Leaving on a Jet Plane

Luckily, since I have (finally) packed for my trip rather than leaving everything in pseudo-organized piles all over the place, the front room of Casa de Zog has gone from resembling something out of Hoarders to this:

Hello, front room of Casa de Zog.

Somehow I managed to cram a year's worth of clothing, four years' worth of research and what will probably amount to ten years' worth of knitting projects into two full-size suitcases and a carry-on. Despite my efforts to fashion appropriate breathing holes in my luggage, I could not find a way to pack Roni, too. 

So I begin my adventure tonight . . . with a fourteen and a half hour flight to Doha. You read correctly, I have a direct flight to Doha, which as of right now has given me more anxiety than any other facet of my trip. I hear tell that they (whoever "they" are) organize these long international flights in such a way as to keep one's attention from the fact that she will sit on a plane for fourteen and a half hours. Sheesh. I have packed many distractions, including a shawl-knitting project, John Steinbeck's Travels With Charley: In Search of America,  D. Soyini Madison's Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethics, and Performance and Chapter 1 of my dissertation. Sleep would prove most excellent, though probably the most elusive, and most likely I will splurge for the in-flight wi-fi and watch the entirety of Season 4 of Dr. Who. 

In thinking about my long flight (and upcoming long time away from home), I couldn't resist this clip of John Denver and Cass Elliot teaming up on "Leaving on a Jet Plane" from Burt Sugarman's The Midnight Special, August 19, 1972. I briefly considered posting the version without the voter registration plug, but the context-loving historian in me won out.  This version far surpasses the scene from Armageddon IMHO . . . 

My next post will find me well on the other side of the Atlantic. Cheers 'til then!

XO,

JZog