The most irritating thing present in nearly all lounges must be CNN. I don’t mind news, but watching uber-emphatic perky ditzbombs attempt to leaven news with humor and cleavage and an irritating voice grates on me more than I’d expected. Still, CNN beats nearly any other channel.Â
It’s been a few days of travel and my plane out of Dulles is delayed five hours, so I’ll try to quickly recapitulate.Â
– I spent a very pleasant weekend with Janet’s parents, talking, singing, eating, and playing games. It was short and a little unreal, but much better than not meeting them at all. We visited the Leu Gardens and the Morse Museum – I may post pictures later.Â
– Jesus checked my passport and called me “bro.”Â
– The Orlando airport has free internet in the lounge. See, Dulles, it can be done!Â
– I spent two days here in the D.C. area, mostly with Lenny, Stephanie, and their daughter Eliana, who for the first part of the evening couldn’t stop staring at me. Apparently, she’s never done it that persistently with anyone else. I don’t build my self-esteem on how other people’s 10-month-olds react to me, but I did feel a bit better when she started acting a little more relaxed and even played with me a bit.Â
– I also got to visit Tanya’s third-grade class to gross out yet another cohort of impressionable kids with how the holes get into Swiss cheese (Emmentaler, for the initiates). We hung out at Starbucks to chat after class, where upon request the baristoso gave me a plate for my peanut butter crispy rice with chocolate drizzle along with a spurious explanation of how the plate made it even healthier.Â
– In the evening, Lenny, Stephanie, and I had a discussion about how to respond when you feel that others are taking advantage of your generosity. Where are the limits between caring for and being there for others, and how and when can you tell someone to assume their own responsibility? How does going the extra mile and not withholding our cloak play into that?Â
– With my plane delayed and me being early, I checked in faster than ever before. I was too early for the customs office that would stamp my Carnet A.T.A., but a female officer apparently just arriving on duty offered to take care of it anyway. It doesn’t make for something I can crack a joke about, but if I complain about officials, I also need to commend.Â
– The security line was so short there was nobody there except the security agents in mood for banter. After passing through and getting everything packed up again, I walked to the B gates past a sign urging me to start my government career with a job as a travel security agent. Sure, why not, that’s how most of our presidents started out, didn’t they?Â
– I walked up the 90 steps at the B terminal again. I need to practice more.Â
– I pay for this internet, but it is spotty – I don’t think a skype call would work well.Â
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A five hour delay and you can’t Skype? I hope you have a good book, as I’m sure you do. Love ya.
Now you know even more why I asked for prayers for the weather and our flights, especially Porter’s.
I agree about the CNN. My favorite airport is Pittsburgh, which not only does not have inescapable, blaring television screens, but soothes its stranded passengers with soft classical music. Not that I’ve ever been stranded there, or even had to wait long.
I hope the delay doesn’t mess up your connections, though it’s hard to imagine a five-hour wait not doing so.
We thoroughly enjoyed your visit, even if it was not just unreal, but surreal at times. We especially thank you for stepping in at our Roberts Burns moment:
The best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men
Gang aft agley
Well, I had no connection other than a need to get to my hotel in Tokyo, where I now am.
Robert Burns moment? How so?
And by the way, I think “Jesus checked my passport” has country music hit potential.
The “choir director has the flu what can the choir do instead at the last minute and with no rehearsal” moment. It was kind of fun; I haven’t lived on the musical/liturgical edge like that since a few churches ago.
(Stephan is a good singer and an amazing sight reader. I would never have known the hymns were unfamiliar to him had he not said so.)
ditzbomb…another kind term that is only used to describe women. I’ll give you that reporters in general can be annoying (what is with the tone?!), and being a “captive” audience to CNN is a pain, but really…if you think about it…all those cheerful girl reporters are at least intelligent enough to graduate from college and hold a job with a major broadcaster, which is nothing to sneeze at. Ditzbomb might be a less than fair label.
I now understand the Robert Burns moment, but the parenthetical embarrasses me… oh well.
Sorry, steph. You’re right, I got carried away. Robin Meade later disappeared and was replaced by some bald dude that kept leaning into the camera and was just as annoying in his own right. It’s just that there is a significant hotness gradient between male and female news anchors, so it makes a person wonder what qualifies a news anchor for the job. Or maybe it points to other problems beyond just news anchorage.
🙂 I have wondered that myself. But I think women in jobs like that have enough money to pay for gym memberships, expensive haircuts and colors, stylists, etc. that they’re already at a distinct advantage over most women. Add to that a makeup artist at work and the knowledge that they’re up for scrutiny by millions of people every day, and just about any woman would be looking her VERY best. My dad always says that in our society the only thing it’s not ok for a woman to be is unattractive…she can be vulgar, or mean, or anything else, so long as she’s pretty. And I think you see that reflected in high-visibility jobs like news. In the last election cyle I was watching results with a bunch of classmates, and the guys in the group insisted on a particular channel because the anchor was prettier…so, I think the news crew is only a reflection of public expectation.
Well, that brings me to the one positive aspect of Hillary Clinton as #44: the media would be so occupied with her hair and her fashion the important things would not get messed up.
It also makes you wonder what’s wrong with the news channels if the only distinction between them is anchor cuteness.
Or it makes you give up TV and buy a newspaper. Watching it live doesn’t change the results.
Oh, dear. It’s written somewhere in the motherhood contract that it’s part of a mother’s job to embarrass her children; apparently that extends to boyfriends as well. And Jon would say husbands, too.
Steph, there was a great video produced by the Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty” that showed what tricks go into making people look the way they do on TV, but alas I can’t find it quickly on their site and don’t have time to look for it. Maybe Janet or Heather remember it.
yeah, I’d be interested to see that. I’ve been watching the Dove marketing for a while…it’s an interesting campaign they have going.
Here’s a link to their film gallery: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/dsef07/t5.aspx?id=7373. The one I remembered is “Evolution.”
Thanks for posting the link! 🙂