Going Back to Cali....Cali...Cali....

In is almost seven in the morning, and I am sitting in the United lounge in Terminal D at Dulles, having arrived here a few minutes ago after a journey begun at the rude hour of 0400.  Dulles is 104 miles from my house--as opposed to BWI (63) and National (75), but it alone offers non-stops to San Diego, and so I trek out here for much of my business travel.

When I scheduled this trip several months ago, I did so with little regard to other calendar items, like Thanksgiving.  When I realized that I had booked a flight on "the busiest travel weekend of the year", I began to worry, worrying being something with which I have a good deal of skill.  But I decided to stick with it, to trust to an early wakeup, TSA Pre, the United Lounge, and Group 2 seating.  All systems are go at this point, and we board in a half hour.

Heading back to San Diego through Wednesday evening, at which point I will red-eye back.  The client pays the airfare, but I pay the kicker to get into Economy Plus, not for leg room (no need there, right?) but for the added space within which to work with the computer.  I have a good deal of work to do in the next six weeks, and I can't afford to sit on my ass for six hours and watch movies.

Not that I didn't sit on my ass a bit this weekend.  It was a glorious Thanksgiving on the farm, thank you, and it was good to have the oldest Kitten home for a few days.  She has contracted some sort of ague, and appears to have passed it to her mother.  I am hopefully escaping this Ebola-like outbreak for the salubrious climes of Southern California.  Though I am reliably informed that it is going to rain two of the days in which I am there.  Lies.  Damnable lies.

I'm sure the Hammer will write about it later, but my Hoo's were awful against hated Virginia Tech the other night.  I described watching the game as like "watching two drunk people having sex.  With a goat.  On a trampoline."  Neither team was very good.  But fear not, it is now basketball season, and the Hoo's are currently ranked #8 and will likely move up in the next poll.  They are a deep, talented team, and they will make a run in March...count on it.

I expected a Ferguson-like mob here at the airport, never actually having traveled on this weekend via air before.  But alas, it is calm and quiet, with only the din of the refer compressor and the drone of Sports Center to disturb one's peace here in the hermetically sealed United Lounge.  Never before had I realized there was a cornucopia of soft drinks to make off with stuffed into the carry-on, to sustain one through the agony of waiting for the flight attendants ("we are here primarily for your safety") to make their way to me with coffee, water, etc.  I am now better informed and provisioned.

I am become huge, roly-poly and doughy, still somewhat puffed by the Thanksgiving gluttony.  My rig for this trip is modified standard, with UVA ballcap, white T shirt, blue blazer and trainers, this time bepantsed with aging tan cords, as my Adidas track pants were nowhere to be found.  The prospect of hip replacement surgery in February has become a fine excuse not to exercise or to exercise any gustatory restraint.  "Ah, I'll get the hip swapped out and then be able to be fit as a fiddle" is the refrain I hum as I shovel in the second piece of pumpkin pie.  This is of course, a great fiction, and I am using this week to get back on a trail of dietary discipline and light exercise.

I am one again trying a new Hotel in San Diego, this one a "hotel and marina".  The early timing of my flight leaves me unsure whether I will be welcomed long before "check-in" time, but I'm sure I can occupy myself should they not accommodate me.  My needs are modest--comfy bed, free wifi, free (or in this case, modestly priced) parking, breakfast, location.  Oh, and a gym should I actually do what I suggested above, exercise.

Enough for now, friends.  I need to make my way to the gate.  I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.