If I go, I'm going with my shoes on.

Hell, I don't even know what that means. But what I do know is that I found myself not only thinking it, but taking action on it today.

To set the stage... A flight that should have taken an hour and a half, took, well, a hell of a lot longer.

I left my house at 12:30. It takes at least an hour to get to the airport. Today was no different, really, a little more traffic than normal but they've been ripping up the expressway in sections, so that causes things to back up.

Got my boarding pass, no problem. Then things started to get a little wierd.

I moved through the security line, but when it was my turn... the lady circled a bunch of things on my paperwork, glared at me (GLARED!) and told me to step around to the last "special line". I've been through this line before, so I thought, "no problem". Little did I realize at the time of that thought, but I was about to get patted down and my luggage ripped through.

I'm all for safety, but honestly I was starting to feel a little wierd when TSA came over with rubber gloves on. They opened all my bags. And dusted everything they could find.

Sigh. And that was just the beginning.

Just because a plane boards and leaves the gate on time does not actually mean they will get you to your destination on time. In fact, a flight that should have taken an hour and a half actually ended up taking four. FOUR. 4. hours. Leaving my house at 12:30 in the afternoon and arriving at my destination at 8:45 PM is a slight bit on the ridiculous side. I could have driven it faster!

Thank god it was Jet Blue and I could drown my misery in episodes of Man vs Wild. You go, Bear. Say, have they ever dropped you on a plane sitting on a runway for four hours, with the captain telling you every 30 minutes that it will "just be another 10 minutes"? Because that might not be a bad idea for a future episode. Just a thought.

I'd watch you forage for snacks on an airliner. Shame on me for not bringing my own.

So back to the reason for the title. Cab ride was just a little hairy, and when traffic backed waaaay up, my cabbie took to the side streets. After a quaint little jaunt through my old neighborhood (doesn't look like anything has changed in the year and a half I've been gone), we got a little deeper into the side streets. The fact that the driver really didn't see any difference between narrow, one way streets with cars parked on both sides and the parkway was a little bit disturbing... and I found myself thinking... "This guy is nuts! Well, if I go, I'm going with my shoes on!" And I proceeded to put my clogs back on (which I'd slipped off a few minutes prior).

What I was thinking, exactly, I'm not sure. If we crash, and I die, what difference does footwear make?

Tired. Morning meetings. I'm out. I'll be pondering my footwear the rest of the evening.

Outward Bound

Sitting in the Pittsburgh Airport, waiting for flight.

This feels wierd, but I'm sitting in an airport, looking out the window, and watching...

an airshow. Yep, that's right kids, there's an airshow in the distance. I've been to plenty of those in my life, and to be perfectly honest something is really lost in the experience when you're really far away and watching it from the inside of an airport.

Feels wierd.

That's all for now, gotta post this before the battery dies. Outlets dogged.

Tonight, I Ponder.

Tonight, I ponder on the ways of the world.

Got some bad news today... about 12:45 AM to be exact. And honestly, I've felt all day like someone punched me square in the gut.

**********
I'm sorry kiddo. Really really sorry.

**********

On top of that I leave for a 2 1/2 day jaunt to New York tomorrow afternoon. I was really excited a few days ago. Now I'm really bummed because in my heart I feel like there's somewhere else I should be.

**********
Even though I know you're all grown up and you can take care of yourself, I still feel like I should be there. But I don't even know what I would or could do for you at this point. A hug just wouldn't be enough, really. Just know I'm here, and you always have a place to stay.

**********
Enough. I'm done.

What the F$%^&*(!!!

Ugh! And what the hell???

I've been lost, kids. Lost.

What started out as a really cool experiment (at least I thought so), turned into a running commentary on what was going on in my life (which was okay too although not that interesting to anyone else besides me), turned into a project I no longer did anything with.

What a shame.

Honestly, I'm more than a little dissappointed in myself at this point. So, I have decided to pick back up where I started. Maybe not alllll the way back, because I think it got to be sort of a drag recording the stats and datapoints and what-have-you, because that's what I do all day anyway. So from here on, I give you: What's In My Head. And I'm going to try this without a rigid update schedule. We'll see how it goes.

Items of note today: my webcam fell into my coffee. Sigh. Just in case you'd like to know what the webcam's point of view was:



And to give you a glimpse into real-life, I've also included here a picture of my BeBop playing with his favorite office toy - a water bottle. I know you're asking yourself "what's an office toy", and for that to be answered you should know that BeBop (not his real name, but if it had been up to me to name him in the first place it would have been) is a JRT with, err, um, some issues - and the *b*a*l*l* is absolutely never allowed upstairs, and god forbid anywhere near the office. The downstairs is just fine enough, thanks.

Yeah, the picture's blurry. Have you ever tried getting a still picture of a Jack Russell Terrier? Nigh onto impossible. It took me at least 30 quickshots to get this one, and the only reason you can *kind of* see what he looks like is because I was holding the bottle in his mouth still.



Enjoy. I'll be back from now on, more than likely erratically and as time permits. Once I get the old car back from the garage she'll probably be able to do 88 mph and from there, I'll have LOTS more time. I think.