We Gotta Get Out of This Place!

I’m heading home today!

But first, a trip to a printing company that Nelson and JC had discovered. The place was, well, an old shithole. We held our meeting upstairs around a Coffee table set with a well used Tea pot and cups. We were greeted by a friendly mutt who periodically nuzzled JC’s back pack (he probably stored a few snacks in there), and would slide his snout under my hand for a pat. I was informed that his name meant “fat” in Mandarin. He was definitely plus-sized, but hardly a canine version of Kirstie Alley. At one point in the conversation, a lady put Fat into a secretarial chair and pushed him over to our meeting. I have to say, he didn’t contribute a helluva lot, but I still enjoyed his company more than the company president spilling steaming hot water over flavored tea leaves for our benefit at the other end of the table. A few minutes into the discussion, some guy came over, pushed JC’s notebook aside and grabbed the newspaper underneath. He sat down next to JC, oblivious to protocol (which clearly states "thou shalt not interrupt a meeting unless there's a fire or you are a family pet the size of Big Papi") and began reading said newspaper.

I had to see if these guys were for real, and asked for a plant tour. Bad idea. The flexo press was running solvent inks with zero air handling. I was getting high on the pungent fumes. My god, how do the operators spend their day inhaling that stuff? That kind of experience is actually a bit humbling and makes me very fortunate that I don’t have to do something like that to provide for my family.

“Fat” was kind enough to show us out, and we headed back to my hotel to get my things.

My first flight is on China Airlines to LAX. Everything went okay except for someone nearby with a loose sphinter! Every few minutes he drops another bomb and I was forced to bury my nose under my blanket until the toxic cloud evaporated! I don’t know what he had eaten earlier, but we cannot let that meal fall into the hands of our enemies. Reeling from yet another inhuman release made me long to be back smelling the solvent during this morning’s press tour.

I departed Taiwan at 4:40 PM Wednesday, flew for over fifteen hours and arrived in Los Angeles at 1:25 PM… three hours earlier than I left. Man these modern jets can go fast!