Germany Part 1

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We are off to Amsterdam tommorow for three daze.... Read more!

The travelling is always the hardest part...

5:14pm Happy Hour, JFK
March 7, 2007
Journal entry number one.. I am here at JFK, my phone isn’t working because my sister had it shut off because she doesn’t want to have to worry about roaming charges, even though she owes me fifty bucks. Sad, really, but the last thing that I want to do it further complicate our relationship by bringing up yet another moment of disappointment. She has had a lot of them lately and yet her faults seem to be directly attributed to my faults.
As you can probably tell, I am not in the best of sprits for starting out my vacation. I always find it especially weird to be in these airports, people watching. It sort of makes me sad at the sight of the human race-the last flight was anything but pleasant… This is what airtravel is going to be like for the next yet to be determined chapter. It’s the worst—it almost seems anti travel the way that they handle things—I would love to visit so many places, but flying to the places just sucks. I can remember not so long when it wasn’t like this, when it didn’t seems like everyone in the entire world wasn’t travelling. Now, you get on and the flights are full, they feed you fucking crackers and call it good. Totally unacceptable, but what are you going to do?
But anyway, this is the thing. Its not about this part, its about the other side. Its about my arrival in Germany, its about relaxing and chilling out. It just goes to show that in reality I need to move on with my life, get the fuck out of the states and see what its like on the other side. I am crazy looking forward to seeing Lili and make things happen again, its been so tough for her, and difficult for me as well, but at the same token I have noticed that I have this ability to compartmentalize my feelings much more. A that I know is that I am a smart guy and I have had seen more success from my time abroad than my time in the states, so I am not sure.
This is a rather stressful trip as well, one that I am looking forward to the challenges, but at the same time, I am up for the challenges that lie ahead… (more on that later) FUCK, if I sit and think about it for a minute, I really start to think about how much I have on my plate for the next chapter and how I need to balance it all… but, at the same time, this latest journey is going to be one that is totally about perspective.
General vibe: Nervous and Anger. My sister has still not even acknowledged what is going on and she knows. Sad.
1:45 Business Class Air France
Fuck.
So, the flight from JFK to Paris was three hours late in taking off. Perhaps this could have been mitigated if we had not already loaded the plane to capacity and then some kid gets an allergic reaction because he ate a peanut. As a little heads up from me to you, when a passenger gets on a plane and then gets off, his luggage has to go with him (including what is checked). So, somewhere, some kid owes me 3 hours, not only that, he owes about 335 people three hours.
I am not a small man, I have come to terms with it, except when I fly. Never do a feel like I need to enter a weight loss program more than when I have to squeeze into one of those tight fitting seats. This time was a particular challenge as I seemed to have developed a pocket of fat which seemed to rub perfectly with the oncall oh shit button. Twice during my slumber I was awakened with that ever so not meant to be invasive tap, tap tap.
“Sir, did you need anything?”
No, but perhaps my fat deposit does. Do you have a deep fried twinkie? Perhaps a nice peanut butter and banana sandwich?
Friday noon.
I arrived six hours later than anticipated, due to the issues discussed in the previous entries. This turned out to be just fine as I was eventually able to reach Lili in Paris and let her know what had happened. Seeing her on the other side of the baggage claim made all the anxieties of the last weeks go.
Germany: Interesting. From the moment that we left the confines of the baggage claim and entered the autobahn, my American box that we all seem to live in began to break itself down. I looked out of the window at all of the different cars that surrounded us—a plethora of Mercedes and BMW’s that I had never seen before, along with a wide variety of science convention protypes that will more than likely never be seen in America.
Lili was nothing short of amazing, as she always is. As she was weaving in and out of the traffic, our eyes caught the occasional gaze of one another. What an exciting moment these times of my life are. Exciting things are coming for sure.
We came home and took a nap, curled tightly against each other and I passed out. Upon waking, we picked her mother up from the train station and went to dinner, which I took a pic of the pub. We had a couple of beers, breaking the ice and the language barrier at the same time. Dinner was wonderful, some of the best food I have had in quite some time—and certainly the best I have had in a bar in ages.
I want to apologize if the beginning of this journal has no flow in it—I am still very tired and a bit rushed. More to come. Read more!

Hogg is in Seattle *last night

So, my mom is out of surgery... and I am about 15 hours away from leaving for Germany. I can't begin to put down in words the kinds of things I have gone through in the last months without Lili here, there simply hasnt been enough time but to do anything and work, work, work. But the time has paid off and I am not preparing for a three week journey.
Here is the itenerary:
Arrive Thursday morning, Dusseldorph. I arrive, Lili picks me up, the love story continues. We are in Koln most of the week, hitting a football match on Friday or Saturday, then its off to Amsterdam for the weekend, heading into the week.
Then back Tuesday for Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds in Koln.
Then, by next weekend, we make our way to Berlin, Nuremburg and finally to Prague.
Stay tuned, there are some major developments being put into motion... Read more!