About Five Things

I am trying to think of five things most people don't know about me as I have been tagged by mopeysouthernchick. I admit it is difficult.

1. I love puns.

2. People are fascinating to me. I don't know if that makes me an arm chair psychologist or sociologist, but people are a puzzle I like to work on in my mind. I don't think there is an ultimate answer to why people are the way they are at least not until we know how the other 80% of our brains work. Sometimes I think that we are about theories and no definitive proofs that answer our makeup.

I have rarely met someone that I truly dislike. That said, I find it hard to get close to people. I am an introvert especially in crowds. With people I know and one on one I seem extroverted. When I meet someone and a barrier doesn't exist, I am amazed that I have made a friend or at least someone I will keep in contact with.

3. Laughing and smiling are like breathing to me. I sometimes think that I have been put on this earth to make people around me smile. There used to be this guy at work who could be a bit mopey and glum. When others would tell me about it, I would play a practical joke on him. Something small, but enough when I heard the aggggh, I would stand up and see him grinning. So if there is something I hate, it is to see good people glum. Any good people.

4. Clouds are fascinating. Like Eeyore's cloud painting, clouds are amazing to look at. I have flown a lot, and I never am tired of looking at the clouds out the plane window. Clouds form rivers and valleys, sometimes oceans that meet great mountains. There could be canyons in the clouds and no river to form them. Clouds make mists and fogs of eerily magical lands with no creature to walk them. A sunset or sunrise light these lands brilliantly, rich in color. Hues of reds and purples fire the sky and ease over the clouds.

5. My family is spread out across this country. My friend Aileen and I went on trip cross country and I had a relative in almost every state that we passed. We headed along the Southern route from Georgia to Nevada. Having relatives this far ranging means I have the opportunity to see a lot of country but I do miss having family near at hand.

Thanks Erica!!

Airports

Boarded a plane last night and now am in Atlanta. I had one stop over in LaGuardia, NYC. Now I feel qualified to rate airports.

In my former job, I was required to fly a lot. I have been in many airports. I believe I have hit all the major domestic ones; Chicago's O'Hare, Atanta's Hartsfield, Boston's Logan, LA's LAX, San Francisco's SFO, Dallas- Fort Worth, San Diego, Denver and now LaGuardia. Ok, that's the majority of my airport travels. If I left out a major airport like JFK, it probably means I haven't been there.

My judging is unfair, I think, 'cause some of these airports I have only been transient in. O'Hare is one of my favorite airports. Yet, I have only transferred planes in O'Hare. Never had to wait on security lines or deal with parking etc... DFW, is my least favorite and have only transferred planes there.

I do judge all airports on the brightness and cleanliness of the waiting areas. I also judge on bathrooms and shops. O'Hare becomes another favorite of mine for these reasons. Maybe not the cleanest of the bunch but there are bathrooms every couple of gates. The bathrooms are all automatic. Seatcovers on the toilets automatically rotate with a wave of the hand in front of the sensor. Shops are also every couple of gates. Can get Advil, coffee, and a bagel with little walking. DFW is too dingy for me. I hate the train from terminal to terminal.

I find it strange that there is no standard among security. For instance in Orange County's John Wayne airport, there are foot sensors there that test if your shoe will set off the alarm. At LaGuardia, they look at the width of your shoes to see if you should take them off. In Boston, if your shoes are tennis shoes you most likely do not have to take the shoes off. LAX you have to take them off - no question.

Maybe it depends on your TSA agent.

At Logan, Boston, a TSA agent was deciding whether they should confiscate a plastic toy I was bringing to a friend's child. The toy was held in the box with plastic ties. There where no sharp edges or objects on the toy even a plastic knife, sword, etc. The TSA agent searched it for what seemed 10 minutes and in reality was maybe two. When he finally gave me back the toy, another agent came over from another security station and made a crack that I shouldn't be allowed to have it.

However, Boston's TSA agents missed a metal file attached to my finger nail clippers and LAX's picked them up and confiscated them.

A girl and I were talking in LAX about what TSA agents do with all the things they confiscate. The girl I was talking to was a smoker and had her lighter confiscated numerous times. She indicated one lighter was rather valuable. We both agreed someone probably divvied up the good stuff and the rest was thrown away.

In Atlanta there are smoking booths inside the terminal / gate areas. Are matches any more safe than lighters?

White Christmas

Yesterday I was out with a friend, Jennifer, Christmas shopping. When we stopped for lunch, she told me that she had been invited to see White Christmas at the Wang Theater. My friend rolled her eyes and looked at me; "A musical! A Christmas Musical!". Another eye roll.

I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVE White Christmas; one of my all time favorite Christmas movies. Will watch it every Christmas with the same excitement other people watch It's a Wonderful Life.

While under the shock that she had never seen White Christmas or heard of it, I told her that it was not a musical (not an opera) that every word was sung. White Christmas had an actual plot and the story line was quite heart warming. (sorry Jen - still not over the shock that you didn't know this movie).

By the time I finished telling her the story behind the movie, she was, not eager, but not dreading going to the Wang.

Think I made a musical convert?

Bye Music Bye

I am throwing out my cassettes.  Throwing them out is the hardest thing I have to do.  I feel like they are my first love in some way even though I haven't paid much attention to them in years.  I've been picking up each one and examining it for value.  The ones I miss the most will be getting a replacement CD.  So far the Candyskins, Todd Snider and Iggy Pop have made it into the CD replacements.  These bands I still can jam and be ridiculous with.  I am still in love with them.

The others?  Well, the other cassettes I am still drifting through.  Drifting in the odd remembrance of a favorite memory.  I have a lot of cassettes whose artists names most people have never heard of and probably never should.  Some are quite cheesy, and I am big fan of cheese.

But I loved them at one time and I love them still, in a way.  Love them for that memory of "once upon a time".  Those cassettes are then ones that will be tossed. No CD will replace the memory, and like many childhood toys I won't play them again.

Hypothermic Joggers

This morning the temperature outside was six degrees. Instead of walking to get coffee as I normally do, I warmed up my car and drove. On the way, not one, not two, but three joggers were out.

I have to ask, why?

I admire their commitment. I applaud it. But the thought of stepping out in spandex (spandex alone would scare me) and a sweatshirt in single digit weather is enough to drive me further under the covers.

I love New England. I love where I live, but ya'll when it comes to weather these people are nuts.

I've mentioned the joggers in Winter, but the swimmers in Summer are just as insane. They willingly go into freezing water that will never warm up the entire time they are swimming. My first summer I dove into a swimming pool that contained freezing water. I was doing laps like crazy. The water never warmed up. After thirty minutes of shivering and exhaustion beginning to set in, I got out and swore never to go back in.

It must just be me. I grew up swimming in Gulf of Mexico on the Florida beaches. I'm biased towards water that doesn't demand you swim like a maniac to keep warm but invites you dive in to see what water really holds.

7 AM December New England

It's the most wonderful time of the year. Well second most. Really third or fourth most. The baseball winter meetings ended yesterday. While the world, the northern hemisphere, is getting colder, talks have taken place about the boys of summer. The trades that take place during this vital week are enough to get me pumped and salivating that baseball season could be around the corner. Ok, it's a long, cold, snowy corner, but who cares?

S'muffin? While out walking around town, I saw a mix in a local shop for s'muffins. (All the shops in town, because we are a tourist town, sell a variety of edibles with their regular wares.) S'muffins are the cross between scones and muffins. Why you may ask, I certaintly did, would we want as the package put it "a scone that tastes like a muffin"? Are we really in that dire need of new ideas? Shaking my head in laughter.

The first real snow in Mass. this year is falling now. I just got in from moving my car to a Municipal Lot for the Snow Emergency that is coming. Snow Emergency simply means, "park your car off the road so the road can be plowed."

Where I came from, Atlanta, snow emergency means, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Big flakes come down from the sky with ice and we must take everything out of the grocery store so that we can wait out the 8 hours it will take for the ice to melt." Here you can still catch the 8:00 pm show while the N'oreaster dumps 20-36 inches of the white stuff over two days. To be fair New England has plows and Atlanta does not. New England gets snow and Atlanta gets ice.

The friend asked me if winter was tough for me. I told her that four degrees is tough because I walk around with my shoulders hunched all the time which makes my neck hurt, but the snow is ok especially first thing in the morning.

De Nile

I was wondering if this post should end up on my rant page, but the more I thought about it, the more I understood that I had posts for both pages.

I was watching a documentary on the three major monotheisitic religions in the world. I began to wonder my old wonder of how long was it going to take for people to learn. These religions have been fighting and oppressing for centuries. (this is where the vent comes in) Has all this fighting worked? Are the people of these religions any further to winning anything?

I also wondered what kept the leaders, the people, whomever, going? A passion. A belief that somehow someway something will be achieved.

I understand this. I have felt at times that I have something so rare and wonderful that working towards, fighting (verbally not physically) for, reaching out in someway for whatever it is that I have can't be bad.

Well. I'm wrong. At least in the sense about the way I go about achieving what I want to achieve. I'm not wrong in feeling how I feel but my manner of expression could be better. Why did I not realize this until watching a documentary?

De Nile.

That damn river in Egypt has done it again. Can't give the river all the credit. I am a past master at navigating this particular river.

Being dazzled by your feelings is nothing new. Most people get a honeymoon period to bask in new feelings before the sun comes out of their eyes and they get to choose whether to deepen their feelings to realness or walk away.

Religion, and not just religious fervor, dazzles so many people to their core more often than love does. The sun is constantly in the eyes with no opportunity to see.

Anyhow I understand the religious conflict better now. I understand myself a little better now. I still wonder why people can't find peace and see how much they have in common more than they are oppossed.

Ballet

On the way to yoga this morning, I saw a deer run across the highway. The deer was a young male with antlers. My first thought was, "Oh my God! Don't get hit. Don't get hit!".

The deer bounded, leaped, flew over our five lanes of traffic. As he came to the median, my thought process had changed. My mind was singing, "Go. That's it! Fly!". I watched the deer leap a lane and half then move effortlessly over the next five lanes of opposing traffic until he disappeared safely into bordering woods.

The deer didn't even seem to mind the cars.

Now I think, " I saw magnificence personified in a deer. I witnessed unlimited bounding. Wow. "