Fun and Games Dept

So I just got back from Christmas shopping by myself. Earl is in the red state of Tennessee until tomorrow and Jamie is on his way home from Indiana. With these moments of solitude, I decided that it would be a great time to go do some shopping at the local mall.

I’m not a fan of Sangertown Square, but it works in a pinch. Built in 1980, it was one of the many malls in the area where folklore dictated that it would sink into the swamp land it was built on by 1985. That didn’t happen. Sangertown Square has the basic anchor stores: Sears, JC Penney, Macy’s and Target. There’s really nothing to set it apart from any other mall in the northeast and if you were to walk into the Hampshire Mall in Hadley, Mass. or the Ithaca Mall in Ithaca, you would see the EXACT same mall with the same decorations inside and out. It’s kind of weird.

When I went to the mall this evening I had no idea that it was open until midnight. Apparently that’s the thing to do during the holiday season these days, so I didn’t feel the pressure of purchasing a bunch of crap for my loved ones. I took the time to pick out what I thought they would like and then stroll around the mall with the hope of seeing other happy shoppers.

The place was damn near empty. And that’s okay in my book.

I have just one or two more things on my list and I will have my shopping complete for the year, or at least until Earl and I shop after the holidays.

Talking to Earl this evening we decided that we didn’t find our shopping trip to Destiny USA last Saturday to be as holiday-fulfilling as usual. I think it was because the mall was too close to us. So we decided to spin the “big wheel o’ roadtrips to malls” (think of that big wheel on the Price As Right but without the outdated “boop” sound) and we found our target mall for an all-day road trip on Saturday: Danbury Fair in Danbury, Connecticut. At only four hours away from our house, it’ll be different than what we’re used to and it’ll feel like we went somewhere else to do our shopping. It’s been years since we’ve been to the Greater Danbury Area and we both had the feeling that Connecticut could use some holiday smiles and happy shoppers these days, so that’s what we’re going to do.

I’ll have to look on the Danbury Fair site to see if they are open until midnight. How I love looking forward to a road trippin’ adventure.

This morning that has been much rejoicing on the internet because Google Maps has returned to the iPhone. I have never really been a fan of GPS devices or GPS programs. I find people’s reliance on these devices to be somewhat disconcerting. During a conversation with a sales clerk several years ago, she mentioned that she had recently moved to the Syracuse area from Arizona. Curious, I asked which way she came across the country. Even more curious was her response, “I’m not sure, I just followed the GPS all the way, but I’m pretty sure I went through Idaho or maybe Oregon.”

Ok, then.

Even though I’m not a fan of the GPS devices (because I think that one should have the skills of map reading), we still use them from time to time to navigate where we need to go, especially when we are in an unfamiliar place. During our vacation last week we tried to use Apple Maps on Earl’s iPhone 4S to navigate from the rental car lot to Interstate 45. Siri announced that we should turn right, which would have taken us up an “Authorized Vehicles Only” road, through a chain link fence, across an active runway (as indicated by the Airbus that was landing), through another chain link fence and eventually onto Interstate 45.

I’m happy that I didn’t blindly follow the GPS directions.

All of that being said, I have to admit that Google Maps does a pretty spiffy job of providing navigational aid. I have never tried their public transit directions because we don’t really have public transit in Upstate New York, but I do like the clear, concise directions given when behind the wheel. I don’t find Ms. Google to be annoying and I’m happy that she is able to live within the confines of my ancient iPhone 4, a phone that Apple has deemed not worthy to house Siri.

I hear that the Google Maps experience on the iPhone now surpasses the experience on Google’s own Android OS devices. I find this interesting. I have found the experience on both platforms to be quite nice for GPS applications, so I have to say that I recommend anyone with an iPhone to download the app as soon as you can. Until Apple gets their crap together (and out of the airfield), we’ll just have to find our way courtesy of Google Maps.

So Earl and I are back to the work grind today after our vacation in Houston and New Orleans. I stepped on the scale yesterday morning and discovered that I maintained my own during our getaway and this was encouraging. I keep worrying about exercise and working right, but everything is still according to plan so I feel really good to go. Tonight we’ll be back to the gym for the first time in almost two weeks.

I am trying really hard to maintain the relaxed feeling I had over vacation during my day at work today. I had over 1000 emails awaiting my delete button when I started up my computer this morning and to keep it interesting, the folks in IT were kind enough to migrate my account to a new server (which we now outsource, apparently) and that process added to the merriment by including emails I had deleted way back to August, so the 1000 or so new emails had a few hundred others around to make the crowd of messages seem more lively.

All in all, though, the morning has been good and I’m getting done what needs to be done. I was happy to note that my iced tea was waiting for me at Dunkin’ Donuts just a few moments ago. It’s the little things that count.

After returning from vacation I always feel extra philosophical. It was back in 2004 or so that I raised my hands on Interstate 40 outside of Oklahoma City (we were in the Jeep and the top was off) and I yelled to the world that I was going to find a new job; two months later I was in a new job. I tend to reevaluate my life path after a vacation and today is no different. I’m pretty happy with where things are and it would be chilly to take the top off the Jeep in December so I don’t have any grand declarations to make. Overall life is good as we get back to the daily grind.

Let’s see if I can keep this kick backed attitude through the holidays.

So we are now sitting on flight 740 en route from New Orleans to Dulles in Washington, D.C. So far the flight is smooth, the company is good and more importantly, the flight attendants are sassy. Unfortunately I did not get the name of the flight attendant that has thus far kicked a lavatory maintenance panel shut for me. She’s very happy and upbeat about her job and quite frankly this is a good thing. More people should be like her, including me. A good attitude with a bit of sass is a great contribution to the world.

Earl is watching the television presentation but not listening to it. I see Mark Harmon and Jamie Lee Curtis. I’m sure that Jamie Lee is a nice woman in person, she seems a bit sassy herself, but just the sight of her makes my stomach rumble. The only yogurt available one morning at one of our hotels was Activia and by midday I was screaming obscenities on Interstate 10 somewhere in Louisiana. This was probably alarming for someone within a 1/2 mile of my scream, because that stuff that Jamie Lee Curtis pitches makes my tummy roll.

I’d rather talk about sass than ass, quite frankly.

The plane just slowed down considerably and it feels like we are descending already. We are not scheduled to land for another hour but someone said we are going to be 30 minutes early. This will make the hike between terminals less stressful.

So Earl and I are sitting at MSY, the New Orleans International Airport. Our flight isn’t until 5:36 p.m. Central, but we are here a few hours early because we needed to check out of the hotel and we didn’t want to feel rushed getting through security and the like.

This is Earl’s first experience with using Passbook on his iPhone for his mobile boarding pass. In an effort to show him how easy it was to do, I went first and promptly scanned his boarding pass from my phone, causing a considerable amount of confusion. Apparently the United app downloaded all boarding passes attached to my reservation instead of mine and I didn’t notice this. What a hoot! If you ever want to get thrown down by some women and men in the TSA, set off some alarms, make lights flash, having women gasp in horror and ultimately have a gun pointed at your head, just try scanning someone else’s boarding pass with your picture ID.

I jest.

The truth of the matter is, Loretta the TSA person who was very friendly put on her serious face when the boarding pass and the picture ID did not match. Really serious. Like “I’m gowna kick ya in the ass” serious. Once I bumbled my way through Passbook and found the right boarding pass and ultimately received a green light from the scanning machine, Loretta per her happy face back on and said, “Y’all have a good day.” After I apologized for the confusion she said, “no problem, dawling, I just couldn’t figure out how y’all got his boarding pass.”

“We’re married.”

She didn’t say anything after that, but a kind of surreal aspect of this whole incident is that George Segal, from “Just Shoot Me” and “Retired At 35”, watched the whole incident and chuckled. I smiled weakly in his direction.

The folks at the New Orleans International Airport are taking great pains to remodel their terminal area for the comfort of their passengers. The kicker of all this is that there’s not enough chairs in the dining area for all the people that want to dine. Luckily, I left Earl in charge of seating whilst I fetched the food. When I returned with our healthy choices I didn’t see anyone crying, so I knew I didn’t have to ask questions.

I haven’t blogged nearly as much as I planned to this vacation because Earl and I were busy having a good time. The weather in both Houston and New Orleans was absolutely gorgeous. This must be my first time ever traveling in December because hearing Christmas music blaring while looking at palm trees and enjoying 80 degree temperatures was messing with my head a little bit. The weather was quite enjoyable but it doesn’t feel like Christmas to me. That’s okay. Rumor has it that our home has been decorated festively. Something to look forward to when we arrive tonight.

Many of my updates have gone to Facebook, Twitter and Google+ this trip. I didn’t want to be one of those ones that falls victim to replacing a thought out blog entry with little bursts of prose through the microblogging services, but sometimes one needs to step away from long amounts of technology when they’re on vacation, especially when you use technology on a second by second basis both in your personal and professional existence.

Because Earl and I vacationed in both Houston and New Orleans, and because the vibes of the city are very different from each other, we feel like we have had two vacations in one and I’m very happy with the decision to do this. I’m not a partier like I used to be so Bourbon Street felt a little overwhelming at times, but for the most part my head is in a good place and I’m ready to tackle on the year-end tasks in my career and bring on 2013 (Mayan Prophecies willing, of course).

And to think we have one more day of this weekend before going back to work. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s only Saturday.

So Earl and I landed at Houston Airport yesterday morning 45 minutes ahead of schedule. Since it was still morningtime, we couldn’t check into the hotel until 3:00 p.m., so we decided to head up to an area north of Houston called “The Woodlands”. This is a planned community that has a lot of retail and other stuff going on. We walked the mall (which was like most malls) and then went across the main street to what they call Market Street. This area had the same kind of vibe as Main Street of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom; very clean and modern and not entirely what it seemed to be. Nevertheless, shopping was enjoyable and I picked up a few things needed for the trip. We also enjoyed a beverage at Starbucks with our online friend Jay. He was very nice in a person.

Last night Earl and I explored Downtown Houston a bit, which doesn’t really have a lot going on outside of banker’s hours, apparently. It was still enjoyable though, and we walked to the festivities near the convention center, where there were people ice skating (despite 75F weather) and beautiful holiday decorations that put me in the holiday spirit.

Today Earl and I drove to the Battleship TEXAS. The tour is self-guided so we checked out many of the nooks and crannies of this massive ship that saw action during both World War I and II.

From there we headed to the San Jacinto Monument, which is 12 feet taller than the Washington Monument. Built in 1936, I LOVED the architecture of this monument.

The elevator ride was acceptable because you could see the emergency stairs through a little window in the car, which assured that you were actually moving. I like knowing what’s going on.

After the visit to the battleship and the monument we headed down to the coast to the Kemah Boardwalk, where we had a delightful lunch and a nice walk and then we were on to Galveston, where we watched surfers play in the gulf.

It has been a most excellent, relaxing day. I’ve been chatting more about it on Facebook and Instagram, be sure to check out all the photos there.

Earl and I are en route to Cleveland, the one hop between home and Houston, our immediate vacation destination. Our flight attendant’s name is Myrna and she is very nice and professional.

I always tell Earl how much I love flying whenever we go anywhere. I don’t necessarily like most passengers, but I love being in a plane and soaring above the land. I find it to be relaxing.

I just said to Earl, “I miss my Dad”. It has been a year today that he crashed in his second home built airplane. He died doing what he loved and that is probably the best way to go. I find comfort in that. A lot has transpired over the past year and I have learned a lot about people as a result of my dad’s death. I miss telling him about our adventures and I miss his good nature. But I will always thank him for my love of flight, because its pretty awesome when you can soar above the Earth.

We should be in Cleveland in about an hour, so for now I’m going to sit back, relax and enjoy the flight.

So Earl and I are on our first night of our vacation. Tomorrow morning, at the bright and early time of 0556 ET, we will be on a play headed for Cleveland. From there we will hop to Houston, with our scheduled arrival time at 1045 CT. It’s an early start to the day, but at least we will be able to enjoy the day tomorrow and do some of our initial exploring of the fourth largest city in the United States. We are very excited about relaxing and exploring this vacation.

Because we have to get up really early tomorrow morning, we decided to stay near the Syracuse Airport to avoid the crazy drive in the pre-milking hours of the day. So we are stationed at the Holiday Inn Express on So. Bay Rd. in No. Syracuse. I love using those old style abbreviations in that previous sentence because when I was a kid all the road signs says “So. Bay Rd.” and “No. Syracuse”. I wonder if they still use those older abbreviations in other parts of the country. We’ll find out that point in the Houston area tomorrow.

We don’t have a lot of plans made for this vacation other than a tour of the Space Center on Tuesday. I am really looking forward to that. We might meet up with our friend Jay , whom we met for the first time (in person) in Toronto almost a decade ago, for lunch or drinks or something like that. The main focus of this vacation is to lose ourselves in a relaxing time. I’m looking forward to doing just that.

To start the vacation off, a photo. I call this picture of me, “Use of Effects To Mask Poor Lighting Conditions.”

The 2004 Motorola Flip Phone at the next table is screaming for its charger. Earl has a hot green tea with a couple squirts of honey. Jamie is reading a bunch that he is contemplating purchasing. I am reading and responding to emails.

All is normal at Barnes and Noble.

“I’d like to write a blog entry before I leave”, I muse.

“It took you an hour to respond to an email.” This is accompanied by a glare.

I send out an all-points Tweet and Facebook status update:

Someone give that old woman a charger for her rotary flip phone so it stops beeping!

Earl looks at his phone and starts doing something electronic. Jamie continues to read the book he might buy.

I get a look from the husband. He says to me, deadpan, “Sooner or later my bowels are going to explode.”

And so ends this blog entry.