Flying to Portland

I didn't get much sleep last night. There was a party with the new group of Senior Trainers from the Intel Teach program and I was there until around 1AM dancing like a maniac… with a maniac. I hadn't even packed and if it weren't for my dad's help I wouldn't even have bought dollars for the trip. When I got home, the Ogre was half awake and she kept me company while I packed. We talked until around 4AM. I had to be at the airport at 6:30.
Other than being only half awake, things went smoothly at the airport. Security checks were mostly quick, as well as check-in. There is a great smokers' area in the airport in Bogotá, and I spent most of my time in it, sleeping and smoking, and people-watching. When I guessed it was time to board I went to the gate, and it worked great: My seat in the back of the plane, next to a lady and her daughter (I'm guessing daughter). The younger one had a very annoying tone of voice: something similar to the Ogre's sister-in-law's… that very high pitch that almost hurts your ears. Fortunately I slept most of the flight and didn't hear their unending chatter but for short whiles.
The plane took off almost on time, at around 9:30AM and we were landing in Houston at around 2PM local time (1PM Colombian time).
Immigration was pretty quick and I didn't have any trouble there. Then the customs people decided they wanted to manually check my bags, and the poor lady who had to do it was unable to put everything back in. It took us a little while to manage, but all went well. I left my bag at the connections thingy and starting walking around the airport looking for a smoker's bar I had been told about by the maniac girl. It doesn't exist anymore, but looking for it I walked around most terminals… and this is a huge airport. Finally I just went outside, stood 25 ft. away from the entrance with the other cool people, got a match from a real friendly Texan who ended up giving a whole book of matches, chain-smoked two cigarettes, and went back inside.
Now I'm sitting at the Fox Sports Skybox, watching like 7 different sports at the same time and drinking a Sam Adams (they didn't have the winter brew tho). I hope they don't lose my bags on the way to Portland. It's been a long day, with very little nicotine, but I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad I don't have to think about the bureaucracy, draft letters or put off fires and answer urgent calls for a couple weeks. I'm excited about the Roundtable in Portland, and very excited about meeting good old friends in Boston next week.
Kalina will be coming up from NYC next Saturday to do lunch and maybe just chat and walk around Boston in this cozy March weather. I'll ask her to help me shop for some herbs and stuff I wanna bring back… she must know the Chinese market pretty well.
Well… I'll finish my beer and figure out how to kill one more hour of this unending layover in Houston… maybe just another beer and more American sports. Maybe I'll look for a bookstore and try to find Jenkin's Convergence to have some reading for the plane. That's the one thing I've already realized I forgot: airplane reading stuff. I didn't even get to load enough new podcasts on my Palm to be entertained