The hotel gym got busy very early this morning.
Marching in line at different speeds
As I was rushing off, I looked back and noticed the odd visual of the remaining treadmillers all marching together out of synch, in line.
These people were running at paces between 6 and 12 kilometers per hour, yet they all lined up there all in a row, marching, at their own rhythm, yet without any harmony amongst themselves. Together, yet all individual.
That’s a metaphor if I’ve ever seen one.
The red-eye flight was a sux on a scale of 1 to 10. The Boeing 757-200 was comfortable and I had my bulkhead seat, but I just didn’t sleep.
The approach over the south side of Long Island was beautiful. It has been maybe 5 years since I landed at JFK in the morning. That’s a side effect of being brand-loyal (frequent flyer loyal) to a carrier that has a hub in Newark.
I am a bit off my game today, not as sharp and on point as I normally am when I travel. That means that the likelihood of me leaving something behind is an order of magnitude higher than normal. In fact, it’s just a matter of time.
My dad met me at the airport, gave me the keys to his car and I drove us to Long Beach, my boyhood home. During the ride Dad told me stories he has told me a hundred times before, then he asked, “have I told you this before?”. I smile and told him yes, but to keep telling it.
My dad and I met our long-time friend in Long Beach for breakfast at the Laurelton Diner. The Diner as it’s known as in our family is an old-style Long Island diner, where friends meet for coffee and a meal. It’s a place to eat And talk. I remember going there as a small boy with my mom. As much as the peanut butter and banana pancake stack called to me, I had to pass. As we walked outside, I remember the movie theater that used to be next to the diner. It closed 40 years ago, but I still a faded memory to me.
After that we went down to the beach to see the progress that has ben made in repairing the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy.There was a cleanup event scheduled that day and as much as I wanted to volunteer to help clean up this town that I hold dear, I had other priorities this day.
The beach looked much better than they did in January; clearly the tourist season was coming.
From there Dad and I went to Starbucks to do nothing. We sat for about 45 minutes and hung out, talking, laughing but without saying too much. I reorganized my carry-on bags some for my next flight. This second consecutive red-eye was going to have to go better than the first.
From there we met old family friends for pizza at Gino’s Pizzeria in Long Beach. It was good to catch up and hear the comings and goings since we last sat down. It was also wonderful to catch up with some New York style pizza with old friends. That particular pizzeria was another place I went with my Mom when I was small. I have also been there with my wife and daughter. It was nice to pile a few more family memories there.
From there we made a few shopping stops along the way to my day’s house. He laid down for a nap while I sat and caught up with my half-sister and stepmother. After a quick Facetine with my half-brother in Florida it was time to head to the airport for flight #3.
All in all, I was able to tell eight different people that I love them face to face. There are lots of things to do on New York, and on this day, nothing was more important than being with these special people.
This was a layover well spent and worth the double red eye flights.
Next Stop:
So here it begins, the big journey.
The first leg is a bit if a cheat. I am flying from Orange County to San Francisco. From there, I fly to JFK for a half-day layover.
I could have flown out of LAX to get to JFK, but I i) hate LAX and ii) was not having my ladies drive to LA and back on a Friday night.
I could have flown into Newark directly as I usually do, but then I would have wasted time getting to Long Island. This semi-circuitous route to JFK gets me 12 hours on the island and maximum face time with my dad.
Time to board. Catch you all later.
I rode my bike to today for the first time in a what seems like forever.
Back in the saddle again
Last summer, my bike was the unfortunate victim of my busy life. If you read my post, A Day in the Life you may recall that I keep a pair of black dress shoes at my desk so that when I ride to work, I can change from my riding boots to dress shoes. Stuck between busy and hating to go shopping, I never replaced those work shoes when the leather wore out last spring. My bike was then relinquished to only coming out on casual Fridays.
Bikes are made for riding, more than once a week and more than 2 miles to and from work. Mechanical problems started setting in, including the old battery dying. Even though it was on a battery charger all week, it wouldn’t keep a charge. I had to push start it a few times last summer and after it died in the middle of the street late last summer, I got frustrated and decided to park the bike until I time magically freed itself up.
I only needed to go out, jack up the bike and replace the battery with a new one, but I never made time. Maybe I just didn’t want to. Eventually, Like the guy in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, I gave in and had my neighbor trailer the bike down to my mechanic. I disappointed myself in that I didn’t make time to take care of something that so enriches my life.
When I picked up the bike at the shop, the curmudgeonly mechanic had a few words for me. He told me that he had a conversation with my bike and that it wanted to be taken on long rides. I acknowledged that I understood and that I would take care of it. I didn’t tell him that I would soon be on the road again, but in an airplane.
It felt good to be riding again. I took the long way to work in the morning and again after lunch. I missed being undistracted and alone with my thoughts. I remembered how riding shakes up my creative juices and fills my spirit up. I feel like I have gotten a dimension of my life back that I abandoned in the garage.
I realized that there was this cascade of seemingly unrelated events: shoes wore out lead to the bike breaking down, lead to a loss of creativity which lead to a low-level of dissatisfaction with several aspects of life. All of which started with me being just too busy. It brought a new take to the Socratic warning: “Beware of the barrenness of a busy Life.”
For now I just need to find a second pair of black shoes to keep at work. Maybe when I get back from my travels?
A Moment on the Disney Fantasy
Betwixt and between the first and second dinner seatings, the atrium, the elevators and the stairs of the Disney Fantasy are packed with people in formal dress seeking the creation of mementos.
Families huddle together in one of several lines, waiting for professional portraits.
A very little boy wearing a tuxedo face-plants, but immediately bounces up unharmed.
Two singers by the staircase perform a Marvin Gaye classic accompanied by a Mac.
At the top of the staircase, after a very long wait, a Chinese family delight in taking a picture with Captain Mickey.
Servers hand out free wine, mojitos, and juice.
Before mom can snap the shutter, one of her two handsome and carefully-posed boys bolts towards Aladdin, who has just arrived on the scene.
A teenage girl is looking for wi-fi in the middle of the ocean.
A Romanian drink server claps his hands to the music as he heads backstage to reload his empty tray.
A middle-aged couple disagree about buying pictures.
The lady who was wearing huge sunglasses when she fell asleep in the Caribbean sun turns from the front desk and I force down a chuckle after the word “raccoon” came to mind.
A man in a gold-buttoned blazer walks by holding a glass of Shiraz by the base of glass.
An older couple somehow manage to take a beautiful picture together in front of the busy staircase.
A tall and husky corn-fed family of six walk by with a swagger and presence reminiscent of that scene from “The Right Stuff“.
An adorable 5-year-old princess poses in front of a paintings of Sleeping Beauties Castle.
A guy in a monkey suit watches people, jots notes and takes pictures all the while his stomach rumbles for dinner.
On this second day of the cruise aboard the Disney Fantasy, we were scheduled to have Cuba on the port side of the ship for most of the afternoon. I went a bit geeky.
At 11am, I went to the front desk to ask them what time we would be closest to Havana. The best they could do was to tell me what time we would see the island.
As the day progressed, I kept checking and eventually, there it was, veiled behind the low clouds, Cuba. That island where in the 1950s TV’s Ricky Ricardo took Lucy and in movies, Sky Masterson took Miss Sarah Brown.
It is that island the US State Department says we Americans cannot go without special permission. It is that island of Fidel, Raul and Guantanimo Bay.
I made a special point to get The Child and explain to her the significance of this island. The stories of the Bay of Pigs and the nuclear arms crisis of John Kennedy were met with maximum “I don’t care” face that a teenager is capable. I dismissed The Child and let her go back to having fun.
I wanted a momento, something to prove that I was in this place. So like that geeky, techo, runner nerd that I am, I rushed down to my cabin and got my Garmin (yes, I brought my Garmin on a cruise, what of it?). I let the satellites mark the position of The Disney Fantasy and I let that be my souvenir of my time near Cuba.
I Was There!
After I got my bearings, I pulled up a deck chair, ordered a beverage, put my Ibrahim Ferer music on my iPod and watched the island pass by. I saw Ibrahim and some of his Buena Vista Social club friends at UCLA a decade plus ago. It was as a fantastic night of music and merriment.
As the island drifted by, so did my mind drift to the politics of the US and Cuba. Our 50 year old-economic sanctions haven’t done the Castros in yet. Granted, Castro has done horrible things and the imposed sanctions were a reasonable response, but maybe it’s time to do some type of fence-mending, some type of normalization of relations?
But was it arrogant of us to ask Mr. Gorbachev to tear his wall down before we tore down ours with Cuba? Would any American politician risk raising the ire of the Cuban-Americans population by reaching out to Cuba? Probably someone who doesn’t meed to carry Florida. Do we need another Richard Nixon? Will there be a person with such clout in our lifetime?
I vividly remember that paper that I did for Mrs. Rizzo on the Spanish-American War back in High School. I see the New York Times microfiche at the UNLV library where I did most of my research. I remember taking notes and inserting dimes into the microfiche viewer to get copies of the ancient paper.I think about the 252 men killed aboard the USS Maine. That ship was the first US Warship commissioned. It took 9 years to build, and was in service for 3 years before being struck by a mine in the harbor of Havana. I was really proud of that paper. I think about Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. I imagine them taking the hills I see in the distance.
Ibrahim begins to sing Silencio on my iPod and I stop thinking so hard. The song is quiet and as peaceful as I wish to be on this vacation.
The second day of the cruise aboard the Disney Fantasy happened to fall on Easter Sunday. I was happy to see a mass scheduled at 8am. Me being me, I set a reminder alarm for all the days activities in my phone. I hadn’t expected that the 15 minute reminder to be my wake up call. I jumped out of bed, threw on my workout clothes and left my jet-lagged, sleep-deprived wife and daughter to the nondenominational services later on in the day.
As I made my way through the ship, I joined other mass-goers who clearly had woken up in time to dress for Easter. I found myself struggling again with the idea of dressing up for church. On one hand there is the simplicity of, “where two or more are gathered” and then there is the social aspect of putting on one’s best to worship. I often wonder how much of the dressing up is for show and how much is for respect. That useless mental struggle faded away when I entered the Walt Disney Theater and was surrounded by other worSHIPer, many of which were dressed for Easter, many of which were dressed to go work out afterward.
Easter in the Walt Disney Theater
I wasn’t sure what to expect for a mass held in a the Walt Disney movie theater. Father Emil from New York presided over the mass. We sang hymns accompanied by a very cheesy Yamaha piano. It was odd to see Disney-garbed staff reading from the bible, as normally church and the symbols of the mouse are not commonly seen together.
Father’s homily for this Easter day focused on the transformation of Peter from the man who on denied Jesus on Good Friday into to a man who had the strength to go out and preach the in Corigma, the gospel as told by the Apostles. Father didn’t say that it was essential at this point in history that the Apostles have that strength, but where would Christianity be if they hadn’t?
This mass had all the elements of a good service. There were engaged worshipers, crying children, thought providing messages and of course, Catholics leaving immediately after Eucharist. It brought a smile to my face to see that even aboard ship, people make the decision to leave before the final prayers.
One unusual element of this ship-board service was that the motion of the ship resulted in the congregation swaying when we stood. You may not know this, but Catholics don’t sway in church. Heck, it’s tough enough to get them to clap. In North America anyway, I have always suspected that we don’t clap for fear of letting God see that he forgot to give us rhythm.
With mass ending, I found myself some coffee and made my way to the forward observation deck, half-way between the Florida and Cuba on open water. I sat down and thought about the message of Easter and this story of Peter that the priest brought me today. I thought my family’s about Easter traditions and how they all went out the window this year. I thought about how traditions can complicate holidays. For example Christmas is about he birth of Jesus, but we complicate it so much more and in doing so we lose focus. Same is true with Easter. It gets to be about rabbits and chocolates and clothing and hats and things that are off-point and certainly off-message. Maybe we need, occasionally to simplify our holidays and get back to what they are really about.
One thing I do enjoy about the Catholic church is that we celebrate Easter for 8 full weeks, up until Pentecost Sunday. Every week, we stay glued to the stories of Jesus from rebirth to his ascension and the blessing of the apostles with the holy spirit. I say this because it may take me a while until this post up. Regardless of when you see this, I hope that you have a happy Easter season. If Easter is like so last week to you, take a moment to reconnect to the message.
Happy Easter
We landed in Newark Airport this morning at about 5:24am, my daughter, my wife and me. It had been 2 months since I last made this specific red-eye flight. That January trip was two months following my previous red-eye through Newark. This trip is also two months prior to my next landing in Newark on my way to Ireland.
We are on our way to Orlando Florida, for the second time in 3 years. That visit, we spent 36 hours in New York and then flew to Orlando via JFK. This time, we were going to take a direct flight from LAX to Orlando, but the red-eye route was cancelled and when given the choice between flying to from LAX to Orlando through Dulles or flying Orange County airport through Newark, I actually chose the latter route, which was longer, but more familiar and convenient.
After deplaning this morning, we proceeded to the Dunkin’ Donuts in the airport for coffee and breakfast, like I always do. As I ate my usual egg-white bagel, drank my large coffee, and I checked to see what time sunrise was.
The Child at the Dunkin’ Donuts in EWR
We headed down to gate C 97, which is where you can get the best view of Manhattan and we took pictures of The City with the sun rising behind it. I think The Child took at least 50 pictures on her phone, my phone and my camera. After that, I called my sister in London, like I usually do. It was 6am Eastern time and the 5 hour time difference makes her one of the few people I can call when I land on the East Coast first thing in the morning, After that, I popped into the newsstand and pick up a copy of the Financial Times to get me through to my next flight.
My wife commented that I am a creature of habit, especially when I travel. That fact is certainly true. I have found that if I don’t maintain a certain discipline when I travel, I am apt to create chaos for myself. It was about 8 years ago that I broke protocol when eating dinner in Connecticut. I didn’t realize that I had left my backpack in the restaurant until I arrived at my hotel in Rhode Island. Luckily my hotel room that night was pre-paid and I didn’t need my credit cards. I did have to borrow gas money from one of my colleagues so I could drive the rental car back to Connecticut to pickup my laptop, credit cards, and ID. Then I had to turn around and drive to Boston to catch my flight.
I am also consistent in what I wear when I travel. If I am getting off a red eye and into a meeting I have a set non-wrinkle wardrobe for that scenario. For flights longer than 2 hours, it’s always jeans and a long-sleeve shirt, something light that can be worn comfortably should the flight be warm or cold. For trips of two weeks or so in duration, I have an orange long sleeve shirt that will be starched and folded at the dry cleaner and sit at the bottom of my suitcase in its plastic bag, not to be removed until the day of the journey home. I’m not sure why I do this, maybe it’s just the visual clothing candy reward for the end of the trip or the associated joy that comes from pulling that particular shirt out and to know that I am heading home.
When I flew home from Newark airport in January, I was wearing my newly acquired NY Half Marathon long-sleeve shirt and the same pair of jeans I was wearing today. I would be wearing the same pair of K-Swiss tennis shoes as well, but I tossed them yesterday and pulled out a new pair of the same brand shoes last night. The fact is, I have been wearing the same brand of tennis shoe for 33 years. If I really wanted to be honest, I would disclose that I have a few boxes of new K-Swiss tennis shoes in the garage so that when one pair wears out, I don’t have to wait to order another pair. I know what I like and I stick with it.
I’ve heard it said that all travel is risk-mitigation; you don’t check a bag if you can carry on. You never trust the airline to get you to an important meeting on time. Assume your driver doesn’t know where you want him to take you. Always have a back up plan.
Today’s prompt is courtesy of Carolyn Rubenstein.
Anticipation
What is the one thing that you are most looking forward to in 2013?
| One should not use the term boring to describe my plans for 2013. Laura and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. The child will turn 16. To celebrate these events we will be taking a Caribbean cruise. I am looking forward to that. But it isn’t what I am looking forward to most.As some point during the year, I will have my 30 years high school reunion and as well as my 25 year anniversary at work. Those should be fun.I am signed up for the LA Marathon. That’s big. Of course, once I cross the finish line, I will be rushing to see my daughter win at the last cheer competition of the season. That’s my life, 96 days out and I am already double booked.
Work will have me traveling to Houston, New York, Milan, Ireland and Japan. Some might look forward to that. Me, not so much. It’s never about where I go. It’s about who I’m with. The value is in that short window when something can be set up, maybe a quick breakfast before a flight. Maybe a 30 minute visit at the home of an old friend before making a mad dash for a train. I do a lot of that. But that’s where I find the joy in work travel as well as life in general. Those are the things that keep me going on the road and make life fun. The thing that i am looking forward to most is some time with my sister and her husband. They were in Spain both times I visited London this year. In 2013, they may be coming over from for a few weeks. It will be nice to have them here and be together again with Laura and The Child. I suspect that in a very short time, we are going to log a number of miles around the Nevada, Arizona and California. As much as I hate driving, I look forward to showing them these states. There will be laughter. Grand memories will be made.  Family in 2009 at Disneyland
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Looking back at my 2011 Reverb posts, I noticed one that caught my eye. So I copied it:
Sarah Rosemary at Sunny Side Up and DailyAngst were hosting Reverb11, a series of prompts on 2011,
Money. Where did you spend your money this year? Did you save it instead? What, if anything, would you like to do with your finances this year?
| I deplore talking about money, so again (in 2012) this might be a short post.
Senior year of high school back in 1982, I took a computer programming class. Back then, we had a computer lab stocked with Apple IIe systems. I took to programming like a fish to water. I talked to my mother one day about the possibility of her getting a loan so we could buy one. Let’s just say that the proposal was not well-received and summarily rejected with extreme prejudice. We lived in Las Vegas, somewhere between the poverty line and the middle class. My mom was a medical assistant and my step-father a stage hand. The two of them didn’t manage their money well. They had issues that prevented them from being where they wanted to be… on many levels. Notices to pay or move out were routinely posted on our apartment door. It was not uncommon for the power to be turned off at least once a year for anywhere from 1 to 5 days. If we had a phone the number was never in service long. This meant that more often than not, if I wanted to talk to my dad, I had to walk down the block and cross the street to the payphone and try to call him collect. He had no way to reach me. On August 28, 1983, I arrived at college in a nice new car my mom bought me that morning. While I was driving to Southern California, the credit company decided that mom was too big of a risk and wanted that they car back immediately. Mom and my stepfather flew down that afternoon to retrieve and return it to the dealership. Mom and Stepfather never delivered the funds to pay the difference between my tuition and my scholarships. I actually was one of those Las Vegas lowlifes who had to borrow $500 from his girlfriend in order to stay enrolled in college. So needless to say, I’ve had money issues in my life. In college, I double majored in Chemistry and English, but I worked in the computer center on the work-study program. The school ran a PDP-!! computer system which ran RSTS, a time shared operating system. My Sophomore year, the computer center purchased a half dozen Macs. I fell in love with those systems. In 1988, I went to work as a chemist in the real world, where they used DOS and then later Windows. Early in my career, I did some programming in Pascal. I figured out pretty quickly in the late 80′s that there were many people who could program and that I was better off sticking to Chemistry. In 1997 when my daughter was born, we decided it was time to by a computer so I could work from home. I wanted to buy a Mac, but Apple wasn’t doing well, and a Mac wouldn’t do what I needed for work. So we bought a PC. Then a few years later we bought another PC. And another. When I started working on my MBA, I wanted to get a laptop. Money was a bit tight then so I settled for a cheaper brand. I still recall the day I checked my voicemail and I heard the message from my daughter, “Dude, you got a Dell!”. It was a piece of crap. We got into the PC cycle and it wasn’t until I bought my wife an iPad for Mother’s day in 2010, that we had an Apple product under our roof. In 2001, my daughter wanted a MacBook Pro for High School. Given my personal history, I bought it for her gladly. In 2012, a full thirty years after I first floated the idea of getting an Apple IIe to my mom, I let it be OK to buy a MacBook Air for myself. There was no good practical reason to buy this computer. It was expensive, it was unnecessary, it was redundant and the purchase was completely self-indulgent. I bought it anyway. I bought it with money borrowed from our car fund. I borrowed from myself, but I paid the good people at Apple cash. I had plenty of financial reserves to make the purchase. On my 47th birthday, I broke the PC cycle and the financial one all in one fell swoop of the debit card.
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