| d a n i e l m c k i n n o n . c o m | |
| Wednesday January 11, 2006 10:04pm PST Well I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I arrived in Los Angeles without any problems, stopping over in Utah for an hour before I continued west. As I descended into Los Angeles, I simply was blown away by how dense this city is. Looking out the window, as far as the eye could see were little while dots, houses upon houses upon houses. I thought Boston was a big city, but this was so much more. Trees were a scarcity as I scanned the landscape, but as I looked up I saw the ever present smog that you hear so much about. As with so many other things in life, until you actually see the smog and the masses of people for yourself, it doesn't have the same effect as seeing it on the television. After picking up my rental car at a much inflated price than I thought (fuel, taxes, and additional fees were not listed online), I slowly made my way to my hotel, driving as carefully as I could. I think the amount of people clustered together in one place will be something I won't be able to get used to in the time that I am here. In one of the wealthiest areas in the United States people are surrounded by those less fortunate... what an ironic situation. I can tell my writing isn't that great with this latest post, but I have now been up for 21 hours straight and I am still trying to stay up for another 2 hours or so to more quickly adapt my body to the time zone change so I don't fall asleep on my 5 hour ride from LA to Las Vegas tomorrow night. Well I said I had bad news and it's that I simply will not be able to make updates to my web site on a daily basis like I originally planned to do. I was under the assumption that Internet access would be included in the cost of the room, but this is not the case. The hotel charges $10 for every 24 hours of web access so I will probably only be online a couple of days of the 14 I will be out here. I wish I could make more frequent posts but this is just not feasible to do. I'll be writing on my laptop and post everything I write when I finally do go online, but it won't be as often as I would have liked. I am guessing the next update probably won't be for another week or so. Tomorrow is my consultation which takes place at 2pm and then I have my pre-op measurements at 3:30 (6:30pm EST). After that I will immediately drive to Vegas and get some relaxation time with Yorky, Dan Nadeau, and his brother Pete before I head back to LA on Monday morning. Thanks for reading, I'll attach the stuff I wrote earlier today and I hope that you'll keep coming back throughout the next week to track when I can make another update to my site. 10:12am MST Arrived in Utah safe and sound! While descending, I was instantly impressed with the scenic views of snow covered mountaintops and salt lakes scattered all over. I could be wrong, but this airport seems like it is positioned in the middle of a 'U' or in the middle of a bowl formation... a tad different from the water surroundings of lovely Logan. Can anyone explain to me why the Utah Jazz were never renamed? With the pristine backdrop here, you figure that some good name could be creatively made up. I'll keep looking for the marching bands (Jazz), I am sure they must just be located in the heart of the city, not the airport area (lol) 10:51am EST Well I have been on the Boeing 757 for over 4 hours now and it's gone by pretty fast. I have been reading 'Small Stakes Hold 'em' by Ed Miller, David Sklansky, and Mason Malmuth for most of the flight, playing on my laptop a little bit (this 8lb behemoth doesn't hold much juice), and watching a little TV. Hopefully next time I fly I remember to go to the kiosk beforehand to see if I can switch my seats. When I arrived at the terminal this morning to get my boarding slips printed out, I switched to one the "leggier" exit seat rows and I found a set with all 3 seats vacant! Because of this swift thinking I was able to sit in the middle seat and not feel crammed at all, making the flight go by that much quicker. I should be landing in Utah in less than an hour. Then I have a short stop in Salt Lake before I continue on for a short (1 hour or so) hop to Los Angeles. So far so good! 6:07am EST When I saw the wireless network signal flash up on the screen here at Logan, I thought "cool I can post an update to my site right now!" Well it seems that in order to use the wireless signal at the airport (at least this airport) you need to pay for the service. Oh well, my fault for assuming that anything would be free in this world any more. Here I am waiting for my flight to Salt Lake City, and then it's on to Los Angeles for an arrival time of 12:15pm PST. Kind of silly to write anything at all since I won't be able to upload until AFTER I get to my hotel for the night but HA! it's my site so I don't care if it's silly LOL |