Saskatchewan Plates

I’m somewhere over the Pacific between Sydney and Vancouver. It’s almost 4am PST now. I’ve tried to sleep, but lack of medication has made it ineffective. I also realize my sleep techniques are incredibly juvenile. Definitely not impressing any ladies.

To pass some of the time, I’ve watched every good movie on top, three of which included George Clooney. Pro tip: never watch George Clooney movies back to back or else you won’t be able to separate the plots in your mind. It’s weird not be able to draw the line between Up In The Air and Men Who Stare at Goats (neither of which were that good). Someone recommended Up In The Air to me specifically at one point. I’m not sure why. Maybe they knew my weakness for non-happy endings or maybe they just thought I’d identify with George Clooney’s character (thanks a lot). Then I switched gears to get my romantic comedy on with Couples Retreat and The Invention of Lying, both of which were pretty mediocre despite all star casts. But not all was lost as Fantastic Mr. Fox (Clooney number three) was most excellent. Damn you Wes Anderson for continuing to make me identify with other hipsters everywhere.

I’ll also admit that I got a little misty during the opening scenes of Star Trek despite having seen it what is probably close to ten times now. I blame the second bottle of airplane red wine.

Oh yeah, context. I’m flying back from Sydney after spending a week there for work. Sydney’s an absolutely beautiful city. I’d love to spend more time there exploring. Very nice people, great weather, beautiful location. I plan to get back at some point in the not too distant future. But that’s adding to my growing list of unscheduled travel plans (Vancouver Island, BC Interior, Saskatoon, Toronto, Halifax, Seattle, Portland, Vegas, Ireland, South America, Zurich – holler if any sound enticing).

Before Sydney was a 48 hour trip to Cabo. And before that was four days in Austin. Both trips were absurd in a number of ways and both trips make me miss traveling with friends. Sydney was great, but it was more solo than I’d like. Also, needless to say, I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight.

Before the trip, there’s the last three months which has not been well documented on this blog. You didn’t miss too much though as they’ve been hectic with work. The next two are expected to be worse to the point where I’m officially grounded upon my arrival back in San Francisco later today.

Work is an interesting beast in its own right. It’s going much better than I could have imagined, even since Christmas. But as always, San Francisco could be treating me better. I briefly revisited the idea of an office switch to Tokyo or even Sydney, but I quickly realized that being separated from my primary support group by an additional six hour time difference is unworkable. I’ve actually been spending a fair amount more time chatting over IM with various folks back home(s) that have been unwittingly been keeping me sane. Hopefully when May wraps up and work calms down, I can take my social life in San Francisco a little more seriously. Or at the very least, schedule some of those flights.