I Still Can't Believe It

Here is one of my favorite photos from the trip to Hong Kong. It was taken from Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island. The rosy glow is from my sunglasses being held in front of the lens. It actually makes the foggysmoggywhatever look kinda cool. Because looking at it without the rose-colored glasses is a little depressing. Both Macau and HK were settled by a giant cloud/smog/fog haze thing the entire time I was there. I saw sunlight for a total of about 2 hours during the 10 day stint. Feel free to view all of my pictures from the trip on Flickr . Overall, I'd have to say the adventure was a rousing success. Some highlights: Lan Kwai Fong - the section of HK with proper pubs and where all of the expats and foreigners hang out. Apparently, the local folk don't drink much - especially women. There was an experience in Macau where we ordered two more bottles of wine (we'd already killed the first two) and the wait staff (all 18 of them) looked at us like we just asked them...

Well, it's adios Hong Kong and hello long long flight home. It's been one helluva trip and I'm a richer person for it. It's a lot easier to appreciate my good fortune at having the opportunity to travel to new and interesting places when it's time to leave. JP has been the most gracious host and I truly hope someday in his world travels, he'll have the fortune/misfortune to come to mid-America so I can repay his hospitality in kind. JP, I'll see you on the flip side. The rest of you, I'll see you soon!

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your business. The Macau leg of your journey is now complete. Please, sit back and relax as we begin the Hong Kong portion of your trip. After learning more details of the side trip my boss and coworkers are taking to Beijing, I know I made the right decision to NOT go with them. Not that Beijing wouldn't be an amazing place to visit - on the contrary. But their plane tickets from HK to Beijing were over $570 plus they have to pay about $100/day for an English-speaking driver because there is absolutely zero English being spoken or written there. Just think about that for a second....no signs in English...no one to ask for assistance...no communication really whatsoever. Gulp. On the flip side, they're going to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City among other sights. And here's where I wish JP didn't know about/read my blog...I'm sitting here in his flat feeling like a total shit for not getting a hotel room here in Ho...

I'm in freaking CHINA. Holy crap. The flight was not as bad as the one to Australia last year because this time, I had an aisle seat and miracle of miracles, the seat next to me was empty. There's still nothing comfortable about economy class 15 hour flights, but that was pretty much the best situation I could hope for. I knew the flight was full so when I checked in at the airport, I asked if there were any aisle seats available and the chick at the counter came back saying "it's full, but I put you on the waiting list for an upgrade to business class". It was just a tease though because once we got to Chicago for the main leg of the trip, the chick behind the counter said "you're not getting an upgrade, I can tell you that right now". Ok then. Thanks for the winning personality! And get this - you don't fly west or east to get here (at least from chicago), but we flew directly north, over the north pole and then south over Siberia, Mongolia and...

...that I'll post at all while I'm away in the Far Far Far Far East. You'll just have to miss me. Love you guys! See ya's soon.

Sometimes I think I might take things too seriously. No really, I do. I'm sure it isn't all that apparent. But if I let it all really weigh on me and don't have a way to vent, I can get really depressed about stuff that only philosophically affects me. Which can't be healthy, can it? No, I know it isn't healthy. So when I read this today, I started getting pretty worked up. I mean, come on. At what point do we get to collectively say "We already figured this out and just because you're not happy with the outcome doesn't mean you get to keep bringing it up"? I guess never since society changes customs and beliefs about as often as Britney Spears drives with her baby on her lap. (By the way, small note on that: I knew she was in the car with her baby not buckled in, but I did not realize until today that she was DRIVING WITH THE BABY ON HER LAP. Kind of like a dog. I have no words right now to describe the sheer lunacy of this.) I guess ...

I'm not really leaving a week from tomorrow for China. No, I prefer to not think about it at all. That way, I'm not very stressed out about the trip this week. But just because I'm avoiding it and denying to myself it'll happen, next week is going to be rough to say the least. I've never been to Asia and it's going to be a culture shock with a garnish of bird flu fear. This is how I looked upon my return from the mere 8-hour flight from London: I don't think I'll be sharing the picture of how I look upon my return via the 16-hour flight from Hong Kong. Unless I get miraculously upgraded to Business Class, in which case, I'll share all the goodies with you via a picture slide show. Who do I have to maim or bribe to get that upgrade for free? Shit, who am I kidding? I'd pay good money for an upgrade...if only we hadn't booked our tickets with CheapoAir.com. I wish I was kidding.

Here you see an English Premier League Football game between West Ham and Fulham. We were sitting in the Home section of West Ham's arena, so we were unequivocally fans of West Ham. And they won! With two fan-fucking-tastic goals, no less. It's not uncommon to have a 0-0 game in what we'd call soccer in the states, so for us to see a 2-1 game was kinda impressive. Fans of footie chant and sing like crazy at the games. What are they chanting? I wish I could tell you and I even had an interpreter of sorts there telling me what he thought they were yelling, but it still made no sense whatsoever. The best was the guy I sat next to for the second half. He kept making the hand gesture for jacking off and yelling "Fuck off you bloody Yank" every time this guy McBride on the Fulham squad touched the ball. And hey! What do you know? McBride is from The Lou! (Right, I've just annexed Arlington Heights, IL into STL, but who's counting?)

Note to potential baby gift buyers if I ever have a baby-I'm-not-saying-anything-so-don't-read-into-it: - Pink Rule #1: No pink - girl or boy, no fucking pink outfits - Blue Rule #2: No baby blue - girl or boy, same as Pink Rule #1 Call me cruel, call me heartless wench - do what you have to do for yourself. And by all means, dress your babies however makes you happy. Me, I don't enjoy these colors in bulk. And no, I am not foolish enough to think that my future children-that-aren't-on-the-way-yet-so-shut-up-everyone won't have outfits composed primarily of these colors and probably paired with teddy bears. But maybe if I put it out there now, word will get out and some day maybe there's no guarantee, I'll only get solid non-pastelly onesies at my baby shower. And I want a Fugazi poster as shown.

Warning: Kinda heavy post. In case the title didn't give it away... On this day in 1989, my friend Melissa died. Maybe we weren't the best of friends earlier on that particular day, or even maybe a couple of months before this day. A boy she liked had asked me to a dance and even though I knew she liked him, I said yes. We weren't as tight after that. And who knows, maybe with a little more time, she would have forgiven me fully and it would have been like the good ol' days back in grade school. And here's where I learned how hard it is to avoid living with regrets. It seems like the stupidest thing to regret, but I regret saying yes to Jerry whatever-his-name-was when he asked me to that dance. I felt bad as soon as I said yes and when I told Melissa, who wasn't known for her mild demeanor, I knew from the reaction that it would take awhile before our relationship healed from my digression. Friends have squabbles and get really pissed off at each other...

I picked up some that were smushed, some that had plastic in them, some that were about to become dirt, some that were fresh, and some that were hidden beneath leaves. I filled up a 5-gallon buckets' worth. - Dirty Gravy Two dogs = too much poo.