No…seriously that is what it feels like!!!

Okay so Pilates was conceived around the 1920′s and it was only something shared by a select few for so many years but after having attended one class I can see why in the early days it was not unleashed upon the unsuspecting masses.  Only a few select were trained how to properly do it and so they must have all given out an evil laugh as they decided to unleash this torture onto the public.  I would like to go up to them and ask the original inventor of Pilates, Joseph Pilates what is the best way to torture people and he must have replied by doing his specific type of torture; however, he figured out that if he called it exercise then he could offer it to a few select clientele, namely the rich they would do it because it was exclusive.  So the rich bragged to others who had money to burn so they too could go through the torture, but they weren’t satisfied with just torturing those who had money.  Later in life Pilates trained others and they went forth and spread his method of torture out to others and not just the elite so now we have all become convinced that this is really exercise instead of the torture originally planned by Joseph Pilates.  SERIOUSLY!

Alright so that is a wacked out view of Pilates but it does make you wonder.  So why have I climbed up on my soap box, only those who are older will understand the soap box bit, about Pilates well I’ll tell you why.  I too have experienced Pilates at the gym and I truly believe that I was being tortured.  The stretching and straining of muscles, some of which have not been used in too long of a time to really count,  to the breathing to strengthen the trunk muscles, increase motion of muscles and bones to restoring normal lung function.  I mean come on and give me a break on those.  Maybe I like sitting hunched over and having short breaths and not fully expanding or using my lungs and maybe I really like having a squatty posture.  Just in case you could quite catch that, my sarcasm was running amuck.

I went to one of the early morning workouts at my gym and was very pleased with the teacher.  She asked who was new to Pilates as well as how was new in the class.  I stuck out in class like a sore thumb and right now that is about the only thing on my body that isn’t sore.  The teacher was great and encouraging and I always felt encouraged although I felt like a beached whale…oh wait that is about the way that I looked in my gym clothes. 

Pilates is not easy, but after just one session I can happily say that I still am feeling the effects of it late in the evening and it is not the straining type of effects.  I felt as if my arms had been lifting weights though all I did was use a towel but the stretching and use of the muscles appeared to be as if I had been lifting weights for almost an hour.  It was quite hard but it felt good and so far it still feels good.  The work that we did in the abdomen area have got me sitting up a bit straighter and unconsciously pulling my flabby tummy in which in turn is helping me with my posture.  It even worked my legs and I believe that it gave me a harder workout on my legs then I get with swimming 1000 meters.  Okay so I use small fins to help me while swimming that 1000 meters, the point is I swim the distance and use the legs but even that workout seems light compared to the leg work in my Pilates class. 

Of course being a novice I could not keep up with the folks not even those who were older than me, but still I tried.  The best thing was speaking with the teacher afterwards who encouraged me to continue stating she was about as lost as I claimed to be but she assured me that for a first timer I did quite well.  Okay so it might have just been words of encouragement and not really the truth but it was enough to make me realize just how weak the core of my body is.  My coordination has dramatically changed from when I used to regularly exercise in my younger years and no I don’t mean in my teenage years but when I was in my 20′s and early 30′s.  It is amazing at how just that one class made such an impression on me and a good one at that. 

So against my lazy judgement I will be attending another class but will take one day off and provided that my stress test doesn’t get in the way, I will be there on Thursday to go for round 2 of torture….I mean of pilates.  One of these days I will be able to some of the movements and maybe I can get back my coordination and skill at simply walking, never mind walking gracefully I’ll just be happy with not falling over my feet when I usually walk.

But tomorrow the vampires will attack…. I mean they will be taking blood to test all of the levels that they can of my blood and I’m about to start my fasting for the morning draw or at least I hope they can draw it sometime in the morning and I don’t get stuck waiting forever for the vampires to attack. 

Once that is done and I get my grocery shopping done maybe then I can relax and go swimming for a few laps, less stress on the body.  I’m actually looking forward to the time when the Pilates and the swimming will energize me and not zap my energy.  So I’ll keep things going and update how well the torture is going.

***************************

Dot: Um, it’s not that we wouldn’t like to take your survey…
Yakko: It’s more like we’d rather have dental surgery.

Oh so close but sorry no winner there….

I’m been so darn tired every night that the moment I lay down I’m almost immediately asleep and unfortunately waking up way too early.  Yes you can wake up too early especially if you have to work the evening shift at work and don’t get off until 11:00 pm.  Yeah it’s nice to be able to come home and sleep right away but in order to be that sleepy I would need to be intoxicated (which ain’t going to happen at work) or else asleep driving home from work and that’s not going to happen either. 

I have to keep my wits about me as I drive home because of the late hour and the number of intoxicated drivers on the road.  Okay so not all of them are intoxicated but usually I see one or two people driving a little bit too recklessly for my liking.  Makes me thankful that I usually am wide awake driving home because too many people on the road are drunk, sleepy or just plain not paying attention.

So back to the rock and sleep.  Nothing brings on sleep quicker than exhaustion, whether it be physical or mental.  Unfortunately I’ve done both, exhausted myself mentally and physically.  The hard part about mental exhaustion is trying to shut down the brain enough so that I can fall asleep and stop thinking about the things I need to be doing or will have to do when I wake up.  But if I was to compare which method, mental or physical causes me to sleep deeper, it is physical, which is why I will be asleep very soon. 

One of my older brothers has been helping me and my mother clean up after the storms and has been working himself to the point of physical exhaustion.  I on the other hand know my limits and have had to back away from some of this to keep myself from injuring myself.  Oh wait a little late for that already.  Apparently when I first started clearing away the debris from the house, I injured my wrists again or at least strained them to the point that now my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is acting up.  The last time it acted up this badly was when I moved from Colorado back to Texas and my wrists were so bad off that I was sleeping with ice packs on them at night and would wake up when the pain got to be too much.  But at least I’m not this way.  Now if I could just slow down my brother so he doesn’t hurt himself then things will be much better but I doubt it because my younger brother needs to have the entire back portion of his fence replaced thanks to Hermine.

So I can give sleeping lessons to a rock I’m so darn tired especially right now but my older brother actually is the master in that field especially with all of the work he has been doing.  So back to sleeping like a rock, do rocks actually sleep?  I guess they do at least until they start moving around like during an earthquake or something digs them up or they are picked up.  Guess that is why they are considered sedentary, well that is what I’m like lately when I sleep. 

So not fair, I didn’t get very much sleep during DragonCon and then I come home to keep up on all the aisles type of work.  Not much I can do about it but roll my sleeves up and try to work through it so some normalcy in my life can return.  But I heard that normalcy is highly over rated, but I would never know about that because I’ve never experienced it. 

But tonight I have the wonderful task of trying to sleep deep and hard because of both physical and mental exhaustion.  How mental you might ask since all I’ve talked about lately is working on the house, why let me tell you how.  I just bought a new printer to replace my old printer where the print heads ended up getting clogged up and now the printer doesn’t run at all.  So I bought a new printer and one that was wireless so I won’t have to run the cable from the printer to the laptop or computer but alas and alack, woe is my fate.  I’m going through the third install in an attempt to get the two systems working together.  Now if that doesn’t work I hope I won’t toss and turn in my sleep trying to figure out how to get it to work.

As for physical, well I went swimming today and did laps.  Now the greatest swimmer here but at least I can struggle through a few laps.  What is really killing me were the deep steps I was taking in the pool when I did my walking laps.  Yeah I walked back and forth several times with floats in my hands doing the water version of deep lunges, only I kept my head above water.  I was swimming for almost an hour and am exhausted so that along with being confused about my new printer should lull me right to sleep.

Have noticed the rambling, well I have so I guess I should get out of here and give it the last try for the night to connect and then go to bed either elated because it worked or more than likely because I couldnt figure it out.  One of these days I’ll understand mycomputer.

************************

Dot: Requiem for a Lamb: Mary had a little lamb…With mint jelly. Thank you.

I got a call that we were finally getting some much-needed rain where I live and then I learned that the power went out but not everywhere, just at my place.  You see a tree limb decided to break off from the tree at he rear of my house and in the process of falling, it knocked down the power, phone and cable line to the house.  Seeing that I was still at DragonCon there wasn’t much that I could do, but thankfully my younger brother came over and started clearing away some of the debris.  Which mean he had to get out the bow saw and saw down some of the broken branches but had to leave the huge branch that fell onto the roof because it is awfully hard to cut a 12″ round branch with a bow saw.

Once home I walked into the living room and a portion of the ceiling fell down right at my feet.  Believe me when I tell you that it was not because it was falling at my feet because I’m such a wonderful person; nope it fell down because apparently the limb that fell onto the house and took out the power lines, also knocked a hole into the roof.  So during the lovely storm that was Hermine, it was raining and thus it soaked the part of the roof which dripped down into the ceiling.  So when the wet sheet rock fell it carried with it very heavy water laden insulation, I guess I was just lucky not to have been standing under the stuff when it fell.

So four days and one newly purchased gas chainsaw later, the power is restored to the house.  The only thing was that as I was cutting and pulling away branches from the power lines which I had been told were safe, was a big fig.  Turns out that I was cutting and messing around hot (live) wire with all of the lovely electricity flowing through it.  Good thing I didn’t go wild with the chainsaw and accidentally cut the lines.  The next day we got our cable and the day after that we got our phone land line back.  Now we are in the process of taking bids on all of the work to be done.  That is headache and if you didn’t have one before you will get one just going through and getting bids on the repair work.

Unfortunately it looks as if it might rain this weekend and we haven’t even had a chance to talk to the insurance company about their estimate of the damage.  If we’re lucky it won’t rain, it we’re not then it will rain and the covered hole in the roof will leak water.  Hoping that doesn’t happen.

This definitely goes into my book of weird things concerning returning from vacation.  Why could life be like in the cartoons where if you leave a place messy, you will come back and little cleaning fairies will have cleaned and straightened up things and even do the laundry for me.  Yes I know that can’t happen but one can hope.  Come on fairies, clean up my mess.

Things are relatively returning back to normal and the best thing I can say about coming back is that I had an excuse to buy a gas chainsaw.  Never leave a power tool in a woman’s hands too long, she will actually put it to very good use. 

First it is a limb, next the whole tree!

DragonCon messes with your mind….seriously!  It messes with the mind in a nice way.

So now it is Tuesday afternoon and all of the last two days have merged into one giant massive brain/body overload.  I’ve seen a few of my friends off, visited one last time with a few who live in Atlanta and now will have dinner with the last of my friends who is leaving tomorrow morning to return to the Bahamas.  See DragonCon has a big fan base.

So as I look back on the last four days of craziness I’m reminded that most of these people are just normal people like me or you, well maybe not like you but they are normal as normal can be.  It is one time of the year in which we can theoretically let down our hair and become something other than what we are all the other 361 or 360 days out of the year.  I say possibly 360 because so many convention attendees arrive by Thursday and that is when the fun actually begins to happen.

I’ve stayed at 3 out of a now total of 5 hotels in which the convention takes place and I can say this much for the staff of the Hilton, Hyatt and Sheraton, you have great staff who seem happy to try to help all of us during this madness and they help make things a little bit nicer for those attending the convention.  My stay at the Westin was not the best but that was due to reservation problems but the staff other than those dealing with the front desk were fantastic.  The regular staff members were polite, kind and seemed to enjoy our presence, I figure that was because we made them smile and shake their head at our craziness. 

Sadness the peace and happiness of the con was marred by some problems although a search through the local Atlanta newspaper hasn’t revealed much yet.  So the rumors are that someone held up a bank this weekend and they were dressed up as storm troopers.  Well I kind of find that one hard to believe merely because the banks in the downtown area around Peachtree Center area are not open.  Sort of hard to swallow that one.  Another rumor is that one of the guests’ friends was mugged, another is that a female had her purse snatched from her person and that the purse got caught up in the lanyard thus dragged her down and injurying her.

No matter what did or didn’t happen in general people had fun at DragonCon.  I did notice that as of Saturday night the security in the hotels was beefed up just a little bit more.  There were guards posted at the Skybridge walkways between the Hilton and Marriott as well as the Marriott to the Hyatt, and the Marriott & Hyatt to the Peachtree Center food court area.  I understand that if you did not have a DragonCon badge then you would have to turn around and go back because you could not use the bridges.  I also noticed more hotel security and more direction given by the hotel staff on guiding people through the mass of people in the hotels. 

No matter what may or may not have happened, I always want to thank the hotels and their staff, the Atlanta Information booths and courtesy personnel and of course Atlanta’s finest, the Atlanta PD.  Everyone worked hard to make this a memorable time for the visitors to the area for DragonCon.  I will say this, it encourages me to want to get out and look around the city and maybe next time I will have the time to spare to do just that.

So thank you Atlanta and DragonCon for a wonderful weekend where going up gets you down, going down gets you up, where a person can learn just how much they can do being deprived of sleep because if you are passionate about what you’re doing you will sleep when you’re dead for now party on.  Looking forward to DC 2011 where it will mark the 25th Anniversary of DragonCon!

*******************

Wakko: Wanna see me make bubbles with my spit?
Yakko: Sure do. In fact, that’s the theme of our next show.
Dot: So don’t miss it.

Ah yes back to DragonCon logic.  Not many things make sense in the small little time bubble that is DragonCon and encompasses a few hotels in the downtown Atlanta area.  Let’s take for example elevators, the normal person would press the up button to travel to the upper floors of the hotel; however, in our warped little time bubble it turns out that in order to go to the upper floors on the elevator you must press the down button and hop on the elevator and ride it down in order to go up.  Now getting on isn’t always as easy as you think.  In our little time bubble that is DragonCon the elevators are almost always full, especially after 10:00 am until about 2:00am, but have no fear because soon all of the real world logic will catch up with us and we will be returned to our regular laws of physics.

However, we did have a sad little rupture to our lovely little time bubble.  It turns out that someone was mugged here and of course the exact details are known.  I heard a woman’s purse was snatched and her DC badge got caught up and it caused her to be injured.  Now that was supposed to have happened possibly on day 2 of the con which actually makes more sense for the sudden changes.

While walking back through the tunnels late Saturday night, or more correctly early on Sunday morning, they would not allow people to pass through some of the walkways from one hotel to another unless they had their DC badges.  This inconvienced some but most of us wear our badges all of the time so it didn’t affect everyone.  This is the first that I’ve ever heard of this type of trouble and so I’m glad that they did step up security.  But maybe it will remind some of us as we enjoy our little bubble of fantasy that there is a real world out there and trouble sometimes is just around a corner.

Now back to DC logic, well most everything you once knew about things making sense, such as not getting onto a crowded elevator is gone.  If you want to get around and don’t want to be climbing stairs all of the time you will get used to crowding into elevators because at some of the hotels there is a 20 minute wait for an elevator.  Now mind you that it only happens during DragonCon but that is because of the hundreds of people who want to ride the elevators all at the same time that you want to or at least at a time very similar to yours.  But it is an interesting way to make new friends or at least see someone’s costume. 

‘Well speaking of logic, I see that my time to finish typing this ran out and I need to fly.  Okay so I can’t fly but since I fell asleep typing this early in the morning and now the morning is about to turn into the afternoon, there is a panel that I need to catch so I’ve got to fly.  Maybe I will be able to write more later in the day or as usual in the next morning hours.

*****

My friends the animaniacs took the morning off so I’ll bring you one of their sayings the next time.  They said I should make something up so….

Try to brush your teeth often because if you kiss someone they may not like tasting what you ate a little while ago..

Thankfully it was a relatively slow starting morning and I know that because I got to eat breakfast and not try to inhale it to go stand in line for a show at 8:00.

Again I wish that I was more than one person so I could have attended more panels. Of course being a big Stargate fan, I attended most of the stuff related to that show as well as go to the track room and sat in there for a bit and then helped carry balloons already blown up. We ended up putting our own McKay to work using his mouth for good and not snarky comments. So imagine five of us carrying bags the size of trash bags full of balloons from the Marriott through the Hilton and finally 2 blocks from the Hilton to the Sheraton. Yes it was an interesting sight us carrying bags of balloons through two hotels.

I still love traveling the halls most of all. Yeah it’s crowded and some people still forget to use deodorant but at lest everyone seems to be having fun and that is what this is all about, having fun. Now if my feet would just cooperate better things will be great.

I even found Gilligan and the Skipper so now they are safe.

Again I wish that could have attended a Battle Star Galactica panel with Richard Hatch, I’m sure it was great. Too many panels and never enough time, oh well.

Got to wrap it up because the parade is tomorrow and I promised to photograph some of their friends in the parade. So maybe by later this morning my feet will forgive me and let abuse them again. Crossing my fingers.

********

DOT: We like you, we have no taste but we like you.

Okay so I was one of the dwebs lining up at about 10:00 am to try to register and the line was already wrapping around half of the building.  Luckily when the place opened at 10:00 am we quickly filled the room by following the red line of tape.  Too bad it wasn’t yellow to match the pre-registration color card.  Besides that we could have heard them stating…. “Follow the yellow brick road” in their best imitation of a munchkin voice.  I love those people, probably because I’m usually taller than them.

So back to the madness.  My friends were arriving in town today to join the other friends that arrived earlier in the week, myself included as early arrivals and after one of them took over two hours to register we went out for probably one of the last decent meals we will have a chance to sit down and enjoy.  You remember me mentioning the intimidating schedule well that will be the reason why the meals of the attendees will be far and few in-between and what we do eat more than likely isn’t good for us any way.  Too bad….I’m on vacation!

That is the attitude I decided to adopt and so I will do what I can to try to eat right but we all know that any type of food consumption during DragonCon will be sparse and bad for you…….But who cares!  Oh wait my cardiologist might care, he will just have to understand the concept of “I’m on vacation.”

The costumed attendees are already out and about with most of those who signed up for the main costume contest for DragonCon were having their photos taken on the Atrium level of the Marriott.  For those of you who were not entered in the contest I applaud you for all of your work and courage in dressing up and being in character.  Maybe one of these years I will cut loose and dress up myself, but don’t bet on it being any time soon.

One of my very favorite things to do during the entire convention besides attend panels, parties and track rooms is to people watch.  Even if you don’t ever attend and are in the Atlanta, GA area during the Labor Day weekend, make the effort to try to find some parking and then park yourself in one of the hotels:  Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton or the Westin and just watch the people passing by.  You will be amazed at some of the fine details going into the costume making and some costumes you wonder if it might be a step closer to porn, but that is okay because it is DragonCon weekend.  I remember reading once that someone wrote how she lived up in the colder part of the US and during the winter she is bundled up and even in the summer she seldom shows any skin but when she appears at DragonCon she states that she is barely covered.  That is what costuming is all about, having a chance to be someone other than who we really are. 

Some are good costumes, some still need work and some of them will still have you scratching your head by the end of the weekend wondering just what the heck they were supposed to be.  But I believed no matter what they are dressed like, they all deserve a hand and I often find myself thanking them for letting me photograph them and for wearing their costume.  Some follow themes and others, well others are just out to have fun.

So last year I spoke with a couple of Atlanta’s finest police officers (more like the bravest to face our madness) and asked them what they thought about all of this that is DragonCon.  Most of them laughed and smiled and said we were crazy but a nice crazy.  One of them made the comment that where else but Atlanta could they work extra duty and get a show?  Another said he always volunteers to work the event and is always amazed by the number of people and costumes.  He said year to year some things change but it is okay because he thought we were pretty good people.  Of course I was curious about that comment and so I asked him and he said that for all of the thousands upon thousands of people who attend, we are a pretty peaceful group.  Now coming from a cop I took that as a high compliment for all of the attendees who attend.  Come to think of it I never have noticed any fights breaking out or people being involved in a pushing match.  Instead we stand and walk and sit and do what is asked of us and despite some being dressed like devils we behave, we’re not angels but that’s okay because angels are boring.

The bands started up the track rooms were getting prepped, some parties had already started and friends were finding their friends as well as making new friends.  I know that at least once a year I get to see some friends that I have made in the few years that I’ve attended this event and it makes me smile because we have similar likes for things that go bump during the Labor Day weekend.  Because all too soon the weekend will be over and Monday will bring a close to our madness and it will be sad to say goodbye to some of our new and old friends.  But there is always the promise of meeting up at DragonCon. 

Crap, sorry to have gotten so melodramatic on you.  I say damn the torpedos and full steam ahead.  Bring on the madness, bring on the crowds, I just wish that some of them would take baths and use deodorant and others would use something better than Fabreeze squirted on their costumes to keep them from smelling.  So come join our madness.  As it said in one of the bumpers last year, the attendants keep increasing year by year and pretty soon all of downtown Atlanta will be a part of……..DRAGONCON!   

Hope to see you there soon.

**********************

 Dot: All we know is that we like you. We have no taste, but we like you.

Seriously, I’m not kidding when I tell you that the schedule is  intimating.  Stop laughing at me.

There are times when it really bites being a fan of so many things because I feel pulled this way and then that way as I try to make out my schedule of panels that I want to see.  Too many and last time I checked I didn’t have my body cloned, not that anyone would want to subject themselves to such torture as to have another one of me, but there are times when I wish that there was more than one of me and that time is now. 

Sure I know that there will be a DVD sold after the fact but the point is that I have no idea if the panel that I miss will be on the DVD and so which is the greater risk.  Do I got for the big show because sometimes there are things that happen that just can’t be conveyed onto a recording that make things really special.  An example would be that one person was in costume of Aquaman and was standing at the microphone prepared to ask his question, only the guests on stage started to ask him questions.  So now you can see the type of dilemma I can face.

Now before all of this happens I have to pick up my registration badge.  Now years ago in the past you could do it any time after 4:00 pm and by the time 6:00 pm rolled around there was no line.  Last year at DragonCon 2009 things didn’t quite go as planned.  Computers broke down delaying some of the registering attendees, then last year they also had to content with an extremely large number of attendees and things got to be so much that several of the attendees were asked to leave without getting their badge and told to come back tomorrow at 8:00 am.  The only problem with that was that the Shatner/Nimoy panel was first up and if you weren’t in line by shortly after 8:00 am then you had to watch it on DragonCon TV. 

However, this year the lovely people of DragonCon apparently listened to people whining and complaining and have done something which I hope helps.  They have opened the registration up earlier in the day so that should hopefully help with some of the congestion.  So yea for DragonCon Administration!!!!!

So I’ve made up a tentative schedule of things that I want to see and thanks to a few cancellations of a few guests I don’t have to stretch myself quite as thin.  Okay so I try my best to look for the up side of things like that.  After the disastrous last two days I’ve experienced I’m looking for that silver lining.

Back to the schedule issue, there are some shows that are in the smaller track rooms and of course I want to see both of them but that ain’t going to happen since I’m still just one person in one body, but not of sound mind.  You have to be a bit crazy to come out to this event year after year but it’s like an addiction and one that isn’t illegal and the only side effect I have to worry about are my already aching feet.  But they will just have to suffer and put up with me abusing them but if they are nice and help carrying me through for the four days of fun-filled madness then I’ll treat them by going back to see my podiatrist.  Now the shameful thing is that I actually do have a podiatrist, it really bites when you feet get older faster than you, or at least that was what my podiatrist said.

So with sore feet already and tension in my shoulders already I prepare for the start of DRAGONCON.  Now if I could just figure out a cure for the lack of sleep that I will be facing that would be cool.  But there are some things that even start-up at 11:00 pm and they are things that I want to do and no they are not all parties to attend. 

You know most of the time schedules are good things, they give you boundaries and information of things to do but the DragonCon schedule is just intimidating.  Darn my hide and my love for so many different things that are Science Fiction and some that are not. 

I hope that those who attend have a great time and for those interested in what this is all about just hop on the web and do a bit of browsing. 

So for my friends I say unto you……Happy Gating (StarGate) and I’ll see you at the con.

It’s still intimidating I tell you….    I’m serious!

****************************

Wakko, Yakko, Dot: Wheel of Morality, turn, turn, turn, and tell us the lesson that we should learn.
Yakko: Free trip to Tahiti.
All: Cheers!

Seriously….look back.

Now some of you may have only been traveling for the last 10 years or so but not me and I’ve seen quite a few changes especially since for so many years I would only travel by car.  But after driving for 18 hours by myself things get a bit old quite rapidly.  Let me correct that now, I didn’t really travel by myself, I had two traveling companions with me and despite their promise of helping me drive they never did.  You would think that my two dogs would take up the slack and show people that dogs can drive too and even better than Toonces the driving cat from SNL but they lied to me.  All they did was sleep in the back seat of my truck and leave the driving all up to me.

On a more serious note….

Travel has really changed quite a bit.  I remember when you could bring two items on board and both could be the small suitcases and as a female I could also carry my purse with me.  But those days are gone.

Gone are the days when you could bring food and drinks into the airport from the real world and they let it pass through security. 

Gone are the days where you would deplane and see your party (family or friend(s)) waiting for you as soon as you stepped out into the terminal.

Gone are the days where anyone and everyone could walk you all the way to the gate. 

Gone are the days when there was a line to use the pay phones to call family/friends to let them know that you had arrived.

Gone are the days when you had to hunt all over the airport to find an electrical outlet to plug-in your Walkman or some sort of music device.

Gone also are the times when you could get a meal on a four-hour flight and you were sitting in the economy seats.

Gone from some airlines are the snacks you could get with your complimentary beverage, at least with some airlines those snacks have disappeared.

Gone is the space you used to have between the seats in front of you and where you are sitting.

Gone are the days when you could bring your tube of toothpaste/shampoo/conditioner/shaving cream in their canisters no matter how much was in them in your carry on bag.

But let’s not dwell on the gone are things because in many ways I’m quite happy to have some of those rules changed. 

I’m sad that you can’t bring food into the airport or more specifically past the security gate.  Now days you have to spend the big bucks and get ripped off by paying the outrageous prices for a beverage or some food.  I remember walking up to a fast food burger joint and having to pay almost $10 for a burger combo meal and it wasn’t even the largest burger combo nor the most expensive. 

Now I have mixed feelings about not letting people through the security gate.  The sad part is that often in some cities where I have a lay over of 2 hours or more, I used to call up some of my friends or let them know in advance that I was coming through their city and they would meet me inside the airport and we could grab a bite to eat and talk.  I definitely miss those times or being able to sit down and have a meal with someone who brought you to the airport, it was much nicer than having to say goodbye to them at the security gate.

Yet here is the Catch 22 about that.  Too many times when they would allow people to pass through the security gate without a boarding pass to greet you at the gate as you deplane it usually caused a lot of problems.  Oh come on, you remember those times when someone would rush up to the person just stepping inside the terminal thus blocking anyone from getting around you.  I know that the person was missed and all but blocking people was not cool or fun.  Instead of waiting for them off to the side they would keep anyone else from getting off of the plane thus backing up traffic in the airplane.  But thankfully with the need to now have a boarding pass to get past the security gate, the blocking or holding up of people getting off  the plane doesn’t happen for that reason.

I definitely miss the extra space between the rows of seats, I understand the reason for this but it still stinks on ice.  If you are sitting by the window, I suggest you go to the bathroom before boarding the plane because now days the entire row has to move just so you can get out and then move again when you have to get back into your seat.  And let’s face it, most of us have gotten a little bit broader, myself included.  So now we have to wiggle our way out of the seat and back into the seat.

The one thing I am glad for is the ability that most of us now days have with cellular phones.  Only every blue moon or so will I see someone actually using a pay phone in the airport and that is usually because they don’t have any minutes on their phone.  It is so easy to get out your phone and call someone and let them know if your flight is delayed, if your flight is early (yes that happens occasionally).  For me it is convenient because my ride is usually waiting in a cellular lot, sponsored by a wireless carrier, where the person can park for free and just waits for your phone call to let the person know where they can pick you up.  I say this because at my local airport it takes forever for your luggage to come out and so instead of my riding waiting with me at the luggage carousel for my luggage they can sit back and chill in the vehicle and listen to music until I’m ready.  So for that part I’m glad that there has been some change and advancement.

With the changing of times and the need for electricity, the amount of plugs and places to plug into has increased.  People are plugging in and charging up their computer/phones/electronic devices all over; although there could probably be a few more plugs made available.  Also nice is that most airports have free WiFi for their patrons which makes it so much nicer than paying an outrageous amount just to get on the internet and take care of business.

As I was waiting to board my plane earlier today I noticed a gentleman older than myself and he was speaking to his father over his cell phone.  He was very nice and respectful to his father as he spoke and also apologized for not saying goodbye but he wanted to let his father sleep past 0600 hours.  Then he mentions to him that he sent the photos of some even to his father via e-mail so when he boots up his computer and checks his mail he will have those shots.  He advised that some were sent by phone and the others he transferred from his computer earlier. 

So what you are probably saying, well my point is that the change is that this older gentleman was speaking to his father who was obviously older than him and how even the older father was actively using his computer to check his mail and other things.  All over the airport people older than myself were talking at the last-minute to friends and family members and the number of laptops out and open on laps was astonishing.  People have changed and we are moving right along and doing our best to keep up with the changes in the world. 

Now you’re wondering what is the significance of this; well the truth of the matter is that things have changed so much since when I first boarded a plane for my first plane ride at 14 years old and had to watch out for my little brother as we both got on the plane.  I believe that most of the changes are for the good but I’m reminded of how my father saw us off at the gate and we felt that we were big kids being able to fly by ourselves to my elder brother’s home.  We had to have change to make a call just in case and because we were kids we didn’t need quite so many things back then for our visit.

It seems like lately you need your cell phone, your laptop as well as other devices to keep you happy on your flight.  We’re no longer amazed just to watch the clouds passing by as we fly to our destinations.  I almost miss the amazing feeling I used to have when I boarded a plane, but then a second later I’m thankful that things have changed in general for the better for flying. 

Being an adult now, I park my vehicle, enter the airport and get on the plane all by myself.  No one is there to see me off because I go for the travel discounts which usually happen on week days when most of my friends/family are working.  I like the majority of changes made because it makes it easier when traveling or does it?

I don’t know you be the judge of it…

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Dot: Don’t look down. You might fall and hit your head and die and your brains would leak out alllllll over.

Oh wait a minute, although it states that rights should not be denied by the US government or any states based on their sex, we still see that it is not so.

The reality of things is that women are not treated equally and this is still a male dominated world, guess that is why we have so many problems and wars.  Hm-m-m, I seem to remember a man by the name of Bernie Hayhof who only wrecked the lives of thousands upon thousands of people with his cheating and scheming.  See let a man run things and it is basically run into the ground…oh and then stomped on a few times.

LEFT TURN…..

So it states equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. 

What is this world coming to sex on a bridge?!  Well I can’t believe that 90 years ago we would be promoting sex on a bridge, I mean come on how comfortable can it be.  I mean 90 years ago they probably had wood splinters or something like that so how could that be comfortable and why would the United States or any state be encouraging sex on a bridge.

Perhaps they were encouraging sex on a bridge because having sex in a Model A wasn’t very comfortable.  Back in the 20′s the cars back then weren’t exactly built for comfort and I imagine having sex in the back seat of a Model A was anything but comfortable.  So maybe that is the reason why they encouraged sex on a bridge but you would think that some of the bridges back then must have really had a lot of splinters in them.

A splinter in the back side would definitely not be comfortable and then with his action working slower than the pistons in the Model A, it seems like it would cause her more pain.  And yet they promoted sex on a bridge and the saddest part of all is that they accepted it.  Now that is just a shame that they went and did something like that.

You know what its like, a splinter really gets in under the top skin and it irritates the skin and can cause an infection, surely you’ve had this happen to you before, right?  So why were they encouraging sex on a bridge?  I mean those women back in those days should be highly commended for putting up with sex on a bridge especially since they didn’t really have good medical coverage back in those days.

And speaking of medical coverage back in the 1920′s do you think that they had as much of a problem with ED as we do in this current day?  By the way that they are advertising on the television set you would think that 1 our of every 5 men has an ED problem.  Well I’ve been with more than 5 men in my life time and not one of them has suffered from ED so is ED just something that the pharmaceutical companies have just concocted to sell more of their magic pills.  Just who do they think they are a magic bean salesmen, next thing you know they will be promoting magic beans that will grow so big it will reach up into the clouds.

Now of course the guys will end up climbing up the bean stalk to see what is up at the top of the stalks and of course you know that if there is a giant’s castle up there they are going to go into the castle and steal the gold.  Yeah we’re back to the Bernie Mayhof thing once again.  Now we know that Jack was not there to secure finances for his future bride because he went and took a harp which was on a woman’s back.  So she had to end up soothing the giant so he would sleep and Jack could make good his escape.

So he would have his gold and a woman to play music for him to listen to but would he do anything to help remove the harp from her back, of course not.  So that poor woman would end up having more than a splinter in her back side, she would have half a piano attached to her back and as far as I know medicine wasn’t that advanced back then so I guess the poor woman would have to suffer.

Yet I guess having a splinter in your back side from having sex in a bridge is much better than having half a piano strapped to your back.  So we needed something to promote women having sex on a bridge.   Men are sick I tell you, just sick to pass a law making women have sex on a bridge.

OH MY…….

I’ve just been informed that they were not asking for sex on a bridge but saying that the government and states could deny rights to an individual based on their gender……   Well that makes more sense.

SO… forget about the above message…..  Seriously !!!   

This is was a tribute to one of my favorite SNL characters, Emily Litella….thank you Gilda Radner.

Simple things can easily be misconstrued so please take it easy in life and don’t forget to laugh, you could probably go for a good laugh now, I know that I could. 

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Dot: Don’t look down. You might fall and hit your head and die and your brains would leak out alllllll over.

GOOD NIGHT FOLKS!