It took me 5 hours to get to work today

1: Wake up in Portland, OR, 4:05am
2: Drive to the airport parking lot
3: Take the shuttle bus to the airport proper
4: Breakfast in the line to check in / outside the security checkpoint. Jeni recommends not drinking the coffee. Do it anyways for the caffeine. It wasn’t as bad as she said, but it wasn’t good, either 🙂 Muffin was good.
5: Arrive at gate to discover that you have been upgraded from boarding group C: “Steerage” to boarding group B: “People who have a slight chance of a preferred seat if they sit in the back of the plane”. I got a window, it was sweet.
6: Fly to San Jose, finishing book “Sphere”, and listening to 88-year-old first-generation Italian American woman tell me the story of her family. Twice. She was interesting to listen to though. I hope I am as active when I reach 88, though preferably with either a better short-term memory or someone with as poor a short-term memory as me to talk with…
7: Arrive San Jose airport, traverse to “Ground Transportation”
8: Get on the 10 to Santa Clara Caltrain. Be instantly reminded of everything you dislike about California, all rolled into one girl yelling into her cellphone:

It’s my birthday in 5 months.
(Pause)
It’s my birthday in 5 months.
Oh my god, I’m going to be 19. Ewww.
(Remainder of conversation deleted due to inability to filter intelligible discourse from the expletives.)

9: Transfer to the 60. Save $1.75 because the coin machine is jammed.
10: Disembark at Scott & Walsh. Walk to work.
11: Wish it were still Portland