Jackass
It's also the shuttle runs late and pisses everyone off day at Holiday Inn. My roommate got down there at 545. I got down there at 615, at which point we were refused entry to a shuttle. "Airport only." We then waited until 645a, at which point we were again refused a ride, and at which point me and Lori went in and threw a fucking fit and got at least half of us on the bus. We had to leave some flight attendants behind, which sucked because it was their last day.
We got there late and had to eat breakfast in class, but luckily our instructor was too surprised that the shuttles wouldn't pick us up that we didn't have lectures about eating at the computers.
Yesterday I learned how to check a passenger in, how to check the seating charts on our flights and other flights, and how to change ticket status. I chatted with alana the whole time, so I now have boarding passes for Moll Flanders and Ponce De Leon. Moll also checked a bag, so I have a bag tag for her.
Lunch was McAllisters, I had a chicken salad on a croissant, and we bitched some more about not having cokes and other such drinks provided for us with lunch.
Hung out with Glenn, who's 41 and ex-Navy from Gulfport. He was a fireman down there after Katrina. It's really interesting how the every-day language has changed after Katrina happened; like, those of us who live down here can say "after the storm" and everyone knows exactly what you're talking about. We all had the same experiences at the same time, whether you got the brunt of the storm or the outskirts-- it's something that affected the entire SE and TX.
After a while, we all ehaded in, and Joseph and I watched Stealth (otherwise known as the best worst movie ever) and then I tooled around on the net for a while and went to bed.
Then, at 530, there was a fire alarm in my dream. Turns out there was a fire alarm in real life. That we totally would have missed if Jackie (my roommate) hadn't already been up. It was hella loud once you got out of your room, but there's no flashing light or buzzy thing inside the rooms, only in the hallway.
A lot of the XJT people weren't out there, probably didn't hear it, but the ones of us who were didn't look too happy. The hotel also wouldn't tell us what was wrong, but it was obvious there wasn't an actual fire because they were still inside and nobody was running around with urgency (not unlike possums). They eventually let us back in and I went to sleep for like another five hours and life was good. Except for the sneezing.
Brent came and picked me up for a day wandering around Houston. We went to Good(e?) Company BBQ which was delish, and I started sneezing like a maniac. We went to the Zoo and I got even more miserable. For some reason when I walked out of my room I was like, "Nah, I don't need to grab more than one Tylenol Allergy Sinus, I'll be fine!" Famous last words. Brent's had a cold/sinusy thing and so we were both stniffling and nose blowing and coughing all night. It was pretty funny. One of us would sniff and the other would cough and then the other would cough and the second would sniff. Houston agrees with neither of us.
We went to Walgreens, to where I had transferred my NuvaRing (I had been trying to get it the past few days and nobody in the area of the hotel had it in stock), and the pharmacist lady was like, "Yeah, it doesn't renew until tomorrow, so if you come back at mindight it should be fine." We took that in stride and went on for lunch and then zoo. After the zoo, we went to the "world's largest liquor store" oka Spec's. It really had some fabulous amazing things, including small bottles of vodka/gin, etc. I don't mean the shooters, I mean enough to make a couple drinks but not large bottles. It was beautiful, amazing. I fell in love. We then went back to his house where we watched some sporadic news, and talked about what's been going on in the area post-Katrina. For those of you who don't know, crime jumped 70%.
Decided to go see a movie and went for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby which wasn't necessarily funny overall, but had some really awesome lines.
"El Diablo!"
"What does that mean?"
"It's Spanish for a fightin' chicken!"
The deadbeat dad was great.
We go have Greek food and I start to get nauseous; by the way, Edwards Cinema in Houston actually gives you your money's worth in concessions. I got a medium popcorn and a medium slushee and they were I shit you not the equivalent of a large anywhere else. It was ridonkulous.
We go to Walgreens at about half after midnight and they're like, "Nope, no can do." I get fed up and decide to just get the damn thing full price and my expresspay won't go through.
I go back to stay at Brent's house, where his mother continues to be overwhelmingly kind. She's my new addition to the mom hall of heroes. She out-Martha Stewart's Martha Stewart and she'd probably make her cry and then take her out with a shotgun. She's awesome, basically.
We go back to Walgreens this morning, get the perscription and here I am, still sneezing and thinking that I might want to take a nap and let the Tylenol Allergy Sinus do its job so that I'm a functioning human being later today.
Ciao for now, more as things arise, I'm sure.