Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Long Beach Harbor
The view of Queen Mary from Colbys suite. Turns out Colby, a good friend of mine, was getting married and wanted me to be in the wedding. Couldn't say no to that and caught a flight home for the nuptuals. Flying home is always a joy. I got a seat in the middle section of the plane on the aisle. I was elated to find no one had got on the plane with a ticket sitting next to me. I had the aisle on my right and an empty seat on my left with a couple at the other end of my row. Plenty of space for myself. Started watching a movie and a couple of hours later I was ready for a nap. Dipped my hat over my eyes and took a deep breath as I started to drift off. I was awakened by the man two seats away moving around. He was getting up and situating himself to move closer to me and take the empty seat to my left. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I thought. What the hell? Why would he do that? I was not pleased and let it be known. I asked hime what was wrong and through his strong German accent he answered me. "She vant
Wedding on the sea cliff
That is me, standing all the way over on the right. lie across. Thaunk yooo." The lady he was sitting next to was sleepy and wanted to lie down. NO. That is not what happens when you buy a plane ticket. You sit in your seat and that's it. Well not on my flight.
Now I was faced with trying to relax with a large, smelly man spilling over the armrest into my seat. Let me just point out at this point for those of you who dont fly. That armrest is not just for your arm. It is the front line of the ever present war of personal space that is waged every time you step out the door. Let's face it. We dont want strangers touching us, breathing on us, sneezing on us, rubbing up on us or completely using any space that is deemed ours; via airline ticket or any other space selling authority. You know what I mean. It's just a matter of human decency and common curteousy like not drinking what isn't yours, double dipping, too close in line, cutting in line, close talkers, people who spit when they talk, not being able to see the bartender make your drink, seat stealers, loud cell phone
Pan Dulce
Me and my bro, Mikey. talkers, being first at a traffic light and not paying attention, not being ready to order after waiting in line for 20 minutes, etc... You know what I mean.
Back to the plane and my new seat pal who seemed to be on the plane less to get somewhere and more to annoy me. I had been in Europe now for over 5 months, and was able to cope with the pungent odor emminating off this portly man. He must have been sitting on a bag of stank, because the multiple times that he got up, the stench that was escaping was like a punch in the face every time. So because he was getting up so often I was unable to sleep for very long on this over 10 hour flight. A couple of times I told him to go out the other side but ended up being disturbed anyway because he struggled to get out of his seat and through the aisle. Oh well. I got up at 7pm Wed(Cali time) to get to the airport ontime slept a couple of hours on the plane, arrived at LAX 1pm Thursday afternoon. Waited for my bag till 2pm
Hang'n tough
Randy, Serg, me and found out it was on a different flight. Sweet! Registered to have it dropped off and caught a shuttle to the metro and made my way home. So after being up all Wednesday night and all Thursday I finally got to bed around 11pm Thursday night. Boy did I sleep.
Weird being in your own place after such a long time. Weird, but really good. The warm weather helped coax me back into my usual mood of feeling rested and comfortable, while visiting family and friends. Great to see everyone. Expecially nice weather for the wedding on Saturday. Very hot, but clear and looked good for the pictures. That was a really good party with just about everyone dancing and enjoying themsleves. Probably one of the better weddings that I have seen. And, trust me, I have seen lots of weddings. Not a large group, but everyone was hugging and patting backs in congratulations of the bride and groom. The entire ceremony and reception were held outside and even the sky put on a show, as flashes of lightning boomed in the distance, with a warm summer storm. Didn't drop any rain on the festivities, but definately cooled
us all off, so we could better enjoy ourselves. Couldn't have been any better.
So, for now, I am enjoying working a bit and visiting friends and family saying hello to everyone. Lots to talk about and plenty of things that I have missed. Not sure how long I'll be home though. I can already start to feel my feet aching to get moving in new places.
OK, I know you want the stats.
Favorite questions I get by everyone:
Where are you? Ans: Not really sure.
Where is your favorite place? Ans: Cadiz, Spain; Interlocken, Switzerland; Florence, Italy (to name a few).
Countries visited: 7
Different beds slept in: 27
Total # of continents I've stepped foot on: 4
Miles traveled: 18,111.26
# of airlines used: 4
Towns / Cities visited: 30
Languages attempted: 6
Traded in 3 different currencies
Books read while traveling: 5
Weddings attended: 1
Joints smoked: 0 (really)
Beers drank: too many to count
Days without cutting toenails: 72
Days without good Mexican food: the entire time I was abroad
Blogs Published: 29
Photos seen on blogs: 344
Photos taken overall: 2556+
Blog hits: almost 6000
Subscribers:
Ike and Dolly
Hang'n local style. Finally a cold Coors Light. 132
Comments posted: 106
Days on beaches: 11
Stories left out of blogs: dozens
Places still to go: ?
PS: Happy birthdays to Randy and Ike. Also, yes I am home for now, but trust me whe I say that this is not the end, nor will it be my last blog. To be continued...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.336s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 13; qc: 54; dbt: 0.1004s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Lynn
non-member comment
Welcome home kidd...for now atleast.