Around the World in 4 Days

Assuming I can find a ticket that doesn't require 5 stopovers and is cheaper than the $3000 that I'm being quoted, I'll be heading to Japan tomorrow morning... only to have to come back on Tuesday, shower, then hop on another plan to London, where I will be for the rest of next week.

Turns out my grandfather's health took a turn for the worse two days ago, and had to be hospitalized. His immune system is no long working, so he has come down with pneumonia, and has now slipped into a coma. The doctor has placed him in critical condition, and he's not expected to survive the weekend. My mom has asked me to go to Japan on behalf of all the grandkids, in case he passes away in the next day and they get a funeral arranged by Monday. If not, I'll be doing a lot of sitting around and making sure my mom doesn't freak out or something.

So, there's that, plus the ungodly amount of work that is continuously being dumped on my lap. I was just going through our new processes (which I will be in charge of) and realized that there were several mentions of a "Publishing Director" made throughout. Hm... If I'm supposed to be the head of Publishing... I can only guess that to mean one thing :) Hopefully my workload will become manageable once I hire my two goons.

In addition, I finally resolved a long-standing issue with a close friend of mine. Progress is definitely good, but there's no feeling quite like getting your heart ripped out of your chest and watching someone play a few rounds of badminton with it. It still smarts something fierce. The pain will pass, and the rest of my life will be the richer for it.

I just have to make sure that I don't friggin' lose it in the next two weeks, and I think I'll be all right.