Greetings from Los Angeles.. I’m out here for a 3 day work meeting.. So far so good. I had a busy morning at home before catching the flight out.. Just before I left Diane reminded me to do the organ donation stuff on the back of my new license. It has such meaning for me to do that now..
A I left, I decided that my trusty Canon Powershot that has traveled with me to the four corners of the earth these past 14 months was in need of some time off.. Her (I think it’s a her) pictures are getting increasingly fuzzy .. Gabe offered to lend me his camera for this trip while we send the old one in for some TLC.. The old girl has been around the world completely 3 times in 14 months.. plus G-d knows how many other trips. .
The trip out to LA was pretty uneventfull.. I did manage to see some luggage thrown from a trolley in O’hare.. Pretty dramatic.. makes me doubly resolved to only do carry-on.
The trip from Chicago to LA was pretty funny. I was in the back (read non reclinable) window seat next to the lav’s.. .. A little kid came and sat down next to me.. and immediately started talking to me in French.. and pulling at my beard. He was really cute.. but I had no idea what he was saying.. His mother sat down and I learned that they were Iranian .. living in Paris and basically commuting between Paris and LA.. The kid’s name is Milad… and his mom told me her husband, Darisuh Eghbal , is ‘the Michael Jackson of Iran’..
From what I can see on the internet.. I believe she may be right. There’s a ton of stuff on him out there
.. He was a really, really nice guy as was Milad’s mom…
Milad and I had a pretty good time on the trip out.. even though all we had in common were my 50 words of French .. (Gabe.. thanks for helping me study last night .. at lest I could count !!!)
Here’s Milad drawing a picture of me..
And here we are toasting our good flight… happy cheers everyone.
He stole my camera and took this picture of me with it.. Not bad for a 3 year old !.
We got to LA in 4 hours.. it went pretty quickly .. LA is such a strange thing to fly over.. it’s much prettier close up !
Once we landed, I gave Milad’s mom a Samstone for her to give to her sister to take back to Tehran.. They can’t go back there because they’re considered dissidents. After those guys left the plane, I found Milad’s spider man…
Luckily I ran into them again in the baggage claim… They were a very nice family..
It was about 6 by the time I caught the bus to the hotel.. The bus guy gave me a handful of popcorn to tied me over..
From there I went to the convention to register.. and caught the tail end of the registration cocktail party. I ran into a ton of friends… it was nice to see everyone.. A few of us walked back to the hotel and stopped in a bar for a beer… I only hung out for a short bit.. I’m really beat.. I was back at the hotel by 10.. I’m determined not to run myself ragged this trip… And in that spirit.. I’m going to say goodnight.. and which everyone a happy Cinco del Mayo .. Buenos Noches Sam !
-me