travel post - first flights

monday, august 2nd:

it's almost 10am, and it feels like stupid o'clock in the middle of a long week. i left my apartment tidy*, but i didn't get an opportunity to wash the floors and that's noticeable. at least i'm packed - i couldn't help smiling when i discovered at check-in that i hit 8kg exactly :)
i'm so tired and weak that it feels like i'm lugging my pc and crt monitor around and not just my netbook and the norton anthology :/

* i cleaned my whiteboards too. i used them to leave useful information and even drew a map :)

i almost bought a bottle of johnnie walker black - i'm extremely grateful to the sales clerk for asking if i had a connecting flight: watching them throw it out would have been painful.

*BREATHES DEEPLY*

israelis pushing and shoving wound me up prior to passport control. my mood wasn't improved much by the usual security check tension, although for once i was presumed innocent. maybe i'm finally learning to pack and dress correctly :P

i really, really hope i sleep on the flight - i'm broken.

...

i think i might be on holiday.

---
eleven hours later - so four hours of flying time? [yes, i'm kidding]
i've discovered that scrapper's writing is chilling, that this month's wired is inspiring (as usual) and that the best use for my netbook so far has been reading comics at high altitude. i've managed to catch up a fair amount of sleep, the food wasn't so bad (not bad at all, surprisingly) and wearing flip-flops was a stroke of genius.

---
NEW YORK! and here i was thinking that the first world had wireless - karnaf had mentioned that israel was quite surprisingly advanced in this arena. the problem is that idiot me hadn't written down SxS's details on a piece of paper...

at least 3G worked (albeit poorly). [i'm going to be paying out the nose for *that* mistake]
i was just telling ru55 i'd found them when he sent me the info via sms :P

the line for passport control was long. the customs officials made life a lot easier than i'd anticipated (i have trouble filling out forms), and soon i was off getting lost in jfk. everything takes me a couple of minutes to process...

no matter. i'm on the plane with candy in pocket (a good thing, too - only first class american airlines passengers get snacks) and wired on lap.

i think EST agrees with me: we'll see how i feel later.

---
tuesday, august 3rd:

7.30am
i was shocked to have slept the entire second flight as well! and here i thought i'd get some reading done. miami was "off the plane, long walk, pick up bag, step into the decidedly warm midnight air, meet SxS and hit the road".

the roads here are as they should be - impressive. the drive was fairly long and i was tired, but i wasn't too far gone when we arrived to appreciate the mad opulence of his brother's place.

it's HUGE. and BEAUTIFUL. and provides plenty of lessons in both humility (on my side) and excess consumerism (theirs). to be fair, though, aside from guilty feelings stirred by drinking bottled mineral water instead of just using a filter [okay, that was SxS and not the household in general - but i didn't know that at the time], my only problem is getting lost in the kitchen.

i think i can sleep a little more.

---
the next wakeup -

mission kitchen duty: status improved
mission shoe doody: status clear
mission doorbell response: FAIL

---wednesday, august 4th:

6.30am
tuesday's lunch was full of woe. i'd been woken up from the "just falling asleep" phase of a post-read nap by SxS; "burger" was an automatic response to the question of lunch. we drove to ben's around the corner, a giant jewish pseudo-kosher deli... the service was lousy, the burgers inedible, and the only saving grace that they scrapped the bill when they registered our dissatisfaction.

that would've been a good-enough ending (more-or-less) if the waitress hadn't explained that the problem might be that we're not used to eating kosher meat.
that's got to be the worst advertisement for eating kosher i've ever been exposed to.

back at home i got online, then finished reading kafka's metamorphosis and began going through a lecture on it by nabokov. i didn't get very far before needing another nap. i was woken a bit later and we went for a swim, after which it was time for dinner (good kosher burgers).

there was a lot of television watching in the evening, and i played motor storm until lights out - hearing slipknot on the soundtrack impressed me no end! fun game.

~~~
i didn't feel like sleeping, so i took to watching pump up the volume instead - so i *have* seen it, or most of it. it's great seeing it again, regardless.

---
TODAY ALL I WANT is to return to the womb
it's a morbid idea and it fills me with gloom
the child that is me simply wants to be free
to think nothing thoughts, shirk responsibility

i'm bland and i'm boring
i'm tired and i'm testy
i'm drained and i'm dopey
i've been sleeping too long

why should i feel so guilty
when i relax, take it easy
am i so used to running
that i can't walk but crash?

---
almost 5pm
did everything get better when i had my first cup of coffee? say it ain't so!
i watched van wilder after spending an hour in bed pondering and pontificating: i need to get my priorities sorted out, and i need to get comfortable with doing nothing. isn't it always about remembering to keep perspective?

we went to check out SxS's future house - beautiful, spacious and tasteful; intimidating, even. we got to talking about my apartment - i really will need to start thinking about renovating / upgrading (relatively) soon... [again - whenever i'm completely stable. that could take a year or two]

before that was lunch - reasonably priced sushi with free entertainment provided by the ultra-trash woman who couldn't handle her wasabi - "uh! uh! uh! uh!" and we all thought she was having some kind of medical emergency - SxS tried but failed to capture the awkward hilarity on video :P

we've been at the office for a short while. SxS was right about his developer (reflection) and i having a frightening amount in common.
i facebooked and read comics until my netbook battery died, so i figured that it was time to scribble.

[*creates to-do list, feels better about himself*]

---
thursday, august 5th:

12.21am
so we're back at home and i'm in bed, hoping that i won't need to throw up again. i don't know* if the dinner was disagreeable (SxS also complained) or that i couldn't handle so much rum after so long...

huh - one of SxS's friends ordered neat rum before i did. nice.

...
we skipped home from the office to change clothes before driving to fort lauderdale. nice pad, dodgy 'burb. from there we drove to hollywood for drinks and pool. reflection and i spent most of the evening agreeing about music and almost-agreeing about philosophy.

sharp kid.

i felt terrible (although i thoroughly enjoyed the trance in the car), and i'm not sure how much better i'm feeling now (although the urgent discomfort appears to have calmed somewhat). either way, i've cleaned up (my helix appears to be far from healed) and it's time to crash.

* it was definitely the food. i didn't drink nearly enough rum for that to have been an issue.

---
it's really nice to sit out here by the pool; i feel like i'm on a retreat... oh, wait. essentially i am. i've just discovered the espresso machine and learned how to operate the washing machine, and i suspect it may be time for another dip before i get settled in front of the playstation.