putting those shoes to good use

i am so freakin' lame.

you know those $100 adidas i was talking about the other day? the ones with the bouncy soles? well, i put them on, took a load of stuff out to my car, and drive 1/10th of a mile to check the mail. normally, i scoff at other folks who do these sorts of things. i call them "lazy" and voice various opinions in their general direction from the safety of my sealed vehicle. tonight, i was one of them. (i had a good reason, though- it was way after dark, i was by myself, and some of my neighbors are a little questionable.) i'll try not to let it happen again.

while i was in the car, i flipped through radio stations and landed on a discussion about "eerie, indiana" coming out on dvd. perhaps i'll have the credit card paid down enough to get it for my dad for father's day. (it's okay- i'm not spoiling the surprise- he never reads this blog, according to my statcounter.)

those shoes did come in handy when sprinting to the ticket counter this morning. (for once, the tardiness was not my fault, and the person at fault has been informed that i would not appreciate being that late again.) as we rushed to the ticket counter, the agents allowed us to bypass those stupid e-ticket machines i can never seem to operate, saying, "they're about to restirct the flight." while taking our bags and issuing our boarding passes simultaneously. after clearing security (handchecking my 800 speed film slowed us down a little), we half-ran to the gate, where we were just in time to board.

we got on the plane, stumbled down the aisle, and found our seats were already taken by a woman who was pushing her lycra to the limit. not only had she spread herself out over both of our seats, but she had her pillow out, eyes closed, and appeared to be blissfully dreaming. uh, great. so, since i was already a little on edge (4 hours of sleep before a 5:20 a.m. flight- you do the math), i loudly said, "uh- 19 a and b?" the seat squatter woke up from her snooze (or a doze, since she woke up pretty easily) and said, "no, this is 18.", to which the woman in the remaining seat replied, "NO, this is row 19." (i guess she was a little edgy, too, possibly because she thought this woman was going to take over her seat next.) the folks in row 18 held up their ticket stubs and said they were in seats a and b. so, NOT ONLY did this woman have the wrong row, but SHE WASN"T EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE IN A WINDOW SEAT! i'm guessing she was too uncomfortable cramming herself into one seat, that she figured she could just take over two adjoining vacant seats and hope no one would catch on.

i was livid, not that you can tell.

so, this "confused" soul moved up to her rightful seat. however, when the two seats across the aisle were vacated by a couple of folks who wore looks of concern after the standard, "please check your tickets to ensure (name of city) is on your itinerary. if (city) is not one you'd planned to fly to today, please return to the gate agent." their farts hadn't dissipated before this woman lurched across the aisle, lifted the armrest, and settled into the newly empty seats.

wow.

the second flight was far less interesting. (of course, between the two legs of our journey, i had to revisit the swatch store.)i suppose the highlight of that leg (aside from continental's tasty mini turkey sandwich) was the gate agent assuming my companion and i were married- and calling us "the paules family." ....did i call that a highlight? it was actually a little disturbing. i think i liked it better when everyone assumed i was jailbait. to think, less than six months ago, i was asked if i was traveling with an adult. dammit- whatever happened to my youthful good looks?

after rounding up our luggage and stopping at jack in the box (two tacos for 99 cents, and their egg rolls are surprisingly tasty, too), we got home a couple hours after we'd touched down. so far this evening, i've unpacked almost everything, checked my mail five times, updated my webpage (slightly), checked in and packaged tomorrow's makeup deliveries, typed up lesson plans, and made that long, hard trek to the mailbox. (laundry can wait.)

so, it's time to log off and put away my tennis shoes (i'm not trashing them at school- they're for serious workouts and trips to the mailbox only.)

(by the way, happy mother's day (if applicable))