Two Thousand and Ten

Happy New Year to my friends who still read this.

I am so thankful for a beautiful 2009 and an amazing 23rd year of life. Tiff says this will be a good year for us because our luck will be changing for the better. Good. I could use a little of that in my career life. :)

After a turbulent few days before leaving Home 2.0 for Home 1.0 and an even more turbulent flight across the Pacific, I looked jetlag straight into its eyes and told it to screw itself. Seems like it did the trick. I feel like I never even left Hong Kong.

There were many thoughts that went through my mind as I imagined the plane falling into a watery grave with us all screaming for dear life. Then I thought about this one line from my beloved Love Actually: "When the planes hit the Twin Towers,
none of the phone calls from people on board were messages of hate or revenge,
they were all messages of love." I was luckily sitting next to someone I love - who also loved me back. On this second last day of the year 2009, I was still most definitely blessed.

Then my brain switched gears and the following things crossed my mind:
1) My laptop is in the overhead compartment, if it gets wet after we crash then I will lose all my files, photos, portfolio, passwords, music...I really hope that if it get salvaged that the people will know to let it dry completely before attempting to boot it. Please do not short circuit my laptop. Oh wait, do I have stuff that shouldn't be made public - like my horrible writing.

2) Poly! Poly is in the suitcase up there too! Who will rescue Poly? He doesn't know how to swim! What if the sharks eat him! (Disclaimer: Poly is my 18+ year old stuffed polar bear aka a Gund Snuffles, he means the world to me too)

3) Are these oxygen masks going to come out soon? I've never used one before, it looks like breathing into a jello cup.

4) I am a seasoned traveler, this turbulence doesn't phase me. Despite all these seemingly panicky thoughts, I am really quite calm. In fact, I'm going to remain in this half-sleeping pose with my eyes closed. If I die, at least I will look graceful doing it! Maybe my being calm will calm other people? Is that how it works? I should be a flight attendant.

I also thought about us disappearing into the clouds and our plane just vanishing with all the passengers.

On 12.30.09, I waited to meet up with my friend and my mind wandered back to the plane ride.

"What if we disappeared into the clouds for years what seemed to us on the plane to be hours? What would we have missed out on? Would our loved ones have passed or moved on? How long did they search for us? Our lives paused but theirs went on - what if we were trapped in an eternity of a few hours - never knowing that we were stuck exactly where we were, co-existing in a parallel time and universe? Time is important only if it's on our schedule. We strum our fingers and tap our feet impatiently but pay no attention as moments of life for other people slip away. The value of time is then warped. I feel like the kid waiting at school for his parents to pick him up. One by one my peers find their familiar faces and move on to their next stop, I wonder, when will it be mine? Time is being spent and youth is my currency. Scanning the crowds like a database hunting down a criminal. You keep looking until their face pops up in a square box with a mean mugshot."

Seriously, sometimes I need to leash up my mind, it wanders too far.