r0b0t's great go around

My morning has been the careful collection and consideration of a series of last moments. The last time I wake up up in a strange hotel bed. The last trip to a terrible hotel gym. The last lather of travel bar soap. The last hotel breakfast buffet. The last packing and subsequent nervous walk around the room making sure I haven’t forgotten anything. The last beep, beep, beep, beep of my hotel safe combination to fetch my passport. The last sweaty snake through an unfamiliar city to an unfamiliar airport. The last casual prayer for free airport wifi and interesting food choices. The last defensive kindle book purchase in case I finish my current book during the flight. The last pre-security reconfiguration of pocket stuffs to ensure a smooth walk through the metal detector. The last walk to to the far side of the seating back where I can sit alone. 

It’s all a runway to the last flight and 11 hours over the pacific and the pole to home. They are all the lasts but really just the last for now. There is plenty more travel in my future (I’m headed to LA next weekend, even) but it won’t be as long or as regular for a while.

I’m now fantasizing about the other side of the ocean, end of the lasts and the beginning of the firsts. The last unpack. The first In-n-Out burger that I’ve been craving all along. The first box unpacked from my life left in storage. The first night of sleep on my handmade mattress. The first proper sit on my couch. The first hour lost in video games. The first little bits of life returned. 

I’m planning a few more wrap up posts after I get home. An account of the trip by the numbers because I love data. A few of the lessons that I’ve learned as I think they apply to my work because I need to start wrapping my head around engineering again. A bit of reflection about what it all meant and maybe what I’ve learned about myself because I need to work all that out myself. There is also the lost time like more of why I hate Brazil, Shark Diving in South Africa, Turkey, the trouble I had in India, the orderly Singapore, whorish Bangkok, the cab driver who banished me from Saigon, hot pot in Taipei, the time I wasted in Shanghai by being sick, smoggy Beijing, the amazingly beautiful rolling hills of the Great Wall and the company that I kept in Seoul. There’s a lot there and it’s going to be a lot least interesting now that it’s over but I still want to get it written down so I can look back on it later. 

87 days since departure. 1.5 hours until checkout. 6 hours until flight departure. 17 hours until landing in San Francisco. 

I spent a decent chunk of yesterday editing, uploading and tagging a ton of photos from the last month or so (Bombay to Seoul). A few are shared below but the rest are on flickr. 

86 days since departure. 31 hours until return.