Airport ponderings

I love airports. Yes, you heard me right – love them. I know, I’m an oddity. But tell me, where else but the airport could you spot a grown woman wearing bright pink galoshes, a little old man eating out of a homemade lunch pail, a platinum blonde diva with 4-inch heels, an entire family adorned with Mickey Mouse memorabilia and countless retired couples in matching attire? Where else would you find a businessman in a $2000 suit standing in line next to a vacationer in worn out flip flops, cutoff jean shorts and a Laguna Beach t-shirt? Airports are a stop within an itinerary that is not our norm. An interruption in our regular schedule, but a potentially welcome one.

Sure the airport has its share of annoyances. I’m actually at the Charlotte airport right now and already this morning have witnessed the usual ones. The guy on his Blackberry talking too loudly to notice hordes of travelers rushing by him. The intolerably long lines at the coffee/pizza/burger stand (or bathroom). My biggest pet peeve is the casual traveler who is oblivious to others around him/her – walking slowly, gazing around, then suddenly coming to a stop smack dab in the middle of the walkway to dig through his/her luggage for something (presumably his/her boarding pass?).

But there is something else about an airport that’s particularly exciting. Airports are our “holding area” – the place where we wait to be taken to somewhere else. Somewhere hot and sunny or somewhere cold where a warm fireplace awaits us. Somewhere new and adventurous or somewhere comfortable and familiar. Somewhere we’ll get to meet new people or somewhere that reunites us with those we love. And on the return trip, the airport is where we wait to be taken to the place we belong – home.

So as I wait for my flight (to somewhere many would call paradise) I will just sit back and people-watch. Wonder where these people are going, who they are going to see, and what circumstances are bringing them there. And that’s one of my favorite things to do.

Just for fun: Fake vintage ads

I have recently developed an affinity for all things vintage, and especially advertising. The love affair I have with Mad Men on AMC might have something to do with that, of course. I just stumbled across this blog post on the Internet and found the concept intriguing.

When you need a break from your day, go ahead and take a look at all of them here.

PS – that ad to the right —> is a REAL ad from the 50s.

Mesquite Wildcats Lacrosse

The 2008 season has finally begun and what a great way to start! Game 1 of the Varsity team was held in Oro Valley (Tucson) today and the Wildcats stomped the Canyon del Oro High School team 17-0, giving the Wildcats a 1-0 record. Eric is on the Junior Varsity team, but JV players are allowed to play all of their own games, plus 5 additional Varsity games. Coach decided to reward some of his hardworking JV players by allowing them playing time in today match, including our very favorite Wildcat.

View the photos I took of Eric here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dezertprincess/sets/72157603839336094/

View all the photos I took today (including the group shots and his teammates) here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dezertprincess/collections/72157603839203992/

Like any doting mother, I’ll be updating both sets throughout the season so you can check back every so often for new shots. Also, if you are a techie like me you can subscribe using RSS with the following URL: http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photoset.gne?set=72157603839336094&nsid=22513019@N04&lang=en-us

If you don’t know what an RSS Reader is, you don’t know what you’re missing! Learn about it on Wikipedia. I love Google Reader because it’s easy to add and remove new feeds/blogs. You can subscribe to my blog and as soon as I post something, you’re notified! Google is my home page and since I’ve personalized it with “widgets” every time I open my browser I’m shown the titles of the newest posts from all the blogs I subscribe to including my sisters and my mom.

Getting back to lacrosse news, the next Varsity game is in a week on February 9th (though I don’t know whether Eric will have the opportunity to play again) and the first JV game is on Valentine’s Day, Thursday, February 14th. Both games are at home (yay! No more driving to Tucson!).

Here’s the link to the team website where you can see scores, photos, roster and game schedule: http://www.jvwildcatlax.com/

GO WILDCATS!

I’m still alive!

Barely breathing maybe, but still alive. Just returned from Convention in Montréal, Canada. Now moving forward to an International meeting starting in just a few days. I don’t have much to say, but will post an update hopefully in the next few days. Thanks for hanging in with me and check back in a couple days!

WordPress: Awesome or archaic?

You may have heard that those born under the sign of Aquarius – like me – seek change. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ve seen it go from something simple and plain, to something very pink, to something desert-like. I guess maybe I haven’t found its true “identity” yet. I really like the header photo and how it matches the title of the blog, but I don’t like the plain and simple look that WordPress forces me to use with it.

I’ve spent a lot of time surfing, looking for ways to spice up the blog’s look, but haven’t really found a template that I like. It doesn’t help that WordPress – the free edition anyway – forces you to use one of their templates, some of which don’t allow for much personalization.

And don’t even get me going on how they don’t allow anything other than plain HTML widgets for the sidebar. I found a really cool polling site that I couldn’t even use because WordPress blocks the code! They say it’s for “safety”, blocking code that might allow hackers to penetrate the system. Well, if it’s really that much of a concern, why not put something else in place? Do the other blogging services really have such a tough time? Why punish people like me -  literally a kid in an Internet candy store, full of all kinds of gadgets, graphics and  goodies that would make my site a more fun place to visit.

What I do like about WordPress is the ease of use. I like how easy it is to navigate and manage your pages. There is somewhat of a community, though it’s a little hard to get to.

I don’t really want to move my blog again, but I sure wish I had more options here. If you have any ideas for me, please post in the comments – I’d really appreciate it!