With the last few weeks going by at a break neck pace.  I unexpectedly found myself finishing my contract early, a whole week early, to my surprise.  What would I do with all that time? My flights were all booked months before, trips all planned a while ago.  I let Sierra know I was done and just like that I was able to join her and her co-workers, my friends, on their last Alaskan adventure.  It was quite eventful to say the least.  Upon returning to Anchorage, a few days later, I bid them farewell and found myself in the most useless place. The Waiting Place…

The Waiting Place…
…for people waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow
…
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance
Everyone is just waiting.

Everyone I knew was out of town, my coworkers had flown out or were still in Denali.  Sierra and her coworkers were now in Hawaii.  It was too costly to change my flights.  I had made these plans long ago and now had nothing but time on my hands.  Doing whatever I could do to keep my mind active; I packed over and over, wrote and got caught up on the blog, went over my trip details at great lengths.  I even read a book in around 12 hours.  There was only so much I could do besides hang around.

I chose to not go to the bars, I’d rather save my money for more important things, rather than killing time drinking.  What little television I watched was uninteresting.  At night I would don my phone and walk the city streets, walking without any destination.  Letting the lights dictate my path, whenever I came to a red light, I just turned and continued.  Walking with no purpose other than to walk, street after street, passed underneath my feet each night.  On my walks, I thought, or actually tried not to think. My brain was getting the best of me in this waiting place.

The waiting place, who else is waiting for something?  Maybe a daughter to return home, a ball to be thrown, a storm to pass, a mountain to climb.  It’s funny, we are all waiting for something or someone.  The melencholy of the weather only added to my despair.  Blankets of clouds, deep with tones of grey and off white filled the sky, engulfing it in its drabness.  The cool air whipped at me, as the winds picked up every so often.  I noticed only a handful of people each time; bundled up, walking with their heads down, avoiding eye contact all together.  For such early hours it was quite dispondant with the empty traffic and noiseless streets.

Thoughts crept into my head piercing my brain and heart.  I fought to keep them at bay, relentlessly trying to figure out why and where they came from.  On occasions I called friends back home, in an effort to gain a foothold on my over active mind.  The problem was, I had way, way too much time on my hands and there was nothing I could do about it.  

Three complete days of solitude, left to my own thoughts.  After I would start a 22 hour journey back to the East Coast.  At each layover I would have to wait 3 and half hours as well.  I couldn’t wait to be out of Alaska and on to the next adventure with Sierra.  I was stuck in the waiting place, staving off my mind, and missing everone and everything. Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That’s not for you!

Somehow you’ll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing

With banner flip flapping
once more you’ll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you’re that kind of guy!

Poem taken from Oh! The Places You’ll Go. By Dr. Seuss