LOS ANGELES, CA-

The hotel we booked online is communist concrete chic, a six-story bunker renting rooms.  Inside’s a mess, shoved luggage carts piled into one another, floor littered with fliers, confused commotion at check-in.  Olivia pulls the plug, says no way we’re staying.

Outside in light rain, a cab’s door automatically opens, we shimmy inside, name the only hotel we know: the Park Hyatt.  The lone lodging Olivia wanted to avoid because she found it pretentious, we arrive at Lost in Translation’s three-towered megahotel, are told at the entrance that every room is booked, only suites remain.

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BROOKLYN, NY-

Three weeks after we met, I knew we didn’t belong together, but odds-defied, here we are exiting the Pudong airport eight months later, the first stop of my dream-come-true birthday gift: a trip around the world.

John’s driver’s waiting at baggage claim, hurries us to a silver Buick sedan, plops our luggage in the trunk before he hurries to situate himself behind the wheel, pulls away in a hurry. On the long, early-evening stretch between the airport and John’s house, we blaze along, dart between cars, senseless snap lane changes like a dare. I take it in, his crazy haste and the thrill of China a dual distraction from my jetlag and post-flight grime. But Olivia can’t contain her usual contempt.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA

When I started Opium Magazine in February 2001 I had no idea. Didn’t know HTML, had only a tiny handful of friend’s who wrote where I lived (Chicago), and decided to create the site and run it for one year. I thought of it as fun, a fun thing to do.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA-

On my way to the airport—a flight to London—I decide to detour to the Levi’s store and risk missing my flight. There I buy a new pair of jeans for a trip that will land me in London for 10 days, then on to Croatia (Split, Hvar, Dubrovnik), Bosnia (Sarajevo) and Serbia (Belgrade) for two days each. I find the perfect pair; the new jeans fill me with delight, the best Japanese denim $189 can buy. Time warps, traffics desists. I arrive at the airport early

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