my oh-so-normal life

Name:
Location: California, United States

There are no random acts. We are all connected. You can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind. (the five people you meet in heaven)

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Salt Lake City
a.k.a .Tales Of My Youth

Many moons ago, I drove cross-country to move to San Francisco to go to graduate school. I was scared, driving cross-country alone, young and naive, before mobile phones became widespread. I remember my grandmother telling me that I should borrow my father's mobile phone (which was the size of a small country) for my journey, just to be safe.

I blew off her commentary. BUT, I was really wishing I had that mobile phone during bits of that trip. (Although, I really wonder...if I had actually had the mobile phone, would it have worked? I mean, "Can you hear me now?")

So, at some point during that trip, in the height of summer, I drove through Salt Lake City. I drove past the Great Salt Lake, and my mind played tricks on me. "Snow? In August? It's really hot here! Oh, the Great Salt Lake. It's salt."

This time, it was not salt, but beautiful nonetheless.





Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Welcome to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

Personally, I've wondered for a while why the Atlanta airport is called the "Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport." I still haven't quite figured that one out. I did, however, have a recent interesting experience at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
My flight out of JAX was delayed (by tornadoes in Atlanta none-the-less!) By the time I arrived in Atlanta, I had missed my connection. I was rescheduled the following day on a 6:30 p.m. flight. I found this unacceptable, so waited in line for two and a half hours to get rebooked on another airline's flight which was scheduled to leave at 6:30 a.m. I literally jumped for joy when the ticket agent told me this. While doing so, I noticed the clock on the panel above her head, 3:03 a.m. Yikes.
I travel a lot, so I guess I should just expect this every once in a while. I need to get my boarding pass from the new airlines in order to go through security, but they don't open until 4:35 a.m. (Yes, 4:35 a.m.)
So I crawled up into the shoeshine chair and slept for a little more than an hour. It sounds so crazy, but that's what I did. I really wish I had a picture of that chair, high, huge, towering over the aisle way. Sleeping with my computer bag in the chair with me and my backpack at my feet. This was the highlight of my time in the Atlanta airport. There's more to the story, but there's no sense getting bogged down in the details. Suffice it to say:

Life is an adventure, and a positive attitude goes a long way.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Airport Sightings IV

In Jax, I saw a chick wearing a t-shirt that said:

Your mouth keeps moving, but all I hear is blah, blah, blah.

Oh, no. This reminds me of me.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Airport Sightings III

M, this is for you....

Really, I can understand that it's always me. But, there is always the exception to the rule, right?

Friday, taking the airport shuttle from the car park to the terminal, I get on first. Actually out of the car as the shuttle pulls up with my backpack and computer bag. Next stop, the shuttle pulls up and waits...for hours. All of a sudden, the Asian woman we are waiting on turns around and exclaims with great surprise, "Are you waiting for me?" The shuttle driver helps her with her numerous boxes and bag, and we head to the next customer.

As we pull up, this older white woman in velour corduroy-looking bright pink pants and burgundy sweater is peering, perplexedly, into her car through the windows. I really don't understand what is going on, but she is looking into the car, though various windows, holding a hold bunch of junk. She doesn't even turn around as the shuttle pulls up. It's like she is in her own little world, examining the contents of her car. I am wondering to myself why she doesn't open the door to more closely examine whatever has escaped her. Eventually she gets on, with her hair sticking up in places it shouldn't be sticking up.

I'm sitting on one side of the shuttle while everyone else has chosen to sit on the other. I have on sandals (despite the snow) as I am headed for Jacksonville (Florida.) And they stare at me. Like I'm the weird one. This time has to be the exception to the rule. It cannot be me.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Airport Sightings II



In general, I find that there are times when I laugh at the things I see, but I find that there are a lot more occasions for strange behavior and fashion in airports. I'm not really sure why this would be. Are people more frazzled before or after a trip? Maybe they just don't care. Maybe it's not everyone else, it's me....



Everyone who has spent time in Japan will get this one. I saw a guy sleeping on a couch in the President's Club in Newark. He had his shoes off and his feet on the couch, with a huge hole in the middle of the top of his black socks.



I know, you're thinking, "It isn't everyone else...."

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Airport Sightings I

In Cleveland:
A mini-billboard in the terminal:

"Helping people get places more efficiently.
Except the guy with three carry-ons."