Jaded

I am on a plane from Shanghai to Chongqing. Chongqing is a- Ive waited all my life to use this word accurately-megalopolis just east of Sichuan province, where I used to live. Its also the city closest to the three gorges damn, and the place where Dean and I ate all that spicy fried bullfrog a couple of years ago. Ok, heres a sidenote: Can anyone else get on a plane without pondering the possibility of their imminent death? Anyway, Im going to be in Chongqing for a week buccaneering after which I will do the same thing in ChengDu and Chongqing. The "second wave," as the boss calls this part of the project, is scheduled on a weekly rotation between those three cities which makes it more work than the first wave, which took place exclusively in Kunming. But considering that the world economy is going to shit, I should probably be appreciative that I have a job at all, rather than being annoyed at having to fly to a new city every week. But I am annoyed, because I have become jaded by having a job that requires me to work only two hours a night. I remember the first time that I got to fly to another city for a show- a trip to GuiYang immortalized in the youtube video "Eli on stage with dancing girl"- and how ebulliant (smug?) I was at the opportunity. Now I no longer get overwhelmed with self satisfaction when I tell someone, "oh, Im just in town for work." Well I get less overwhelmed. Whelmed. I can actually pinpoint the moment that I realized that I was jaded, because it was also the moment that I realized what jaded actually means. Jaded is the state of being both privlidged and cynical. Charlie, a dj friend of mine (who also has a blog that you can check out here: INSERT LINK HERE) and I were doing a show in city near ChengDu, and we were doing the soundcheck that afternoon. Soundcheck is always boring and usually unnecessarily time consuming, and we were sitting on some couches schmoozing with the club owner, waiting on something. The club owner was chainsmoking and offering us drinks, making polite and boring conversation, and we were nodding and smiling and being bored. And I turned to Charlie and said, "god, this is torture." Then I excused myself, and went to the bathroom, where there was an elderly female attendant waiting with a mop to clean up after me. And I thought: I am definitely making more tonight than she makes in a month, and yet being served drinks on the couch is torture? So I guess what Im trying to say is the first step towards not being is ungratious prick is reminding yourself, "at least Im not mopping up piss for a living." The second step is charity, but I havent gotten that far yet.