Where’s My Transporter?!?!?

No, seriously. I’ve watched and read enough sci-fi to see things that came out of an author’s imagination appear in the real world. Just google sci fi inventions that came true and the search engine comes back with “About 3,590,000 results”. (I think this article on cracked.com is probably the most interesting.)

But the invention I want the most, the very very most, isn’t around. At least not yet. Or, they’re not telling us about it.

I want a transporter.

<------------- Yup, one of these. I want to step in, and a second later, find myself in Atlanta with my friends and family. Then pop back to Arkansas to feed the varmints (1 dog, 2 cats, 1 turtle, 1 husband), and return to Atlanta. Or go to Greece. Or to the beach. Or anywhere, really. But darnit, I cannot. I’m a writer, not a doctor! (Or engineer!) (Or scientist!) Of course, I have pondered this often, especially in this day and age of social media. I have friends I love dearly who I’ve never met in person. I’m working with publishers and authors whose voices I’ve never heard and faces I’ve never seen. But most importantly, it’s a pain in the arse to travel to visit my friends and family and spend time with them. (You can’t get there from here.) I just returned from an 18-day trip to Atlanta (where I lived prior to moving to Arkansas). A mission of mercy: helping one of my besties recover from surgery, helping the in-laws, visiting friends and other family I haven’t seen in a while, meeting with a college friend to see about getting her late husband’s poetry published. I spent a lot of time in my in-laws’ car, driving hither and yon. A LOT of time.

I flew back here on Saturday (9/1) (and boy are my arms tired. *ba-dum-tshh*), and before catching the flight, my bestie and I cried and cried. I cried on the plane. I cried today. Because I miss her, and I miss all my other friends. And I don’t know when I’ll get to go back to Atlanta, because driving takes forever and gas is expensive and plane travel is a pain (and not cheap) and dangit, the transporter Star Trek promised me hasn’t materialized.

And truly, is a transporter really too much to ask?!?!?!! I think not.