Tag Archives: travel

15 suggestions for flying without your electronic partner

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The fella over at Ah dad… is all about the funny.  Even his “All About Me” page makes you giggle.  But he’s also got a big heart, and this particular post focuses that goodwill squarely on travelers facing airports without their laptops to comfort them.

Oh, the humanity.

Among other suggestions for ways to occupy time while waiting in the airport:

“1.  Follow random people around the airport like you’re an FBI agent tracking a suspect…

4.   Buy a magazine and start swotting imaginary flies around the terminal…

11.  If you’re in a group stand in a circle and chant.”

What to do at an airport without a laptop | Ah dad…

Sunday Snapshot: a wiser mind than mine

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“When I feel clumsy or lost, I remind myself that nature, including me, was created by a a far wiser mind than mine.  There is something in the cosmos – God, Spirit, Consciousness, Life Itself, call It what you will – that created and orchestrates nature, and did a pretty good job of it.  Nature might just know what It’s doing.  Even when I don’t.”
– Jeffrey R. Anderson

wcw – meeting myself in the world

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“Travel far enough, you meet yourself.”

– David Mitchell
This guy was only five feet from me when I snapped this.

Travel is one of life’s truest teachers.  When I step out of my world and into the space around me I’m free – I let go of my day to day and open myself up to the possibilities.  It’s a chance to see the world for what it really is instead of its portrayal in magazines, news stories, or Facebook.

It’s when I find space in my heart for the truth that I finally meet myself.

wcw – the beauty of coming back

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“Why do you go away?  So that you can come back.  So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors.  And the people there see you differently, too.  Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”

– Terry Pratchett

falcons, iguanas, hummingbirds and more

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You don’t know the true meaning of togetherness until you’ve shared one bathroom among a family of four for the week.  Two adults, two tweens.  Two girls, two guys.  Two exhausted parents, two overexcited and volatile kids.  Just…yikes.  (Yes, I get that this is a particularly first world statement, but it opens today’s post so let’s run with it.)

Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled to be away on vacation after Christmas.  After the ups and downs of December I needed space to clear my head and renew my spirit.  Sure, there was an art to juggling the bathroom and shower schedule, but it was totally worth it.  The days were beautiful, I ate delicious food (and didn’t have to cook a single bit of it), and I read an entire book.  That’s right, you heard me – an. entire. book.  I can’t remember the last time I did that which, when you think about it, is pretty piss poor sad for a writer.

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crack of dawn Christmas 2016

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I went down for the count on Christmas day.

Christmas Eve was one of those nights when I woke up several times after midnight, not from excitement about the next morning but because I was trying to find a comfortable (enough) position.  By 5:00am I was lying in bed, staring at the dark ceiling and trying to pinpoint exactly what was wrong.  By 5:30am I was hacking up a lung (Feliz Navidad!), so I quickly slipped out of the room.

At 6:00am T-man found me trying to cough silently at the kitchen table.  This involves a great deal of contained barking and sputtering and shaking – it isn’t pretty.  I guess T-man figured this was as good a time as any to shoot the breeze, the dogs heard him and went nuts in the bedroom, BrightSide stumbled into the hallway as the mutts scrambled to race him out, and the next thing I knew T-man was hollering upstairs, “BEAR!  Come on down!  Everyone’s awake and ready to open presents!!”

Which is how “I think I’m dying” turned into crack of dawn Christmas 2016.

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keep those old people cooties out

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Cue the really, really old person flashback.

I was born in the 70s, the age of banana seat bicycles and bell bottoms and Buck Rogers.  Just hanging out with my friends was a good time.  Getting to fix my hair with a curling iron so it feathered away from my face made me feel like a supermodel, and bell bottoms were the bomb.

It didn’t take much to make me feel like I was living the good life.

We work hard to keep our kids grounded, but we’re visiting someplace that has a teens club.  It’s not the concept itself I object to, but this particular teens club rivals any nightclub offered in the city.  Sound booths with gaming consoles, an air hockey table, a lit up dance floor with tv screens for videos and karaoke, plus a bar for sodas and snacks.  Add in neon and motorcycles and generally cool decor and you’ve got a tween/teen’s dream.

I’m sorry, what?!  I mean, you’re already living the high life because your parents let you out from underneath their thumbs…do you really need reverberating bass to feel like you’re partying the night away?  Apparently the answer to that question is yes, because that’s what they’ve designed here.  To be fair, if I was a kid I’d totally want to spend time in there, too.

But I’m, you know, old and stuff.  So I have to pretend to admire it from a distance so I don’t give it the mom cooties from too much gushing.

But dang…talk about a killer lounge area.  Sheesh.