3-Sept: en route to Shanghai

There's a point on a 12 hour, all daylight, international date line-crossing flight that the exhausted mind wanders more than usual. Only allowing a few hours of sleep the night before -- courtesy of the ne'er-do-well duo of procrastination and last-minute packing -- adds to the psychological walkabout. You open the shade: It's blindingly bright and all you see is blue. You close the shade: All is dark because the flight crew is tacitly letting us know that we should be sleeping. So I check our location again. The plane icon on the screen, sure enough, is surrounded by solid blue. There's an issue with the route map program and, in trying to come to a conclusion of how we should go from point A to point B, we've fallen between dimensions:

The route just in front of the avatar -- my means of being aloft and not adrift -- has become asymptotic. It seems that just as my travel has become irrational, so should my thoughts.

Exhaustion sets in. Dehydration is probably building as well. The flight attendant has just walked up each aisle spraying perfume every three seats. My environment has been poisoned and my head aches. Poisoned environment...am I partly responsible for that?! Not the perfume, of course, as I'm more of an au naturel guy, but I'm considering all this flying. We complain about having limited travel availability: I've been trying to map my way to somewhat rural areas which take hours by car, but days by bus/train, if even an option. My transpacific flight, however, goes twice a day, no matter what, and I feel guilty being part of a one-third full jumbo jet wastefully burning oil products for 12 hours. The upside? Everyone can stretch out! Silver lining, huh? I put the thought aside as I check the scenery outside. After blinding everyone in a five seat radius by opening (and quickly shutting) the blind, I decide to not repeat that before arrival.

The headache, the fatigue are going anywhere but away and I know that I'm heading to an eventual destination with no lodging arranged. Eight hour layover in Shanghai to pull another stretch without sleep. I'm tempted to stay in the airport and sleep, but that's a waste of an opportunity to introduce myself to China, even for a few hours. I'm dreading the idea of carrying a pack and I'm looking forward to the two-week mark where I'll have a rental car to move my gear. Looking forward to to staying in a country for more than a couple days...

I'm trying to finish my fifth movie of the trip when the arrival film interrupts. Each passenger is broadcast instructions on performing close-quarters tai chi. It is entertaining watching arms stretching above many of the seats. This acted as a reminder:

Just breathe, stretch, and relax,

Opening yourself up.

Make the most of each trip.

It will be remarkable no matter what.