Cody

The crayfish, crawdad or crawdaddy – a fresh water miniature version of the lobster. That may soon be our state invertebrate. Cody’s class was learning about how bills getting passed in state. And they proposed a bill to make the crayfish a state symbol. Our district’s state rep Dennis Wood chaired the proposal and put in on the Tourism Committee’s task. A couple of weeks ago, Cody’s class got to go to the state capital & give a presentation about why the crayfish should become a state symbol to the Tourism Committee. Cody was one of the speakers. It did pass in committee. Now it goes to the State House & then State Senate. I went with him and he did a great job, of course. They had a video feed from our state capital to the school. So the whole school got to watch. Cody was on the news & in the paper too. He was a very popular kid. It was a very cool experience for him & his classmates.

I made it home

I used to love to travel or fly as the case may be. I really did not mind all of my cancellations and delays on the way to CA. Yes, I thought that I was going to have an aneurism over the whole ordeal, but all in all I got through it with a pretty good attitude.

On my trip home, the flight from OC to Denver was an interesting one to say the least. As I boarded the plane (which took off 20 minutes late) I looked at my boarding pass to verify my seat. Yes, I have an isle seat. I never get up, but I like to know that I am able to whenever I want without disturbing others. As I approached my isle, I see that someone is sitting in my seat. So I look at them, with that look of “this is where I belong”. The couple gets up & moves out of the way for me to move into the window. So I ask would you like me to sit in by the window. Yes they say. Neither one of them even acknowledged the fact that I am giving up my isle seat. I was a little upset by this and even thought to myself “fine, waiting until I have to get up 3 times during this trip”, but I say a little attitude prayer to myself and decide not to be ugly about it. Then as I get settled after take off, I lean my seat back & feel this tap on my shoulder. The lady behind me, who does not speak English, points to my seat, points to the CHILD in the seat behind me and says no. Like I cannot put my seat back because it is getting in the way of the little girl!!! Ok – another MAJOR attitude prayer at this point. Patients, tolerance and sacrifice are what I am being taught, right? Lucky for this girl that she is a cute little Asian otherwise, I would have still been lying back (probably not). THEN … the people in front of me decide to change a poopy diaper right in the seat. That smell on a plane is NOT OK!!!!!!

Did I say that I love to fly??? Have you ever had a bad travel experience?

Part 2

OH – I forgot – no luggage when I was stuck in Chicago. Ok, so I get to the airport Monday for my 10:45 flight that is delayed until 11:30, which gives me 15 minutes to catch my connecting flight to OC from LAX. I board the plane, YEAH. I am on the plane. 11:30 rolls around, we are still sitting at the gate. 11:40 rolls around and now I am getting concerned. The pilot comes across on the intercom to say that they are having mechanical difficulties and they do not know when they will take off. It is going to be more than 5 minutes. More like another hour. So, now I have missed my connecting flight from LAX to OC. So, I exit the plane, go to the ticket counter & now they can get me to OC on a direct flight from Chicago at 5:05 PM. It is now 12:00 PM. So, I call a co worker to come get me & take me back to my office in Chicago. I stayed there all afternoon & worked. I made the 5:05 flight & FINALLY made it to the OC at 7:30 Pacific time. My luggage was right there waiting on me. Needless to say, when I made it to the hotel, I crashed!

I head home on Saturday – PRAY for a boring, non eventful trip home for me – thanks!

Life on the road

So this is what Mr. T feels like… I am sitting in Panera people watching and waiting for a flight. I started my day yesterday, dreading my trip to Orange County, CA. Why? I do not know. I just had this “feeling”. I arrived at the Springfield Airport around 11:00 AM. Ready to catch my 12:30 flight to Denver, then on to OC. After arrival, I see that my flight is delayed until 1:20. NO problem. Still plenty of time to catch my connecting flight in Denver, and if I miss my flight the ticket agent informs me that there is a flight out of Denver at 7:30 into OC. Apparently the plane had some mechanical issues. So the plane that is coming had not even left, I go up to the counter around 12:30 for an update, and the plane still had not left, moving the new departure time to 1:50, making me miss my connecting flight – and now the 7:30 flight is sold out & no more flights out of Denver into OC all day.

Plan B – I inquire as to if I can be rerouted – my airline only files to Denver & Chicago out of Springfield. So, I can catch a flight to Chicago at 2:50 that gets me into Chicago and a connecting flight at 5:00 to OC. I take it. 1:45 rolls around and this flight is DELAYED TOO!!! Now I am not leaving until 3:15, missing my 5:00 connecting flight. Now I have a 7:45 connecting flight. OK – I will take that. I have friends in Chicago, I will have them pick me up to take me to dinner during my 3 hour layover. After dinner, I call the airline, confirm flight is on schedule. On route to the airport (15 minutes) a strong thunderstorm comes in. I arrive at the airport, and my flight is delayed. The plane coming in is not able to land. They are sent to Detroit. No plane to go to OC. Now I have a 10:45 flight out. BUT in OC there is a curfew on flights. So I am going to go to LAX, and tax a shuttle to OC, but at 1:00 AM, the shuttle service may not be open. OH, and the weather is still bad, no guarantee of plane, so the 10:45 flight is questionable. FLIGHT CANCELED.

Plan C – Spent the night in Chicago. All flights direct into OC are booked for Monday due to regular travel & rebooked flights. So I am to take a flight from Chicago to LAX to OC. It is around 9:00 am, my flight is supposed to leave at 10:45, checked online & it is already delayed!

To be continued…

You are only as old as you feel

If you remember from my birthday post and some previous, I am somewhat having a mid life crisis. Part of my crisis is because although I am almost 30 and have some major responsibilities in my life, some times I do not feel or always act 30, or almost 30. And apparently recently people want to reinforce that with me. Or I was just lapping up all the flattery. First of all I met a couple of people last week that thought I was 24 – one person in particular I will be blogging about tomorrow. Then the conversation came up with someone else about my age. He said I do not look as old as I am, but when I start talking, I have such a professional tone that it is hard to guess my age. So I was telling Holly about this during our girls’ night out Saturday. For dinner that night, we went to a Japanese Steak House. The chef started talking about different restaurants & I said that I had been to a lot and that I like to eat. He goes it shows. I will just start calling Ms. Metabolism. Then he asks my age. WAIT A MINUTE – what does my age have to do with this conversation. So I made him guess & then some girls at the table guessed too. They guessed 22-24. I said no, 28. None of them believed me. He even said that he was going to card me. I thought I was going to have to prove that I was 28!! Feel goods for Kira and her crumbled chips (I was told that AGAIN last week). I think I will try to win a prize at the next fair at the age guessing game. GO LANG LE!!

So, another funny part of the night was that this chef wanted to know what my ethnic background was – surprise!!! I told him, and then he asked if I could speak Korean, I said no. Then later he said thank you in Japanese – do not worry Mr. T I did not try to say it back, but I did laugh out loud thinking about K & I trying to learn how to say it. We sounded like 2 white girls for sure. Anyway, after laughing about my own private joke, I responded with De nada.

Workin' Girl

I officially started my new position yesterday. I made 3 calls and all in all I would call it a successful day. I made 3 calls today & another semi successful day. But BOY am I tired. This working full time stuff is hard. These brokers just ask so many questions, they make my brain hurt. I was sooo tired - today that I was planning on hitting the mall after my last call but I skipped it. I just headed straight to gma's house. Now that's tired!!!

I was planning on having a "light" day tomorrow, but I have 5 appointments scheduled PLUS a haircut. Priorites, you know. So I guess I will be putting in a full day, which is good for me.

So, I had this conversation the other day with someone & I was wondering if you guys think that I am crazy? That's a loaded question I know. But seriously, when I got done with the converstation, I thought I was crazy. Now, I think that I am a pretty smart person. I think logically and rationally, most of the time. But this person said things to me that made me think I was losing it. That I was the one that had no clue about reality. And when I thought about what they said, it was so far in left field, I do not even understand what world they live it. Now I know that perception is reality, but what if that person's perception is TRUELY rediculous? I was so frustrated by the end of the converstation, I thought I was going to scream. I just do not understand how someone's thought process can be so off and then it maked me question my own thought process. Is my persception "off"? But as I conferred with my sidekicks - I was thinking logically - whew! But how frustrating to talk to someone that is so irrational. Have you ever had a conversation like that? Do you have advice for me?