Grumpy Ladies at the Airport Day or I'm Baaaaaack or Tucson 2013 pt 1

Holy moly it's been a long time since I posted anything on here. I completely failed at keeping up with Europe and I intended to go back and add in at least some anecdotes, but yeah... that didn't happen. There were lots of short trips in the in between time I probably should have written about too, but, as you can see, I never got around to it.

But! I want to do better. So we'll start with today.

I'm in Tucson, Arizona! Yay! Not just randomly though. I'm here to visit my grandparents.

Yay hearts in my mocha! :D

Dad picked me up this morning and we stopped at Lone Pine to get coffee before we left. I'd never been in there before so that was kind of neat.

The drive to the airport in Portland was pretty uneventful. We encountered a tiny bit of snow, some bad drivers, and lots and lots of plotting cows. We know the cows were plotting because they were all huddled together around their trough. What other reason could they possibly have for standing so close together? :P

I got my bag checked and through security with minimal problems. I say minimal instead of no problems because I had to stand in line extra long because the airport security measures nowadays are stupid and ridiculous. I think we got to stand in line an extra twenty minutes or so because some lady forgot to take her travel size toothpaste out and put it in a tray. *sigh*

Yup

While I was waiting for my first flight (I had lots of time) I wandered through one of the stores near my gate and found these--

Who buys condoms in the airport convenience store? I mean, really. That would be so embarrassing. But also kind of hilarious. Which is why next time I see them, I'm going to get a few to send to certain friends. I'm sure they know who they are.

Griff's new favorite hat. 

I also found a special (not really in a good way) hat for Griff. I know he likes tie-dye and dressing like a hippy when he can get away with it, but this might even be pushing it for him. Plus, it would look pretty funny with his hair. (Sorry Griff, but it would.)

My flight to Las Vegas was probably the most turbulent flight I've ever been on. Not a bad thing, just a small point of interest. The turbulence, at least the level we had today, wasn't scary for me. It was for the lady I sat next to though and a few of the other women I overheard.

We got to Vegas on time. I wanted Jamba Juice, but I wanted to double check my gate first. I did and then I found my gate, but I ended up having to double back to find a Jamba Juice. Embarrassingly enough, it was right by the gate I originally came in by.

Vegas (and Portland really) were both kinda boring to sit around in. Nobody screamed and got mobbed by security only to have it revealed that they had simply hit the jackpot in slots this time (that happened last time I was in the Las Vegas airport). Fortunately several of my friends were happy to help entertain me by texting with me. Thanks guys!



Some things I found in the Las Vegas airport--

As Charlotte said, "Starts here. Leads to condoms. What happens in  the Vegas airport..."
I added, "Follows you all the way home  in the unfortunate form of STDs. :P"

Many much slots

*headdesk*

The first title of this post comes from the fact that in Portland and in Vegas I saw several grumpy ladies today-- from the one who was late to her flight in Portland and practically pushing people aside to get to her gate, to the one huffily chucking other people's stuff down the roller ramp after the x-ray machine, to the snotty woman in Las Vegas. The snotty woman was probably the grumpiest. Just as we were getting ready to board our flight to Tucson, the guy at the big Southwest kiosk asked everyone to keep clear so that he could still conduct transactions and so that the counter didn't get bumped and crash the computers. Now, computers touchy enough to crash because someone touched the counter they're resting on sound like they have a problem and should be replaced. Nevertheless, I didn't really fancy being stuck at the gate for however long it took IT to get the computers back up so I obeyed the warning. This one woman didn't. She went to stand super close to the kiosk. I watched her sway back and forth and almost bump it several times. The clerk saw her too and asked her to move away. She got angry at him because she didn't see why she couldn't get in line to board (the funny thing is that it wasn't even her turn yet. She was the next set of passengers to board). She did eventually stomp off, but then she threw a couple stage muttered (is that a thing? Well, now it is) comments at the clerk, which he heard and responded to as best he could. What made her really unimpressive was that she immediately started pity mongering (ie, "That clerk is so mean," "Did you hear what he said to me?" "I was just standing in line.") and the people around her indulged her.

Fortunately she sat elsewhere. The flight to Tucson was also uneventful except for the sunset. We were above the clouds when the sun started to set and it was making really pretty orange and pink and yellow streaks and it sank into the clouds. When it was below the clouds we started to follow it down. Somehow, I've never been aware of flying through clouds. I'm sure I have before, but I can't remember it. I thought it was cool when everything went light gray and cottony looking. We broke through the first layer of clouds and saw more of the brilliant colors from the sunset between the lower and more scattered clouds. When we were through the bottom layer of clouds there were still lots of pretty colors to look at, which is fortunate because they made us turn off our electronics really early and I getting bored.

 A few of my favorite Sky Mall items--

I totally need thi

This would have made some of my photography class projects so much easier. 

It's a computer mouse shaped like a car. My dad needs one. 

In the end I got to Tucson safely, met up with my grandparents, and even retrieved my check bag. We got some food, spent a lot of time chatting and catching up, and I tried to fix their computer (I was unsuccessful though).

Now, I'm super tired and I would like to go to bed. Good night.