Touch Down!

We’re here! In the thick of setting up house (or condo) amidst jet lag. As the plane descended into Penang, the small furry green island, thick with lush vegetation, began to appear. Once on the ground, I saw what an extensive and established region this was (approx 1 million people live on the island) and how human civilization had carved out a robust existence amidst the rain forest (and had for hundreds of years), but from the air, it seemed the jungle way had the upper hand. The towns from above seemed tenacious outposts even now. I knew I was going to be living in the tropics when I agreed to come here, but it wasn’t until this descent that I really knew (and once I was on the ground, the strength of the sun and humidity really really let me know). I just soaked it in – my eyes riveted by my new home and the verdant, thriving, towering vegetation that blanketed it.

Lots more to come on Penang, but for now, some transit notes:

Barbara Cass
Barbara Cass. Those are the letters you want to see on the name tag of the woman behind the United ticket counter if you happen to be having massive problems with your itinerary/tickets. Barbara Cass.

It had started out so well. We packaged up the house – lowering all the shades, setting the thermostat, turning off the toilet water valves and whatnot. Then we arrived at the airport to find out that Barbara can’t issue me boarding passes. Far too many details to share on what caused this situation and how we resolved it, but Barbara was very patient as I started to act pretty tense and Ton called his company’s travel service, etc. It took forever and, at one point, Barbara tried to look up my reservation again, and it seemed to have been cancelled completely, wiped out. At that point, I told both her and Ton that I was going for a walk. They saw the look on my face and said, “Yes, that sounds like a good idea.”

My neck muscles were twisted in a gargantuan knot. The thought that I wasn’t going to be able to depart overwhelmed me. I rarely reach the stress level where I completely unspool, but I felt dangerously close. I walked outside, inhaled some good ol’ Phoenix smog, and felt like I might cry, which is really really unusual for me. So I sent what I’m sure was a fairly incoherent text message to my friend Rose about wanting to cause the various people responsible for this screw up serious pain. (Note: I didn’t really mean it)

It all worked out though – not easily or simply – but it worked out, due in much part to Ms. Cass’ patience, experience and tenacity. So if there are some positive vibes currently floating around in the universe unassigned Id’ like them directed to her general vicinity please.

Choice Ton Moment
I was pretty tense on the entire flight to LA, just couldn’t unwind. I tried to rally a sense of humor about the ticket debacle, but my brain was fried. All that shook off when, in LA, Ton stepped onto a down escalator that he realized he didn’t want to be on, and he tried to hop up the steps with his brief case and carry-on to make it back to the top. When he failed, he looked at me with this plaintive face, his body slowly getting smaller and smaller as it descended into god knows where. Once we were reunited, the whole episode gave me a solid long laugh, and my tension finally unwound and evaporated into the ether.


Random Highlights of the 17 hour flight from LA to Singapore on Singapore Air

Slept most of it, praise be to the heavens. Played video solitaire and read a fantastic and entertaining book for the rest, Then We Came to The End. Any of you who've worked in corporate America will truly enjoy.

Fortunately the woman sitting behind me got lots of sleep too. So I didn’t have to hear her voice the whole flight. She had the sweetest little old lady voice you’ve ever heard, and until you’re essentially trapped next to such a voice, you don’t realize how quickly it can drive you batty. Particularly when it says, “This plane smells like urine.”

As we descended, I realized any nerves that'd been dogging me had morphed into sheer excitement. I was pumped primarily because I’d gotten lots of sleep. Had it been otherwise, my attitude as we landed would have been more along the lines of “Yeah freakin’ Singapore. Big deal.”
Shortly, I’ll post my first Penang update. Until then – peace out, fools!