Random Thoughts About My Trip To Texas

Ticket agents and TSA employees are highly underpaid, no matter what it is they receive. More often than they should, they have to deal with idiots (i.e.--the general public), and do so in a courteous and professional manner. And at ridiculously early hours of the morning. Some even doing so in a cheery manner! Thumbs up to the ticket agent in Missoula, and the two in Helena who got me in air, and to the cheery TSA man in Dallas who, at 5:00 in the morning, told me I was going to get preferential treatment. Sure, that meant the near-strip search, but he made me feel good about it!

Two people were late for their flight out of Helena Friday morning. There's a reason that you can't walk in 15 minutes before your flight leaves. Especially in a small airport where the ticket agents also have to load the plane and do the hand signal thing. One kid--not yet thirty, yelled a string of expletives very loudly to anyone who would listen to them. Unfortunately, that was me and the TSA crew (who eventually called the cops). Because he had to buy a same-day ticket on a different airline, it cost him over $700! And the ticket agent tagged him for the full search (that's what you get for irritating them). A woman and her boyfriend, both in their mid-40s, at least, were late because his ex-wife slashed the tires on their car and they had to load down a cab with her huge amount of luggage. She was a tad more personable, but had no problem stringing the words together too. The bottom line--I was nice to the airline people at that time of the morning, and they were more than happy to reticket me to Salt Lake City and on to Dallas. They even went as far as marking my tickets so that I didn't have to get searched on the trip down, and got me window seats on both flights. These people are just doing their jobs, and can't help it if you're too stupid or ignorant to get there early. And you sure as hell can bet that the people already on the plane didn't give a rat's ass about why you were late! The moral of the story--be nice to others, and they'll be nice to you!

The name of the big black lady flight attendant on my last leg of my journey was named Goddess. I swear! I don't know the name of the flamingly gay male flight attendant on the DWF to Denver leg...

If you look out the window of an airplane at the ground below, it looks just like Google maps. Without the names of lakes or highways.

You know how Texans are proud of how big their state is? Well, there's a reason for that--it's freakin' HUGE! The Dallas/Ft. Worth metro area covers a vast amount of land!

Texans really do say, "y'all". Some even say "yeehaw!"

Until late Saturday night, I thought all strippers were basically the same, other than age. I saw some poor to mediocre strippers (looked really uncomfortable onstage), and some really good ones (smiling, interacting, entertaining). The one with the hot pink shorts and matching hair was really good!

I was going to lament the numbers of bloggers that didn't show up, but I've decided to enjoy the memories of those who did. No bad feelings towards those that couldn't make it...

Many thanks to those who sent ecards, emails, texts and phone messages my way, as well as those of you who did some sort of post. My access was not full-time, so I don't know if I caught everyone or not. If I didn't leave a comment, I might not have, so let me know. Thank you one and all for your kind wishes!

I'm very much behind on keeping up. Even remembering a routine. It's like the morning paper--there's certain blogs I go to first, before even considering looking at others. I'll get there though!