d.c., en route

I m currently blogging to you from our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. I flew out on Friday to visit Drew, and naturally, I am having a good time. Here are a couple notes from my flight:

I have decided out that people see to be incapable of following simple instructions. Now, I have heard many grad students say this with shock and disappointment about their students, but I have decided that human beings are just incapable of listening. This isn't a quality specific to undergrads. Take, boarding an airplance for instance. I don't know how many times we were instructed to place smaller carry on items under the seats so that larger items could it in the overhead compartments. I heard this several times. Yet, as I was walking down the aisle, I saw several items in the overhead compartment that could have easily fit under the seat. Fortunately, I found space for my small suitcase; otherwise, I would have removed somebody's small carry on, yelled at them, and beat them over the head with it before placing it under their seat. I'm just kidding, but a part of me would get some pleasure out of this. I mean, seriously, my backpack fits under the seat, and that contains a computer, books, magazines, brownies, water bottle, my ziploc baggie of liquids, and a partridge in a pear tree. My point here is that a lot of crap will fit under the seat, and nobody listens to fight attendants.

My layover was in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I think I pretty much saw everything that could sum it up from the plane. I saw the lake and mountains. Anyway, as I was making my way from the plane to the terminal, I could definitely tell that it was humid. I hate humidity, and the nice thing about Southern California is that we don't have it. There. I said something nice about California.

I was on the plane, flipping through the Sky Mall magazine. This is the catalogue of overpriced crap that we don't need. I found a pet geneology kit for $59.95. Then I found a company that sells business book summaries. See, apparently, business people are too busy running their companies and making money to read business books. Enter in a company that will send you 5 page summaries of important business strategy books. It boasts a 5,000 summary database and you can have unlimited access for $299. If that price sounds too high, you can pay $89 for 30 summaries. But there's a catch with this one: you pick 4 summaries, and then the company sends you 26 other summaries based on what you picked. So, not only are you not even reading the books, but you're not even choosing which book summaries you get to read.

I also came across a Marshmallow Shooter Gun for $24.95. I don't think I need to explain this one. I was thinking that this was an incredible waste of money and wondering what on earth someone would do with a marshmallow gun. But then I had visions of myself standing on the balcony outside my 6th floor office, shooting marshmallows down at unsuspecting passerby on Ring Road. And so I reconsidered my original thoughts. Maybe a marshmallow gun isn't such a silly idea.

All right, more blogging to come later. Lots to explore in D.C., and of course, it's great to see Drew.