used my phone for reading, music, games, etc. Melody used the IPad to read poetry or spiritual books, or to set the "block out music" she used for meditation. Her carry-on held all of our toiletries and spare outfits, in the case of losing our luggage, and we kept that one up top. Once we had landed, the seat belt light dinged and the doors opened shortly after. As people began scrambling for their things, under seats, above heads, in different isles, I tossed my light satchel over my shoulder and Melody grabbed her old saddle bag from up top. We hurried off the plane before anyone else, people shooting us shocked looks as we speedily walked through the tunnel and into gate 40B.

At the baggage claim, we quickly found poor little black kitten, Huffington's crate and the 4 HUGE suitcases that made up our entire lives. As usual, we then rushed to find an Orange Julius to settle our strawberry smoothie fix. It seems like just a good mother daughter bonding time, flying across the country, bringing a shit ton of luggage and then going to a little chain smoothie place to get matching strawberry smoothies. And in some ways I suppose it is, I love my mom, she's one of my closest (only) friends, but at the end of the day this is nothing more than routine.

You see we move around a lot, like at least once a year to be specific. I suppose I should start, well at the start of it all...