It's late morning, September 22, 2023, although ten hours ago it was the early afternoon of the 21st. I have time traveled into the future, into the Netherlands, into a 33 hour day without sleep.
The passengers pile off the plane and onto the tarmac, into a solar-powered bus crammed so tightly I fear it will tip with every turn. I imagine the bus, lying sideways across the runway, suitcases and passengers strewn and writhing. Were I to make a break for it, skip customs and start a new life for myself in The Netherlands as an illegal immigrant, this would be my chance. Bus doesn't tip, though, and my sleep deprived-imagination goes back to wondering what Pilot is doing back home without me.
My friend Shreya arrives in two and a half hours. Not time enough for me to explore the city on my own. Checking my suitcase into storage is 9 EU so I wheel it with me through the outlying shops of Schipol. I find a grocery store in the train station, where I buy a kale smoothie, prosciutto-wrapped goat cheese, and a tray of fresh sushi. I send a picture of the sushi to my brother and his wife in Japan.
"I think most salmon in Japan comes from Scandinavia, so that's fresher," my brother tells me.
Time crawls on. I look for sleep on a bench in a quiet, cold part of the airport, but don't find it. Eventually I get up and go on a quest for coffee. My brain dances childlike over the phonetics of Dutch.
An eternity of minutes at last unites me with my friend from Mumbai. Our first meeting in person, though we feel we have known each other for years, perhaps lifetimes. Together we bus toward our hotel. On our way I meet my first jackdaws.
The fatigue distorts my perceptions of things, but the artist in me can't help but seek out and capture the aesthetic scene.
Fatigue does not, however, distort my perception of the multitude of near-misses with Dutch cyclists. If Los Angeles rode on two wheels, it would have nothing on this place.
At the hotel I shower and find a few moments of sleep between trips to a square for my friend's shoe repair, and more coffee, more snacks, anything to keep me going through the end of the day. In a few hours I am meeting two brave and beautiful souls, 
Excluding, of course, the dildo chair.
But it's not so much the sight-seeing I have been looking forward to as it is the interaction with these two people whom I am blessed to call my friends.
We really do have a special community here in Hive. That, to me, is worth infinitely more than any currency.
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