So I came home from my business trip on Saturday. And after a long week of spending twenty hours on various planes over the course of five days, I was ready to be home.
I was sitting in front
of a family with two small children. One was about 4, the other about 2.
And they were the most ill-behaved children I've ever had the
displeasure of traveling with. The four year old (we'll call him Damien) spent the majority of the flight
bouncing from seat to seat, kicking the seats in front of him, pulling
himself up by the headrests on seats in front of him, and generally
being a nuisance. The 2 year old (we'll call her Rosemary)
partook of crying jags every 30 minutes or so, lasting about 15 minutes
each. As near as I could tell, they were precipitated by her being
forced to sit during takeoff and landing, by not being allowed to run
willy-nilly up and down the aisle of the aircraft, by the flight
attendant forcing her mother to prevent her from constantly pressing the
call button and other incidents of having her will thwarted.
Kids are going to be kids, and I'm in no way suggesting that families
with children should not be permitted to fly. Families are spread out,
and oftentimes the only way to establish and maintain relationships with
distant relatives is to fly. Nor do I get particular upset when little
people fuss during long flights (especially during take off and
landing). Sometimes that particular experience makes me want to cry,
too, and the genuine discomfort of not knowing how to clear your ears during altitude changes is really all the excuse a toddler needs.
No, my issue in this case is with the parents. If your kid is
behaving in such a way that their shenanigans negatively affect the
experience of every other person in their vicinity, and you do nothing -
well. Let's make no mistake, here. I have no obligation to tolerate
your kids' bad behavior, nor do I have any emotional investment to
reduce my irritation with them. So don't be surprised when I turn around in my seat and tell your charming son Damien to stop kicking my seat in my best SNCO voice.
So while I don't think children of ill-behaved parents should be banned from flying, I would support a seating layout which isolated the offending parents and their children to some sort of sound-proof dome, a la The Oatmeal's Movie Theater Layout. Can't control your demon spawn? INTO THE DOME, MOTHERFUCKER.
Miscellaneous Monday
Monday, August 27, 2012
Falling Apart
My trip last week was pretty uneventful as these things go. I didn't miss any airplanes, my lodging reservations were all as planned, nobody lost my luggage. But dude - I am falling apart.Over the course of the five day trip, I started to strongly suspect I have cracked a molar, my left knee became rubbery and kept attempting to bend the wrong way, and I developed some sort of weird muscular pain in my lower back. I'll have my awesome (but weird) dentist look at the molar when we get back from WorldCon. My back stopped hurting as soon as I slept in my own bed and resumed my normal exercise routine (I guess 20 hours on planes in five days will do that to you). My knee has improved every day since Friday - so I should be good to go for WorldCon. I'm going to try and avoid so much air travel in such a short period of time in the future, though.
Sacrilege
Last night The Smart Man, the Incomparable Anne, my Hot Mom, my Hot Daughter, my Hot Daughter's hetero life partner and I attended one of the first non-Broadway showings of The Book of Mormon at our local performing arts center. The traveling show debuted here in Denver, and the tickets were the hottest things in town.ZOMGWTFBBQ. This show is so funny, and far more sacrilegious than I anticipated. The traveling company did a great job with it, and you just have to love any show that includes the word "fuck" so much in its book. Like Dogma, the show is highly offensive to religious people, but the actual POINT of the show was an affirmation of faith rather than the opposite. I guess some people just have no sense of humor about their religious belief.
Three Days
My blog circle, The UCF, lost our friend Wendy last year, and we've decided to hold a wake for her at WorldCon. Wendy was very fond of purple, and I decided to honor her memory by ensuring that purple will be my dominant color for her wake. It makes me happy to do so, and I think it would make her chuckle.
We're going to try and take some pictures and such, but I probably won't blog about it until we return. Because I'll be too busy impersonating Zoe from Firefly and generally looking fabulous in purple. FABULOUS.
Weird Guilt
Friday, August 24, 2012
Guilt runs in my family. We give it to each other, mostly, and we're great at passing it down generation over generation. You'd think we were Jewish, or something.
So I have a tendency to wallow in guilt for no apparent reason. I try to guard against it, as it serves no one, and provides no tangible benefit to me in terms of emotional health or managing my behavior. But often it sneaks up on me, and encourages me to ask myself what the fuck is wrong with me.
Take my trip this week. Since I'm traveling on business, I've been wearing make-up every day, and even though I use very high quality foundation, it makes me break out if I don't take it off in the evening (I know, right? WHO KNEW.). I've also stayed in a different hotel every night this week due to logistical requirements. In one hotel, the proprietors left an astringent wipe for "make-up removal" in the complementary toiletries, but everywhere else, there was only washcloths. White washcloths. Now we all know what happens to white washcloths when you use them to remove makeup. And here's the fucked up part: Every time I used a washcloth to remove my makeup, I felt guilty about staining their linen with my foundation and mascara.
Really, Janiece? Really? It's not like I had options - I've only ever stayed in one hotel where they provided a blue washcloth specifically for make-up removal, and the other hotels did not provide wipes. What was I supposed to do? And yet, I felt guilty that I was staining their washcloths. And then I felt bad that I felt guilty.
Seriously - sometimes I wonder how I manage to have a stable emotional life AT ALL.
So I have a tendency to wallow in guilt for no apparent reason. I try to guard against it, as it serves no one, and provides no tangible benefit to me in terms of emotional health or managing my behavior. But often it sneaks up on me, and encourages me to ask myself what the fuck is wrong with me.
Take my trip this week. Since I'm traveling on business, I've been wearing make-up every day, and even though I use very high quality foundation, it makes me break out if I don't take it off in the evening (I know, right? WHO KNEW.). I've also stayed in a different hotel every night this week due to logistical requirements. In one hotel, the proprietors left an astringent wipe for "make-up removal" in the complementary toiletries, but everywhere else, there was only washcloths. White washcloths. Now we all know what happens to white washcloths when you use them to remove makeup. And here's the fucked up part: Every time I used a washcloth to remove my makeup, I felt guilty about staining their linen with my foundation and mascara.
Really, Janiece? Really? It's not like I had options - I've only ever stayed in one hotel where they provided a blue washcloth specifically for make-up removal, and the other hotels did not provide wipes. What was I supposed to do? And yet, I felt guilty that I was staining their washcloths. And then I felt bad that I felt guilty.
Seriously - sometimes I wonder how I manage to have a stable emotional life AT ALL.
Miscellaneous Monday
Monday, August 20, 2012
It's Wednesday, so it must be Peoria
I'm on the road again this week, leaving tomorrow morning for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.* I'll be there for approximately 24 hours, then I'm flying to Illinois on Wednesday. I'll be there for approximately 24 hours, then I'm flying back to Massachusetts on Thursday. I'll be there approximately 36 hours, and then I'm flying home.I know. I have a feeling this is not going to end well from a personal stress management perspective. So don't expect much in the way of updates here this week, unless it's a picture of me running through an airport with my hair on fire, the TSA in hot pursuit.
For my brothers and sisters in arms
These are this year's lap robes knitted in the colors of the five Armed Forces branches. They're destined for the Cheyenne, Wyoming VA hospital. While I try to knit lap robes every year for the VA with leftover yarn, every few years I like to do these robes which honor the five services. I haven't had as much time to knit this year as I have in years past, so I was happy to get these done in time for the upcoming chilly weather.
Go forth and READ
There's only fifteen days left in the 2nd Annual Hot Chicks and Smart Men Dig Reading Summer Reading Program in Honor of Debby Faught, so get cracking on finishing your books and logging them in for credit. You know you want to force me to donate my money to the fabulous Douglas County Library, and perhaps win an Amazon Gift Card in the bargain. You know you want to.WorldCon, baby
The Smart Man and I are really looking forward to WorldCon. The schedule is now posted, and we're going over all the panels trying to decide which ones we want to attend. My costumes are also complete, and I've added all the elements to my Pinterest page in case anyone's interested.I've decided to go ahead and dye the ends of my hair a vibrant purple for the occasion. I was originally going to dye the entire lower layer, but then it occurred to me - what happens if Global Dynamics decides that I need to leave for a customer engagement on September 6th, well before the dye has had time to wash out? I'd be fucked, that's what. So I'll have her dip-dye the last two or three inches, and if worse comes to worst I can just have the purple cut off. My employer is pretty progressive (especially for a defense contractor), but I don't think I need to push my luck that far.
___________
*"The Commonwealth?" Really, Massachusetts? "State" is perfectly acceptable for the rest of us schlubs, but you have to a "Commonwealth." Whatever.
fun. "Some Nights"
Sunday, August 19, 2012
I was turned on to these guys by the amazing Random Michelle. They remind me a bit of Queen in the way their voices blend, although I'm not yet convinced that Nate Ruess has quite the vocal chops that Freddie Mercury enjoyed. We'll see how he shapes up. In the meantime, I bought both their albums based on the strength of this one song.
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