Now Arriving

I try to avoid writing "sorry-I-haven't-been-blogging-frequently" posts; I sort of figure people (A) don't pine away for more M2M in my periods of absence and (B) have other media to consume and maybe (C) figure that I haven't managed my time sufficiently to post recently.

As way of excuse, I just arrived in Liberia, having flown, within a month's period, ROB-ACC-ATL-BOS-IAD-BRU-ABJ-ROB-ACC-ATL-JFK-ATL-ACC-ROB. This is the sort of schedule that a boy version of me would have only dreamed of (Back-and-forth to Africa twice in four weeks!), but adult me found to be an experience not to be repeated too soon.

This is especially true in that the last ATL-ACC-ROB part should be more accurately recorded as JFK-ATL-[depart for ACC-ROB, only to watch the plane do a U-turn on the inflight map, 3 hours in, when the plane is over the Atlantic, and head back to ATL, where we were told to get off the plane because not only was there a navigation system error, but more relevant to us Monrovia passengers a "curfew" issue meant that we would not again depart for ROB for two more days, after receiving this news we waited in line until 3AM to get hotel and insufficient meal vouchers, then collect our luggage, then live at the Atlanta Airport Sheraton for two days, then go back and finally complete] ATL-ACC-ROB. And I still don't have my second bag.

Atlanta was really interesting, actually, I had a great meal, bonded with my colleagues, and checked out a city I had wanted to see for a long time. Of course I'm still thrilled to travel and can't wait to do more of it. And although, as you can see from the iPhone shots above, I still geek out seeing "Monrovia" listed on any airport's departures board, much less a US airport, and loved seeing "ROB" on the tarmac board outside the gate, I seem to be less and less thrilled to actually fly. Which is a shame.

But I am back--Happy 2012--and have lots of ideas about great, legendary, gripping blog posts, which I may even sit down and type out some day soon. Until then....