New Years
I'm ridiculously behind on reading my Friends List. I apologize. If you have big news and think I haven't heard it, please tell me in comments (or message me on LJ if it isn't appropriate for everyone's eyes).
I've also been ridiculously busy the last couple days, getting ready to fly to Florida tonight to visit my mom & brother, which is terribly exciting. Spending time with them is always a great treat (we laugh so much when we're together that we make people look), and I love to travel (I even love hanging out in airports, which Shannon says is completely crazy), but the packing and getting ready part always stresses me out a bit. I'm always sure I must be forgetting something important, or I've left something in my bag that is going to get broken or spill or otherwise cause disaster. I think I have these vague worries because many such problems have occurred in the past, which I think is probably pretty common among people who have travelled a lot. There's the time sunscreen exploded in the suitcases and coated all your clothes ... or the time you got to the airport and realized you hadn't brought the tickets (back in the days when people had physical tickets) ... or the time you didn't leave enough time for transit and missed the plane ... or the time you forgot to pack enough pairs of underwear ... or or or or an infinite number of little disasters. None of them are the end of the world, of course, but I always feel these little niggling doubts that I'm missing something, and I don't like feeling like I'm missing something, especially when the feeling is likely to be wrong.
So I've spent a lot of time today on packing and going through my list to make sure I have everything, and the iTouch is charged, and the audiobooks are not set to "shuffle" (this has happened to me before, and I haven't found any way to fix it on the iTouch once the book has already been loaded -- I can only fix it on my Mac before the sync -- and so the audiobook ends up completely useless while I'm away from home, because audiobooks aren't particularly enjoyable when the chapters are played in random order), and the things I will need in transit are in my backpack and not in the suitcase, and all that random stuff.
So anyway ... I'll be flying the "red eye" for the first time within the U.S. All flights to Europe and Great Britain fly overnight, of course, but that's a little different. You don't have to change planes in the wee hours, for example. On this trip, I'll have a 3-hour layover in North Carolina, starting at what will feel to me like 3 a.m. Luckily, it'll be 6 a.m. there, and so some of the stores and restaurants will probably start opening, and so I'll be able to explore a bit and stretch my legs. Also, the entire terminal apparently has free wifi -- woo hoo! -- and a pleasant relaxation area with very comfy chairs (including, oddly enough, rocking chairs) and sometimes live music on a grand piano. I'm curious to see it all, which is lucky, since I'll be there for 3 hours.
I'm not sure I said this, but I'm hoping you all have a happy 2013. I like new beginnings.
I've also been ridiculously busy the last couple days, getting ready to fly to Florida tonight to visit my mom & brother, which is terribly exciting. Spending time with them is always a great treat (we laugh so much when we're together that we make people look), and I love to travel (I even love hanging out in airports, which Shannon says is completely crazy), but the packing and getting ready part always stresses me out a bit. I'm always sure I must be forgetting something important, or I've left something in my bag that is going to get broken or spill or otherwise cause disaster. I think I have these vague worries because many such problems have occurred in the past, which I think is probably pretty common among people who have travelled a lot. There's the time sunscreen exploded in the suitcases and coated all your clothes ... or the time you got to the airport and realized you hadn't brought the tickets (back in the days when people had physical tickets) ... or the time you didn't leave enough time for transit and missed the plane ... or the time you forgot to pack enough pairs of underwear ... or or or or an infinite number of little disasters. None of them are the end of the world, of course, but I always feel these little niggling doubts that I'm missing something, and I don't like feeling like I'm missing something, especially when the feeling is likely to be wrong.
So I've spent a lot of time today on packing and going through my list to make sure I have everything, and the iTouch is charged, and the audiobooks are not set to "shuffle" (this has happened to me before, and I haven't found any way to fix it on the iTouch once the book has already been loaded -- I can only fix it on my Mac before the sync -- and so the audiobook ends up completely useless while I'm away from home, because audiobooks aren't particularly enjoyable when the chapters are played in random order), and the things I will need in transit are in my backpack and not in the suitcase, and all that random stuff.
So anyway ... I'll be flying the "red eye" for the first time within the U.S. All flights to Europe and Great Britain fly overnight, of course, but that's a little different. You don't have to change planes in the wee hours, for example. On this trip, I'll have a 3-hour layover in North Carolina, starting at what will feel to me like 3 a.m. Luckily, it'll be 6 a.m. there, and so some of the stores and restaurants will probably start opening, and so I'll be able to explore a bit and stretch my legs. Also, the entire terminal apparently has free wifi -- woo hoo! -- and a pleasant relaxation area with very comfy chairs (including, oddly enough, rocking chairs) and sometimes live music on a grand piano. I'm curious to see it all, which is lucky, since I'll be there for 3 hours.
I'm not sure I said this, but I'm hoping you all have a happy 2013. I like new beginnings.