REM on the Red-Eye

This morning, I flew into JFK on the Delta red-eye from San Francisco. It was probably the first time I achieved REM sleep on an overnight flight (which I usually try to avoid).

I was in northern California since Thursday exhibiting for my gig at a multi-diocese faith formation conference in Santa Clara.

This last business trip of 2008 was uneventful. The conference had a disappointing attendance on Friday but was quite good on Saturday. On Friday evening, we had dinner at the Mediterranean restaurant Thea in San Jose. Enjoyed it.

Perhaps the most interesting moments of the visit came on the Super Shuttle to and from the airport. On the way to Santa Clara, we passed through the very attractive and pedestrian-friendly downtown of Mountain View, the home city of Google.

And, en route back to SFO last night, we stopped on the campus of Stanford University (my first time there) near the end of the fourth quarter of the big game against Cal.

The four Standford guys in the shuttle (all headed back to the East Coast for Thanksgiving) were bummed to be leaving the campus in the final moments of the close game -- and kept checking on the score.

They were less disappointed to be leaving after hearing of their team's 34-28 loss. :-(