Drunk Blogging

My goal for this evening is to go home drink some wine and then do some drunk blogging (I know, I set high expectations for myself). I realize that telling you all my plan for the night may seem like it's ruining the fun (don't lie you are excited) but I'm posting this now in case something happens, and it might (most likely that I drank a little too much wine and totally forgot to drunk post), I want you all to know my intentions were good.

Young Republicans

I just ate dinner next to a group of four college aged extreme (read idiotic) republicans. My biggest issue with this is that they took some of the enjoyment away from my sushi dinner (ok, not that much since, let's be honest, it's sushi). But they were offensive in their stupidity. They made me cringe and not just because they were Republican but more because the things they were saying were based on some Fox soundbite that they heard but never put in the time to actually understood the issue. That lack of information is even more frustrating then their ideology.

Ok, I will leave it at that and not go off on a tangent - also I'm filled to the brim with sushi and I need to lay down.

clear my schedule

It's quite possible that I will never be happy. At least not as far as job schedules are concerned. For most of my working life (starting when I was 15 - I will not include babysitting in this) I have worked part time retail / restaurant / customer service jobs with varying hours, as is common for people before they get their 'real' job. This schedule worked well for me while I was in school as I needed the flexibility inherent in these types of jobs. But after graduation I really started to get tired of the flexible schedules, unusual hours, the lack of normalcy and consistency that comes with such a career. So I up and got an office job. Plenty of stability, hours are always the same and I have more normalcy then I know what to do with. Well, guess what? It's driving me crazy. Granted, I have been at this job for over two and a half year (god, it sounded bad in my head but seeing it in writing is even worse) and it might be more that than the hours that are causing this issue but I can't be sure.

Clearly, this is a case of the grass is always greener and all that but that does not make it any less persuasive of a feeling. Right now nothing sounds better to me then having a job where the time slot and programming always change. Where the sense of routine is shaken up a bit. This is made worse by aforementioned funk (see yesterdays post), as I know that, in a more clear headed place, I would realize that though I do really enjoy certain aspects of a unscheduled life (sometimes there is nothing better than having a Wednesday afternoon off from work and all to yourself) there were also serious reason why I did not like it. So I think when pursuing my future career I need to keep all this in mind. I need a balance, somewhere between what I had and what I have now. Whatever is between street musician and corporate accountant - that's where I should be.

I am in a funk. To most those that know me this is probably not surprising - I go through them often, lately with increasing frequency. I won't, however, sit here and list the reasons I am feeling this way as they are neither unique or original.

The unforeseen side affect of this funk however is that my blog entries become less entertaining. As I don't really have a whole lot going on right now - either in my head or in the real world - there is not a lot to write about here, on my blog.

So instead of talking about interesting or funny things, for awhile, you might be subjected to the ramblings of a bored, cynical and slightly depressed person. Consider this fair warning.

I am skilled at life - see below for proof

I found out a few weeks ago that I desperately needed new tires and an alignment on my car. Now some people might think, why did you wait so long when you know that you needed them and to them I would say that three weeks was a pretty quick resolution time in my book. When I know I need to part with large sums of money I need an adequate amount of time to adjust to this idea, plus I'm a huge procrastinator. So three weeks is pretty damn good. When I had my fill of procrastination I started calling around to see what type of deal I could get. I will say, that though I take my time to get things done, when I do start to do something I like to do it right (also I'm cheap and don't want to get taken). So having settled on a place that was willing to offer me a good deal I made an appointment. The guy I spoke with asked me if I knew how to find the place - being that it was near where I used to live and at a major intersection - I said yes. Clearly my over confidence should have been a sign, this was foreshadowing at it's best.

Come the day of my appointment I arrive in the area right on time (see how put together I am) I drive by a building with the name of tire place I am looking for - weird though the building looks dark and I don't see an entrance. Right next to this building I see a whole row of mechanic bays and another building with an entrance. Oh, I say this must be the actual office and that is just an out building. Though I do see the sign on the other building that says Firestone, I think that must just be there since they sell Firestone tires. Ok, I'm not a total idiot and I did think this was all kinda weird since I did not see the name of the original place anywhere but since I was immediately directed to a spot when I pulled in I figured I should go with it. Needless to say I realized about 10 minutes into the conversation that I was at the wrong place. They seemed to have no info about my appointment and everything said Firestone inside. But as they were giving me the same price I went with it. So bottom line, I got the repairs done and my car is running much better, also I am an idiot.

If you have not noticed I suck at posting on the weekends. So, I've decided that instead of just posting stuff from the weekends on Monday, I will eliminate the weekend postings all together. If I have any chance of not getting burnt out on this before March I think I need to cut this down to 5 posts a week.

I will be posting an actual entry today - this is just an update.

NARAL was hosting a Blog for Choice Day on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and so I decided to join in. Below is a section of the email with info.

"Tomorrow, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I would like to invite you to share your feeling about being pro-choice, and what "Trust Women" means to you.
Roe's anniversary is about so much more than a court decision -- it's a deeply personal and political subject. For example, Dr. George Tiller's murder last May was a stark reminder of the danger abortion providers face each and every day. I read thousands of comments of outrage and support for Dr. Tiller's family on our blog, and I saw how our activists came together in the face of tragedy.
In honor of Dr. Tiller, who often wore a button that simply read, "Trust Women," we want pro-choice people like you to share your thoughts about what "Trust Women" means to you on your Facebook or MySpace page, blog, web site, or Twitter page. "

-NARAL

In some ways I would like to think that 'trust people' would be just as good of a statement as I think reproductive rights given to women, also have a positive impact on men but then I would be ignoring the obvious bias that still exists towards women in our society. Though it's spoken of less often and (generally) less openly the issue of reproductive rights really brings displays of this mindset to the surface. I know this example is used often but, the mere fact that Viagra (and other male enhancement drugs) is covered more often (my more states and insurance plans) than birth control for women, is a blatant manifestation of the value decision makers have placed on women's rights (and health) in this area. This is insane to me and is such an clear example of the bias we have allowed to exist in our society. As much as woman have done and as far as they have come there is still a stronger group of more powerful men (and also disturbingly sometimes women) using their influence to keep women below them.

To me 'trust women' means so many things - trust women to know what is best for their bodies (just as we trust men in the same way), trust women enough to stay out of their personal issues, trust women and stop trying to control them using dogmatic and asinine policies, trust women enough to give them an equal place in society (with all things, not just reproductive health) and we as woman should trust each other enough to know that we deserve all these things.

My day (on the internet)

10:25am - Check blog and email

11:15am - Star office supplies (actually doing work related internet stuff)

11:45am - Facebook (I had my fill of work at this point)

12:05am - Fedex (wow I am a really good employee today)

12:15am - Back to Facebook

12:50pm - Goodreads (hey, it's more educational than facebook)

1:35 - check Yahoo email again - read some news

2pm - 3pm - Lunch

3pm - Google documents (staring at google calendar, most likely trying to look busy)

3:25pm - 3:50pm - away from computer doing work related nonsense

3:50pm - NYT book reviews

4:15pm - Puppy Cam (and I'm not even ashamed)

4:30pm - gmail (chatting, this continues for the rest of the evening)

4:45pm - The Daily Beast (this article made me especially angry)

5:45pm - Facebook (again)

6:45pm - The Body Shop (checking out their products)


This brings us up to speed at the present. The last 15min of work will consist of maybe a little more facebook and gmail chatting. All in all this was not an especially busy internet day - I think this should explain to anyone who was wondering what I do on a daily basis.

Time Warner Cable

For this post I actually did some research, compared to just spouting my personal opinion.

I realize that disliking Time Warner Cable is nothing new. Most people dislike them, why? Because as a company they kinda suck. They are expensive and raising their prices all the time. They engage in questionable and sometimes downright illegal practices. And anyone who has ever talked to them on the phone knows that their customer service leaves something to be desired. The thing that makes me the most upset about this situation is that there is basically no recourse. Normally if there was a company I disliked and was not satisfied with their business I would no longer support them and would not continue to be their customer. However, with a monopoly like TWC that choice is not so simple.

Of course you do have options but most are either dramatic or very difficult. You can can cancel your subscription to cable and internet outright, but for most people this is not an option. There are a few satellite options (these require you to live in a place where you can attach a dish somewhere, I do not live in such place), AT&T and Verizon offer some type of similar service through fancy technology that I don't understand but again you need to live within their service area (which can be limited) and these options are generally not cheap.

Monopolies are especially frustrating to me because most of them are set up by companies that espouse very capitalistic views (if they have the ability to form such conglomerates and make money they feel they should be allowed to do so and it seems, so far, no one is trying to stop them). The irony is that they take away, from their customers, the same rights that a capitalistic view seems to be all about - as a customer I do not have the option to make choices based on my financial well being, I am not able (without the hassle described above) to simply take my business elsewhere and let the less than adequate company suffer the financial costs of doing poor business. I will say now that I do not understand all the antisocialistic talk that has been going on in relation to the health care bill and some of the bail out moves as I don't think a government run plan would signal the end of the world as we know it - I am by no means a fan of the capitalism this country loves so much. But it seems insane to me that as a country we have so supported capitalism as our driving force but we seem to not be angered when large monopolies take away the choice so basic to a capitalist society. Essentially we have allowed companies like Time Warner to become a socialistic force in our lives.

I guess we've decided it's ok to be controlled and told what to do as long as it's not our government (which we elect by the way, when is the last time TWC invited you to a board meeting) doing the telling.

I should say that I don't view the government as innocent in all this - I'm sure many a politician gets money from TWC and companies like them to allow them to continue their questionable practices. But I think that if enough people got upset and spoke out there could be some change made.

Damn you Internet (aka Time Warner Cable)

Due to the storms (rain) LA has been having my internet modem has decided not to work. No one is sure why, since the cable itself is working just fine...

Anyway, so forgetting this while at work today I was planning to post from home. Clearly that plan is not working out well. The internet I have stolen (thanks, default) is sketchy at best and since it took me about 20 min to just get it to open the blogger page I will not tax it too much tonight. Stay tuned till tomorrow (at work), when I will write a much overdue entry about my hatred for Time Warner.

Guess what's back.....

http://www.ustream.tv/SFShiba

Puppy Cam!!!!

Morning Yoga: Update

Operation Morning Yoga is a success...kinda. Well day one anyway. I managed to wake up early and do about 30 min of yoga this morning but it was not easy. The waking up part was not the issue, as I really only had to wake up at 7:45, it was the actual yoga that was a little difficult. For two reasons I'm assuming: one I have not done yoga in months (and months) and two, because my body is not used to being that active at that time of day. It takes me a long time to wake up in general - not that I lay in bed and snooze but the process of me becoming alert is a long and complicated one. It involves coffee, some food and time. Waking up and immediately asking my body to do something physical was not something it was use to or happy about.

I'm not giving up though, I will push through this and hopefully with time it will be easier. And less painful.

As an added bonus (and in case anyone thought I was lying) I have included photos of my yoga routine below.

You're welcome Rachel...

It's raining in LA. It started raining this afternoon and my first reaction was to go and take a walk. Before living in LA the sight of rain would not have motivated me to go outside but in LA where it hardly ever rains and where rain is the only weather we get, when it does happen, I want to walk around in it. It's weird and probably very nonsensical that I think of myself as having taken the weather in other places I've lived for granted. I'm sure it would make more sense to think that I take the weather in LA for granted, since it's all sunshine and warmth. But I don't think that I do - It's hard to not be aware that for most people LA has very enviable weather. But I feel that on the east coast where most of my energy was spent on disliking the cold and snow, I did take advantage of weather that I didn't realize I would miss. Granted, that though I do on occasion miss snow, I would probably be fine if I never had to live through another New England winter. It's the less extreme things that, living in a climate like LA's, I miss. Clearly rain (as that's what got this whole thing started), chilly fall days when the leaves are changing, the first few weeks of spring when it's starting to get warm and gross as some people think it is I miss humidity. Those humid summer days when everyone knows it's perfectly acceptable to do nothing and just lay around and drink cold beer in the afternoon because the thought of actually doing anything is impossible.

These are the things that, living in a perfect climate, you miss. And not because I don't like LA weather (trust me I do) but because sometimes you just want something different, something that perfect weather can't provide. And I know it sounds like I'm bitching and I should just shut up and be happy about all the sunshine and warm weather LA has but, at least for me (and I would venture to say that with time other people would come to this same conclusion), I think there is some perfection that is missing when everything is perfect.

Fail

I failed to write a blog post on Friday, I would like to say that this is because I was busy and just did not have time. But as I spent most of Friday literally just staring off into space or staring at my computer pretending to do work, I have no excuse.

Let's just consider Friday a lost day and move on. Because honestly it was.

Ridin' the Metro

I rarely ride the metro (LA's subway system), not that I have anything against it but anyone who lives in LA can tell you that it is basically not very useful. Unless you are going to and from a very specific set of places. For example, I used to ride it often because I lived close to one station and work right across the street from another. This was pure luck though as now, since I've moved, no station is close to me. Anyway, I will leave the lackings of the LA public transit system to another post (it is also possible that I have already blogged about this).

The point of this story is that while performing my civic duty last week I did take the subway to avoid the street traffic going downtown. While on my way back, possibly motivated by the extreme state of boredom my brain had entered into due to said jury duty, I started guessing which stops people would get off. Ok, I realize this might be totally lame but stick with me. I discovered that I'm pretty good at guessing this. I will admit that I was aided by the fact that the metro does not make a ton of stops. But for the most part I was spot on. It probably is not desirable to hone my skills at profiling people judged solely on the way they look but I was really bored.

Data from my careful subway research:

Personality - Subway Stop

Hipsters - Vermont/Sunset

Annoying Tourist Chicks - Hollywood/Highland

Tourist Family - Universal City

Older Business Professionals - 7th/Metro (probably continuing on to the commuter rail)

Young Punky Kids - North Hollywood (probably continuing on to their middle class house somewhere in the valley)

Why I should not be allowed to go on the internet

It all started innocently enough - I got an email. This email was from a green/healthy lifestyle website that I must have visited once and signed up for their online newsletters. Now I get an email from them almost everyday with various information about healthy eating, shopping, etc. I often don't read them all, not that I don't support this idea but I get a lot of emails of this nature so I often just skim through them. Today I made the mistake of actually reading it. The article that got my attention was "7 Ingredients to Ban From Your Bathroom". I clicked on it - now 30min later I have 3 windows open to pages and pages of info about chemicals used in cosmetic and skin care products. I am going through lists of ingredients and finding out which products I use may or may not kill me. Basically I'm in it all the way at this point. What could have been a casual article has turned into an all out life overhaul.

Fuck.

I should say that this is by no means my first jaunt into the world of natural vs. standard cosmetic items. I'm aware of the debate and have often told myself it is something I should make an effort to be more aware of. But now I'm doing full on research into the matter. We are talking reading databases of companies who are all natural and those that aren't, looking up side affects and reading reports. Clearly I know this is something I should do. Logic tells us (or at least me) that products from nature are better for our bodies then those that are created in a lab. Not that I think all man made ingredients are bad - some are great breakthroughs that are indeed beneficial. But I feel in many cases the choices companies make are motivated solely by profit and not the overall health benefit of the products.

The thing that has kept me from doing this in the past is basically laziness. It is more work to check if a product is natural then to just buy what is around. Though I would say that that is becoming easier as there are more and more brands that are 100% natural and free from a lot of the worst ingredients. Also money is a factor as these products are usually a bit more expensive. This all being said I think I will start to make an effort on this front. I'm not committing to going cold turkey (I already have enough new years resolutions going on) but I will start shopping for natural products - with the help of my research today.

I have kindly provided you all with the links as well, in case you also want to spend the rest of your day in guilt and fear. Just kidding! It's good stuff.

The article that started it all.

Campaign for safe cosmetics.

Skin Deep Database. Here you can look up products you currently use and learn that they can give you cancer. Fun!

Compact for safe cosmetics. This is a listing of companies that have vowed to stop using many, believed to be dangerous, chemicals in their products.

Morning Yoga (or another post about things I want to do this year)

January 11th (Monday)

Though I may have started 2010 out eating better then I did the month previous (except for this week's binge, see previous post), I have yet to begin exercising. This is not ok. And though I'm not ready to commit to going back to the gym just yet, I've decided that I NEED to start doing yoga - in the morning. I don't have to be at work till 10am so this should totally be something I can do. Wake up, do about 30min of yoga and then continue my day. I can do this.

If it's not clear this post is mostly a persuasive post to convince myself that this is totally something I will do. This should not be that difficult since I still won't have to wake up too early to accomplish this goal but I really like sleep so it is a struggle.

Now I have it in writing so I'm holding myself to it....(hopefully). Updates on my progress to come.

January 10th (sunday)

Reasons why I like it when people from out of town come to visit me (reasons why my stomach hates it)...

Friday dinner - Mexican

Saturday lunch - American (california style)

Saturday dinner - Taco Truck

Sunday Brunch - American (diner)

Sunday dinner - Indian

Monday dinner - Sushi

Tuesday dinner - Empanadas (from the Farmers Market)


Starting Wednesday back on the healthy eating diet!

Now to catch up on posting

January 8th (friday)

This is a much delayed post of pictures from CT. It snowed about 14 inches two days after I arrived in Connecticut. Even though I go back basically every winter it had been awhile since I had seen that much snow. I never seemed to get the timing right - it had always just snowed before I got there so all that was left was gross, wet, dirty snow or it did not snow at all.

I would like to say that I made snow angels and had snowball fights but I no longer own snow appropriate shoes or attire so mostly I just looked at it and took pictures.

Enjoy!

Scooter - He seems angry with me here.

Fair Warning

Michael Whitty is visiting Los Angeles this weekend/week so for a day or so the posting may be lacking.

But fear not I have some ideas written down.

p.s. for those concerned there is no jury duty for me. I did not even get called to be interviewed. I would like to say it was an exciting day nonetheless but that would be a lie.

Jury Duty...

I've got it and you're jealous.

I'm now mentally preparing myself for a day of sitting in a room doing utterly and completely nothing. My biggest problem with this situation is that I have to be there at 7:45am.

The sad thing is that I did actually want to be on a jury. In theory. I think it would be really interesting (other then not really getting paid), to be involved in that process, to see how they actually work. Right now however, I'm not at a good place to commit time to this. Maybe I should present that as my reason for not being a good juror.

Or I can just stick to thinking of slurs and inappropriate comments to unleash when being interviewed to be a juror.

Add it to the list

Americans are obsessed with lists. Ok, maybe it's just me or maybe it's the whole world. However, I only feel able to speak authoritatively about America so we'll stick with that. But just think about it - we love lists; grocery lists, to-do lists, bucket lists, lists of things we have already done. There are websites whoes sole purpose is to organize information from our lives and turn it into lists; Netflix, Good Reads, Delicious*, Last FM*, digg, thingamalist (which I discovered while writing this blog along with about 20 other list making sites that are almost exactly the same), every online store has a wishlist function, even your favorites folder on your web browser - I could go on forever.

Sometimes I feel like I'm too busy making lists to actually do anything on the lists I'm making. This is probably just a personal issue as I do really think that lists and sites about lists are very helpful. They do make our lives easier and help to keep us organized but something about the compulsive list making just always seems odd to me. There is some kind of human need to gather together the information from our lives and this somehow makes us feel better, more in control. I am not at all saying I'm above this behaviour in any way (while writing this blog I created account with 2 online list type sites) but there are moments mid list-making that I feel that I get more out of the process of creating the list then what was probably the intended purpose of the list.

Note: items marked with an asterisk are courtesy Rachel.

Ways in which I waste time

You may not realize it but at a desk job (especially mine) you amass a lot of ways to waste time on the internet. It might just seem like you stumble upon a new fun site every once and a while but then one day you go to your favorites and realize you have over 20 time-wasting bullshit sites you can go to when you have nothing better to do. So in the spirit of sharing, I've decide to post them on my blog (I have taken the liberty of selecting the best examples).

I've divided them into different categories for ease of use. Enjoy!

Sites that make me smarter

Wikipedia

The Daily Beast

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Don't ask

Theatre Communications Group

Sites that definitely make me dumber

LOL cats

Awkward Family Photos

Texts from Last Night

Best-of-Craigslist

Fuck You, Penguin


Sites that probably won't make me dumber but are also not making me smarter

Netflix

Flickr

Etsy

NYE resolution number 2.3 has me trying to cook more often. To be honest this has been something I've been making an effort to do more often for awhile. And by cooking I don't mean just heating up a veggie burger but cooking more different and interesting meals. There are a number of issues causing me to not have gotten as far with this goal as I would have liked. One being that it's hard to get into cooking for just one person (this is not going to deteriorate into a sad post about being single, I swear), there are no recipes that come just one serving and it's just not as fun. But I'm learning to get over that. Then there is the fact that I don't have a lot of time to spend on cooking, I get home at 7:30pm and I'm usually already hungry.

But for this coming year I've decided to really get serious and make time to cook things. Since the cooking is part of the lose weight resolution there is even more reason to get my cooking shit together. So to make that happen I've been buying a lot of shit I need to cook with. I've learned from looking at recipes and cookbooks that it would appear I'm severely under utensiled when it comes to cooking. I liked to think that I was more of just an old fashioned cook but clearly I was lying to myself and in order to remedy that situation I have considerably beefed up my cooking arsenal lately. Through purchasing things for myself and from gifts I have added the following items: Mixing bowls, silicone spatulas, extra cutting boards, food processor, hand mixer, spice rack (with spices) in addition to a few other smaller items. I'm hoping that these additions will help to motive me on this mission.

Though I have yet to actually use most of these items (I just got them, jesus, give me time) I've already learned that cooking has a lot of start up costs. There are so many apparatuses. And the cooking world makes you feel like you need all of them. I'm just working on getting the basics right now but every time I look at any type of cooking catalogue I feel intense pressure to buy at least 3 totally random kitchen gadgets I clearly absolutely need in order to even begin to think about cooking anything.

wtf New Years Eve

I want to met someone who has ever had an epic, life changing, nothing is ever gonna be the same New Years Eve. I know these people have to be out there because why else would the rest of us feel such pressure to have one of these nights ourselves. I can't remember a year that I did not feel like I was missing something. I clearly have never had one of these NYEs and to be honest I don't think I need one. I'm perfectly content to have a fun, if not somewhat tame night but it seems I might be the only one. It's virtually impossible to get many people to commit to doing something, as the illusive 'epic night' might be just around the corner and people don't want to miss out on that by partaking in a less than epic offer.

I know many people who have attempted to organize a party/event on New Years Eve and often to no avail as it did not, for whatever reason, seem to offer what people were looking for. I am fully willing to admit that I'm not super cool - I don't think I will ever be invited to the best NYE party in the city, never mind hosting it. But I also think most people aren't that cool either. No one wants to admit that they don't have that amazing night lined up and they are willing sacrifice an actually enjoyable night to keep the impression that they have something cooler to do.

So I say again where are all the epic night people? I've asked around and most people seem to have similar experiences of thwarted plans and undo pressure. Basically people just need to come clean and we can drop all this pretense about New Years Eve and stop searching for a life changing experience.

January 1st and 2nd

Note: So I should have added in the last post that due to the fact that I'm not on the computer that much during the weekends I decided that it's allowed for me to post two days worth of magic in the same day (Jillian are you listening?). I'm still going to divide them into two post and they will be on different topics but in order to give myself any chance to actually accomplish this resolution I need to give myself some leeway in my posting schedule.


Adventures in Airports (January 1st)

During my Christmas travels this year I got to experience a number of airports that I had little to no experience with before. I should also say, since I don't think it is the norm, that I like airports. This might be because, with the exception of one time (damn you Dulles), I have never really had a horrible airport experience. I like airports because they are the most amazing people watching places ever; they are like a weird world where everyone is there for the same reason. Also they are fun because they are invariably different depending on what city you are in. And even though people always say that being in an airport in a certain city does not count as having actually been there, I would disagree because each airport is a small warped representation of that given city. I will now use my experiences in the airports I was in over Christmas to illustrate my point.

LAX (Los Angeles) - So I've been in the Los Angeles airport many many times (and I live in LA) so it's a little harder to form a snap judgement but I don't think I've seen so many Ugg boots and leggings worn with over sized shirts in one place in my life. Angelinos has a strange sense of stylish comfort and no where is this more obvious then in the airport. Also the lines for Starbucks are out of control. Enough said.

Houston-Bush Int. Airport - Ok I think that title basically says it all. And this is Bush II we are talking about here. This was my first time in the great state of Texas and it did not disappoint. As imagined the food choices for a vegetarian were slim but since it was breakfast I was saved by a bagel place. I heard plenty of lovely accents and saw lots of 60 year old women with bleach blonde hair and tons of makeup calling people things like sugar and hun. There were also a good amount of couples wearing matching Wranglers jeans and those weird cowboyesq shirts...odd. There is also, so I was told a bronze sculpture of the beloved dubya somewhere in the airport. I spent the retaining portion of my layover searching for it, to no avail sadly. And this is exactly what I will continue to believe Texas is like. Prove me wrong people...if you can.

Boston - On the return leg of my journey I flew out of the Boston airport, though I have been in this airport before it had been quite some time since my last visit. I was flying on Virgin airlines which apparently was given the smallest terminal ever, they only had two gates and one little food stand so I was forced to entertain myself by people watching. Like Boston itself the terminal had an odd mixture of people. I would say half were ex Boston natives who now lived in SF (where my flight was going) and were in Boston to visit the family for the Holidays. There were also a good amount of Boston natives. Who can be identified by dress and accent alone. I can't really describe them but if you have ever spent a good deal of time in Boston I think you know what I mean.

San Francisco - SFO gets the award of best airport, of this trip at least. They had the best food choices by far (two breweries in the same terminal!) and the best shopping. Granted I did spend 4+ hours here, much more then anywhere else so I really got to explore but San Francisco did not disappoint. And not just in amenities offered but also in quality of people. I arrived at my gate quite early and was able to enjoy the identical twin flight attendants manning the gate next to mine during the boarding. Let me tell you there is nothing creepier than twin flight attendants working the same gate, wearing the same outfit, talking in the same unmistakable nasally voice. And no, they were not hot. Then there was the 12 year old who sat down on the floor where he began reading his U.S. News and World Report, when he tired of that he started in on his workout routine. I judged by the push ups he was doing that today he was working on his upper body. I guess this kid was trying to push the statistics of both childhood obesity and the dumbing down of our nations children in a positive direction. Though my knowledge of San Francisco is limited to the two times I have visited there I would say that the airport portrays some of its characteristics quite well.

So in closing I will say that if you are looking for the cliff notes version of any city you could do a lot worse then visiting that cities airport. I feel all the more cultured for the layovers I had this year.


January 2nd

I'm working on an incredibly powerful, thoughtful post about new years but since this one about airports was so long I'm saving that till tomorrow, so I'll keep today's post short. I have been summoned to jury duty...maybe...well I have at least been summoned to call in everyday after 5pm to see if I will actually be summoned. This should not have been a surprise as I actually received notice last summer and had to postpone as the date I originally had interfered with my trip to Europe. However since my ability to keep a calendar is somewhat lacking I was actually surprised when I received the notice reminding me of when my date was rescheduled to. So starting Monday night I will be calling in to see if the great state of California needs me to sit in a room all day until they tell me I have not been chosen to be on the jury. Really wish I had remembered when all this was gonna happen so I could have told my work about it. Oh well we'll see how it goes, I'll keep you updated.