Journey East (via West) Begins

Well, this morning I finally left my home in Florida. Woke up at 3:30am after 2 hours of sleep, my family drove me to the airport, we said our goodbyes, and I started on my way.

I was feeling a bit anxious while at the Tampa airport because I knew how much air travel I had ahead of me. Not because I get nervous about flying, but because of all the hassle of flying, schlepping the bags, going through security check, rushing to get my shoes and wallet and keys and phone and computers back in their bags or on my person, waiting to board the plane, after sitting, waiting for takeoff, and then after landing having to wait so long for everyone to deboard. Granted this stuff is just the way it is, but it always feels like a hassle.

I'm writing this right now while waiting to board my flight from Atlanta to Orange County (8:30am). Since I only got 2 hours of sleep, I'm hoping I can get some shuteye on the 5 hr flight out.

I did arrive in Atlanta with my cousin (堂妹) Megan and her husband Daryll (I don't know if that's how he spells his name). Took a picture before we split up.
So, after they started boarding their flight at around 8, I started walking toward my gate. As I was walking down the concourse I noticed a very distinct individual. About a year ago, I watched a documentary called "A Fistful of Quarters" which was about this guy who tried to set the world record on the classic arcade game "Donkey Kong." Well, in the movie, his nemesis was professional video game player Billy Mitchell, the at that time, and now again world record holder in Donkey Kong. Now this Billy Mitchell guy, the movie portrayed him as kind of a jerk, but after doing more research, a lot of that was editing, that they left out many things he said that were more conciliatory and also he apparently does some charity work.

So I'm walking down to my gate in Atlanta and I see him. He's a very hard figure to forget. So I saw him, and I couldn't remember his name, but I went up to him and asked "Excuse me, are you the Donkey Kong guy?" He said yeah, and I asked him if I could get a picture. He happily obliged, and mentioned that he was on his way to California to quote "see the governator" for a benefit for homeless children. Anyhow, not a huge celebrity, but still an interesting blip on my trip :) Here's the picture. My face is all distorted because I had to hold the camera out and I'm kinda short and he's super tall.

So anyway, I'm still waiting on my flight to board and I figured this would be a good time to blog. Here's hoping I can catch some z's on the flight.