Just thirty more minutes until boarding. I called my father to report that I had gotten to the aiport fine and was gearing up to board. I told him I had gotten here way early, and he replied that it’s a good time for me to do my “homework.” See what I mean? Never a moment’s rest with that one. Thankfully for my own salvation, I checked my laptop with my bag, bc I’ll be damned if I do MORE fucking work.

Interestingly, his response reminds me so much of college. Goddamn, every time I spoke to him, he would advise that I follow his process for academic success: 1) read the chapters before they are covered in class 2) focus during class 3) read the notes and chapters again after class. I swear, every fucking free moment was to be spent studying and preparing and getting ahead (which I was never able to do). In retrospect, I really wish I had just fucked off during college. All the stress and nervous breakdowns and obsessions and disappointment over my grades… those years are lost forever and in the end, they only reinforced awful, painful feelings of failure. Lost time. Almost 40 and I’m still losing time. I don’t know how to learn from these mistakes. Ah well, thoughts and regrets for another day.

I’m thankful the return flight is only 11 hrs (instead of 14 hrs). That said, when I checked in, the seating chart looked damn packed. I’m crammed in the back, but hopefully, the middle seat will remain empty. Sigh. I’m so glad to be going home. Blue skies and a peaceful home with my babies.

Btw, I gotta give a shout out to TPE Terminal 2. Wifi throughout plus a library, galleries, and lots of opps for window shopping. Well done, Taipei, well done. A def step up flying on China Airlines vs. United. T1 is pretty rundown and ghetto.