November 2, 2010 – Last Day in Salem

I’m up and I leap out of the bed! I never have to sleep in that bed again!! Yay!!!! I’m up and out, good riddance to that room! I checkout at 11:00 am but my ride won’t be here until 2:30. It is colder today outside than the whole time I’ve been here! It’s freezing! I dread going out there but I want to go to the Mall and eat. I decide to go out and brave the cold. Well dang, the Bronze Witch is there! I thought for sure she’d be gone by now. I spoke with her on Facebook a couple of times yesterday. I feel like I know a celebrity. I do! I go into the Mall and I can’t believe what I’m hearing! Christmas music! There’s Bing Crosby singing, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” while I browse the Mall still decked with jack-o-lanterns, flying witches, grinning pumpkins, scary ghosts, Halloween here and Halloween there! I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around this. Welp, it’s time to move on I guess!

I go back to the Hawthorne Hotel after I eat and I wait in the lobby for my ride to the airport. You will never believe what they are doing here at the Hawthorne. They are busily switching out all the mattresses in the hotel!!!! Oh horror of horrors! EVERY MATTRESS IN THIS FUCKING HOTEL WILL BE LIKE THE TORTURE DEVICE UP ON THE 6TH FLOOR! Come to think of it, the mattress up there looked brand new. Oh my gawd, say it’s not true! What a horrible thing to contemplate! Get me the fuck out of here! The Salem Waterfront Hotel is looking better and better for next year!

Well, finally, there’s my ride. I’m tired of watching this mattress shit. I’ve had it up to here! I stomp out to meet my ride who jumps out of the car and promptly breaks my suitcase! He’s broken the strap that holds both my suitcases together. This is not good. I already have a computer/camera bag. I’m pissed but like always, I act like it’s okay, just an accident, I know. I figure out another way and I make it work and we drive away. Goodbye Salem. I look at the driver and he looks strangely like a Yankee to me. News flash! You are in Massachusetts like almost to friggin’ Canada here. There’s the state of Maine right up there to the right, so duh, dumb ass! I’ve noticed on this trip that being alone has really made me scared of the natives living here. At the Halloween Ball and even after I was home looking at all the photos, all those strange people scared me a little. It was creepy looking at all of them while thinking, there’s no one here that knows me. I know no one. No one is looking out for me. Nobody even knows me to know if I went missing. This is some creepy shit. Oh, it doesn’t pay to think when you are so far from home and completely alone. The driver, he really creeped me out. He was almost an alien to me and I could not stop staring at him. Oh thank God, there’s the airport. Nobody knows anybody there so I will fit right in. I feel in such a pissy mood at this point. I guess my disappointment with my room has pretty much put a damper on my trip overall. I’m wondering if I’ll stay at the Hawthorne ever again. And just what is this shit that the driver looks suspiciously like a Yankee? What the hell does a Yankee look like? We, from the south, are a strange bunch!

Now get this. When I arrive at the airport, instead of being able to just walk in, I’m accosted by a “Sky-Cap.” Now I know Sky-Caps. My Dad worked for the airlines for 36 years. I know that you always tip the Sky-Caps. I wasn’t ready to spend money again but I allow the Sky-Cap to check my bags. $60.00 yet again plus tip for the Sky-Cap. Feeling fleeced, I walk into the airport. I just spent almost $75.00 just to walk in the airport! Yup, I’m pissed. And later I see said Sky-Cap waving at me from afar saying, “Hello Texas!” Yup, of course, he likes me and I officially know someone in the Boston Airport. I then check out the Bookstore (love) and buy some Sudoku puzzles for my flight. I go to the gate and sit for a couple of hours watching people, just like I started this trip. Sadness is settling around me. I knew this would happen. Finally, I’m walking through the jet-way to my plane. I find my seat and plop down into it. CRAP.

When the plane taxis out and takes off, I begin to cry. I mean I cry hard, big ol’ tears as I stare out the window watching Boston fall away from me. I feel heartbroken. I knew this moment would come. I dreaded it all week! Will I be back to Salem? Damn straight! Oh, and Sudoku puzzles are a wonderful way to kill time. I’m back in Houston before I know it. It was a turbulent flight home but I love turbulence!

And now that it is the end, I’ve included a few of my favorite photos below among which is a photo of the first pilgrim’s grave that arrived in Salem on the Mayflower. The last two were taken in Boston from the water of which I will pay a visit to again someday! Hope you enjoyed my 2010 Salem trip!

Until next time!

Janet