It Only Hurts When I Blog

Greetings, Blog-mamas and Blog-daddies! Happy Good Friday!

I am here, safe and sound in Massachusetts, staying with my daughter for the Easter Weekend. There were rainstorms around yesterday, but it didn't interfere with my plane travel, and it wasn't raining when we walked from the terminal to short term parking.

By the way - short term parking in Nashville runs about $1.50 - short term parking in Providence, RI - $4.

I'll share a few highlights of my trip yesterday...

I stopped at 'Jack in the Box' and bought a chef salad to bring to the airport to eat for lunch. I packed it on top of my 18.5 lbs of homemade jam in my L.L. Bean canvas tote bag that has my initials monogrammed on it (my mother gave it to me for Christmas).

I had a smooth transition from the Park and Fly place to the airport. The nice young man that drove the shuttle bus hauled my luggage and my 'jam bag' for me, and told me his mother in Waverley, TN makes muscadine jam. I gave him $2 for a tip.

I got my bag checked and went through security. I almost walked through with my purse on my arm, but I remembered at the last second to toss it in with my shoes.

I walked to my gate and found a seat next to an outlet, plugged in my phone, and made a few calls using the airport's electricity. Then I ate my salad while my phone recharged and people-watched.

I saw one celebrity at the airport yesterday - Eddie George the football player. He is hard to miss, but he walked casually enough from the gate area toward the baggage claim and didn't have a gaggle of groupies chattering after him.

People started lining up early for their boarding groups. The flight was oversold and they asked for several volunteers. They offered $100 plus the one-way fare that you paid for your ticket, which I guess is fair considering everyone pays a different amount for their ticket. The plane already had passengers on it, and they expected a full flight.

When I boarded, I got an aisle seat 3 rows from the door. There was a Hippie type at the window seat, shrouded by hair. The middle seat was blissfully empty. The middle seat stayed empty until they were closing the door, and the few passengers who hadn't found a seat yet had to come back to the front and take whatever was left. So, of course, the middle seat next to me became filled... WITH A GIANT. Oh, yes, this was going to be a good flight.

Remember I mentioned Hercules? I think I will call him 'HULKules'. I actually felt more sorry for him than for myself, although my personal space was certainly encroached upon. He sat, literally squashed in the middle seat, for the entire trip. All I really saw of him was an ocean of white shirt - his gigantic arm was at my eye level, and his head was somewhere in the clouds up above. His legs touched the seats (plural) in front of him. His body mass overflowed his tray table. Truly a sight to behold. He was pounding down Jack Daniels and Gingerale - he had three of them during the two hour flight. He was trying to watch a movie on his laptop, but he had to keep closing his laptop to put his drinks upon. I wonder how HE felt about his flight?

I think the Giant knocked out the hippie when he had to reach for his wallet in his back pocket. I did see the hippie move later - he got out a bag and ate some oatmeal-type-substance instead of the high-salt high-fat munchie mix the rest of us were eating. This munchie mix contained some little imitation Wheat Chex pieces that are trademarked as 'Shreddies'. Who thought up that name? 'Come on honey, eat your Shreddies.' Randy Jackson would say - 'Doesn't work for me dog...'.

Anyway - I made it here and my daughter has redecorated the guest room (and some of the kitchen) since I was here at Christmas. She's painted, moved furniture around, bought new linens, and stained an old maple dresser that we've had forever, giving it new life.

She has an artistic flair, I can only hope she gets it from ME. That would imply I had some flair somewhere. Normally my flair is in writing my signature on checks to other people to do things for me. It reminds ME I should be doing some painting, yard work, window washing, etc. WHILE I'M NOT WORKING! All I do is swim and shop! Is that bad? ;-)

Quite a few people are off from WORK today for the Good Friday holiday. ME, for example. My son in law has already gone off to work though, and my daughter is taking the day off to spend it with ME. We're going out for coffee, then back home for breakfast, then off again for some light SHOPPING. Tonight we'll meet my son and my mother for dinner out.

Charlie has today off and plans to go fishing today. I hope there's some trout in the freezer when I get home! He had to make his own dinner last night, poor thing. He said he was heating up a can of soup. He is planning to make a pot of chili today that will last him till I get back. ;-)

TTFN and have a nice day!

Oops- forgot to tell one thing.

When I got off the plane and turned on my phone, I had a voice mail from a COMPANY about a JOB. Of all times to get a call about a job - when I'm away!

Anyway, I'll have to call them back today and tell them I'm out of town. ;-)