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March 20th, 2010
james_nicoll
 | 03:42 pm - Relics of once-mighty vanished empire found on Earth's moon
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
[Disclaimer: we actually live in something of a golden age for space probes. Let me translate that into American: DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM FEAR FEAR DOOM]
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bootedintexas
 | 10:41 am - Something wicked this way comes
One last taste of winter on its way in 
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
Current Location: Somewhere Outthere
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bigredpaul
 | 08:19 am
So, last week my mother was hopspitalized again for difficulty breathing. She gets a fluid accumulation around her lungs that they drain off, and they also give her a blood transfusion. For some reason, the doctors finally decided to notice the distended abdomen that she's had for months now, and this noticing ended up with a referral to a haemotologist/oncologist.
Said haemotologist/oncologist ordered a CAT scan for this week, because he wanted to get a look at her liver, spleen and pancreas. Liver looks smaller than normal, but the other two are enlarged, so they are going to do another CAT scan to see what's up.
I am going to Sacramento tomorrow to see her.
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fuzzygruf
 | 07:28 am - Happy Spring!
Welcome spring! I'm not sure if we'll get the temps in the 80's again today like yesterday, but it promises to be a nice, sunny day!
Now I just need to stay awake for class this morning. Hopefully we'll get to sing "De Colores" again, which is about the colors of spring. :-)
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djmrswhite
 | 06:15 am - Trip To Texas, update.
Been here almost a week now. Haven't written anything here since that first night because the days have been too full of stuff. But I'm always taking notes so there'll be actual posts about it all here soon. My mom is fine and I've been posting little mini-updates over on Facebook if you want to go there and see them. They are not meant to replace the longer versions I'll be eventually writing here.
http://www.facebook.com/dlelandwhite
and I've done some sentence-y recapping on Twitter...
http://twitter.com/dlelandwhite
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overheard_usa
| 06:00 am - With the Paper Bag on His Head?
http://www.overheardeverywhere.com/archives/008029.html Girl to friend: What if I am pregnant? How will I know who the father is? Well, if it comes out half Asian it's Jason's. If it comes out a midget it's Thomas's, and if it comes out blurry, it's the unnamed guy.
Escondido, California
Overheard by: Brit-ta-nee
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bigjohnsf
 | 11:49 pm - Life Isn't Over at 48?
One of the items on my todo list has always been to date/court/marry a cop. I've actually thought this out, and while it might seem counter-intuitive, I think it would have its merits.
But, um, unless I really want to date a much younger man, I think I'm getting to the age where I'd be talking about a retired cop. (Which, again, might have certain merits.)
But, um, SRSLY, of the many things that need to be fixed right now, finding a boyfriend would be nice. It's not that I think it's impossible, just very very unlikely.
As someone who has just become a mid-life orphan, don't get me started on the whole question of whether we can really ever find unconditional love after we lose our parents.
You see, I'm kind of special and come with certain needs and challenges in that part of my life just as in so many other parts.
One of the things that comes with maturity -- with age -- is the realization that ALL relationships are 'settling'.
So, yeah, I don't particularly feel like a good catch right now, but I could really use some romance.
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overheard_usa
| 12:00 am - It's Not Their Worlds I Want to Enter
http://www.overheardeverywhere.com/archives/008028.html Girl: So I think he's taken our relationship a step further.
Gay friend: Oh! What, did he ask you out?
Girl: No.
Gay friend: Did he finally tell you he likes you?
Girl: No! Nothing like that.
Gay friend: Then what?
Girl: He started talking to me exclusively in D&D jargon!
Gay friend: See, this is why we have different tastes in men.
Burlington, Vermont
Overheard by: Doesn't play D&D
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goldengirls
[girlmargaret]
 | 12:40 am - Oh my
You find the strangest things when perusing YouTube. Someone took the audio off the Burt Reynolds episode and redid the episode and the storyline: the girls are now pre-op trannies (except for Sophia who's post-op) who stole tickets to a Burt Reynolds orgy. My apologies if this upsets anyone, but it was too bizarre not to share!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bq0Jr2VwlUY
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downshifft
 | 06:56 pm - Dinner for one
-- Sent from my Palm Pre
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downshifft
| 04:25 pm - Guess what for? :)
-- Sent from my Palm Pre
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goldengirls
[night_owl13]
 | 07:41 pm
I'm not sure if this has been posted but Rue McClanahan was on an episode of "Celebrity Ghost Stories" and it's just plain fantastic. Having just finished her book, this is particularly intriguing to me as she doesn't mention Rill or this experience.
You can watch it here. Rue's story begins at about the 24 minute mark though I'd encourage you to watch the whole thing as Carrie Fisher and John Waters have some pretty epic stories as well.
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overheard_usa
| 06:00 pm - Weirdest Episode Of Sesame Street *Ever*
http://www.overheardeverywhere.com/archives/008027.html 30-something black man on cell: I don't know if I'll finish in time, but I think I can still make it work.
20-something black guy walking past: It's "ain't". As in "I ain't gonna get this shit done, so fuck all y'all!" Damn! You talkin' like a fool, brotha. (shakes head)
Savannah, Georgia
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downshifft
| 12:15 pm - It's make your own pizza day @ work
I'm putting Artichoke hearts, olives,cheese and basil on mine :)
-- Sent from my Palm Pre
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downshifft
| 12:03 pm - Guilty pleasure
-- Sent from my Palm Pre
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March 19th, 2010
bootedintexas
| 02:21 pm - Caption contest: Southern Fried Edition
Thanks to a good man in the south for today's photo: (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mississippicub mississippicub )
Please provide a caption for the latest Wii version shown below:
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matt_ruff
 | 12:05 pm - A reminder that the Matt Ruff author web site has moved
The transition to my new web host is complete, and AT&T has shut down the old site and email address. Google, Bing, and the other web search sites have yet to catch on to this, so in the meantime, if you are looking for me, go here:
www.bymattruff.com
...and if you've got any links to the old site, please update them.
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bootedintexas
| 01:00 pm - Lunch gasm
Ribeye stuffed with avocado n sweet potato 
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
Current Location: Somewhere Outthere
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overheard_usa
| 12:00 pm - Have You Learned So Little from The Sweetest Thing?
http://www.overheardeverywhere.com/archives/008026.html Teen girl in bathroom #1: I'd hate to be a guy and have to use a urinal.
Teen girl in bathroom #2: Oh yeah, that thing looks unsanitary.
Teen girl in bathroom #1: Not even that, but like if you had to go poop then everyone would know it.
Teen girl in bathroom #3: You can't poop in a urinal?
High School
Coral Springs, Florida
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bearoftheday
[bearofthedayguy]
| 10:00 am
This picture was posted on BearPorn.com
If you like this picture, please tell someone about this community
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james_nicoll
| 03:50 pm - Shit
Peter Watts Found Guilty
Toronto author Peter Watts has been found guilty of assaulting, resisting and obstructing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.
Jurors returned the verdict today in St. Clair County Circuit Judge James Adair’s courtroom. He faces up to two years in prison when sentenced April 26.
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mudcub
 | 11:29 am - Obscura Day
You should hit this web page and see if anything is going on in your hometown for Obscura Day for tomorrow Saturday, March 20:
http://atlasobscura.com/obscura-day
Master Thor (thornyc) and I are going to take a tour of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in DC. It's located at the Walter Reed Medical Center, and I haven't been there yet. Then, He and I are going to see the exhibit of chinese terra cotta warriors at the National Geographic Museum. The weather has been gorgeous here inside the beltway, so it should be a fun weeked. Hope yours is pleasant as well.
Current Mood: A Little Freaked Out
Current Music: The White Strips "Under The Great White Northern Lights"
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bootedintexas
| 08:28 am - FFFF?
Flash forearm fur friday? 
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
Current Location: Somewhere Outthere
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overheard_usa
| 06:00 am - Psh, Paula Abdul's Been Trying to Get Away with That Excuse for Years
http://www.overheardeverywhere.com/archives/008025.html Security guy: You fell down the stairs.
Girl, trying to convince him that she's sober: Okay, have a gander at these heels.
Security guy: You were also making out with a man on the couch.
Girl: I'm promiscuous!? All your evidence is circumstantial! See, I'm using words like "promiscuous" and "circumstantial." Have you ever met a drunk person who uses such vocabulary?
Security guy: You exhibit all the signs of intoxication, you are underage, we must ask you to leave.
Girl: For the last time, I'm not drunk! This is just my personality!
Beta Nightclub
Denver, Colorado
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overheard_usa
| 12:00 am - Peristalsis? Beyonce? Linoleum?
http://www.overheardeverywhere.com/archives/008024.html Teacher: Okay. Quick review: which Greek gods did we cover on Friday?
Student, seriously: Hermaphrodite? Herpes? Asbestos?
High School
Michigan
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March 18th, 2010
fuzzygruf
 | 09:04 pm - Almost Friday!
For the carpet cleaning yesterday, my alarm clock was unplugged. I made sure to reset the time and alarm settings last night. I screwed up, and I woke up 30 minutes later than usual. Oops. I still made it out the door a few minutes earlier than usual to stop at Delano's before work.
I got to work and whipped a couple plates of endive with cream cheese and jalapeño pepper jelly for a potluck before clocking in. Yay for easy appetizers.
After work, I stopped at Starbears. My husband was there with the rest of the fellas. Another gorgeous day in SF!
Got home and Steve made dinner while I moved the furniture back upstairs. After dinner I did some Excel homework, and now just waiting for Project Runway. (Well, waiting for 15 minutes after it starts so we can TiVo through the commercials.)
Looking forward to Friday and more great weather!
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james_nicoll
| 11:59 pm - What I did for my birthday
Read nothing for work (after 4 PM)
Established that yes indeed, there is a point known as one piece of sushi too many.
Watched Moon, not the hilarious comedy some of you may have been led to expect, and Monsters vs Aliens, which rather unfortunately turns out also to be not the hilarious comedy some of you may have been led to expect (I blame the writers).
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fabulist
 | 10:54 pm - as we lose our grip on solid ground
The thing you notice, in the disjointed, tumbling leap through time you take as you're crashing your motorcycle, is how much it resembles the sound and fury of dropping a metal toolbox filled with heavy tools from some undetermined height onto the gravel-strewn pavement below, albeit complicated by the realization that you are the toolbox. Being a talkative sort, I broaden the experience with a razor-sharp recording of my internal monologue from the instant of plowing into a sheet of gravel in a busy city intersection with my throttle open, my brakes not quite applied evenly, and my eyes on a swiftly turning traffic light.
What the— I thought, just prior to having my toolbox moment, followed by an fully articulated, but unvoiced, mental chorus of ow, ouch, ooop, ungh, ow, ouch, ow.
I may be wrong, but I don't think I even opened my mouth to yell anything.
The comedian in me would have hoped to utter a long, girlish shriek, but no such luck.
Arm's not broken. Leg's not broken. Head's intact.
I sat up, looked around, staggered to my feet. A few people had run up, and a car stopped in front of me. Didn't cuss, didn't panic, but felt a pang seeing poor Madeline on her side, still running, with the starter ring clicking a bit from the way the bike was resting on the kickstarter. I picked her up, propped her on her center stand, switched her off, and furrowed.
"Well, that's a hell of a thing," I said, and it almost immediately struck me that, right after my first ever wreck on a licensed motorcycle, my first thought was to quote an obscure Catherine O'Hara line from SCTV. At least my comic side emerged intact.
"Gravel," I said, abstractly, just realizing what had happened. You tend to think you'll see things coming, and I'm a cautious, alert rider by nature, but I was distracted just enough, and just at the right time to miss the sheet of gravel as I was hoping to make the light, dutifully slowing before banking into my turn—almost everything was right, but it's always that last little detail.
"Are you okay?" a guy asked me. Another guy, in his car, held up a cell phone and offered to call an ambulance.
"I'm okay, I think," I said. "Looks like I was pretty lucky."
I thanked the people who stopped, pushed poor Madeline off her center stand, fired up the poppetta-pop-pop-poppetta of her 150cc two-stroke engine, waited for the light, and eased my way down the road back to work with my headset cocked an embarrassing 22 degrees to the left.
This is one of those object lessons, I thought, and felt pleased with myself for thinking that instead of something more negative, angry, or self-destructive. It's an ironic one, this morning, seeing as I'd woken up, listened to the radio for a while, and fired off a pointed response to a post on Metafilter about taking responsibility for safety with power tools (I'm "sonascope" on Metafilter), only to do almost exactly the same thing I'd been complaining about within an hour of making the complaint.
I rolled my scoot into the Tower, carefully tucking it away in the first floor restroom before clumping up to my office. My pants were torn up and bloody, but my ridiculous, costume-y 50s-style leather jacket actually did okay, with a big scuff that I think I'll be able to settle down with a little hide food. At the corner of my right eye, something left a welt, though I can't for the life of me figure out, as my helmet never touched a thing. Here and there, the scratches and rashes came up, and as the adrenaline rush cooled down my shoulder, hip, and calf started to burn, but I'm actually fine, having managed to injure myself far worse falling down the porch stairs while carrying Rose during her last winter.
Even poor Miss Madeline fared reasonably well, losing her legshield trim and a turn signal lens. I'm annoyed to lose that pristine black silky sheen she's had, but black's the easiest color to match, and I might just pretty her up again a while down the road when I'm confident I'm not going to bash her waspish flanks again. Besides, real Vespas, the kind you see in Italian movies, tend to be battle-scarred, so these will be her beauty marks. Scars give us history, and mark where stories begin.
At the end of the day, I'm winding it down by thinking about days like this.
This probably shouldn't be a good day for me, but on reflection, it's a pretty dang good day. I learned a very, very important lesson that I've been giving lip service all along, and I learned it in the way you learn to turn lip service into understanding. If I was a superstitious man, I'd feel rewarded in my spirituality, but I don't have that luxury, so I'm celebrating the providence of numbers whirling in the hazy realms of probability and feeling glad that I didn't roll a bad lot this time around. There doesn't have to be a reason to the way things are for there to be a lesson within circumstances.
I've actually been feeling pretty happy lately, even though I'm still battling frustrations, impediments, and the various bureaucracies that keep the human spirit in check. It's just this way I've been observing...cultivating...exploring. When I fight it, I fight against wind and water, forces that are both stronger than me and intangible to anything I can muster. When I think outside of my moment, outside of this time, right here and now, I miss the things that should be my concern—overdue bills, interest rates, due dates, unreturned calls, and gravel, lying low on all the roads I need to travel on my way in the world.
It's everywhere, that gravel, that curious mixture of friction and unexpected lubrication, the substance of overlooked hazards, and it is as natural and as good as sunshine, even if it's nowhere near as overtly beautiful. That's the thing, and it too often gets lost in my prideful arrogance and my shaky humility, in my supposition that I'm actually developing wisdom through my own machinations—
I love being wrong.
You wouldn't suspect that about me if you've ever argued with me, because I take no prisoners and I fight my battles with the berserker instincts of someone who is both fighting to prove a point and fighting to believe it himself. You wouldn't suspect that I harbor this lush, glorious, giving romance of the error, but I do, because it's that very moment, and that breaking point where some sacrosanct belief I've held and cherished and defended comes crashing to earth, that tells me the truth about the world and how I fit in its wondrous clockwork. I love being right, too, but that's a cotton candy pleasure, the sweet taste of frothy pink smugness left in traces around the lips when I'm letting myself wallow in my worst instincts. I love being right, or knowing right, because there's comfort there, and reassurance against the darkness, but that's a delight best savored in the briefest flower of its youth, when it's new and fresh and splendid.
Finding out I'm wrong, though—that's finding a little cobweb-covered door somewhere in my brain that I'd never noticed, and I swallow hard, pry it open on rusting hinges, and step through and back into this world, but a bigger, better, and more real world, without having to leave anything behind but my pride, like layers and layers of garish and showy clothing I just don't need.
Each of these things has its time. Each disaster can hurt us, kill us, or maybe even deliver us, skidding helplessly along, to the next little door, and they open into open into open into open into that rare and boundless place we already occupy, as the world gets brighter and warmer and more of what it is and has always been.
It's all here.
Then the slip comes, the twitching eyelids that slide slowly closed again, the repetition of our mistakes, and the return of that sleep, and that dullness that overtakes us. The Buddha described the cycle of endless rebirth as a kind of hell, the trap of birth, death, and reincarnation called "samsara," and it's a secular version of that hell that I find myself in when I'm not fully in the moment—not a literal death and rebirth, but a cycle of learning and willful forgetting that keeps me stuck, making the same old mistakes over and over, and living out the same disasters over and over.
Seeing when you're wrong, and knowing when you've blown it—that's the siren blaring, "WAKE UP!"
As I slip into the end of this eventful day, I just take a moment to savor that call, to feel the ache and tension in pulled muscles and skin worn raw from the intimate experience of pavement, to remember that, even though I hurt like hell, I am here, I am alive, and that place where I finally skidded to a stop lies at the foot of one more little door.
I'll climb on through, and then sleep the sleep of the body at rest for the night, but I am, as of this moment, awake. With every waking stretch, and every flash of that clarity, things get easier.
If I just remember to be wrong. If I just remember.
I can say I will not forget, and I will not sleep, and I will always be awake, but that's not possible. We are all still human, after all.
I can, though, remember to cherish my mistakes for their best consequences.
The wheels find purchase again, on this vehicle that carries me, and there I will go, taillights receding against the velvet backdrop of the night, on my way to wherever it is that I'm going.
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overheard_usa
| 06:00 pm - Or All the Dogs You've Ever Owned
http://www.overheardeverywhere.com/archives/008023.html Girl #1: So my two-year-old cousin... You know, the one who laughs at me, and threw his bottle and his book at me?
Girl #2: Yeah.
Girl #1: Well, this one time he like pushed me down on the floor, and like... licked my face.
Girl #2: Wow! Your two-year-old cousin is like a combination of all the boys you've met here.
London
Ontario
Canadia
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goldengirls
[puppatoons]
 | 05:43 pm
Didn't Blanche and George live for many years and raise their children in the house the Girls now occupy? When Rebecca comes home to visit after not speaking to Blanche for four years, Blanche is showing her the house as if she's never been there..huh?
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overheard_usa
| 12:00 pm - ...And Clear High Heels
http://www.overheardeverywhere.com/archives/008022.html College girl #1: I washed this shirt and it got, like, bigger!
College girl #2: Well, at least you can wear it with tights now.
College girl #1: I know, but I don't want to look like a slut.
College girl #2: I feel like I look less slutty when I wear my sunglasses.
Boulder, Colorado
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fuzzygruf
 | 10:33 am - Insurance Fail - Wellpoint nextRx (Blue Cross/Anthem)
I made 5 calls to one insurance company this morning on the same item.
On two of the calls, the reps told me that the patient's coverage expired last year. They looked up the "current" account number. Turns out it was the same and is not expired. The first rep faxed me a copy of the wrong letter.
I let the 2nd rep know that I received the wrong letter. I made sure that they verified the date of the letter before sending it. They faxed me the same wrong letter.
I explained the issue to the third rep. After 5 minutes, they transferred me to a pharmacy tech. Call was dropped.
I explained the issue to the fourth rep. After 5 minutes, I had them give me the direct number for the pharmacy tech before they transferred me. Call was dropped.
I called the pharm tech directly. After 15 minutes of digging through what happened today, he explained that the call center with whom I spoke was being closed, so things are a mess. Apparently they are deliberately sabotaging claims. He was unable to provide me with the information I requested, but someone "will send it to me by the end of the day."
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bearoftheday
[bearofthedayguy]
| 10:00 am
This picture was posted on BearPorn.com
If you like this picture, please tell someone about this community
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james_nicoll
| 03:02 pm - Local history, as seen in my in-box
A photo of the University of Waterloo as seen from the south porch of the farmhouse I lived in when I was young.
( Read more... )
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goldengirls
[joeytheteapot]
 | 09:46 am
Rose: I was never once robbed or murdered while living with Charles.
Dorothy: You could have just as easily been murdered living with Charles.
Sophia: I'm surprised she wasn't murdered BY Charles. Blanche: I can't even watch the news because every once in a while they sneak a dead body on you. Posted via LiveJournal.app.
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overheard_usa
| 06:00 am - I'm Thinking About Adding a Wallet but I Fear That Might Be Too Frivolous
http://www.overheardeverywhere.com/archives/008021.html Lady #1: I usually keep the essentials in my purse.
Lady #2: Well... I keep a toothbrush, vibrator, and pepper spray in mine.
Pennsylvania
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james_nicoll
| 05:07 am - Has anyone here seen
Starship Operators? Either the anime or the Ryo Mizuno novel?
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james_nicoll
| 05:04 am - I don't have an answer in mind
What's the smallest possible setting a story can have and still be a space opera? Limited to one stellar system? One planet and its moons? A particular space station? One room in that station?
[added later]
"Most intimate" might have been a better choice of words.
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March 17th, 2010
rootbeer1
 | 09:49 pm
Does it count as an airport celebrity sighting if the celebrity is a character actor like Taylor Negron? He's been on Friends and Seinfeld, after all. Although when I told him "I recognize you from TV," he added, pointedly, and perhaps insecurely, "... and movies."
* * *
I see a lot of mad, grumpy, angry people at the airport. Why are they so angry? What's their problem? What quality do they all have in common?
Simply put, they show up late. Too late to check in their luggage, too late to get on the flight they want, too late to get home for the holidays.
Sometimes it breaks my heart to see someone miss their flight. But then I'm happy, because some standby flyer who arrived at the airport in time got their seat.
Yes, this job is an emotional rollercoaster.
Current Music: Monkees, "Sunny Girlfriend"
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