Overcoming travel adversity

Monday was an interesting day. Got all my last minute errands done, bag packed, bank, AAA, Int drivers license (just in case), hostels booked, agenda starting to take shape so I was feeling more at ease... Until I get a call at 9pm from my chief itinerary manager (Zander) saying that my LA to Tokyo flight was booked and I wouldn't get a seat (since I'm flying standby). So we worked on different strategies to get me to Tokyo for about an hour. We ended up with GVL to ATL to JFK to SFO to Tokyo. This could be done in 2 days if everything went perfect. Now to the next challenge: Tokyo to Bangkok... Originally I was only going to stay 1 day. That flight is booked until Monday the 10th, looks like I'll be in Tokyo for a while now. So not to add any more stress and anxiety... I'll be in the most populous city in the world for 5 days. A city I had not planned on nor know really anything about. I had to cancel all my prior hostel bookings and luckily booked what looks to be a pretty good hostel in Tokyo. With very little peace of mind I headed to see my mom late at night before I left then to my dad's who dropped me off at the airport. I gave Janell (who is traveling to Costa Rica) some last minute travel advice and packing tips, and attempted to go to sleep around 2am.
With a little more than 2 hours to sleep, restless with travel anxiety, worry that my alarm clock has the iPhone glitch app, and the fear of the unknown, the adrenaline starts to kick in as soon as the alarm goes off. Game Time!
Get to the airport late (5:45am) as the plane is boarding, TSA feels it necessary to confiscate my face wash, sunscreen and tooth paste, oh well. I get on the first flight to Atl.
Soon after take off, I looked out into the darkness to find a beautiful sun about to rise over Greenville - , a dull yellowish orange sky split a dark city poked with small dots of light and a royal navy blue starry galaxy. It was really really cool.
Approaching Atlanta after we had out run the sunrise, it was a sight to see all the traffic from above. Highways glowing like arteries pumping life into the awakening city.
The Atl to JFK flight was packed! I was lucky to get on, I think there were only 4 or 5 people behind me until every seat was filled. Had a middle seat between an older man who didn't speak a lick of English and a younger girl on her way to Israel who was not much for small talk. 1.5 hours later we arrive. The airport was smaller than I envisioned. A cool thing about some of the gates were dozens of iPads set up to be used to surf the web, play games or order food. I found a brookstone and put in a good 30 minutes in this awesome back and foot massager, then went back to play with the iPads... Airports can only be so fun, not to mention how impossible it is to sleep in them. I almost think they design seating so you can't.
So I sat waiting at JFK on the 3:15 flight to San Fran. Looking at my standby priority keep dropping. It started at 4, then 7 and peaked at 10 I think. It was pretty disheartening to see that there were only 3 open seat at the time. I was already concinced i wasnt making this flight. Slowly as everyone boarded my priority went up until I was next on the list as the airline was waiting for a lady named Kathryn. They must have made a dozen announcements, double checked the cabin, and finally as they were about to close the door they let me in. It was a rush. Got situated in a window seat with a stellar view of the right wing :-/ I was still able to catch a quick glimpse of NYC on take off. Flight was really long almost 7 hours. Again hard to sleep. Ive been practicing the Da Vinci sleep schedule: 20 minutes of sleep every 2 or so hours. Very boring flight, I need more iPhone games, angry birds just isn't cutting it. We landed safely to a pretty night view of the city and bay area. I went down to baggage claim to talk to people about places to stay and how to get around the city. Got some good advice about the BART system and some cool places to check out. I got a message from my buddy Jay, who lives out here, said he will be arriving to SF also. So I am waiting now for his arrival to see what we can figure out.
Today has been a very interesting day. Over 16 hours of travel time, over 3,800 sky miles and 4 airports. Pretty wiped out but it's only 8:30 and something tells me today's not over... Next flight tomorrow SF to Tokyo at 12pm, so stay tuned - the adventure has just begun :)