May 22nd, 2004

I've been out of work for two weeks now, driving around seeing my friends, spending time with family; It's seems like these past two weeks have been sooo long, and it reminds me of how time went in school. When you're busy time goes by so fast, because of the routine, I guess: I worked for what was a whole school year--I started in September and ended in May. In school, because there really is no routine, time flows slower. You spend a couple hours in class, then maybe a couple hours studying here and there, then maybe you play frisbee or campus golf for an hour, read and sip coffee for a couple hours, go to a movie, but it's all irregular. In school Time adjusts to you; in work you adjust to Time.

I had my "bon voyage" party on the 16th. It was great to see all my family and friends all in one place. It was a good day--the kind of day that gets set apart as "memorable." It was interesting when my family tried to christen my hull with a bottle of champaigne. That was interesting. My family has been very supportive and kind to me. I told my Uncle Tim this and he said, "Well, what other way is there to be?" Golden. Hillary and Valerie said that they will write to me in serial stories, each one culminating in some fabulous cliffhanger. That will be interesting and fun, if it actually happens, so I guess I'm mentioning it on this website to increase the chances of it actually happening (hint hint nudge nudge wink wink). Maybe you'll even see something of it on the website. After all my family left, a lot of my friends hung around and we sat at the campfire drinking coffee and talking. While we were talking I think either Aruna or I mentioned that The Princess Bride is probably the most quotable movie ever, whereas the girls said that When
Harry Met Sally was much more quotable; so I came up with the idea of a quote-war, in which one side says a quote from a movie and then the other side parries with a quote from the other movie. Foolish girls. They had some good quotes, but they would have so gone down. They would have got served. I say "would have" because we never actually finished, but really it's a given. The Princess Bride rules all, and there can be only one.

So I made plans to go to New York before I leave. I fly to DC on the 4th and then take a train to NY where I'll meet up with Phil. I have to be back in DC on the 10th. Then we fly to Kaz on the 12th at 6pm. Ny will be a crash cours in culture shock before Kaz. Probably not similar at all as far as culture goes, but still quite capable of conjuring that feeling of uncomfortability which I'm sure I will experience repeatedly.

It turns out that with the current luggage limits that I will have to take only one checked bag and one carry-on bag. Both bags combined cannot equal more than 107 linear inches (length+width+height combined).

Checked bag: Serratus 55-liter internal frame backpack.

• length=14
• width=12
• height=35
• Total=61

Carry-on bag: Samsonite flight bag.

• length=23
• width=10
• height=12
• Total=45

Total combined=106

Somehow I'll have to figure out how to pack suits into a backpack. That'll be interesting.