sayajay.net

In the name of attempting to get my blog going, I thought I should probably make note of the latest going-ons in my life.

I'd wager that the most significant thing at the moment: I'm headed to Vietnam for the first time. And what makes this even more weird: Sean is having his wedding reception there.

You know, I haven't really considered just how significant this is. And its making me think of things that happened in recent years that I haven't written down. If work has taught me anything, it's definitely that memories are fragile. I've also been reminded of this fact, whilst looking over the my recently re-acquired blog back from 2004.

Let's make a list of things I should really be writing about:

• Sean is getting married
• I'm going to Vietnam, and all that prep
• I met Tomomi in July (also, I went to Japan)
• Japan 2017. I made day-by-day blog entries, but they are sitting in my drafts folder.
• Almost getting cancer, but not really.
• Some fancy new threads.
• Where, oh where, is Janie? I should really get in touch with her.
• working that prose; and by extension, trying to figure out a good blogging system.

I'm pondering all this now, as I'm attemtping to kill time at the Vancouver Airport (YVR). So, today is the departure, the weather is quite rainy; I really wish that the airport was a little more picturesque, but, eh, what can I do.

The lack of outlets and wifi is also something else. le sigh

I thought about contacting Phi too. It is clearly the appropriate thing to do, since I am in Canada after all.

Well, perhaps I should return to topic and talk about Vietnam for a hot moment.

Umm... well... I am going. Whether I'll enjoy myself or not remains to be seen. But sometimes I feel like travelling just gets me that sweet, sweet, social capital. Kind of like how I can definitively say that I've been to Burning Man (before it was cool, mind you!). But I digress (again).

Making lists is like the only thing I can think to do at the moment. Maybe it'll help me get my prose back up to snuff (oh ho, there's another thing to add to the list). I've just written that sentence because I'm basically thinking about talking about the misgivings and non-misgivings about heading on this whole trip to Vietnam.

Anyhow, here goes. Let's start with misgivings:

• language barrier. I've always felt comfortable in Japan, and even in Europe, because it was easy to get by with just using English. Here, I'm not sure how that will work out.
• wedding receptions: I feel rather awkward with social occasions in general, but the few wedding receptions I've been too haven't been terrible disasters, but at the same time haven't been terrible fun either.
• cost and timing: I was a little worried about the off-the-cuff nature of this entire affair, also considering that I literally just went on vacation two months ago. Not as pricey as Japan, but definitely not cheap either.

I'm looking at this misgivings list now and see how much of it rooted in anxiety. More on that, in another post I guess.

Non-misgivings:

• there will be some people that I know, so potential for fun is there.
• I'm not really worried about the ceremony part, but the reception where dinner will be had. But potentially it might be a great time.
• the travel itinerary is pretty much planned for now, complete with meals and lodging. That seems like it will be fun too.
• I'll probably be in relatively large groups, so the ability to "disappear" should be pretty easy to do (sad, I know; but escape plans are pretty essential for the socially awkward).

I'm going to find electrons for my computer and ponder the usage of markdown editors, because I'm cool like that.