I’m itching to travel internationally again.

Lets go back in time shall we?

Picture it. 1977 and a young impressionable gay questioning boy is glued to the television while The Love Boat cruises into his life. I worshiped The Love Boat like other boys worshiped Charlies Angels. (well, I worshiped Charlie’s Angeles too, but only for their fantastic hair styles)

Fast Forward to 1987 and a young impressionable gay no-longer-questioning boy is deciding what to do with the rest of his life. The vision of Julie McCoy and her clipboard safely directing embarking passengers to their cabins popped into my head and refused to depart. I decided then and there, that I too, would be a world famous Cruise Director!

“Mr. and Mrs. Jones, your cabin is on the Lido deck, up those stairs and to your right.”

“Mr. Smith, I hope you and your lovely wife enjoy yourselves on your honeymoon, if there’s anything I can do, please let me know. Your cabin is on the Promenade deck # 435 that way.”

“Single big basket passenger I get off at 10:00. Meet me on the Boat Deck for a blow job?”

Oh the life I’d live. Traveling to exotic locations, dancing with hot mustached, hairy-chested, big-basketed men. It would be heaven being the high sea’s whore. Once this vision of my future entered my head there was nothing I could do to remove it, so I gave in and signed up for the Travel and Tourism degree at my Father’s alma matter.

Fast Forward to 1990. Sitting in my parent’s basement, degree in hand with nary a job offer in sight. My brother invites me to visit him in San Francisco and I, wishing to flee the tyrannical rule of my parents, jump at the chance. [Someday, I'll re-live the summer spent removing pebbles from my father's new airstrip to prevent chips to his propeller, and share that story with you, but not today.]

On the last day of my visit to San Francisco, there was an ad in the paper for Japan Airlines. They were looking for Passenger service and Cargo service staff. I sent off a resume, using my brother’s California address and jumped on a plane back to NY, to the grueling task of the runway.

Luckily, they were interested in me, so I flew back out and managed to swing a job. Not the glamorous Passenger Service side, but it was a job, I was out of my parent’s house and I still had flight benefits. I took the job in Cargo Service hoping that I could transfer within the company to the passenger side of the operations. Funny thing was, I turned out to be very well suited to the cargo side and I’ve been working in air cargo ever since.

I was thinking about all of this recently when I stumbled across my first passport. The memories of my trips to Asia made me want to share with you the basics of my trips.

Here, for the world to see, are the dates of the stamps in my passports:

24 Sep 1992 Tokyo, Japan entry
27 Sep 1992 Tokyo, Japan exit
27 Sep 1992 USA entry

06 Apr 1994 Tokyo, Japan entry
06 Apr 1994 Tokyo, Japan exit
06 Apr 1994 USA entry

19 May 1994 Tokyo, Japan entry
19 May 1994 Tokyo, Japan exit
19 May 1994 USA entry

11 Dec 1994 Tokyo, Japan entry
12 Dec 1994 Tokyo, Japan exit
12 Dec 1994 USA entry

Feb 21, 1999 Tokyo, Japan entry
Feb 22, 199 Tokyo, Japan entry
Feb 22, 1999 Taipei, ROC entry
Feb 26, 1999 Taipei, ROC exit
26 Feb 1999 Hong Kong, ROC entry
02 Mar 1999 Hong Kong, ROC exit
02 Mar 1999 USA entry

14 Oct 2000 Singapore, entry
18 Oct 2000 Singapore, exit
18 Oct 2000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia entry
20 Oct 2000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia exit
21 Oct 2000 Tokyo, Japan entry
28 Oct 2000 Tokyo, Japan exit

18 May 2001 Amsterdam, The Netherlands entry
22 May 2001 Amsterdam, The Netherlands exit

As you can see, I made many short trips to Japan, and yes I did make a same day round-trip from the US to Japan and an overnight round trip as well.

Oh, and almost every one of these flights, I was lucky enough to be in business class or first. I’ve been lucky, and yet. I want to travel more.

So I’ve made a decision. I’m not going to ride in the California Lifecycle, I’ll be riding in a similar version here in Chicago. Instead, I’ll be taking that week and heading overseas.

But please. If you’re interested in supporting a very good cause, my friend Lars will be riding and I know he’d appreciate anything you can give. I’ll be supporting him both emotionally and financially.