Not quite Sal Paradise, but i am in the midst of trekking across the country. After spending Thursday afternoon and Friday with V, her mom Arlene, and her little terror ... ahem, sister Ana, they departed Friday evening for LA and bridal shower number 2 for V, being thrown by Dionne and Michelle. I spent the evening decompressing a bit from a fairly stressful week. Michael picked me up and i spent the night at his house, so we could maximize the amount of sleep we got before heading to the Oakland Airport for our 6:05am flight to Seattle. The occasion? Chelsea, bitch! We made it the Emerald City at 8, grabbed breakfast and a few hours of sleep at our hotel on the southern shore of Lake Union, then headed for my second and Michael's first Blues match. I had seen the Blues on their home pitch Stamford Bridge in London in 2001. I remember just praying that i saw the boys score a goal ... i didn't care how, didn't care if we won or lost, just wanted to get that thrill of seeing a blue put one in the net. Naturally, they lost 1-nil (to Charlton, a mostly mediocre team against which Chelsea have a fairly appalling record), and played so terribly that they succeeded in turning Veronica against them forever. My silver lining was that i got to see the amazing Gianfranco Zola play.

We got to the beautiful and relatively young Seahawks Stadium around 12:15pm, plenty of time for us to buy t-shirts and beers before the 1pm kickoff. Turns out this was the second hottest day in Seattle history, with temperatures reaching 96° during the match. Supporters of opponents Celtic constituted about 65% of the crowd and the majority of the noise, but the blue fans were seen and heard as well, with Michael and i both sporting our home kits. The match opened with Chelsea on the attack, creating several nice chances from good work by Mutu, Cole, and Geremi. Alexei Smertin, a Russian international who was signed during our summer 2003 spending spree and then much to his annoyance immediately loaned to Portsmouth for a year, is now fighting for a place with the Blues and impressed in the defensive midfield role typically occupied by Claude Makelele. And it was he, after about 25 minutes, who unleashed a brutal shot from 30 yards out that crossed the face of the goal and buried itself in the upper right corner of the net. Michael and i, in the sixth row almost even with Smertin, leapt to our feet and exploded. There's the joy i wanted three years ago. Unbelievable feeling. Celtic managed to capitalize on a defensive miscue by the Blues before halftime, equalizing the scores at one goal apiece.

The second half rolled around and Mourinho used almost his full complement of subs, with Lampard, Makelele, Kezman, Robben, and Ferriera all entering the fray. Robben immediately showed his skills by working down the left wing and centering to Eidur Gudjohnsen, who had time to pick his spot and beat the Celtic keeper from 20 yards out to make it 2-1. Then Kezman showed why he might be the steal of the season as he scored his second and third goals of the preseason. Celtic got another from a header on a corner kick, but Chelsea still ended a very impressive performance as 4-2 victors. Reviews? Mutu shows promise in creating chances, but still lacks that final touch that keeps him from being truly dangerous. Smertin, essentially the old man of the squad at 29, is looking a fine addition to the team. Arjen Robben is young but has undeniable potential. Our striker situation may actually be workable ... Mutu, Gudjohnsen, and Kezman each have individual and complementary styles that may allow us to create a variety of looks and attacks up front. This Thursday is the Pittsburgh match against AS Roma, and hopefully i'll get to see more breathtaking Chelsea goals, as well as the debuts of Didier Drogba and Tiago Mendes and the return to health of Damien Duff.

After the match Michael and i walked out with the masses, ducking into a Vietnamese restaurant for some goi cuon and Heineken before walking some more to a pub up the road that featured a $10 bucket of iced coors. There we whiled away the afternoon, chatting with several friendly Celtic fans. That evening we hooked up with Oakland exports Ryan and Megan for some more drinks and pub grub in the Fremont district. On Sunday we hoofed through various areas of lovely downtown Seattle, including the public market and Capitol Hill, took in the Mariners victory over the Angels at Safeco Field, and ate more pub grub and some nice oysters. Michael headed south to the airport at 8pm, but i had a few hours to kill before my 11:30pm redeye to Pittsburgh so i managed to meet up with my parents, also vacationing in Seattle, who drove me to Sea-Tac, ending a very nice weekend in the Pacific Northwest. If i was to live anywhere other than the Bay Area, i'd have to say Seattle tops my list.

There's no two ways about it: redeyes stink. I cannot sleep on planes. Doesn't matter how exhausted i am, there's just something about the seats that prevents me from being comfortable enough to drift off. Knowing that i faced five hours of flight, i decided to buy another novel to supplement Touching From A Distance, the excellent biography of Ian Curtis written by his widow Deborah that i pulled out to reread. Somehow i ended up with James Patterson's 1st To Die, a thriller about a serial killer gruesomely murdering newlyweds. Great book for someone getting married in two weeks. Speaking of marriage, the Ian Curtis biography allowed me to reflect on the idolization of icons and their less than admirable behavior in their personal lives. I'm not saying i'm a deranged epileptic like Curtis, but more than one has called me moody, and it's something i found helpful to think about as i commit myself to Veronica. It's an odd mix of anticipation, anxiety, and worry that has enveloped me in these last days before marriage. Excitement definitely characterizes the mood, but there's also an apprehension of the uncertainty of the future. Which encourages me to take action to ensure my marriage vows ring true for years to come.

Anyhow, i did make it to Pittsburgh at 7am, and in my sleep-deprived state was treated to a half hour rant by my ex-hippie cabbie on the nature of god and spirituality. While i was getting the distinct impression his off-freeway shortcuts were just to add money to the fare while he distracted me with his philosophical baloney. He segued into a discussion of how he was trying to organize a taxi driver's union in Pittsburgh as we approached the hotel, but luckily we arrived not long into that treatise. Naturally, my hotel didn't have any rooms for me to check into (i was a tad earlier than the 3pm check-in time), so i walked over to the conference center to check out the AAPM meeting. What a site i must've been ... in grungy jeans, a t-shirt, and sambas, sunburned and exhausted from my Seattle experience, wandering around dazed through the conference. At 10am i decided to return to the hotel and relax in the lobby, and luckily about 15 minutes later they were able to set me up in my room.

Tonight was spent having an excellent sushi dinner (featuring two absolutely incredible Alaskan snow crab rolls) with Becky, Peter, and former Stanford postdoc Sandeep, after which i excused myself so i could return to my room and polish off a talk for tomorrow. I was asked to fill in for my grad school advisor Sarah late last week ... glad to be invited to speak, but now struggling to prepare. I think i'm ready, should be all good.

Keep an eye out for a new photo album once i return to SM ...

the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing but burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue center light pop and everybody goes "AWWW!"