On behalf of your Memphis-based flight crew...

This morning's flight was crewed by a distinctly Tennesseean crew. I was sitting near the front and was privy to this conversation:

Flight Attendant (strong Memphis accent): "On behalf of your (as if you hadn't guessed) Memphis-based flight crew, we'd like to welcome you aboard"

Front Row Guy: "I knew you must be from Tennessee. I love the accent."

FA: "You know, most of the time people just think I'm dumb. The looks up north in reaction to my accent are priceless. [turns to tend to something in the kitchen] I've got brains; I just don't sound like it. I have a master's and I'm working on my PhD."

FRG: "In what?"

FA: "Special Ed. Special Education. It helps a LOT with this job."

Front Section of Aircraft: [Eruption of Laughter]

FRG: "Maybe you should go into comedy."

FA: "Believe me. I could."

Anywhere, USA

My recent flight from New York to Indianapolis reminded me that airports are often distinctly non-descript. there are a few exceptions in the newer terminals, but in those built in a previous era, I might as well have flown in circles around the same airport, landed and then entered a different dimension when I left the building. The buildings are the same. Same old, stale carpet. Same toothless, pimpled, somewhat surly service staff at the restaurants. Same manicured, uniformed flight crews who always seem to know some sort of inside joke. Same Starbucks. (except in Idaho)

How To Speak New Yorker

In New York City, they're not convenience stores, they're Bodegas.
You don't stand in line; you stand on line.
You don't say OR-ange or HORR-ible; you say AR-ange and HARR-ible.
It's not Hew-ston like Texas, it's House-ton street.
It's not becauze, it's becausse.
Until next time...

Lower East Side Specialty

When I walk to work in the morning (the most awesome thing ever!), I pass closed metal garage door front gates. It's a ghost town. However when I walk home (also awesome) it's a whole new world. Suddenly spray painted garage doors become store fronts, restaurants, galleries, salons, laundromats, bars, dry cleaners, shisha lounges, and bodegas. It's wild that night is quite a lot less scary than morning.

November too...

It's been so long since I've posted here that when I went to type in the URL, Firefox didn't "remember" it for me. Thank goodness the old brain still has something on the computer, I guess.

This month, well last month, has been a whirlwind. Again. This time it was work that kept me so busy. September it was finding an apartment, dealing with the boyfriend issues, and getting ready to move. October it was moving, dealing with the boyfriend issues, coming to terms with the fact that my boss quit, and .... CRAP MY STUPID INTERNET CONNECTION BROKE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh yeah, and preparing for Halloween.

I'm going to kill TimeWarner.

November brought with it the realization and reality that my job got a whole lot harder. We printed over 100,000 80-page prospectuses and sent out tens of thousands of in-house-designed direct mail related to our new fund launch. What the hell does all that mean, you ask? Well, that's what I was asking at the beginning, but we somehow managed to do all that, update our website reflecting the same, and put together a whole bunch of other material. Ok, enough of my boring life, but suffice it to say that because I was so busy, I was sending my laundry out to be washed (as in someone else washing my undies... yum). However, I wasn't in the neighborhood during the time that they were open, so by Friday, I was wearing my suit to go to a factory in New Jersey.

Yes, I was in a mailhouse in New Jersey at 8am with my driver... I told you it's been nuts. Only a few months ago I was plodding away at database management sitting with my headphones and working independently, and now I'm managing processes with multiple vendors, coordinating mailings across several different mailhouses and it is wildly different. Sometimes I just want to build a database... so I am in the background.

I told you I'd stop talking about work, didn't I? Maybe tomorrow.