Expecto snotum! ( a new spell to disarm congestion)

After a 12 hour trip from Banff, Canada, I came home congested, famished, and disgruntled. The minute the plane landed, I felt the sinking feeling of hopelessness and loneliness that has peppered my time in Rochester. The airport was desolate, a monochromatic landscape of gray- closed restaurants, bathrooms under construction, and cleaning people on duty. We waited for a taxi for ages, the cool wind reminding us of places we've been and people we've seen. As we rode in the backseat of the cab, we passed dilapidated houses with metal fences surrounding them, and the occasional teenager on the prowl. Goodbye mountains, goodbye trees, goodbye earth. I have returned to the concrete industrial jungle of despair and darkness, but I must breathe in the hope that I have experienced. While my windows look on the broken asphalt of desolate parking lots, I imagine a beautiful view of trees and elk, or geese and grass. These are the things I must do now. The glittering darkness threatens me, and the city sucks the happiness from me, like Harry Potter's dementors. But I can be strong, and remember what I've seen, what I know is waiting for me, if not tomorrow, then the next day or the next. I will not fall prey to the darkness that so quickly threatens me, and I will triumph.