Watch Your Step

Dave worked a double today. He woke up at 5 and didn't come home until midnight, so he was pretty wiped and went straight to bed. I missed him, so I went to bed too.

I have been staring at the ceiling for four goddamn hours. Ugh. At least work is sympathetic to my coming in at like 1 pm.

I am in Beijing! I like China. This is my third trip and I am getting better at it. My first trip I was not prepared at all and so many things were needlessly harder than they should be.

(Example: Chinese restrooms are not typically in the habit of stocking toilet paper; you are frequently expected to bring your own. You can see how knowing in advance to bring many travel packs of Kleenex would make the trip more comfortable.)

Anyway, the trip is drawing to a close. I fly out of Beijing tomorrow (Saturday) at 530 pm and after 13.5 hours of flying I will land in Dallas at 5 pm, half an hour before I take off.

How's that for a mind bender.

A family member got married last week, so I took the excuse to stay down at the beach for a week. Or a week and change. My brother joined me for a few days but left to head back to Boston with my parents almost immediately. It's just me here (Dave is helping a friend with a cross-country move/road trip).

It's absolute bliss.

I am beholden to no one. I can eat what I please, when I please. I'm going for tons of lengthy walks along the beach. I brought dumbbells and have been doing basic workouts near daily. I brought some work and got a surprising amount done.

I wish I didn't have to go home.

Right now I am angry because Hilton's preferred brand of alarm clocks literally requires a screwdriver in order to change the time, and mine is eight hours (and thirteen years, I found the calendar function, it isn't January 2002 anymore) off.

(The fact that I already fixed it is pretty much irrelevant here).

Most people don't travel with toolkits, Hilton!

...I can't believe I'm actually mad about this, but I am. I am very mad.