Minimal Effort

So I fly about 3 out of the 4 weeks in the month. Sometimes half. Regardless, I’ve noticed at an unnamed airline that when they call for First class and Premiere fliers or whatever, they ask them to stand on the red carpet.

This red carpet is actually a big red rug. Not even shag. It’s like a red welcome mat that is blocked off with line partitions. Once the red-carpet first classters boarded the plane, the rug was empty. So people started lining up on it. The attendant said “no no, the red carpet is for first class, you need to line up here” and gestured to the non-carpeted side.

My questions to red-carpters are these:

–Do you feel special that you paid extra to stand on a red rug?
–Do the stewardesses and stewards feel that us regular customers are taininting the red rug if we stand on the other side?
–Why have a red rug? For first class, it seems kind of cheap. Why not a red rug and a blue rug? A red fish and a blue fish?

Anyway, this is what happens when you are spending half of your time waiting at airports…staring at red rugs and wondering if the cost is worth it.

So Paris Hilton is going back to jail. I’ve been reading several articles about it — and i must make this abundantly clear — I do not care about Paris Hilton or her shenanigans and the reason I write about this is because it deals with punishing drunk drivers.

How many times have I heard people being killed by drunk drivers? How many “stars” are released after a dui without serving time? How many stories have I heard of my very own friends, which i will admit, I have laughed about — about barely making it home? It’s an everyday occurrence and people take it way too lightly. There are many options and advertisements — get a cab, spend the night at a friend’s house, sober up for a bit, have a DD and yet people still drive drunk and because they think IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN TO THEM.

I was 10 years old when my mother’s old college friend came to visit with her daughter, Georjean. Georjean and I were instant friends and wrote to each other for years..up until we were in college. Georjean is a few years behind me, so I was already working when I heard she had been killed.

A month before her mother had called my mother and asked if Georjean could stay with my family. I was no longer living at home and neither was my sister, so she could take oen of our rooms. Georjean was going to finish her degree at San Diego State University. About 2 weeks before she was going to live with my family, she was killed INSTANTLY by a drunk driver in Maryland. Oh yaeh, what happened to the drunk driver? He’s perfectly healthy and in jail. I’m sure he has a family and I’m sure there are people who think he’s a great guy but he KILLED ANOTHER LIFE. I will now never get to go to Georjean’s wedding or meet her kids or have our late night laughfests when we’re gray [or grey]. Her family is trying to put themselves back together. Her little brother no longer has an older sister. There’s something about knowing when a friend is dying of cancer [which has also happened to me, multiple times] versus waking up and your friend is dead. No goodbye, just gone. I spent months feeling guilty that I didn’t see or talk to her enough. For godsakes, I was in Massachusetts!! She was only a few states away! WTF

So while I have friends who are trying to be better about not driving drunk, I try not to preach and be all crazy about alcohol at parties and people who drive after them. But now I have all this pent up anger and this Paris Hilton case just essentially made me explode.

So…she drives drunk, gets her license suspended, drives drunk again, gets a warning….how many times do you have to drive drunk before you get some sort of punishment? She goes to jail for 45 days, goes down to 23. Leaves after 3 days [even though it’s counted as 5 days] for some mystery illness. Now she is being sent back again.

Mystery illness — perhaps detox? perhaps not having her mansion or her puppy? I read these things were people feel sorry for her, especially after seeing her tear-stained face in the car. Or people who say the punishment is too harsh and it’s all the judge and attorneys trying to get their name in the paper. Obviously Paris’s lawyers and publicists have gotten to you if you feel any sort of sympathy. She did this MULTIPLE times people. Remember Nicole Richie driving the wrong way on the highway? Do you know I had a friend in 2nd grade whose father was killed by somebody driving the wrong way on the highway?

So go ahead, make an example of Paris. This mystery illness, which the Sheriff said “needed medical attention” hence why he put her on house release, you know how many f’in people need medical attention? Do you know how many people need medical attention with the same f’in symptoms who aren’t EVEN IN JAIL?! Deal with it.

Say with me everyone…no sympathy. I like how the Hiltons are throwing all this money at this case because you know, they think they can buy their way out of anything.

Anyway, I needed to get that off my chest. Back to your regular scheduled program.

so i had the blues…and decided to visit my good ol’ ladypants, risa.

We went to see blades of glory and i have to say, we were laughing so hard that we both started to cry. I have a thing with comedies that has choreography in it..i.e. Old School and Blades of Glory..and I guess, Rushmore…although that wasn’t choreography but a remake of mini-movies…i still think they are hilarious

Anyway, Risa and I also went to Kelly’s for some mmm, mmm, clams and scallops.

It’s good to have a few girlfriends on hand when you have the blues–blahs! She certainly made my weekend.

Go see blades of glory.

p.s. i went to the pentagon last week for the jobby job. They didn’t recognize me on my driver’s license because a) i look young b) i was wearing my glasses and c) i have a different hair color. It was not until I smiled and they said “oh look, same exact smile”. woooo.

First..the weepiness.

I think it may have been the fact that I finally finished Six Feet Under and that last episode just put me over the edge, but I just can’t stop crying.

What I have cried about:

–Reading People Magazine, a dog saved a girl…but the dog died.
–Reading People Magazine [same one], an Amish community is recovering from a shooter who put 10 little girls in a row and shot them and then shot himself. I remember reading the original story, but reading about these people putting their lives back together…
–Watching “Freedom Writers”, I mostly cried about the kids meeting the woman who hid Anne Frank. Anything about the Holocaust has me crying uncontrollably.
–Going to the 9/11 monument. A out of town friend came to visit, we went to see the monument and I was all choked up but it was when I saw ALL THE NAMES of everyone who died and how astronomically long that list was, i burst into tears. My friend sort of freaked out and dragged me away to buy Nuts [he is nuts for nuts]

and now this Virginia shooting. I began to cry when I read about the professor who blocked the door so people could escape [he was also a Holocaust survivor] and was killed himself. Just these pictures of all these people and these families who have no idea how to prep for something like this.

What’s interesting is that, I just returned from Las Vegas for a convention….I was at this convention when the shootings happened and nearly all of us didn’t find out until the day after [I found out during the day because I happened to watch the news while eating lunch]. It’s nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get news in Vegas, other than sport scores. The lack of interaction with the outside world is a little scary.

ANYWAY, I was flying back yesterday…from Vegas to Chicago and Chicago to New York. My Vegas to Chicago flight was delayed, so I missed my connecting flight and was booked for the next day [today]. I ended up calling a good old college friend of mine who works at the Trauma Center. We did pre-med together…he went all the way, medical school and whatnot–i went film.

We were talking about the Virginia shootings and he just shrugged his shoulders and said he really didn’t care. I was shocked, not necessarily angry, but shocked he was so nonchalant about it. And he said “well, I see this thing everyday. This is something that has gotten advertised but we run into suicides, murders, cancer…the whole gamut…so it’s hard to feel something that I am so distant from when our center has our own problems”

That is such an ODD perspective. If I were to be in that environment, would I too be desensitized?

My back is KILLING me. It’s residual from the two car accidents from January but it’s freaking April…I usually get back problems in the morning then it goes away in the afternoon…not today. My back has been hurting since two days ago. What the frick. I’ve used a heating pad, 8 ibuproefen, ICY-HOT, chamomile tea.

If anybody has ANY ideas how I can use my back again, I would greatly appreciate it.

My “new” job is exhausting. I will not be traveling for 4 days, which is great but I also stuck in bed with my back.

I’m much too young to be having back problems. goddamn car accidents.

So i’m at the chicago o’hare airport on a 3 hour layover. Had a job in bloomington, which had badass houses [and mad cheap] but in the middle of freaking nowhere.

we started [me and my coworker] a tab at the bar and now i’m a little toasty. he has left since then for MA and I’m waiting for my flight to NYC.

I found out last night that there were podcasts for strongbad emails. holycrap. that’ll entertain me for like an hour. then a trashy gossip magazine about britney or bragelina, then i’m probably going to hit that new series “the riches” with my fave, eddie izzard. i fell in love with him in london as he was highly recommended by my uncle harry.

my uncle harry passed away last month from cancer. i’m still in shock about that.

um, anyway, that wasn’t the point, the point was i am happy aobout little things like strongbad poddcasts and free wi-fi at airports.

and being drunk while posting. oh, excuse me, toasty.

i’m all overtheplace.

my first entry of the year and the only thing i have to say is:

I HATE THE SOCIAL SECURITY OFFICE

back to your regularly scheduled programme.

ok, i couldn’t do it. I’m now watching Whose Line is it Anyway? on BBC. I love that show.

P.S. Has anybody seen that SNL Digital Short….with Justin Timberlake…”In A Box”. Look for it, it’s HILARIOUS.

I have never seen this movie before which make shock people? [I don’t know why it’s so shocking.]

I’m finding updating this journal on the road is a bit more difficult when you’re hearing yourself get fatter from eating out so much. I also find that I like taking bubble baths on the road. Why I don’t take bubble baths at home …who knows.

I’m currently watching “Miracle on 34th Street”. I have never seen this and feel obligated to watch it because it’s a classic and one of the dudes won an Oscar but in all honesty, I’m not really ecstatic to watch it. Perhaps it doesn’t help that I’m typing an entry while “watching” it.

Other movies I should watch but haven’t gotten around to [because they’re “classics”]

–A Nightmare Before Christmas
–Ben Hur
–Chariots of Fire
–All the Godfathers
–Scarface
–Casablanca
–My Fair Lady
–Breakfast at Tiffany’s
–Brokeback Mountain
–Capote

Ok, that’s all I can think of at the moment.

As I am a connoisseur of chicken and rice, I am currently testing fast food chicken in other states. Here are the stats so far:

–Bojangles [North Carolina]
–Popeye’s [Florida]
–Church’s Chicken [New Mexico]
–KFC [everywhere]

Thus far, I’m a fan of Popeye’s. Bojangles is too spicy, Church’s and KFC is a bit on the greasy side. Popeye’s just has enough salt. However, my quest for the perfect chicken is not finished.

Gifts received so far:

–Little Miss Sunshine
–Thank You for Smoking
–Season 5 of 24
–cd of The Unicorns [listened to the other day….THEY ROCK!]
–Decemberists cd
–Lindt Truffles

Woohoo. I swear I’m the easiest to purchase for. Loving all the gifts thus far.

Ok, I’ll have more rigmarole next time.

My schedule for January

–2 days in Syracuse, NY
–4 days in DC
–4 days in LA
–3 days in Seattle
–1 day in Indianapolis, ID

more days to be scheduled! woooooo

I’m exhausted.

Frequent flying does not fare well for my skin. My face is like a potato [or in the quayle days ‘potatoe’] and my hair needs a dye job because it looks like I dyed. Perhaps I’ll pull a Britney spears and get a bob with 6 hour color or something.

I flew into Maryland this morning [leaving boston at 6am]. I was working in a building that is across the street from the Discovery Channel Headquarters! That was interesting..they had a skeleton of a Tyrannasaurus Rex, a mouse trap type of device, and a shrine to Lance Armstrong all in their lobby.

It was also odd because you walk one block to the left [I was in Silver Spring, MD] and it was like, the projects..underdeveloped and old. You walk one block to the right [i.e. where Discovery Channel was]…it was like walking on a movie set…everything was new and pretty and mall-like. Actually, I think it was a mall I walked into. I ate at a Thai food place. yum yum.

Anyway, I think that’s odd about the difference of a block. And Maryland has 3 airports. What the heezy. Must be all those politicians.

Anyway, I’m going to attempt to get new hair or cut off the old one or something. Perhaps I’ll copy my sister. She has good hair.

Yo!

So, the last time I typed in here, I was having a rough rough summer. It took a hell of a long time to get over a lot of shit…but I got over it and I’m STILL HERE BITCHES!

Anyway, tons have happened since then. I got another promotion at work. With this promotion, I now travel for work and no longer have the usual 40 hour week. I have either a 10 hour week or an 80 hour week depending. Anyway, I decided to reinvigorate my livejournal and start putting in entries when I’m in a new state.

…Oh, to note, this is a “promotional transfer”…which means, I still work for the same company but I now report to a different office and different people. I’m still under the same “umbrella” of services, but I now do live services instead of over the phone services..this also means that I get to move back to New York! So New York, as soon as I have a moment, I”m coming back goddammit…back to my regular entry…

Today I’m in Alburquerque, New Mexico and will be here until Saturday. This is my first “gig” and am now privy to a lot of mistakes:

*I am inadvertently quitting smoking. I always wanted to but I simply don’t have time to smoke a butt. I’ve smoked like 5 cigarettes since last Friday.

*I forgot my comb. I now look like a hobo who really really has dark roots [umm. dye job emergency anyone?]

*I need to buy a screwdriver and a flashlight. Using my cell phone is not cutting it [as a screwdriver or a flashlight. I tried using a business card as a screwdriver today. I have no idea why]

*I get a new laptop! Thanks to the genorosity [sp?] of my roommate, this transmission is brought to you by him and by viewers like you. I owe him a paint job or a really good dinner…or both.

*I’ve been in three states in the past 48 hours [california, massachusetts, new mexico]. I have no idea what day or what time or what time ZONE I’m in.

*New Mexico is a land locked state. That is Crazy. What do they do instead of beaches? It’s all desert here. Sand surfing?

*I could be quite possible the shortest person here. Everyone is Native American and about 7 feet tall.

*I ate church’s chicken today. I miss church’s chicken. damn you massachusetts.

*my sleeping pattern is all fucked up. I used to sleep for 8 or 9 hours..now I sleep 4 or 5. But that’s because I do stupid shit like watch my DVR shows or play spider solitaire or type lame livejournal entries instead of sleeping at a reasonable hour.

*I left my camera in california. My friend will be bringing it back but I miss my camera.

*Coffee is starting to look tempting….hmm.

Ok, hopefully I’ll be done with the gig tomorrow before 5pm so I can check out Santa Fe…and sing “do you know the way to santa fe…lalalalalalallalalala”

Next time in Sharon’s livejournal:
–sharon buys a firewire drive and a flashlight!
–Sharon tries a steamed artichoke!
–Sharon flies out to Orlando!

FIN..for now..