The day started with eggs and canned fruit at 40,000 feet. My plane landed around 11am, but it felt like nighttime to me. From the airport, I went home and went to bed. It was nasty outside all day, so I didn't feel bad about sleeping the day away like an insomniac or an artist. At about 7pm, I woke up, disoriented but refreshed, in pitch-black darkness (the power had gone out).
I got up out of bed and, by the light of my cellphone, went to the kitchen. I decided I wasn't quite ready for reality yet, so I made myself coffee and turned on the kitchen TV. That probably was not a good idea because the world is a really overwhelming place if you've been in Tibet for 6 months. The newscasters talked on and on and on and on while moving their hands like mimes. The words on the screen meant nothing to me. I tried very hard to pay attention to and absorb what I was watching but it felt like trying to understand another language.
At this point, I was hungry, so I headed out to get something to eat (so much for not being ready for reality). Besides the eggs and canned fruit many hours earlier, I'd only had monastery food for the past 6 months. Monks in Tibet don't eat meat, but I sure do. Ready to eat a good steak or ribeye, I grabbed my now dust-coated black raincoat out of the closet and headed out the door of my 4th floor Dreamwood Terrace apartment.
Just as I was closing and locking the door, I realized I had forgotten my wallet. I went back inside to grab my wallet from my suitcase and emptied a few of its 100 dollar bills onto my bed. I don't want people to know I'm filthy rich.
