If you really knew me...

This afternoon amongst my crazy multitasking... and by multitasking I mean watching a movie, watching women's gymnastics, archery, swimming, and diving in the olympics while not ever really getting out of bed... I received a call to duty.

On this lazy, dark, drizzly day fit for staying in and watching the Olympics, I would normally shrug off any call to duty mainly because I'm in my complete and utter useless stage. Actually, that is really the only stage I have been in all weekend and I surely do not wish to break my lazy streak on account of some formal call to duty.

However, this particular call can be done from my bed with the simple tapping of computer keys. All the while, the Olympics plays happily and undisturbed in the background.

So what you ask is this call to duty? Well, there seems to be a blog craze going around. Something simple in which you post about things people would know if they really, really knew you. My good friend, sorority sister, and fellow blogger Jenna posted it on her blog this afternoon and tagged me in the this blogging trend. So here it goes...

If you really knew me...

You would know that I cannot spell to save my life. I actually just misspelled undisturbed and my computer had to correct it for me. I'm surprised they let me out of elementary school.

You would know that I absolutely love soup. It's the best and most amazing food ever and comes in 20,000+ flavors and consistencies. My favorite being Chicken Tortilla Soup at 2 particular restaurants back in New Mexico.

You would know that I am completely and hopelessly addicted to 19th century literature turned movie. North and South, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Little Women. You name it and I love it!

You would also know that though I love the above mentioned movies, my favorite movies include Fight Club, The Boondock Saints, Die Hard collection of movies, and Saw collection.

You would know that I hate knocking on doors and ringing door bells. I avoid it all costs. It makes me uncharacteristically nervous. If I am visiting somebody, I usually call them when I arrive. I'm sure there is some deep seeded physiological reason for this but I'm not entirely sure what it is.

You would know that I cannot stand cotton balls, polar fleece, cue tips, or anything of the like. Don't ask... I don't have a logical answer.

You would know that when I get really excited, and I start to talk too fast I shorten words and don't even realize it. Not because it has suddenly become the cool thing to do but because my mouth is going much more quickly than my brain can process. The most common is because... which I often shorten to bees. As in... "I'm so excited bees in two days my sister gets here and then in 9 days I go back to New Mexico."

You would know that the very first thing I see on a guy always is his hair. Good hair is the difference between a cute guy and a hot guy. And a bad haircut on a guy can ruin everything. This also makes me very aware of when any of the guys around me have just gotten a haircut. Even if it's a tiny trim, I notice. 

You would know that I need alone time. I am not one of those people who can constantly be surrounded by other people. Being too social actually really stresses me out and makes me very grumpy. Not that I don't love being around people. I do... I just need space sometimes.This makes clingy guys a problem.

You would know that I literally have to fight myself to stay awake in a car if I am not driving. It's torture. If I'm in the passenger seat, I definitely want to be sleeping. Five minutes in a car and I can be dead asleep and not wake up again for hours. It's not by choice either. It's a physical reaction of being in a car that I just cannot help. It's so damn relaxing! Unfortunately, this makes me a really bad road trip partner.

You would know that I don't actually own a brush. No, I'm not kidding. I do not brush my hair or comb my hair really. I have a pick that I use to detangle my hair right out of the shower but that is it. Experience has taught me that my insanely frizzy, thick, wavy/curly hair is turned in to a straight up afro at even the site of a brush. 

You would know that I love ellipses. You know... those three little dots. I don't even think I use them correctly most of the time but that isn't going to stop me!

You would know that I am excited but really, really, really nervous to uproot the only life I have ever known and move to Michigan... a place where I know not a single soul, in a mere 13 days.

You would know that I love my life, I love my friends, I love my family, and partly due to this I take things very personally.

Memories

It has been awhile. But, as I said in my last post I am no longer apologizing for this. However, I can shed some light on to why I have been a little MIA and why I will hopefully be writing to you more soon.

A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks... and I sure do mean a lot. First, and most important, things first. I graduated from college. What an amazing feeling it was. Not the actual graduation. The actual graduation was a waste of 3ish hours of my life where I stood in the hot sun for an hour, almost fell down and broke my life on the steepest ramp of the world in my heels, waited inside in chairs that were too close with other graduates who were just as hot and miserable as I was, and after all of that I walked across a stage for less than 30 seconds.

It was riveting, as I am sure you can tell. I understand that this was for my family so I sucked it up and did it anyway. And I have to say thank the universe that it is over. The actual amazing feeling came when I stepped out of my last final, a final I must say I only studied about 2 hours for. It was Ecology... and I did not enjoy ecology to say the least. And as my last final in a class I was about 90% positive I was getting a B with or without studying, I really did not see the point in wasting a full day of studying for it.

Regardless, after the final I had to walk through a large chunk of campus to get back to my car. And that is when it hit me. This was the last time I was going to walk those grounds as an NMSU student. The last time I was going to cross the Horseshoe (a chunk of grass with a street around it shaped like... you guessed it... a horseshoe). The last time I was going to pass that horrible Bell that chimed every 15 minutes, always a couple of minutes early of the actual 15, 30, 45, or hour mark. That stupid bell that would wake me up in the middle of the night when I lived in the dorms.

And suddenly I found myself actually missing it a little. I would never listen to it again and think well, I'm officially late to class.

So many other little things triggered great memories of midnight walks, mud puddles, stress, happiness... and now they are officially that... memories.

I write this from Boston where I am currently getting a little nostalgic about NMSU and New Mexico. Something, I knew would eventually happen but something I was running from too. But it feels good to be done. I closed a little chapter of my life and it feels... Sad. Amazing. Scary. Exciting. And 50 other things rolled into 1.

I would like to mention I did in fact get a 4.0 which means I got an A in Ecology... which really was a horrible thing to happen. It just backed up my decision to not study... which is a horrible habit to have.

So, right after my final I pretty much jumped into graduation, and parties, and more parties, did I mention I went to some parties ;) But really, it was almost exhausting!! Then I packed about a quarter of my life and got tired so I stopped and took a little gallivant to Maryland and the HHMI headquarters which was fun as usual. Next stop was 30 hours to do some more packing and hop some more planes and end up here in Boston/Brookline.

As you can see, I've been fairly preoccupied. And I know this post was not funny or particularly interesting but I needed you to get caught up before I can get into the random occurrences.

Who Needs A Flight Crew?

One week ago I travelled to Boston. It was actually a very smooth trip... well, mostly.

It started out with me heading to El Paso at 4pm on Saturday. My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30 pm but it is about a 45 minute drive to El Paso and then security and all. After only having to have my hair patted down, I made it to Phoenix where I had a 4.5 hour layover. Yes, I did say having my hair inspected. Turns out, I have big hair. So big in fact that people readily think I could be hiding razors or drugs in it. Which I suppose is plausible.

It makes me wonder how many people they have caught through security with illegal substances pinned underneath the folds of their hair. I don't make my hair big it just is... I really try to tame it down but sometimes I can't. This is the third time I have had my hair inspected when going through airports so it has become rather routine. People do give you strange looks though as if saying: Man this dumb girl is trying to smuggle things in through her hair. Genius!

As I am sitting in the Phoenix airport, reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (which is an amazing book about the woman whose cells were taken without her knowledge and grown for years. They have been a help in many cures and medical advancements. Read it.)

Anyway... I'm sitting reading this when two teenage girls, their mom and dad come walking into the gateway. I have literally never seen people that have looked more like a tomato in my entire life. I mean every single bit of their body that wasn't covered by clothing was a bright, sickly red. I'm not exactly sure where they were coming from in the middle of February but it must have been somewhere warm and sunny. I just don't understand how you let yourself get so sunburned. Not even on just a portion of your body... the whole thing. It looked so painful I cringed every time they moved an arm or a leg.

But this was the highlight of my traveling thus far. I was surprised to have a very smooth, drama free flight. No screaming kids, no rude people, nobody trying to flirt with me. I have to say, it was peaceful. And then my plane left from Phoenix at midnight and landed in Philly at 6:30 am. And that is when all hell broke loose.

I had about a 2 hour layover in Philly and decided to grab some food (Au Bon Pain... yum!) before taking the shuttle over to the F terminal. It just so happens that the F terminal is in utter disrepair and probably shouldn't even be used until they fix it up but here we were waiting anyway. Our gate probably held about 10 chairs with a flight of nearly 80 people... which means people were everywhere. I'm pretty positive we were considered a fire hazard blocking all kinds of exits but it is 6:30 in the morning and none of us cared.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 9:15 am and board at 8:45. Well, 9:00 rolls around and we are all a little concerned as to what is going on. Nobody from US Airways is near the gate entrance. We can't find a single person that works there and absolutely nothing is going on. The plane has been there for about an hour and the passengers have been waiting longer than that but we can't find anybody to let us on the plane.

Finally, somebody decides they may have a slight idea of what is going on and announces that the flight has accidentally been oversold and 10 passengers are not going to be able to get on this plane. Oh... and by the way, all flights to Boston are booked for the next 3 days. So good luck getting there! I don't understand how you oversell a flight. As far as I can tell, you can count the number of seats on a plane... and that gives you the exact number of seats on a flight. There should never be a case where you oversell seats. Who does that? A poorly run airline does that apparently.

After a good 10 minutes of people yelling and screaming... and people trying to convince other people to give them their seats. The hostility slows to a simmer and people stomp away extremely angry. But at least we have the seats figured out and we can be on our way to Boston. We're already late and I have an interview weekend I need to be at in 2.5 hours. So, I would really like to get going.

You would think all the problems would stop there, right? Nope. Not even close. Turns out US Airways is run by some brilliant people. In the midst of everything, they seem to have forgotten to book a flight crew. I may not be an expert in the airline business but I am going to go out on a limb and say a flight crew may be the most important thing to getting a plane off the ground. Please, correct me if I am wrong but I think it is pretty crucial. So, I don't quite understand how when setting up a flight you don't actually have a flight crew scheduled? I think people need to be fired for this.

After a good 2 hours goes by, meaning I am already going to be 2 hours late for my interview weekend, we finally get on the plane. I could have actually rented a car and been in Boston faster than when I actually got there. After leaving New Mexico at 4pm on Saturday. I arrived in Boston at 1pm on Sunday which is (11 am MST). That is 19 hours of travelling... in the same clothes... with no sleep since Friday night and now I had to go and meet/interview with people. Needless to say I was exhausted.

Once in Boston though, the weekend went splendidly and my flight back was amazingly on time and with very friendly staff. That's because I flew United on the way back. I even got to watch a relatively good movie on my long flight from Boston to Denver. And made it back to El Paso at an early 12:30 am.

To sum up the weekend:
I was gone a total of 58 hours.
29 of those hours were spent travelling.
29 of those were spent in Boston.
6 of the Boston hours were spent sleeping.

So technically... I only spent 23 waking hours in Boston and over the span of 58 hours I only got to sleep 6 hours. All of this culminated in me getting deathly ill. And I have been sitting on the couch for the past 3 days in utter agony with fluctuating bouts of fever and more sleep than I think I have ever gotten in my life. Reminds me of the days when I had mono.



This is my sickly life :(

 No more travelling for me until May! I've clearly had more than I can handle.

I know... I'm kind of a failure

Sorry, I have been failing at posting. These early mornings and traveling along with school and homework are kind of starting to wear me down! As a matter of fact I have to head out for 5 straight hours of class including a quiz here in a minute. And I just took three tests on Tuesday (Happy V-day to me). So... I'm kind of a tired wreck and really just want to sleep forever. Or just drink 18 gallons of coffee. Either will do.

I have some good news though that I will be writing about very very soon! Also, some beautiful pictures of my trip to Michigan. I absolutely love it there.

Stay with me folks and I promise to get stuff out within a day or two!

I Really Love Airplanes...

This is the second edition of my airplane adventures. This was never intended to be more than one post but I really cannot resist.
Airports and airplanes are like breeding grounds for rude, ridiculous, and highly entertaining people. It astounds me the type of stuff people pull. I am convinced that only about 3% of the human population have actually been taught some semblance of manners.

I think this would be an excellent thesis project for some statistician somewhere in the world. And it would be pretty easy to study. Just go to your local airport and sit and watch the mayhem unfold.

So... here I am sitting in the Detroit airport waiting for my flight to head home. But first I have to fly through Charlotte. Then I fly over New Mexico to Phoenix, AZ where I then have to fly back over New Mexico to get to El Paso, TX... so I can drive back into New Mexico to go sleep in my comfy bed. This ridiculousness is going to take me 10 very long hours!

On to people stories. Let me start with the lady that is currently sitting diagonally behind me at my gate waiting area. The most intense phone conversations are occurring with her and the people on the other side of the phone.

I don't purposely listen to people's conversations but sometimes you just can't resist it. Especially when she answers her phone and the first thing that comes out of her mouth is:

Gurl you be lucky yo butt wasn't at home when he was killed. You know them popo always be expecting to have us wives to have murdered them husbands. It is like they think you have your jordans on all up in yo black and blue lookin all fine and then you go and wack him off. Like why you be killin somebody when you looking that fine? Gurl you lucky! Oh hey honey I got to take this other call... Hey boo. Oh yeah I just talked to that gurl. She ain't too upset. Shame about that dumb kid. His poor mama. Oh yeah boo when I get home I am gonna look for a frame up in that place. It is with your shirt off!? DAMN! Oh lord have mercy.

Really... I cannot even make that up. It is still going too. She is currently discussing the state of our job economy. I could write a book about this lady. Or at least several posts.

People are also insanely rude. On my way to Michigan, I was boarding my last flight to find a man sitting in my seat... when his two pint sized babies/kids sprawled out in the middle seat and his wife sitting on the end seat.

It takes me a good 3 minutes to get this ladies attention. Where she then gives me the dirtiest look as if I have interrupted her precious time. I explain that her husband is in my seat. She stares at me for a second and goes oh... we must have has seat D on the other side of the isle. She then returns to paying attention to her kids. I stand a little baffled for a minute. Really lady. You aren't even going to move? Classy move... classy.

Eventually I turn sit down in her seat because she is obviously not getting up. I mean, I didn't want to sit next to her kids but honestly she didn't even ask if we could switch seats. I almost smacked this lady upside the head. What kind of parents did you have growing up!? T

Turns out the lady and the man next to me were her parents. I spent the entire trip passing food between them and their daughter and getting up every 10 minutes to let them use the restroom. Their bladders must be the size of my pinky nail! In 3.5 hour flight I got up 15 times.

Not to mention the fact that I was 2 seconds away from opening the exit door and throwing this lady's crying screaming kids out of that aircraft. I can guarantee that entire flight would have applauded me in this.

I fear for the way those kids are going to grow up.

Lessons of the day: If your husband gets wacked make sure you aren't home because they will automatically blame you. Also, please refrain from procreating if you are a horrible person with no manners. The world would appreciate it.

Now... on to another 3 flights. No telling what is going to happen in the wonderful world of airplanes next!

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