Travel

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Friday Randomosity

Well, I am not in a full-post mood. So here are some bullets for your Friday reading pleasure boredom somethingorother.

1. My husband and I are planning a mini Valentine’s getaway! We don’t do traditional Valentine’s Day stuff, like flowers and candy or cards. Mainly because Husband thinks it’s a stupid Hallmark holiday. I admit, I sort of agree with him. But I will take any excuse to get flowers!

Usually, we just go out to dinner. This year, we are taking A WHOLE DAY to drive to a city we’ve never visited, eat delicious (and un-Weight-Watchers-friendly) food, and spend the night in a B&B. I’m really looking forward to it.

2. If there is one thing worse than spilling sugar all over your kitchen? It is spilling uncooked rice all over your kitchen. And into the top of the microwave, where it can never ever ever be recovered.

3. I really really hate it when someone you respect does something shady. It’s a shock, first of all. But worse than that, it’s a betrayal of sorts. You begin to second-guess all that you learned from that person. All the times you trusted him/her. All the times you thought, “I know this is the right thing to do, because X says it is.” I know everybody makes mistakes. But when the “mistake” is intentional bending of the rules… all that admiration and trust and respect moulders and starts to rot.

4. Weight Watchers is getting easier, my friends! When I started, the last number of my weight was a 3 point 5. This morning, it was an 8 point 5, which means I have dropped FOUR pounds! Despite last weekend’s bacon binge!

5. My book club meeting took place on Tuesday. It was… anticlimactic. The girls were very nice and friendly. We seemed to get along. But… it’s not like I came away with some great feeling that we clicked or we hit it off. I came home feeling sort of deflated, to be honest with you. Which made me want to eat the plate of brownies I made for the book club. Thankfully, I left the brownies at the host’s house, so I could not drown my disappointment in chocolate. Okay, I left MOST of the brownies at the host’s house. There were a LOT of brownies, so I was able to fill up the plate I took with all the nice looking ones. The ones that lost corners or seemed misshapen, I saved. I am being very careful in how I dole them out. Despite the fact that I want to cram a brownie handful into my mouth at pretty much every second of the day. (They are STARING at me.) But these little buggers are 5 points each. That’s more points than three pieces of bacon!

6. I will not let another post be hijacked by crispy breakfast foods.

7. Taxes are on my mind lately. (Are they on everyone’s mind?) We planned to hire an accountant this year, because I thought our tax return would be really complicated. (What with switching states, and me going freelance halfway through the year, and some other complicated gobbledygook.)  While gathering all our 1099s and W2s etc last weekend, my husband started filling in the online tax forms… and basically did our taxes for us. Now he wants to call off the accountant. Pros: We wouldn’t have to pay an accountant. Cons: What if my brilliant, methodical husband missed something or made a mistake? (Yes, I know honey, that chance is VERY SLIM.) The whole thing makes me nervous. Tax forms and their accompanying instructions might as well be written in Chinese. You know, because I can’t read Chinese.

8. I’ve been sort of down ever since the book club meeting. Not for any real or logical reason. I’m just kind of… blue. Anyone have any tried and true advice for turning that frown upside down? Usually I just look at pictures of Maru and oooh and aaaah like an idiot. But even that isn’t doing the trick today. Suggestions please!

9. As long as I’m asking for advice, how about some fashion tips? I got a very cute new shirt from Anthropologie for our weekend away. See:

(Source)

But I don’t know what to pair it with. I am Terribly Fashion Challenged.

What I would LOVE is a cute skirt to pair it with. (But I don’t do pencil skirts. Pencil skirts and my hips call to mind the image of a hippo squeezing through a rigatoni noodle.)

(Source)

Anyway. I have a nice pair of black slacks from Express that would work. And a pair of pointy-toed black pumps. Which would all look very nice paired with this top. But. Meh. I don’t know. It’d be nice to have a cute new skirt and a sexy new pair of kicks to wear with it. If you have any suggestions, I would welcome them with open wallet!

10. Oh! I almost forgot. I finally got a new computer! And despite the earlier ridiculousness at Best Buy, we purchased the computer there. I’ve had it for a week. But since it didn’t come with Office, I haven’t been able to work on it. So it’s been chilling in the corner of the living room. I’m really excited. It doesn’t take a half hour to turn on! You can read all the letters on the keyboard! The screen stands fully upright! The metallic paint isn’t worn off! The battery holds a charge for more than 20 minutes! Now I just need to get over my reluctance to “mess it up” and start using the damn thing!

The day is looking up, Internet. Happy Friday.

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The Travel Bug

Paris… Copenhagen… Ljubljana… Montreal… Berlin… Prague… Krakow…

 

With a passport featuring stamps from these cities (and more), you probably wouldn’t expect that I HATE to travel.

 

Don’t get me wrong. I love to see the world. Poking around a foreign country is one of my favorite things. Especially when my husband is right there with me.

 

But the actual traveling part… The packing… Getting to and from airports… Waiting in security lines… Waiting for the plane… Waiting on the plane… Gripping the armrests as the plane takes off and lands… Waiting to see if my luggage has arrived…

 

YUCK.

 

Which is in part why it’s taken me three days to recover from my recent business trip. While I love spending time with my clients, I hate hate hate traveling.

 

Fortunately, travel offers multiple opportunities to enjoy the varied facets of human nature. Here are just a few encounters I had on my recent voyage south…

 

– The people who either have been so beaten over the head with “airline procedure” that they are now blind or are merely oblivious to the world outside them. The airport I flew out of had one of those new air-blower scanners. You know, you stand inside a little chamber, the machine puffs air at you, the doors open, and you walk through. Apparently, you are supposed to wear your shoes while inside the machine. (Although they make you remove them AFTER you go through the machine, and send them through the normal x-ray conveyor. The air puffer thing must still be in beta.)

 

Anyway, there was a big sign posted right before the stacks of plastic tubs into which travelers deposit their purses, coats, shoes, and other paraphernalia. The sign said, in big, bold letters: DO NOT REMOVE SHOES BEFORE ENTERING TRACK SCANNER (or something along those lines)

 

Probably 90% of the people in the security line completely ignored the sign. They removed their shoes. Some of them removed their shoes WITHIN INCHES of the sign. A little TSA agent kept scurrying around, trying to get people to put their shoes back on… and escorting the unshod around the air puffer machine. It was kind of hilarious.

 

– The random people who strike up conversations with you in odd places. First there was the custodian in the airport bathroom who sang songs in between chatting with travelers. She wished me a most blessed day with the sweetest, most genuine voice I’ve ever heard. Then there was the sixtyish woman in line behind me at the newsstand, who told me all about her naughty little dog and how she couldn’t wait to get home to him.

 

Lonely? Socially inept? Just plain friendly? Maybe. But in a world where we are constantly inventing new ways to NOT have personal interactions with others, I find this mix of confidence and cluelessness to be particularly refreshing.

 

– The lovely older couple waiting patiently for the plane to board. The gentleman was wearing a polo shirt, jeans, and an eye patch over his left eye. His companion was wearing jeans, a grandmotherly hairstyle, and a pink shirt that said “Pirate Princess” in sparkly letters across the chest.

 

– All the people who cannot seem to figure out where their seats are. For instance, the cranky confused woman who told me that she was SURE she had the window seat. I smiled at her as she waited for me to give up my window seat. (Hell to the no.) She muttered under her breath as she moved her handbag from under my seat to under the aisle seat.

 

Or the older lady with her elderly mother, who were ousted from one side of the plane to the other by the seat’s rightful occupant. The elderly mother struggled to move, and we waited a good ten minutes for the two of them to maneuver across the aisle.

 

For god’s sakes. It’s not rocket science, people!

 

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What’s your most memorable travel experience?