Arrival

I got in Monday night, about four hours later than originally planned after several delays and changed flights. It was aggravating to be sure, stuck in the dry grey limbo of air travel for a full day of my life, but I kept reminding myself that, historically seen, modern air travel is practically instantaneous and unfathomably inexpensive. I can lead a life that spans America, Germany and Japan without spending half of that life on a boat or being unreasonably wealthy. That's pretty cool.

Since I got here I've spent a lot of time playing Guitar Hero with my little brother (who is now significantly less little than I am). That game is ridiculously fun. Playing it bears about as much resemblance to playing a guitar as karaoke does to the national opera, but that's exactly the reason it's fun; it gets just enough of the experience right, and it makes you feel like a rock star.

While my brother was away at school yesterday I spent the whole afternoon at the neighbors' place. Andy and Sharon are a retired couple who I've known most of my life, and have been friends with since I was 14 or 15 and Andy first taught me to play Go so that he'd have a regular partner to whoop on. Visiting them is always amazing; they always have countless new stories of family and travel to share, and Andy always has two or three new hobbies to show me. When I was younger he filled his entire back yard with a vast, intricate model train system. Last time I came home, two years ago, he was alternating between teaching himself to blow darts with a professional blow gun and whittling. Now he's spending his time blowing glass, researching experimental architecture, and constructing immense automated marble tracks (where the marbles get carried up to the top by an elevator and then swoop around the track on the way back down into the hopper). It makes me excited for retirement.

Today I had an interview with a recruiting firm back in Germany (it turns out I'm not going to get my old job back after all), and I'll have lunch and dinner with old friends.

Life is good here.