I’m embarrassed to admit that since returning home to Hanoi on May 8th I’ve gone out for a meal with friends a total of one time. The only other times I’ve left my apartment have been for morning walks, grocery store trips, or ATM runs. In short, my social life during the last week and a half has been virtually nonexistent. I blame the jet lag.

A big work project will launch today so I ordered delivery from Kiti Restaurant for lunch. It was my first time eating food from Kiti and I wasn’t disappointed at all. Super-duper good food.

This Friday and weekend I will spend the majority of my time away from my apartment and away from my computer screen. It’s so hard for me to train myself to stop working because my company is distributed and I never feel off of work. I’ll find the balance soon, hopefully, but until then I’ll have to take the small wins like this weekend’s upcoming fun.

My Las Vegas to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Hanoi flight is done, and I’m back at home after being away for more than three weeks. It feels nice to be writing this from my couch and the last several weeks now seem like a big blur of happiness and work.

The flight from LAX to HKG was operated by Cathay Pacific; technically the entire flight was but only the longest flight was inside of an official Cathay Pacific airplane. I opted for the low fat / low cholesterol meals on the flight and they turned out to be pretty good. I’m not sure what the ice cream was doing there (I had only one bite, believe it or not) but everything else tasted nice, but maybe not as nice as Singapore Airlines food.

My last meal in Las Vegas, eaten at Sunrise Coffee. Next stop, Los Angeles. And after that, Hanoi. It’s been since April 15th that I’ve been home. I’m looking so forward to my bed, Vietnamese food, and friends.

I felt like a kid again today and loved every moment of it. The Automatticians went to the famous Las Vegas Pinball Hall of Fame to play games and enjoy candy. I even won a knobby ball! It’s the first time in my life I’d ever won anything from a crane machine. I took photos of the games I played for the memories of them. What a wonderful time I had, especially playing 2-player mode in a few games with my friends at Automattic.

The Automatticians and I went to Phở Kinh Đo for Vietnamese food last night. The coolest part of it was being asked by my colleagues for advice on what to order and how to pronounce various Vietnamese dishes. That they know Vietnam is such an important part of my life and care enough about it to engage me in conversations about Vietnam means a lot to me. It’s been over three weeks since I’ve been in Hanoi—I return next week, thank goodness—so being teased with a little bit of Vietnam in Las Vegas was a nice reminder about what I’ll be coming home to soon.