And so it begins… I’m airborne, but not yet out of the country. It’s 9pm in Atlanta, but my body is still on Vegas time so I’m thinking dinner. I’m trying desperatly to convince myself that it’s really 3am (like in Barcelona). Basically, I should just crush the clock and admit I’m screwed already.

It’s comfy here in coach. If I tuck both feet back under my seat and point each knee outward I can actually avoid them being mashed into the seat in front of me. I won’t get much sleep this way, but it is close enough to the lotus position that I may find inner peace before I hit Europe.

Oh wait! Up on the video monitor they are showing how to do excercises from your chair. They seem to be missing the point that if I could stretch that far without wounding another passenger I wouldn’t feel the need to exercise. They’re just teasing me. Well, there’s always the in-flight movie, 50 First Dates.

Today begins the most exciting trip to hell ever devised by man. In just a few short hours I’ll be leaving to evaluate 6 call center sites in five cities in four countries in 11 days. In the process I’ll be circumnavigating the globe, which is exciting because I’ve never really had a legitimate use for the word “circumnavigating” before.

I will attempt to blog during this trip so that you can keep pace with the minute-by-minute excitement of me sitting on planes wishing something other than my butt was asleep. Punctuating my restlessness will be whirlwind fly-bys of a couple boring places in Europe followed by some truly terrifying trips though a couple of third world hot spots. And when I say terrifying, I mean it in the sense that so far I’ve been warned that in India I should refrain from getting tattoos, having sex, eating, drinking, and bathing with my eyes open. I’m assuming that breathing is still safe, but if I don’t bathe, then that’s gonna begin to lose its appeal too.

Stay tuned…