Homeless in Nashville
The whole thing started when my friend Matt told me about a sweet deal; he worked for a small airline in Athens and could get me a free round trip to Nashville using his buddy pass. I could get up to two tickets each ride, allowing me to bring another person along with me. I mention that part because looking back, this whole upcoming thing would have been avoided if anyone at all had come with me. But, I didn't search very hard and ended up having to go alone, which was fine. It was going to be the adventure I'd always pictured in my mind: me going out and battling the world, surviving with just my wits, finding peace both within nature and myself. I was going to conquer Nashville.
First, I had to call the airline and reserve my seat. A nice lady answered and asked my name. "Billy," I told her.
"I'm going to need your last name, too," was the reply.
"Hentenaar...H-E-N," I began. No one can ever spell my last name when they hear it or say my last name when they see it, so I usually just start spelling it right away.
"Whoa, slow down," she cut me off. "Hene-..Henetar?" she asked, using the most common and frustrating pronunciation.
"Whoa, slow down," she cut me off. "Hene-..Henetar?" she asked, using the most common and frustrating pronunciation.
"No, it's Hentenaar..H-E-N-T.." I tried again. She cut me off.
"Oh, okay... Hen-ten-...aar?" She pronounced it like it was offending and confusing her senses at the same time. For this moment, I had a clear picture of her facial expression just from the tone of her voice.
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| Something like this. |
"Yes."
"..and how do you spell that?"
Once that was over with, I made my first attempt at reserving a flight for the next day- Friday. It went well until right before everything was finalized and she realized that she hadn't actually checked to see if there was still room for me. Although it was a small airline that hardly anyone used, the planes only sat nine people. It turned out that I would have been a tenth, so I made my flight for Saturday at 7:00 AM instead and planned to return Sunday at 11:00 AM.
"Alright Billy, your seat is reserved and we'll print your ticket when you arrive in the morning," she nicely told me before hanging up.
The Preparation:
As much as I wanted to take on Nashville armed with nothing but tenacity, I realized that that wasn't a very good plan and begrudgingly spent about half an hour packing for my adventure Friday night around 11:00 PM. I wasn't exactly sure what the limitations were for baggage on this plane, but I figured I would be able to fit everything I needed for a day in an old book bag. By the time I was done packing, the bag was crammed full of things I for some reason deemed completely necessary. I think this might actually be the most embarrassing part for me out of all of this-
- a change of clothes
- four small bottles of water
- pajama pants
- jeans
- two shirts
- toothbrush and toothpaste
- extra pair of contacts
- a blanket
So far, it seems like a well planned list. I think at this point I was just really tired, because the next items were-
- a Frisbee
- nail clippers
- koozie
I don't know what I was thinking for those three; I wasn't planning on making friends there, and I had already cut my nails the day before. There were also a couple of Xbox controllers- but that's just because I forgot to check one of the pockets on my book bag.
Feeling fully equipped, I went to bed around 1 AM, ready to get up in five hours and head to the airport.
