Paula

The following segment is something I wrote earlier today, at around 4:30 or so on a scrap of notebook paper:

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I'm jotting my feelings down cause I just can't stand to wait. I'm so excited. Can't hold it. Guess where I am right now? All my readers (I have a LOT of readers, like two to four or something) will be, or might be slightly disappointed in me. I am in PIZZA HUT AND BABYLON by DAVID GRAY just came on. That makes it even better. But anyway, I'm getting a medium pan pizza with extra cheese (SALIVA!), pepperoni, onions and chile (jalepenos!). I'm so damn excited. I know I'm in Greece + I should be excited by a Greek monument or something but who gives a damn. I'm happy. My readers will like this: It will be a taste of home. What I meant by "Saliva" was that I wanted to drool thinking about extra cheese.

Oh and I got a sprite too! Realize I did not order Coke or Pepsi. No, most of my caffein from now on is coming from tea. That way I won't have soda as much. It's ok sometimes but while I'm here, it's just tea and non-caff. soda from time to time.

Tomorrow I'm meeting Paula at the University metro stop in VIENNA at around 1. I will be staying in her apartment which is in the same complex as her parents' place I guess. She'll be staying up with her parents. I'm thrilled to see her and honestly, I'm at pizza hut partly cause I was so excited + kind of nervous about meeting her. It's been ten years! It's funny I'm most worried about - wait, a woman just teased me! She brought my sprite while holding a dif. person's pizza! FAKE PLAY! - I'm most worried about pronouncing her name. I've been practicing it: "Paoula, Paaoula, no PAoula." I"m sure it'll be fine. There has to be a reason why she was pretty much my first crush ever. Well, she + Amy Deeg. God, I still remember that day when I wouldn't trade seats with someone else in children's choir (music class with Danielson) so I could sit next to Paula. She was wearing a red dress I believe. I remember that beig my first real experience with a little bit of lust. I had experienced crushes before but this had a tinge of "want" in it. To a kid, "lust" really is just wanting to kiss someone. I remember this one time at her house we were jumping on mattresses, I think on the floor + I was hoping by some miracle occurrence that we would run into each other at the lips + "accidentally" kiss. Haha, so cute.

Then I remember her leaving. The last thing I remember is reaching in the cupboard to the left of the fridge, playing with the loads of Tupperware for some reason w/ her. Then her dad came + I watched her being driven away up our driveway while I stood on our Minnesota lawn, mourningly.

MY PIZZA SHOULD BE HERE SOON! The party is SOON to start!!! :))).

Back to Paula, I remember my dad dropping me off at her house once (across Pat Lake which was so crazy!) and I "accidentally" fell out of the car + into the snow. For some reason I thought that was cute, you know "clumsy for you" kind of deal. My dad thought I made a mystake + helped me up quickly, haha.

Then later, in the snow, playing, Paula asked me, "Do you think Michael likes me?" - HEARTBREAK. I old the truth, "Yes," and pretended nothing hurt. And boy did it hurt.

Michael, time to get you back! Nothing against you. You'll always be a huge part of my life but this weekend, I WILL BE IN VIENNA WITH NO OTHER THAN PAULA THUN!

I WIN!

The pizza got her but it had the wrong toppings! Another fake play!

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End of segment

Keep in mind, on the notebook paper, "I WIN!" was underlined four times. So the pizza was good. It tasted a little smokey but it was tasty. The crust was the best part like always. Ahhh pan pizza. I gave in. I was going to wait til Maine to have pizza hut - won't stop me from wanting it again ha!

So everything was chaotic after I finished eating. Before I start, pre-pizza hut I walked to Syntagma from the school's stop, Penipistimio to look around and possibly eat somewhere. Then I remembered Sadayah telling me about a Pizza Hut in Penepistimio. So I got a cup of tea at Syntagma and walked back to Penepistimio. After eating there, I left the place and realized I left my sweatshirt in Pizza Hut (which looked different by the way - lots of green vegetables and wicker baskets painted on the wall for some odd reason) so I went back and my waitress had kept it for me. That was good. I started my walk home, passed a throng of protesters at Penepistimio and the usual street salesmen selling clothing, purses, scarves, electronics and my favorite, dancing stuffed animal toys and remote control cars that always get in the way, driving right in front of you while you're trying to maneuver your way through the crowd. And keep in mind, these salesmen always have straight faces on. There's always one standing by this weird gangly coyote stuffed animal that just swings its head back and forth, crazily dancing and the guy looks up at you pleadingly in a business manner. Cracks me up. Today, there was something new among the salesmen and flyer hander-outers. There was a woman handing out free promotional yogurt and plastic forks. I said no. Reaching Syntagma again, I remembered, "OH, didn't get my passport from Maria," and since I need my passport to travel, that really wouldn't be good. She had my passport because she needed to take it in to extend my visa. So I started freaking out cause I knew she probably left for the day and I wasn't sure if she kept the passports in her office. While running back to the school from Syntagma which is about a ten minute trek, I realized I also had not gotten my laundry from the laundry place and I was afraid it was closed. So here I was, running through the crazy stuffed animal dancer salesmen, dodging another remote control car that can flip upside down and drive again, wondering if I would have to go to Vienna without clothes. The woman offered me yogurt again. I just ran by her. Finally arriving at the school, I asked the guy who works next to Maria if she was there. He said she left about an hour before. I told him I needed my passport and he asked me if I could come in the morning. They open at 10. My flight is at 10:15. Yeah, not gonna work. I told him that and he reached around her desk and took my passport from the drawer she kept it in. Allowed? I don't know. But thank you sir!

Next step. I ran to the laundry place and luckily they were still open. It was around 6 now. I said Kalispera and walked out. I was so relieved it was all solved and looked over to see a little convenient store. "Ok," I thought and got a small can of Amstel beer. Walking home with my backpack, big wheeley travel pack filled with clothes and my can of beer, I was almost calm again. I had to text Cody and some others to make sure that it was ok I took the passport. Mia said she didn't know if Cody got his passport (I thought if he got his back from Maria, that would mean she was done with them), Courtney said, "I believe he did," but that wasn't good enough for me to finally be relaxed. Arriving at Syntagma, this time a little closer to home, I heard my phone do it's text jingle. It said I had two messages. One of them was from Cody, "Yes sir." YES, he got the passport. I was all set. The other text was in Greek. It was from Vodaphone. That reminded me. "Oh YEAH, I need to put minutes on my phone cause Paula might need to contact me tomorrow. Ok, that means I have to walk back to Penepistimio again or find a Vodaphone anywhere on the way!" But I didn't find one on the way. Once again, I passed the yogurt lady, the crazy stuffed animal guy, the annoying remote control flipper lights-up-its-wheels car and had to shimmy my way through the crowd once more. I got to the store and everything was solved. I added the minutes and I was finally done. This time I was not going to walk home and decided to take the metro. So for the LAST time I squeezed through the Penepistimio crowd, by the stuffed animal santa riding a reindeer, the crazy dancer, purses, scarves, remote control car that drove right in front of me this time (I swear I wanted to smash it like a bug) and the normal, business "what's so weird about me" faces of salesmen. Then the yogurt lady. This time I said yes. I took the double yogurt thingy from her. I like to think that the whole point of it all was for the yogurt. To do the right thing and accept it! Haha. It's on my bed and I'm afraid it's filled with poison. But that comes from hearing when I was a kid that people on halloween put razors in candy.

I won't even get into how the metro was filled with people today. Well, it always is, no matter when you use it.

Insane day. Tomorrow will be a completely different animal.