Was That Really Intermediate Level? - Charlotte, NC

I have a handful of bruises to show for last weekend's adventure. Under no circumstances will I take pictures of them, though I strangely always want to take pictures of bruises and tan lines.

Charlotte is quite nice. Someone made a good point that since the U.S. is only a couple hundred years old, there's only so much culture that has developed in each city, especially compared to places like Berlin or Beijing.

However, I can be easily entertained, so several good meals and a few points of interest make for a solid weekend excursion, which is exactly what happened.

The Great Outdoors Created by People
Unanimous opinion across travelers' guides agree that one certain wilderness park is the best location for fun in Charlotte. Essentially, the park built a man-made whitewater course and strung a series of "ropes" courses high up in the trees within this medium-sized outdoors area. My travel companion and I spent most of Saturday running around inside it, and while I'm still a little confused why this national park, which shouts "mountains" to me, was built in the middle of North Carolina, which shouts "beach", I fully concur with the experts on the quality of entertainment. It was super fun.

We did rafting and a lot of ropes courses, the latter of which constitutes of myself in a harness connected to a steel guide wire above me. I inch across taut wires, ropes or wooden plats hung at foot level between trees and poles, and the goal is to get from tree to tree through segments of varying balance-difficulty. I'm pretty sure all of my bruises were from this one course where wooden beams hung vertically from a wire above. The 2-by-2's are installed with grips you see on rock walls, so like a precarious monkey, you climb from beam to beam going sideways until you reach the tree at the end. That was Intermediate difficulty. Like, what.

But also, we ziplined, and I think that was a fair reward.

U.S. National Whitewater Center

Food, Food, Food

      

     

Smelly Cat Coffee Shop; BBQ and fried corn; Cookie Butter Latte; The Crispy Crepe brunch

Chilling on Sunday
We looked on Groupon for activities, of which they had plenty... on every day but Sunday. Since most things were closed, we wandered around different neighborhoods, stopping by a Latin American street festival uptown for example.

Despite the fact that Charlotte felt a little small, I was impressed by the remarkable variety of unique skyscraper designs within the central district, which added a certain quirk and interest to the city. This is synecdochic of my takeaway impression generally: that Charlotte seems to be a scaled-down city done well.

    

Uptown; Transit system

“There is No Typical Week In My Life”

I have a proposition for myself, and it is that I will buy and enjoy one fruit tart pastry each and every week that I am on a travel project. There are no conditions and no quid pro quo. I'm not even obligated to have a fruit tart if I didn’t want one that week, although I’m not sure what unusual event would cause that circumstance to arise.

Side note, speaking of quid pro quo and other words or phrases that one might look up, I recently watched an episode of the Good Wife and had to pause it twice to look up new words until I gave up and went on inferring definitions. Side-side note: I am so delighted by the commencement of TV season again.

As I was saying, this is paradigmatic of a personal tradition, a bakery-sourced tartlet on a weekly consumption cycle. Quite frankly forming such a habit is otherwise meaningless but for the theoretical relief that there’s one less decision you have to consciously make during the week (and one more certainty you can bank on).

To give you a snapshot of my current weekly traditions and activities, here’s the set-up. Mindy Kaling’s most recent book has a chapter one chapter outlining her day-to-day activities by the hour. A highly engaging, fly-on-the-wall read. This series illustrates what a recent week looked like for me, as I break into my new rhythm.

Main Post | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

"There is No Typical Week In My Life" - Monday

Monday

Morning 4:15am: I wake up way before sunrise to fly out to work. Sometimes, my mom has prepared something for me like a fruit salad. It’s very cozy when I get to carry away something homemade - the very real perks of living with my family. By the way, ‘living with family’ seems to sound better than ‘living with parents’.

5:30am: The Uber that takes me to the airport has a leather dashboard that gently gleams against the still-black morning. I'm not quite ready to wind up for the day, so I take it easy and interchangeably think quietly or read the New York Times daily briefing on my phone. (Interesting fact: the New York Times features most consistently among the papers that the "most successful" people read regularly. I did a background check on the NYT before subscribing.)

6:20am: I’m in the back of a long line through TSA, trying to deep-breathe away the bubbling freak-out over being late for my flight. I get through with time to spare as always, because the line moves faster than what I fear. Sometimes however, my belated boarding sticks me with subprime real estate in the overhead bins for my luggage.

9:30am: I get breakfast in the office this morning and also every other morning, which is a healthy habit I'm happy about. Fruit, greek yogurt with granola, oatmeal, Naked juice, or potentially a granola bar - something from that list. I’ve been known to grab a cheeky fruit tart while I’m at the bakery to save for later and there was that one time I bought kombucha tea, only to take a sip and put it away because it tastes like alcohol (it’s non-alcoholic, but fermented, and the classification may or may not be a fuzzy subject).

Evening circa 7:30pm: At some point in the evening, I leave the office and go back to my hotel room. I’m usually hungry, but it’s Monday so it’s also a relief/chore mixture to have to unpack. I also want to respond to any personal texts or emails I hadn’t seen from the day. There’s a bit of triage going on here where I have to order Postmate or Seamless food first because it takes time to arrive. But I had texted a couple people on my ride to the hotel, so I’m in conversation with one of them now. And this reminds me that I should message someone to move a hangout from tomorrow to Wednesday, so I better text them before I forget.

8:30pm: I stalk my Postmate via his moving icon on the map until my food finally comes. The food is never what I expect but I’m hungry so it’s fine. It’s always my own fault to order from an app where I can’t see any pictures and furthermore to order from a different restaurant each time because I like to try new things. The food is still fairly good and I can't complain.

Main Post | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

"There is No Typical Week In My Life" - Tuesday

Tuesday

Evening circa 8:30pm: When I’m back in the hotel after work, I pick a hobby and loosely commit myself to work on it at least one night during the week, which will be tonight. This particular week, I work on my expenses which is slightly more complicated as of late, so I have a good time constructing an airtight process for keeping track of different credit cards, bank accounts, and expense sheets. I’m not being sarcastic right now - I legitimately enjoy doing my finances, even more so when it requires some creativity to design a streamlined process. Other hobby options include writing blogposts (good luck going to bed on time those weeks), reading books, and reading product reviews on something or other. I also film video diaries occasionally, and I may eventually add a learning-oriented activity, like reading economics papers or crash course guides on topics like European imperialism (aspirations). All these hobbies get cycled through, one hobby per week, unless of course I have no free time after work.

10pm: I wind down for sleep by watching a few newly posted videos from among my Youtube subscriptions, perhaps a selection from my Watch Later list. Maybe it’s a vlog, a comedy sketch, or a video on pancake art. It’s best to start off with something I want to devote more attention to and transition to background chatter. If I flip-flop the order, I would end up becoming more awake from a highly entertaining video, and may keep watching until an unacceptable hour.

Main Post | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

"There is No Typical Week In My Life" - Wednesday

Wednesday

Morning 6:15am: My first alarm goes off. I set it early so I have plenty of time to exercise and get ready for work. However, as is typical, I roll out of bed at 6:45 or even 7 after a long chain of 5-minute-interval alarms. I gear up, brush my teeth, and go downstairs to work out. When I’m on the treadmill, I feel like I’m suffering, but I know I’ll feel better during the day if I reach my bare minimum goal. Then I do some non-treadmill stuff which I enjoy much more and I am back upstairs and showering within 40 minutes. I play a handful of Youtube videos as I get ready, much like morning radio, often including a daily episode of Good Mythical Morning which I find clever-funny.

Evening circa 7:30pm: I’m meeting friends who now live in the area, so I drop my laptop at the hotel and coordinate where to meet. We have dinner, where I consider ordering salad and decide that for whatever reason, the fact that it’s later in the week means I don’t have to eat as healthy. We hang out and it’s a fun way to spend the evening, getting the vibe of the city. Then I return to the hotel, which fun fact, I sometimes refer to as “home” for short.

Main Post | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

"There is No Typical Week In My Life" - Thursday

Thursday

Morning 8:15am: I’ve finished getting ready this morning and need to pack to check out. I always leave myself less time than I need, but it’s really very efficient how quickly I can stuff everything into various bags and corners of my suitcase. My shampoo bar goes back into its case – it’s the Rose Jam bar from Lush, whose nice smell pervasively fills all my hotel bathrooms and which I now positively associate with traveling for work. My adorably small travel razor also goes in my bag and I wonder if there’s anything I can do to prevent it from rusting so much quicker than my normal razor at home. My liquids go in a bag and I make a mental note to refill certain things, hoping that I won’t leave myself high and literally dry next week by forgetting. This week, I also learn that hotels will store bags for returning customers, so instead of double-overstuffing my bag, I separate out a few things to leave with front desk such as running shoes. Then I rush to work like a composed but crazy person.

Afternoon 5:30pm: I’m on the plane headed for my real home and I send a quick email before lift-off which makes me feel slightly like I’m in a movie about a businesswoman. Then I’m almost instantly knocked-out, because though my neck gets uncomfortable, I find it very easy to sleep on planes fortunately.

Evening 8pm: I’m back home in my comfy room with a bunch of boxes containing various online shopping orders that came in during the week. It doesn't make sense to pick things up at CVS if I can get it cheaper and easier on Amazon. Due to the fact that I'm away during the week anyway, I can simply forget about the order until return to I find it waiting for me, and thus the delayed gratification from shipping transit bothers me not at all. In the weekend ahead, I know it helps me feel good and get errands done if I take a gym class Saturday morning and play rule-free racquetball Sunday morning. Otherwise, weekends follow no pattern as long as I’m locked and loaded by Monday morning to start another week all over again, fruit tart and all. That's full circle, check.

Main Post | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday