It is 5:43 AM on Wednesday, September 20th. I’m at San Francisco Airport where my flight to Denver would soon board.
I’ve decided to start using my phone to write short updates primarily with the intent of replacing social media. It is more important to me to record my life on my own website instead of the desire to garner “likes.” This post is the first under this new idea.
This morning, I was abruptly awoken by the alarm at 4:15 AM. I usually wake up naturally at that time, but I often cannot sleep the night before travel. Last night was no exception, and I finally fell asleep at midnight.
I have a choice between SFO and OAK. The dilemma is I have a parking pass at OAK but it is 40 minutes away. SFO is only 15 minutes, but Uber drivers in the past have declined my pickup, which makes me nervous of missing my flight. They often don’t like coming down to Pacifica preferring to hover up near Daily City, where there are more ride requests. Cancelations have occurred even if I schedule in advance.
I decided to risk it this morning, and thankfully the driver picked me up on time. We had a nice conversation, and I believe he was Korean. I didn’t think much about his ethnicity until the song “I said I loved you, but I lied,” came on by Michael Bolton. I dated a Korean girl while I was studying in France and a memory popped into my head hearing that song. We’d go to karaoke from time to time and this is the song she sang without any trace of melody or gentleness. Where are you now Joobin Lee? I remember my gay classmate humorously imitating her singing that song in a very loud and scratchy voice. Where are you Patsy Parice? When I heard the song it was the lyrics that brought the memory to mind. I had to Shazam it to see who it was by as I’d never heard the original version, I only remember Patsy’s voice.
My flight is boarding in 2 minutes so I’ll end here for now. This is a post I’ll update throughout this short trip.
I’m at the airport again, this time returning home. As usual, this business trip was busy and quick. I’ve been exhausted all day due to a night out with colleagues and didn’t get to bed until past midnight. Usually, I’ll return to the hotel room early but didn’t want to leave two female colleagues by themselves so made the sacrifice and drank plenty of beer.
I’m taking a later flight home because I wanted to stop by the Denver Public Library to see a few 10th Mountain Division, World War Two letters and pictures from my grandpa. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed as the library was under massive construction, with 95% of it closed. To make matters worse they couldn’t find the box of my donations. They assured me it was there but misplaced due to moving everything around for construction. That was a disappointment indeed. I’ll return after two years when hopefully I’ll be able to view my grandfather’s items in a beautiful, updated library without a construction fence in sight.
Another bummer was that I’m unable to see my buddy Axel. I had made plans to stay until Saturday but then realized this weekend is the Fog Fest street fair where my son will be marching with the school band. Axel studied with me in Tokyo, and if it weren’t for him, he would never have moved to Vietnam. It was Axel who convinced me to go to Vietnam for spring break and made the friends there.
So here I sit at a departure gate at the airport. Denver International is a madhouse. The regular security line looked like it would take at least an hour to get through. I have TSA Pre and that was 25 minutes.
I’ll be home soon and cannot wait to take a shower and sleep in my own bed. I’ll probably fall asleep on the plane.
