Taiwaneers

One of the benefits of living far away from our family is that when we are home there is a fair amount of attention paid to getting quality time with everyone. I have to say that one day in the last few weeks has stood out to me. A few days ago my brother drove over to Lansing for a business meeting I had tried to arrange. Unfortunately the meeting ended up falling through but my brother came anyways to spend one last day with me…side note: Newmind is a fantastic company and you should definitely consider hiring them to fill the CIO role of your small to mid-sized company providing the edge you need to compete! Over the past few years the time my brother and I have spent together has mainly been in the context of full, family gatherings. This day together was different, in a great way, because it gave me a chance to see my brother work his business magic, getting to tag along to his appointments as well as the opportunity to do the whole confide in and be confided in thing. Him driving away that night was one of only two times I’ve felt like having a little cry this time around the goodbye tree.

Yesterday we boarded our flight in Detroit and officially began our journey back to Taiwan for year number three. We had a huge portion of our wonderful family there to see us off. It’s great having people that care so much about us and that we care so much about too! Goodbyes are hard though.

We were again on Frontier Airlines out to LA and I again was not impressed. The pilot on the flight from Detroit to Denver seemed to forget that there were passengers in his plane and decided to fly without so much effort given to making large, graceful, unnoticed turns or being that discriminating when it came to the angles of ascension and its opposite. I also felt a few instances of actual fear about the fact that we were flying on September 11th. Up until the flight I hadn’t really thought about it at all but somehow being in the plane with that less then perfect pilot made me a bit antsy. Out to Denver Emily took the window and I sat between her and Terry. He turned out to be a middle-aged guy from West Bloomfield that now split his time between there and San Diego. Terry told me how he’d been to thirty countries because of business. Flying once a month had made him quite the airline expert and Terry explained to me that Northwest and US Airways were the best money can buy. So there you go folks. Now you know. Towards the end of the flight I learned, because his leg was killing him, that he had a bullet in his hip. My immediate thought was to ask him what it was doing there but for some reason I held my tongue and now I’ll never know. The flight from Denver to LA wasn’t nearly as eventful. Our rowmate was a very elegant, middle-aged woman who read and slept the whole time. We did not speak one word to her nor her to us…that is unless Emily snuck in something that I didn’t hear. Another nice thing about that flight was the pilot seemed more of the nice and easy does it variety.

Upon landing our scrumptrulescent (how can Will Ferrell ever be thanked enough) friend Genevieve was extremely prompt in picking us up and delivering us to Pasadena where we are staying for a long weekend before the transpacific flight.

After unloading and declaring our hunger we were taken to In-N-Out Burger. It was excelente! Our friend Kevin showed me how to take a bite of hot pepper (they are complimentary additions to your meal should you ask for them) and then a bite of burger making an oh so good combination of excelentayness in my mouth.

Today we decided a walk around downtown Pasadena would be fun. During the walk Emily and I bought what we believe is our first jointly purchased piece of art. Wally Pacholka sold us a print of one of his photographs at a wonderful discout for which we are extremely grateful, being the poor students we are. Here it is:
Isn’t it beautiful. Actually the right-side is a little cut-off here but you get the idea. By the way it’s not digitally mastered or anything. It’s the real deal and we think it’s pretty cool. I also picked up a copy of J.B. Phillips’ Your God Is Too Small at Cliff’s Books for a dollar and ten cents off the bargain rack…and it is even a hardcover.

Once all the walking was finished we came back to the pad and watched the tail-end of Michigan’s win against Notre Dame and the entirety of the USC vs. Ohio State match-up which I have to say was one heck of a game. I of course sobbed uncontrollably (not really) and hung my head in shame (it’s just so embarrassing) upon seeing the ESPN ticker’s report of the CMU vs. MSU game…woe is me.

And thus ends the day.