The Occasional Blog of Jonah Weiland

For the first time since September of 2005, I’m going on a real vacation.

Sure, I’ve taken some weekend trips here or there and plenty of business trips that included a healthy dose of adventure, but outside of some trips to Canada I’ve not left the country since my trip to China with my sister.

I’ve been planning a vacation for some time, hoping to do it sometime late last year, but my Mother’s failing health meant I should really stay close to home. With her sadly passing away in February, it means my family obligations are a bit lessened. So while I look forward to the trip with great enthusiasm, it’s a tad bittersweet having this opportunity to finally go enjoy myself. But I will — my Mother would want it no other way.

As I write this I’m sitting in a La Brea Bakery in the Air France terminal of LAX. My flight takes off in about two hours — the car service got me to the airport in record time, and I loathe getting to the airport too early, but that gave me plenty of time to get stories off to Andy and Stephen for Comic Book Resources, meaning I have plenty of free time through Monday of next week.

My flight takes me to Paris and I arrive on Thursday, 2:00 PM local time. Friday I hop on a train to Amsterdam for the weekend and will return late Sunday night to Paris.

I approach this trip with great excitement and, naturally, a bit of anxiety. Any time I travel, there’s a bit of anxiety prior to leaving. When you travel internationally, that anxiety is magnified a little. Did I bring everything I needed? Do I have the right power converters? Will I end up sitting next to someone on the flight that smells like ass?

[Digression -- the guy who just sat at the table next to me smells like ass.]

Those are questions we’ll have to address later. For now, it’s time to pack up my computer, make my way over to the bar and begin the much drinking. I’ll be sure to check in with updates from the trip. You may also want to follow my twitter feed at twitter.com/jonahweiland. I hope to be able to tweet regularly while I’m there.

See you on the other side of the world.

If you’ve known me for any length of time, you know strange things happen around me. Not bad, just strange and unexpected opportunities and moments. From the insane like almost dying at the hands of a village chief in a Samoan village to running into the Queen of England unexpectedly. Chance meetings with lifetime heroes to bizarre adventures in foreign countries. It never ceases to amaze me the odd adventures life presents to me on a weekly and sometimes daily basis.

Today was one of those days — I got to interview one of the biggest, most iconic names in American pop culture in the CBR Studio today, Mr. William Shatner.

Life really is quite good.