I hate this part of the flight. If I'm awake, and it's Wichita, it means
I'm losing the most precious hour of sleep there is on the LAX-BOS redeye.
Trust me, I must have taken this flight, UA#168, twenty times in the last
three years alone. I should be asleep, but REM won't come. Even though I
only had three hours the morning before, and I have to be coherent as soon
as I hit the ground.
It's 1:34 AM Pacific, and this is one of those junkets I'm never quite sure
if it's worth resetting my body clock for. There's a very concrete part of
this choice: Do I reprogram my watch's primary clock, or just shift over to
World Time mode and scroll to NYC and leave it there for three days?
As it is, I have a few professional meetings to be on time for:
Keith's kaffeklatsch, 8AM Friday
MCI patent review, 1PM Friday
Interview with a web historian, 11 AM Saturday
Backgrounder on a new startup, 9 AM Monday
Consulting follow-up, 11:30 AM Monday
And a few social ones:
Lunch at W3C, AM Friday
Yalie friends, PM Friday
Clubbing in NYC, 11PM Friday
Jay's BBQ, Saturday (to which I've invited about a dozen friends)
Harvard family friend, PM Saturday
Cape junket, Sunday (please please please let there be good weather,
please! D's coming!)
FoRKbuddy, PM Monday
"XMLgroupie" :-), PM Monday at LAX
But I don't know why all the stress in my body: the not eating, the
indecisiveness? I suspect it's the guilt of just whipping up such a frothy
trip when I should be home working. JimW would certainly say so... :-)
====
Herewith, some (literally!) back-of-the-envelope thoughts on the trip so
far:
Racing to Sonny Hughes' Nippers to get new hair to complement the new
glasses in 4mph bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 405. [Hey, anyone want a
pair of LA-Tokyo economy seats, good anytime, $500 ea? I'll hook you up
through him...]
Rayon shrinks. I was stripping down to an a new shirt with Adam in the
parking lot at LAX, and I'll say it shrank: won't even close around the
neck. Or is that wishful thinking, and the truth is in the space-age
fabric?
The flight is a madhouse because they canceled the one seven hours earlier
for bad weather in Boston (!). Never seen a redeye packed to the gills.
Needless to say, I'm stuck in coach on my award ticket.
The takeoff is a simple saving grace, though. It's crystal clear over Los
Angeles tonight, and you can almost see cyberspace in the receding grid of
lights, square mile upon square mile.
Unfortunately, the idiot decides to take a picture without deactivating the
flash first.
===
Here's the short line on what transpired:
Friday
8AM, Lexington, SoftJoe with Keith
10AM, MIT/LCS, briefing on a caching startup
11AM, hanging out at W3C, reviewing a patent filing
1PM, Downtown, social and professional meetings at MCI
3PM, hit the road to New Haven
6PM, so tired, I had to pull over and nap. Turned out to be 2 exits from
the endpoint...
7PM, changed into a snappy suit to go clubbing in NYC; Dinner at Tandoor
(set in a chrome 50's diner!) with K. and L.
9PM, decided to visit L.'s husband, R.K.
3AM, crashed at K's after five hours of foreign-policy debate
Saturday
9AM hit the road back to Boston, for putative 11AM interview with S.
12PM arrived at Jay's, still in snazzy suit. Party commenced with many
attending!
4PM took an interview on Nelson for Tech Review.
5PM off to pick up D. Traffic took 1.5 hrs r/t. Most FoRKs left Jay's by
then.
8PM plans to see movie folded; D and I were off on our own.
9PM plans dashed, I dropped D. off at a friend's party.
10PM changed from suit back to grunge to hang with Joseph.
12AM chilled at a rave in a waterfront loft in Ft. Point
3AM Hit the Blue Diner for breakfast with J&J
Sunday
8AM review another startup proposal, in security, at S&S Deli
11AM tea with a Harvard senior who lived next door in HS. Articulate Indian
female: "It's just a little implausible [to find a South Asian guy], don't
you think?"
12PM interview with another magazine writer
2PM shopping and wandering Harvard Square, Burlington
5PM tea and homemade apple torte with Keith and Alice (thanks!)
7PM Fear and Loathing with Sally in Lowell
11PM a thoroughly forgettable meal at Chili's with S.
5AM made it back home after contemplating the massive thunderstorms from
the waterfront for a while.
Monday
9AM review with an XML startup at the Marriott
11AM review with a Web acceleration startup in Waltham
12PM randomly ran into Donna, my O'Reilly editor, at a restaurant
1PM tea and truffles with Donna in Chestnut Hill.
3PM catching up with my old housemate at 9 Hamlin
4PM dropped off a birthday gift for D.
5PM chatting with Robert at Logan waiting for 5:35 takeoff
8PM (PST) prepped for a hot date inflight: shaved, brushed, changed into a
suit in that tiny closet.
9PM a spectacularly funny few hours with K. at Encounters at LAX. Theme:
Chocolate and Liquor. Sequel: Salt and Fat. Strong hopes for a balanced
diet...
12AM Adam finally arrives to pick me up, was trapped for an hr in South
Central traffic
1AM Debriefing at Toi's; crisis management at work
3AM crashed at Adam's
6AM drove to UCI; handled crisis on cellphone (total usage for wknd: 2.5
hrs, 100 calls!)
Ah, what a sweetly relaxed vacation itinerary...
Rohit
PS. Tonight's VOIDmoment? Writing a letter on the breakers at Balboa
peninsula at 1AM with my toes in the water and a penlight hanging off of my
glasses... taking a call from my dad on the cell at same about how
wonderful my parents' cruise through Alaska was. This, for the record, is
being written at the renovated Higher Grounds.