Posted 3:08 PM by Floyd

Today is infinite Thursday. On infinite Thursday all things are possible. I can wake up in the Tien Ping hotel, go to a Lawson's mini-mart to fetch breakfast and a replacement beer for the minibar, go to a nearby mall to check email, check out of the hotel, and head over to Sherry's grandmother's. There we are fed on delicious Chinese food, and Sherry spends some quality time with Abu (grandma) while I relax and get occasional translations.

We pack a couple bags and take a taxi to Pudong airport. This takes over an hour; there is heavy rain and heavy traffic. I check my bags and linger over bad coffee with Sherry. Then Sherry goes back and I go through customs and security. My fellow passengers and I fill the 747 to about a sixth its capacity. We take off and head northeast to begin the nine-and-a-half-hour flight.

On the plane I eat twice -- actually I am subjected to airline food three times and eat maybe one and one-half times. I fail to watch either movie (You've Got Mail and a Chinese movie set in Mongolia), read two Agatha Christie novels, and play with my Palm Pilot and GameBoy. I stretch out on three adjacent seats and take a nap. When we break into daylight the attendents wake us up and serve us breakfast. I ignore the scenery until I figure that we have reached the Golden Gate Bridge; unfortunately I misjudge our approach and miss watching the plane fly over my neighborhood. We land uneventfully. Customs is swift and I meet my friend Eric at the gate.

I had spent a week and a half in China, so naturally we spent the drive home talking about Civ III: Play the World. We arrive at my house, survey the damage done by a recent storm and greet the cats.

And I still have at least NINE HOURS to kill before I can go to bed.