Wanderlust Heaven!

This week felt pretty short – hence this entry won’t drone on too long. Went down to Washington, D.C. over the weekend to visit an old friend down there. He’s in the process of splitting up with his wife of 8-9 years and it’s been hard on him. At the risk of practicing amateur psychology, my sense is that he feels deeply guilty about being the one who’s ‘forcing the issue’ and instigating the divorce – but my take is that he’s merely naming the crisis and actually acting quite constructively to resolve it. Still, there’s substantial pain no matter how you slice it; I do think he’s handling things very well and that once a bit of time passes (and he gets back into the dating game) he’ll be just fine.

Also saw a few other old friends in DC – mostly from my fraternity, also a friend from the Army Times newspaper who published a popular book a year or so ago about the Tora Bora Al-Qaeda battles. Went to Millie & Al’s bar in Adams-Morgan – this used to be my local when I lived around the corner on California Street. Brought back very fond memories of my year or so there. If you get to DC, you’ve gotta have a few pitchers and pizzas at Millie’s…

On flight down there, on Thursday night, Logan Airport in Boston was full of Blackberry-pressing business geeks. Their phone calls brought back frightening memories of my own frantic conversations of years ago. Don’t miss ‘em at all. But I do find that overhearing such calls raises my blood pressure/annoyance levels – I might start carrying earplugs wherever I go. Nothing must disturb my current reverie…

When I returned to Boston I went straightaway to my sister’s place in Hopkinton for my nephew’s 3rd birthday party (adult version). About 20 people showed up and we had a good time. Afterward, we watched our hometown New England Patriots (football team) go down in flames after jumping out to an early lead. They simply couldn’t stop the offense of the Indianapolis Colts…and they also rang up a few uncharacteristic late-game penalties…and the offensive play-calling seemed overly conservative/non-creative in the late going. Anyway, we’re going home and the Colts to the Super Bowl. Bummer. Well, at least there’s no need to be mentally involved any longer with football, I can watch the Super Bowl in a state of complete inebriation and stomach distension…

Had a few medical checkups later in the week. Skin’s fine, despite huge amounts of sun this year. Got a bump on my lip removed by my cousin the plastic surgeon – the bump was the result of a bad basketball pass sent my way some years ago. I’m taking care of all these minor things now that I’ve got some time on my hands. And medical insurance covers ‘em all. Well, what the fuck – I’m paying US$380/month for the coverage and I might as well use it when I want to…

Went jogging in Newton Center yesterday. I’ve done this route dozens of times, but for some reason I finally trained my eye on the shop-fronts and noticed ‘Adolf’s Sports.’ Random. I mean, in a town with so many Jewish residents, I wonder who patronizes a shop called ‘Adolf’s’? You be the judge.

I mentioned that I have some time on my hands – although I do feel busy often, largely as a result of my social calendar. Anyway, I Googled myself and found that many of my entries pop up – and also that they’re now cross-referenced in other sites, mainly hotel/travel type sites. The ecosystem expands. Pretty funny…if you ever write a blog make sure to Google yourself/the blog every now and then, you’ll see how the thing takes on a life of its own.

Heading to Florida this weekend with a clutch of old fraternity brothers. This is a ‘mancation,’ i.e. a man’s vacation, boys only. Going fishing, drinking, eating, you name it. Haven’t done one of these in ages and it should be enjoyable, with a bit of ancillary liver damage thrown in.

That’s it for now. Still thinking about switching host sites, but haven’t done a thing about it yet. Stay tuned.

Self-repudiation is the starting theme for this week. I doubt I have the focus to sustain it throughout this (hopefully short) entry, but let’s see. What I’m getting at is this: I was probably far too hard on my fellow gringos in my last entry. You may recall my blasting banal conversations regarding auto insurance and refrigerator models. I continue to feel the same way about these sorts of topics…but having heard from my old friend and loyal reader Johann, I now recognize that my data is probably skewed. The folks I meet on the road aren’t likely to be concerned with the vagaries of life, beyond procuring sufficient stores of toilet paper and bottled water (two topics I’m happy to hold forth on for hours on end – touché). So when I come across affluent yet self-torturing hoi polloi in places like Newton, Mass., I have little sympathy or time for their woes. And I may strike the next person I overhear complaining about garbage pickup times – no promises from these lips.

OK, enough self-flagellation – that wasn’t much, but I’m ready to move on. This posting is coming to ya a week late, thanks to my spending a week on a Caribbean cruise with my family. The cruise was good – the ostensible purpose was my father’s 65th birthday, and 15 family members came along. Only a few flesh wounds were sustained. I won’t get into the minutiae…but will mention a few details. First, the route was Puerto Rico-St. Thomas/St. John-St. Kitts-Grenada-Bonaire-Aruba-Puerto Rico. Pretty good pathway to follow – and all the islands were worth a peek. I continue to be fascinated by the ethnic/racial mix of locals – and to be concerned at the same time about how the wealth does (or doesn’t) get spread around. A few other remarks:

• We went biking with a local tour company on St. Kitts. Was a very good way to get acquainted with the island – the guide was knowledgeable and kept us interested. But the highlight was a brutal deathclimb up a long, steep hill – the grade was probably 20% and it was at least a mile long. I came in second out of 6-7 of us – most of the riders opted, sensibly, to ride up the hill in pickup trucks. I’m not much of a biker, but my recent fitness push prepared me well for this one.
• Buffets are way too dangerous for me to be around. And on cruises they give you massive plates to fill up – and most Americans fill ‘em right up, often several times. The hitch was that the food in the regular, semi-plush dining room (the Botticelli Room – uh huh) was not good…so we went to the buffet on 3 nights out of 7. It took some serious biking, running, and yoga practice to maintain my girlish figure.
• Most locals on these islands are impressively multi-lingual – like the Swiss are over in Europe. We took a taxi to the dive shop in Bonaire and conversed with the driver in English, Spanish, and French – and she spoke all of them better than we did. So no more aspersions should be cast on the ‘poor/uneducated islanders,’ most of who are intelligent and resourceful despite lacking many amenities that we consider indispensable to modern life.
• The diving in Bonaire was superb. You can fall right off the dock behind Bonaire Adventure & Diving, into their ‘House Reef,’ and immediately be amongst beautiful coral reefs and fish so friendly they come right up to you. Thank God I wasn’t under the influence of any powerful narcotics (besides compressed oxygen). Had a fun time diving with Aaron and Amanda, two of my step-siblings. We also went out on a boat dive and had an excellent time then. I think this year I’ll go for my Advanced Open Water certificate and also pick up a dive watch…
• Most these islands are now independent, at least in name. And you can walk right up to the Parliament and other government buildings. That’s kind of refreshing…it creates a feeling of openness and calm that’s missing from most big city capitals. Imagine getting anywhere near the White House, particularly in a car or with a phat backpack, these days. Darwin, Oz was another city with easy access to the hot spots – you can sit in a café/bar right across the street and self-medicate as the sun goes down. Having lots of cops and barbed wire/fencing around doesn’t put me at ease – must take that into account when I finally decide where to put down some roots…
• The flight home, from San Juan to Boston, was another fine piece of work from our loser airlines. This time we were on American Airlines – an outfit which is certainly not adding any luster to our already tarnished national brand. We were supposed to depart around 3:30 p.m. Got on the plane, and the attendants made my sister move her baby around twice, making him, and her, highly pissed-off. Then the captain got on the horn and announced the failure of a piece of equipment for which there was no replacement piece in Puerto Rico. We got off…they brought in a piece from another island. We got on…then there was another equipment problem, and they couldn’t fix it before 7:10 p.m., which was the cutoff point for the crew – they were illegal to fly after that point. We got off again. They found us another plane…then another crew…we got on that plane (after I had run into my Spanish buddy Manuel Lopez de Miguel, from Madrid, in the hallway of the airport – he was en route to the Dominican Republic and Cuba – random). We finally took off around 9:30 p.m. – only 6 hours after the original plan. Whatever. I didn’t really care, as I had little to do the next day besides watch the Patriots kick San Diego’s ass. But my nephew was not happy about the turmoil – although he was remarkably good-spirited about it all. We landed around midnight and everyone got home just fine.
• In the midst of the craziness, one passenger went haywire and was yelling at the gate staff. Not pretty. And she wanted the rest of us to ‘get angry and raise our voices too,’ otherwise we’d get treated like dirt. I think she had it backwards. And you can bet she wasn’t Puerto Rican…no, she was an uptight white American. It’s just not an attractive sight to see someone lose their cool. Don’t ever lose your cool, people. You can almost always catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And you thought I didn’t know any folksy Southern expressions, huh?
• The day after I landed, my right eye was killing me. It was bothering me a bit the day before, during the flight mayhem, but I didn’t attend to it and left my contacts in. Now it was red and light-sensitive, so went to my Optometrist and he prescribed a couple meds to deal with the problem, a slight abrasion. Got the meds at the pharmacy and now the eye’s better. I’m wondering, though, whether to keep the meds in my dop kit. I’ve got so many one-off meds in there, I do check from time to time to see if they’ve passed their expiry date, but at times it feels like I’ve got a huge armamentarium in there and when I keep a med, I almost never re-use it. Is that the converse of Murphy’s Law, or what?

What else…went out a few nights back with an old buddy from high school whom I haven’t seen in 15 or so years. Was good to catch up with him, we’ve both grown up a lot and can relate in a semi-mature manner these days (as opposed to breaking things and giggling drunkenly). He’s done well over the years, and we’ll try to get a reunion with some of the rest of the old posse one of these days, if not at our next class reunion. I was annoyed to have attended the last reunion, in 2005, when I flew in from Tokyo, and most of my favorite people weren’t there. Go to your reunions, people.

Went to REI to shop for my upcoming round-the-world – known as RTW 2007. REI is Disneyland for adults, at least adults like me. I bought some new sahara pants (you know – they are two-in-one shorts and long pants), some super-comfortable/breathable underwear from Ex Officio, and a few other things. Noticed that REI’s selling mosquito nets – good idea. One brand is called ‘Mombasa’ – after the second city of Kenya. A South African friend of mine called Mombasa the anus of the planet – not too sure what the mossie net’s like, though.

I think I’ll end here, before I get into further minutiae. Stay tuned – in the next week or two I plan to either switch blogsites, or to upgrade my Boots ‘n’ All account so that I can again post some pics (I’m at the limit now for my free account). And on Feb. 5 I head to Manila, and will be on the road for the balance of ’07. Many more adventures planned – so keep your couches open, amigos.

A somewhat quiet and task-oriented past few days on the home front – hence, this will be a short blog entry. Spent a mellow New Year’s Eve with my family…the highlight was probably an hourlong televised dedication to Ed Bradley, the famed 60 Minutes reporter who died recently. Bradley had quite the life – he was friendly with Ray Charles and numerous musicians (and sometimes joined them onstage) and covered the Vietnam War and other conflicts around the planet. I sometimes watched 60 Minutes years ago when living in the States – it was one of the few interesting things happening on Sunday nights. But I wasn’t aware of the richness of Bradley’s life, only the resonance of his voice and the excellent of his reporting. And while his life was singular in its achievements and friendships, it made me think about how many others live fascinating lives that are ‘below the waterline.’ I’m not a big fan of auto/biographies, but perhaps I should pick one up every now and then…

Read an article in The New Yorker that really hit home, probably because it provided precision to some thoughts I’ve had and have shared with you regarding the so-called ‘war on terror.’ I like reading articles that I agree with…particularly in a reputable rag like TNY – makes me feel semi-intelligent. The article counseled a ‘disaggregation’ approach, i.e. the West shouldn’t play to the ‘enemy’s’ global information strategy of making every conflict a single, unified fight. And make no mistake, we’re in a global marketing fight in which military actions are only one plank – usually, the most blunt and least impactful one. It’s not immediately clear if the Bush Administration understands this. Integrating all the various conflicts into a ‘war on terror’ instigated by ‘Islamo-fascists’ helped Bush scare American voters and get re-elected…and I imagine he and Cheney and the other numbskulls really are drinking their own Kool-Aid on this one. So we’re about to pour more kids into Iraq, where they’re expected to ‘stabilize’ the situation. That has about a 5% chance of working…the more likely scenario is that we lose a lot more limbs and lives and get out of there with our tail between our legs, or worse…all this, of course, coming after Bush leaves office and joins several corporate boards of directors. Do I sound angry? I sure hope so.

The article went on to advise defining the ‘enemy’ as narrowly as possible, and tackling individual ‘enemies’ in local, highly relevant ways. I completely agree…but worry that it’s getting late in game. Because we’re defined the ‘enemy’ in monolithic terms (does that make you recall the Cold War?), we’ve helped to create a global insurgency that was previously a collection of fragmented hot spots.

Getting back to my earlier comments (from an entry a few weeks back) about Arab nations blaming Israel for all of their troubles…my point of view was, and remains, that Israel’s an easy whipping boy for deeper, more intransigent issues facing most of these countries. If the Israel-Palestine conflict were resolved, somehow, magically, then some other conflicts might calm down; I don’t dispute that. But the Middle East’s profound issues predate the formation of Israel and stem from the decline of the Caliphate and its extensions in Spain and elsewhere. The Mongols ransacked Baghdad in the late 13th century, overthrowing the Caliphate based there and turning the entire region on its head. And, in my perhaps uneducated/simplistic opinion, the former heights of Muslim/Arab civilization have never recovered. The region spent centuries under the thumb of the Ottomans, who starved them of resources and pride…then, when the Ottoman Empire fell after WWI, the British and French picked up the ball but predictably weren’t able or willing to bring about deep change to the region (besides helping to found Israel, of course). That, to me, is the true ‘integrated problem,’ not the Israel-Palestine conflict or the ‘war on terror’ created and marketed (quite ably, but dangerously) by the Bush Administration. And until the average Arab/Muslim guy on the street is better-educated and given more opportunity in life – helped in part by more capable, credible regimes – it will remain easy to blame Israel/America for all their problems and the urge to join terrorist organizations will remain appealing.

Do I sound defensive here? Am I off base? What do you think? Chime in, dear readers…I’m always happy to be disabused of erroneous opinions…

Anyway, this is why I read the The New Yorker. No publication has more wide-ranging and provocative pieces. Highly recommended.

Had lunch on New Years Day at Town Pizza in Newton Center. One of the things I missed while overseas was veal parmigiana, particularly in the form of a submarine sandwich, aka sub aka hoagie aka hero. Town Pizza does a nice one, and I try to have one every few weeks while over here. While waiting for the sub, I sat at a table and was subjected the grating conversation of a youngish couple sitting nearby. They were chatting on their mobile with various parties about buying a house…apparently they had just gone to see a property and were in the process of deciding their plan. And they were telling every single person they knew about the minutiae. The floor plan, the financing options, the color coordination, you name it. I looked around for a sharp knife, but thankfully I was out of luck. Not sure who I would have stabbed if there was one within grasp – them or myself. Did I mention that the young woman, a blonde with a sizeable tush, had the classic Valley Girl accent/diction? Forget the war on terror – I think a better investment would be a war on Valley Girl talk – we should have confined it to California when it arose 20 years ago. Now every woman under the age of 35 speaks it…and have spent a few days in London recently, I found it especially maddening. The gulf between the Queen’s English and Valley Girl English can only be measured in light-years. Give me the Queen’s English any day…

Read an article the other day about the life and times of the French author/bon vivant Boris Vian. I read his I Spit on Your Graves last year – and thought it was good fun. Go and pick up a copy on Amazon.com. The article had a quote by Vian about his observations on America – apparently he really loved the music, particularly jazz, but thought the women were silly and had large butts. Interesting. It’s a good thing Boris wasn’t sitting with me in Town Pizza on New Years Day…it’s likely he would have gone and found a knife somewhere.

This, I should mention, is an ongoing theme/complaint for me whenever here in the States. Perhaps it’s just that I meet such interesting people on the road, and then when back home I’m confronted with the cloying normalcy of everyday American life. Not sure. But it’s real and it does drive me insane. After eating my veal parmigiana sub, I went and had a cup of tea at (where else) Starbucks. You can’t find an old-style coffee shop anymore, only chain stores. Whatever. Anyway, sat down with my laptop and took care of some computer fine-tuning – with the anti-virus software updates and what not, it’s harder to keep a computer tuned than to maintain a car. All the while I was taking care of matters, conversations were taking place at the two tables next to me. At one, two middle-aged guys were cycling through a series of banal topics – at one point I wondered if they were auditioning for a lame TV sitcom. They started with the question of whether men and women can be friends…and didn’t make much evident progress on that. Then they spent an hour discussing car insurance. Ugh…

At the other table, two women were getting into finer points of buying a refrigerator. The arcana of wattage, interior lighting, number of doors and drawers, holy shit. How could two reasonably intelligent people sit there and muse on such insignificant crap for more than 5 minutes? I know that women tend to bond through casual discussions and exchanges of opinions, which is perfectly fine – I just wonder where, if anywhere, more interesting topics are being debated. Perhaps this is such an affluent and comfortable country that refrigerators and car insurance are the pressing issues…but I doubt it. I do think that the success of the U.S. has led to massive complacency and lack of debate – if you read articles in countries like India, France, etc. you quickly discern a greater degree of deliberation and provocation. The U.S. has perhaps the freest press in the world…and there are some excellent reporters and writers here…but somehow there’s not much trickle-down and the street-level debate centers on boring stuff. That bothers me…if you ever catch me bending your ear about car insurance, feel free to box my ears. Actually, deafness may be a blessing these days…

One final complaint about the U.S. It doesn’t seem as much fun as it once was. Perhaps I have an idealized image of ‘the old days,’ I don’t know. Anyway, here’s an example: earlier today I was doing some errands (buying a new pair of Tevas for the cruise, not buying car insurance) and felt like a glass of wine around lunchtime. Went into the Met Bar, a chi-chi restaurant/bar in Newton. I’ve wanted to check this place out for some time, and this was a good chance. Went inside, glanced over at the very nice-looking bar, and asked about sitting there and having a drink. ‘The bar’s not open for lunch,’ I was told. ‘We don’t have a lunchtime bartender.’ Well, why the hell not? Am I the only person in the area who is sufficiently debased to actually want a single drink before 6 p.m.? How dreary. So I went into ‘Finagle a Bagel,’ where I had a (processed) turkey sandwich on a decent bagel. The sandwich was filling but highly forgettable. No drink. Give me Spain, a country where most people take their lunch standing up in a tapas or bocadillo joint, where the ham is sliced off a pata (pig’s leg) hanging from the wall, stuffed into a fresh roll of French bread, and paired with a nice fresh draft beer.

Sorry for the cranky nature of this entry…but I hope it’s entertaining. It’s certainly honest.

Will be on a cruise with my family starting this Saturday…and am not too sure about Internet access on board. Nor about free time – many activities are planned. So check in late next week, the usual time I post. If there’s nothing new, I’ll post soon thereafter. You are indeed all patient souls…thanks for putting up with me. Happy New Year to all of you.