48 hour turnaround

Back from D.C. yesterday, leaving for NE tomorrow. So very tired...

We arrived at Dulles at 12:00 or so for our 2:45 flight (we wanted to be able to eat lunch before boarding). Boarded the plane at 2:15. Promptly fell asleep. At 2:50 they asked for volunteers to give up their seat because the plane was over the weight limit. They were offering vouchers, so we got off. Lucky us, the flight we were reassigned to was direct and landed only an hour after our original flight!!! Boarded new plane at 6:15. Promptly fell asleep. Woke up half an hour later because of swealtering heat. Announcement: we are delayed for an hour because of lightening. Start reading The Jane Austen Book Club. 7:45 announcement: we are delayed another hour. Flight attendents bring around water. Continue reading. 8:45 announcement: still delayed. Delicious pizza smell fills the plane. The pilot had let one guy off of the plane to get food for a high school group going to China. I complain to the flight attendent. I want pizza too dammit. 9:15, permission to get off of the plane for 10 minutes to get food. 9:25 back on the plane. Still delayed. We are 18th in line to take off. Continue reading. 11:45 (yes, more than 2 hours later) we pull away from the gate. 12:30, take off (yay!). Fly for 5 hours to Los Angeles. Land at 1:45 L.A. time, 4:45 D.C. time. Finished Jane Austen Book Club. Have been awake for 23 hours. Naps on planes do not count. Going back to the airport at 4:00 tomorrow morning to go to LNC. Sucky. Piles of work to get done today. Even suckier.

Hot for Teacher

But only in a strictly platonic sense. He is tall and black. He wears a 3-piece suit with a french cuffed shirt. He talks about analytical models of public policy and calls Karl Rove homeboy. He can name, in order, every person who has been Secretary of the Treasury in his lifetime. He told us that we don't have to use citations on our papers. He was appropriately impressed when I showed him the mini Constitution and Declaration of Independence that I keep in my purse. Perhaps next week I will break out the mini Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Sigh.

My Life

These are the kinds of conversations that I get to have with my fiance:



dtzoom: i've been calling around to arrange for 3 count them 3 donkeys for our shoot. Oh happy day!

Oehmster: did you find them?


WE ARE SUCH NERDS!!!

4.9!!!

I have finally just experienced my first earthquake. About 10 minutes ago, my office started shaking like crazy. I considered hiding under my desk, but decided on standing in the doorway. My coworkers were all in their doorways too, so I appear to have chosen wisely. OC im'd me right away...she felt it all the way down in Long Beach, which is like 50 miles away. I feel like I have overcome a milestone. The idea of an earthquake is not nearly as scary as it was before, although I still think that they are scarier than tornados. At least you know when a tornado is coming.

I am all hopped up on adrenaline now...

Dumb Commercials

That Enterprise Rent-A-Car commercial where the car is driving down the street but it has a canvas cover over the whole thing? That's dumb.

The new GE commercial where the elephant is doing a little happy dance? First of all, I learned off of a Snapple cap that elephants are the only mammals that can't jump. Second, there is a Macaw in that commercial too. Macaws and elephants don't live in the same place. That's dumb too.

I will take Paris Hilton eating a cheeseburger or MaryAnne from Gilligan's Island having a pie filling wrestling match any day. They may be lewd and tacky, but at least they aren't dumb.

Back from KCK

Lovely trip to Kansas City on the Kansas side. Parents, shopping, chain restaurants, old friends and big summer storms. Almost as good as Austin.

According to this calculator thing that I found on MSN, I would only have to make $20K per year to live in Kansas City and maintain the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed (ha!). That, coupled with the fact that my KC friends have recently purchased a ginormous beautiful house in Overland Park (the KC burbs), led me to ponder leaving the big city and heading back to the midwest. On one hand, I would LOVE to be able to buy a house. That just ain't gonna happen in L.A. Maybe a $300,000 condo, but unless there is an earthquake or a major bubble burst, there are no houses in my immediate future. There are other great things about the burbs too. Every single chain restaurant and retail store that I have ever heard of is within a 5-mile radius. That would be convenient. There is basically no traffic. That would be fab. There are yards. Except for the mowing part, I would be down with a yard.

On the other hand though, it all seems so Wisteria Lane. Everything is new and shiny. There is basically no diversity. Museums? Nope. Live music scene? Nope. I remember being in the LNC growing up and being so bored, and I can't imagine going back to that. I like the fact that the fiance has a really cool job, and he can really only do that in a big city. I like working in a big city (although Calabasas is something else altogether). Maybe I will feel differently when it comes time to have kids and things like good schools and big yards become more important, but for now, I will keep L.A. and visit the midwest every once and a while to enjoy the suburban life for what it offers and to remind myself why I left in the first place.

Amendment

I was thinking a little more about that last blog. I think that my nostalgia is misplaced. I thought that I wanted to go back to being more innocent and carefree, but I was never that person, so it's not like I can go BACK to that. Kitaki girl isn't shallow or narrowminded, but she is infinitely content with her life in Lincoln. She is happy going to UNL and staying with her highschool boyfriend. Hell, she is over the moon excited about getting a job at Wilderness Ridge. Lip gloss truly makes her happy. I, being the cynical drama queen that I am, was never that content. On one hand, that is a good thing. People who aren't content are the ones who go out and make changes in the world. They live exciting lives and push themselves to go further. On the other hand, I wish that I could have been a little more like her. Why couldn't I have appreciated the value in hanging out with friends and eating buffalo wings without worrying about what I should be doing instead? Why do I have to be such a malcontent?

Tonight I will buy myself a new lip gloss. I will make an effort to appreciate my newly shiny lips and try to be more content with what I have in my life, instead of worrying about how to get the things that I don't have.