phoenix airport, en route

this sad photo of my sad shoes was taken while waiting for the second leg of my flight home from new york. i hadn't slept the night before, caught a shuttle at 3:45am, was stuck in a full van next to two screaming gals from milwaukee who not only reeked of alcohol but were *still drinking* guinness out of plastic cups, though they did offer me a chocolate covered entenmann's donut, which i happily accepted. the old finnish man in the front seat kept up a monologue to our driver, who text messaged relentlessly while piloting our van at top speed up 1st avenue. we were on the highway for about 5 minutes before traffic stopped for some enormous accident, so our driver put on the hazards and drove in reverse to the previous turnoff. at which point the finnish man in front began to blow up skinny balloons with a bicycle pump and twist them into animals for the rest of us. by the time i was dropped off at jfk i was about to lose my mind but also kind of amazed and weirdly content, it was such a new york moment. sadly, i was so tired that somewhere between my gate and my seat on the plane i managed to lose my winter coat, from brooklyn and precious to me and never to be seen again. so monumentally stupid as to almost be impressive, actually.