Club Josh

After a year of not doing much, its time to hit the road again! I’ve got three trips on the docket between now and the end of 2017 and I happy to be heading out.

First up in October is another trip to Japan. Daniel is very excited to take our friend Leslie to Japan for the first time and to see the last day of operations of the Star Jets. I am just excited to be going somewhere. I am a bit disappointed at the timing since its the middle of Golden Week in China and any additional travel to see my friends in Shanghai or visit Hong Kong again are off the table as its very cost prohibitive. Even hotels in Tokyo are tough to get! I am trying to figure out what to do on our side trips before we spend 3 days at the parks. Hit me up if you have any good trips.

Next up, it’s off to Walt Disney World in November for a quick business trip. Everything is better when work sends you somewhere!

Finally, its time for my first cruise. It’s humorous to me that I have always wanted to go on a cruise and it took this long to get to go on one. I was excited to go with my Mom and Gary to the Caribbean – especially to St. Maarten to see the planes land at Maho Beach. This was of course before Hurricane Irma hit this past week and obliterated everything. We are three months out so I am interested to see where we are actually going to visit since the Virgin Islands and St. Maarten are both in bad shape. A lot of the cruises are becoming Eastern Caribbean itineraries so not sure I will get a full 5 new countries out of it. As long as it doesn’t become a Mexico cruise since that will net me a new country count of Zero.

Other than that it’s a lot of sitting around the house and trying to save money for traveling. Need to do some purging of my storage unit since its been a year since I’ve returned from China and I am thinking it is time to let things go..

I really can’t say what exactly led to the decline in my social media postings and blogs, but since September 2016, I have done exactly no blog posts. I have managed to post some Gorn photos – that lasted until December, but even then my Instagrams and Tweets have declined dramatically.

Looking back it was a confluence of work and other things happening in real life that get in the way. At work, I was deeply involved in a project which inherently makes me not want to talk about what is going on – it helps that I actually can’t (LOL). My project ended at the end of May and I have slowly been easing back into regular work routine. As for the rest of life, the change in political climate and the complete deluge of 24/7 news and information made it difficult to focus on any particular thing. Let us also not forget how powerful laziness can do.

However all is not bad several great and amazing things have happened in the last 9 months:

Kris visits – Kris and his family were down for his wife’s performance at the Skirball Puppet Festival. Was so great and felt so good to see him and finally meet his son!!

Jean Michel Jarre – after having yearned for decades to see him live, my dream finally came true in May when I saw him at UC Berkeley’s Greek Theater and the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. The show did not disappoint and I was so, so happy to see him. As a bonus, I actually met Jarre earlier in February when I won a Facebook competition to go to a Q/A panel in Hollywood. It made up for the fact I missed him when he was signing at Amoeba Records. Sometimes living in the OC is a disadvantage to quick reactions to things. Of course my Social Media malaise was partly to blame since I rarely check it at work so didn’t know about the appearance until it was too late. But all was right in the world when we met. I think a separate detailed blog post with photos and such about my Jarre geek out this year is required.

Twin Peaks! – It has returned after 25 years and boy oh boy am I loving it. Its been a long wait and nothing is as thrilling as re-visiting the world. Tonight is episode 8 which is almost the halfway point of the 18 total episodes of the season. Its been typically Lynch paced which can be frustrating because you want the payoffs to come, but it has been so good that I am willing to wait. As much as I want to just binge watch the whole thing, I am glad its released weekly so we can all analyze and re-analyze what the hee-haw is going on and that makes it that much better.

The Z3 – I still can’t believe that I went out and got a Z3 over Labor Day weekend last September. I know I posted a photo when I took delivery, but the whole experience is again worth its own blog post.. 9 months later I am still loving it. I have of course got a few dings here and there and had to repair some of the smaller items but nothing dampens my enjoyment of driving the car I have wanted since the late 1990s.

Shanghai Disneyland – It’s been a year since it has opened and I am glad that I have kept in touch with the people I have worked with there. It truly is a special time and so grateful I have kept in touch with my friends. I still miss the bill free existence and the glamour of living in a major international city, but I am also so, so glad I can see my family on a regular basis.

Travel – Other than the trip to Colorado in August, Daniel and I really haven’t been able to go anywhere other than camping with my Mom. We are hoping to go somewhere in October (likely Tokyo where else) and I am likely heading to the Caribbean in December on my first ever cruise. The Gorn is a bit antsy so hoping we can get to some new places soon.

Podcast! – Daniel has started the Room 396 Podcast and I have appeared on the first 5 episodes to date. If you want to know what I actually sound like take a listen and tweet me your feedback!

That is it, we are all caught up and look for some more details on the Z3 and Jarre coming up. This week is the 27th anniversary of Club Josh so hoping to do some refresh items here and there (Lots of Jarre items to add!!) and hopefully re-start the blog a day!