Just A Few Thoughts

Greetings,

I am now back home, safe and sound, here in Indiana.  I had a great time in Sacramento but the family unit here is not the same with the missing piece (me) so the wife and kids are happy that I have returned.  My body is thankful to be eating normal again.  I had decided I would not go crazy while on vacation, food-wise, but that promise was quickly broken.  Monday night (around 10 eastern) a few of us went to a steak house where I ordered a nice piece of salmon (the brown sugar based crust was quite tasty).  Tuesday morning we had an assortment of Panera Bread items brought into work.  Lunch was a catered taco / burrito bar (with baby shower cake).  We all (15+ of us) met for “happy hour” at a local hot spot and (a few appetizers and 3 hours later) we headed to Islands (a burger joint) for a late (midnight eastern) dinner.  Wednesday morning breakfast was had at the hotel (great breakfast bar) and lunch was just a bowl of soup at the work cafeteria but we made up for this at night.  We headed to a place called Crush 29 where I had a nice glass of Row Eleven Pinot Noir with my seafood pasta.  I then was talked into the Chocolate “Bomb” desert and a cappuccino by the guy sitting next to me.  Wow, my chocolate needs for the year have been met.  Thursday was breakfast at the hotel and then I just pieced here and there (bagel at the airport) for the rest of the day.  I have not even bothered getting on the scales yet and I might not for a while.

Since I don’t travel much, this whole trip was exciting.  Even standing in line to board the plane or get my boarding pass is exciting.  You can tell the seasoned travelers from the newbies or infrequent ones (like me) as they have less patience for any delay or inconvenience.  To me though, even watching the drink cart make its way down the aisle bringing a free ginger ale is exciting.  When I last traveled, they did not charge for baggage and so now everyone has at least one carry on bag.  The planes were not built with this in mind and  overhead storage quickly fills up so much so that on my return trip they had to check my carry on bag which turned out to be only a minor inconvenience (compared to the 3 other folks that were in my same position where you would think they were asked to donate a kidney).

On one leg of the trip (on both there and back I had to switch planes in Dallas) the plane was really chilly.  The stewardess announced that the pilot was going to turn up the temperature.  This struck me as odd.  With all the things that the pilot has to do (like, oh I don’t know, fly the plane) I would not think that he would also be responsible for setting the cabin temperature.  Maybe one of those 100 or so gauges on the cockpit dashboard is the thermometer?  Am I crazy to think that this should not be in his job description?

One thing I noticed is that everyone has some sort of little smart phone, and I mean everybody.  I felt like a 3rd world traveler when I did not have any little toy to whip out and play with right up until the time they announced that all electronic devices had to be turned off for take off or landing.  I was a little envious for sure but watching over people’s shoulders while they played with these things made be realize that I could do without them.  Even during the meetings during the week I was amazed at the number of people who have 2 of these things!  When I told a few of them that I do not have a cell phone, they looked at me quite odd.  I might as well have said something equally absurd (in their eyes) like I lived in a tent or didn’t much care for shoes.  So I spent a lot of time watching everyone keep in touch with everyone else.  I tried to strike up conversations with my row mates on each flight but either they were not interested or they were traveling with someone already and did not need a third conversationalist.  I did have my mp3 player to keep me company and pass the time.

Well breakfast is about ready here.  It will pale in comparison to the food I had this week but I can’t think of another place I would rather be right now.

Jon