In about an hour, we'll be landing in San Francisco international airport, I don't know why I'm as excited as I am; I've flown into SF a dozen times already. However, there's something to be said for leaving Hong Kong at midday and landing, the same day you arrived, at 8 in the morning. With a whole long day ahead that I'm probably going to be very tired through.
It'll be a few days yet before I can see my room again, and see if any damage happened during the Pasa Robles earthquake. I didn't exactly leave my room in an earthquake friendly position, with stemware and bottles neatly stacked on a narrow shelf.
This flight, to answer the traditional question of "How was your trip?" was pretty miserable, although it would have been much worse had I not had my laptop. I always hate travelling when I'm sick, and since I'm getting over a headcold, I've had an awful time trying to sleep through a dull headache and an uneven ear pressure. Plane flights always seem to exacerbate sickness, as you may or may not know. United, in its infinite wisdom, decided not to provide the in-seat entertainment screens now ubiquitous on long-haul flights with other carriers and thus my only source of entertainment has been this laptop and a well-worn copy of The Stranger.
My cold has prevented any real thinking (hence, only political rants) but I may, when I get better, do a closer analysis of that live-in-the-moment philosophy known as Existentialism. I've never really understood it myself, in spite of being very interested in the works of Sartre and Kierkegaard and having written a rather long essay in high school on the subject. I was all for it upon finishing the essay and for a little while hence, but it's surprisingly difficult to live in the moment thusly, and while I was enamoured of the idea of living an existential life, the reality of doing so proved to defeat me. My current philosophy now falls under the generalized category of "No damn clue", where it's sure to stay for a few more months, if not years.
Philosophical musings quickly dispatched, I'm left pondering, as I glance at the tiny blue screen telling me that we're at 37000 feet and have yet to begin our decent, just how much longer it'll be before I'm on the familiar campus again. And whether the Margarite is running. . . little prosaic things like that.
Well there's the call to put away electronics, expect another post today.
--C.