Inside John Wayne

I am sitting inside John Wayne Airport with about an hour and a half to pass before my flight back to San Jose.  They are currently boarding a flight to SFO, so there is a whole ine of strange looking people standing in front of me.  I am often amused by the varieties of dress you see when people are traveling - everything from high fashion to ultra casual - and most of that range is occupied by women.  Men tend to dress in a smaller tighter range that goes from casual to business - and that is about it.  Since this is the home of Disneyland, many of the people passing by are dressed in Disney Tourist (which is a distinct style, as anyone who has ever been to one of the various Disney parts can attest).

It has been a smooth morning.  I got a fairly good night sleep, a lazy start, a smooth trip to the airport and a quick passage through security, despite the fact that I had a small bottle of water in my carry on that I had completely forgotten about.  It is going to be good to get home this evening. One of the best things about traveling is coming home.  No matter where you have gone, no matter what you are doing, all journeys are about, eventually, returning home.

Wondercon was pretty enjoyable.  On the last day we saw a couple of presentations (Alcatraz, Fringe and Once Upon A Time), then hit the vendor floor. I picked up an autographed copy of "Y" at the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund booth, then a pair of prints from Pascal Campion (check out his work at http://pascalcampion.com/ ).  Art-wise, it was a good trip for me and I ended up with a couple of things that are nice little additions to collection.

Even though the vacation has been pleasant, I had a tough time shaking work.  I managed to resist the temptation to log on and check my email - I will do that tonight when I get home just to make sure I don't have a cold walk into a chaotic Tuesday. I made sure that everyone had my cell phone number when I left for vacation, so there was always the opportunity for them to call me in the event of total chaos.  That they didn't leads me to assume that nothing arose that created a crisis that could not be handled.

But, to be honest, I didn't like that work intruded so heavily into my mind while I was on vacation. I am going to have to carefully think about that and about the days to come. In many ways I still fundamentally like my job, but I find myself in an environment that impairs that enjoyment.  It doesn't make the work harder, it makes the environment more chaotic and I spend a lot more time trying to work my way through all that chaos and less time doing what I consider to be productive work.

Though at times I hate to think about it, it may simply be that I have reached the end of my shelf-life at The Evil Corporation and it may be time to seek the next step in my career journey. I don't really like to think about that - but it may simply be the case.  All things come to end, so that all other things can begin.  It may just be that I am ending for the new beginning. 

As I've gone through the last couple of years, one of this parts of this particular journey has been my movement toward a more minimalist life style. It has been a journey of peaks and valleys - or surging change and slow contentment. It may be time that I consider minimalizing my career, consider changing it to something purer.  (Okay, appropos of nothing, a young asian woman just walked by wearing tiny tinkling bells, which stopped all conversation and everyone looked to see what the source of the noise was.)  I have plenty to contemplate in the coming days.

Interesting, At Times Surreal

The morning is cool and rainy here in southern California.  I am currently sitting at the desk in the Anaheim Convention Center Hilton, having just paid my bills. (One of the things that is great about the modern world - electronic bill pay.)  I've had a lazy morning. I slept in until about 6:45 a.m., which is late for me, took an easy shower, breakfast at the hotel buffet, and now lazing into the morning with an extra round of laziness on order.  I may head down to the hotel spa a bit later in the day for a steam, but the bulk of the day will most likely be spent over at Wondercon, wandering around in a state of perpetual geek amusement and amazement.

We spent most of the day yesterday wandering the vendor floor - in fact, the bulk of it was in Artists Alley and in the Independent Press sections.  I picked up a couple of things - a pair of small prints by a wonderful artist named Erin Leong (http://www.erinleong.blogspot.com) and the special collectors edition of "Romeo and Juliet - The War" by Stan Lee, Terry Dougas, Max Work and Skan Srisuwan. I scoped out a lot of the other artists, as I am in the mood to pick up another print or two, and there were a couple that caught my eye, but I will circle back over the rest of the show and spend some time delving deeper into their catalogues.

The hotel has been nice - the room is very modern and spacious, the shower is great, and the hotel itself has been a treat.  They have an excellent lobby, perfect for hanging out in and people watching, they've got a good little spa, they have a nice pool, and they have some nice outdoor spaces.  When I have needed privacy for a personal phone call with T.R., I've gone out to the Lanai deck - it has been pretty nice - just kind of wandering around the courtyard in the cool night air, gazing around at the wealth and diversity of hotel dwelling humanity. There are a lot of tourists here (due to the proximity of Disneyland), so the people in the hotel are a mixture of four different groups - the Wondercon attendees, Disneyland tourists, some sort of Auditor training at the hotel itself, and the attendees to a high school volleyball tournament.  It has made the people watching portion of the trip interesting and at times surreal.