travel

I'm sitting in the airport, in Marquette, MI. It's easily the smallest airport I've passed through, and the most exclusive -- Only Delta and AA fly commercially through this city. Folks are trickling in. Every non-uniformed person in here will fall into either of two groups: Folks waiting for arrivals, or folks waiting to fly on the same plane I'll be boarding. Only about four flights are departing from Marquette today. Dad went out on the 11:20am and I'm on the next flight... at 3:50pm. He's going through Detroit and on to Pennsylvania; I'm going through Minneapolis and on to Oregon.

I'm actually writing this entry mid flight to Houston. There's nothing better for reminiscing than being stuck in a seat for three and a half hours. All is calm, all is bright, save a blonde hair-flipping college athlete sitting one row in front of me, with all of her “like” and “drama” and “totally” chatter to her seat mate. On a different day or trip I'd be irritated that she can't keep her voice below bar level. Today? I'm flying high in all senses, so she's off the hook. Then again, I've only been on the plane for about 30 minutes. And now a baby just started screaming.

I'm sitting in the library, realizing that in my five years here at Clemson I never noticed the ceiling. Did I just never look up? Or was I too busy doing library-ish things? Back when it was constructed, I'm sure this place was state of the art and considered very beautiful. It's a huge building, crammed completely full of books and periodicals and other media.

"His momma done raised him up right," as they say. At Backstreets on Friday night, the bartender said "Thanks for comin' in, Beautiful," when he handed me my tab. "Beautiful"?! Know how long it's been since a complete stranger has used a pet name when addressing me? Loooong time. In fact, I gave him a very perplexed look in response because I had no idea what to say back to him. Thursday, while helping Latice load boxes off of a platform and into her vehicle, a guy rolled down the window of his van and shouted, "Ya'll are doin' too much there" and sent his sidekick to our rescue.

For the next few days I'm going to be a bit quiet here on Look, Something Shiny! Latice and Bryan are keeping me very busy with projects, delicious meals, and chuckles over "high gravity" beers. But don't think that I'm not going to do my best to tell you all about it. From now until the 19th of this month, check the Photos page frequently to see the fun through my camera lens. Whenever I have a quiet moment (and I anticipate one or two this weekend) I'll post some stories about the goings-on.

Airplanes were once places of luxury and comfort, complete with gourmet food and plush seating. Those days are long gone, at least for the average traveler. Unless you have tons of money and free time, once you enter the air travel system you are subjected to delays, disappointments, and violations of your privacy and/or personal space. You are forced to place trust in companies and people who might be trying their best, but are doing so in a misguided fashion.