The Mighty Quynh

I got back Wednesday night. Went to work the next day. I’ve been feeling kind of fuzzy—not the warm kind, but the blah kind—and I’m sure the jetlag that’s been on the fringe of my existence will kick into full gear tomorrow (I was fine the first two days in Vietnam and then the jetlag hit me on the third day, so I assume it’ll be that way switching back to Eastern Standard).

Also, and I’m sure lots of people get this way after going abroad, I feel sort of disillusioned with my life here. I’m sure it’ll fade once I get back into the swing of things. Until then, I’ve got The Clash’s “I’m so Bored With the USA” in my head.

A photojournal is forthcoming. It’ll be a while though. Lots of pictures to sort through and lots of crosschecking of emails and journal entries to figure out where I was and what I was doing.

The guards at Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum were kind of mean to me. It’s probably because I’ve got “I want to kick your Charlie ass back to 1960″ written all over my face.

Crossing the street here in Hanoi is like playing a real life version of Frogger. Only way worse.

The flight attendants on these Asian airlines seriously make me feel fat. That is no small feat (no pun intended).

I leave for Vietnam tomorrow night! My first trip overseas. I return to the States on the 28th.

Of course I only checked out the flight itinerary today. The first leg of the trip (Newark to Taipei) is 19 hours 35 minutes. Ffff. Then the second leg (Taipei to Hanoi) is 3 hours long. I am spending 24 hours on a plane.

Realizing I only had nonfiction books to read on the flight (a Series 7 study book and a travel book about Vietnam), I decided to get some fiction, hopefully something that would keep me gripped. I went to the Fiction section at the small B. Dalton in the mall, checked out some of the Classic stuff (on the same wall), and after spending some time trying to decide, ended up with two books: Lipstick Jungle by Candace Bushnell (same author as Sex and the City) and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris.

The clerk, a cheery but outspoken African American fellow, rang up my books and exclaimed at me, “I see you in the Classics section and you bring back Bushnell?!”

Ouch. I guess my brain really has been on the decline.

Don’t mess around with shorts and inverse funds.

Hell, don’t mess around with the market at all if you’re a clueless, poor (now poorer) jerk like me.

:(