Waking up after such an incredibly fun and exhausting weekend is harder than pulling a crocodile’s teeth which meant waking up early enough to make it to the airport on time, Monday morning, was, without a doubt, the hardest thing I had to do while in LA. Of course knowing that waking means you have to leave all of your friends and all of the fun of the past week behind, doesn’t make things any easier. But flights had to be caught and, as is the case every year, the fun of KCON eventually has to come to an end.
There’s really not a whole lot to tell about my adventures home. Thanks to a wonderful friend who was willing to sacrifice sleep just to get Lola and I to the airport, we made it to LAX with plenty of time to spare. Once again, the advantages of taking an earlier flight became glaringly obvious as the lines to check in and get through security were absurdly small. Not one to complain about getting through lines quickly, I was more than happy to have extra time on my hands as it meant I could find coffee and possibly breakfast. (Which actually ended up being salad and a giant bottle of water… Weird.)
Because I was looking for the cheapest, as opposed to the most direct, flights home, I ended up flying to Sacramento from LA and then catching a plane from there to Chicago. It wasn’t a bad way to go, really, as I had enough time during my layover to grab coffee (actual coffee this time), buy a new book (because mine was getting dangerously close to being over and there was no way I was going to sit on a plane for hours on end, with nothing to do but stare out the window) and grab some lupper. (That would be the lunch/supper equivalent of brunch. FYI.)
With my stomach full and my in-flight entertainment secured, I boarded the flight to Chicago, still not really ready to say goodbye to California, but ready to get home and crash. Settled as comfortably in my seat as anyone flying coach can ever be, I dove straight into my book and completely lost track of the world around me. Well… At least until I got towards the end and started sobbing my eyes out… Then I became painfully aware of everyone around me (as I tried to stifle my sniffles and quickly wipe away my tears). Ugh! Talk about embarrassing! Being the horribly emotional person that I am, I should have known that any book being lauded as a tear-jerker would, in fact, make me cry. But did I heed that warning? Oh no! Instead, I told myself that it would be fine. That I would be fine. And in the end, I ended up bawling my eyes out, surrounded by strangers, at 35,000 feet. Go me!
It took me a while to recover from that painfully embarrassing display of emotion but I did and happily moved on to the new book I picked up in Sacramento. Being the complete opposite of a tear-jerker, I spent the rest of my flight immersed in a totally different world and was only too happy to be there. Distracted by the struggles between red bloods and silvers, I was able to (temporarily) push that embarrassing display of waterworks from my mind but I’m not gonna lie; I was very, very happy when my plane landed I was able to hide myself in the massive crowd of people milling about O’Hare.
Safely back in Chicago, the sad reality of life hit me like a slap in the face. I was home, KCON was over and, unless some miracle took place sometime in the near future, it would be at least another year before I got to see all my beloved West Coast friends again. Physically, mentally and emotionally drained, I dragged myself through the busy airport, stuck somewhere between fighting off tears and just flat-out falling over. The good news was, my adventures were over and the only thing I had to do was get myself home so I could fall into bed. Something I did without hesitation.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a month now, since my adventures in LA and honestly, it all feels more like a dream than anything else. Even after all this time, I swear, there are days when I’m convinced I dreamed the whole thing up. Honestly, if it weren’t for the random messages from one of my friends or those one of those rare moments when I take a second to scroll through my photos, I could easily believe it was all a dream. But it wasn’t, and that just blows my mind. I guess that just goes to show that sometimes dreams really do come true.