I’m just about to hop into a plane for Washington DC for a very short trip (coming back tuesday afternoon). I won’t have a lot of free time, but if anyone has any tips on things to do in the capital, now’s the time. Just in time too, we finally found our digital camera! Ok, they’re boarding now. Buh-bye!

When John and I did this before, our notes were scribbled in a journal or piece of paper (if memory serves) and then transcribed after the fact. Well, it’s four years later and modern technology is a wonderful thing. Instead I scribled the notes on my palm and still have to transcribe them later. Hmm. Maybe not so wonderful.

Here’s a quick synopsis of what’s happened so far (then I really need to get to sleep and kick the crap out of myself for scheduling a 7:50 wakeup [free breakfast]):

Flight to Atlanta was nice and uneventful, made the same observations I always do about how the restriction against ‘electronic devices’ is a load of manure, and how there is no “OFF POSITION” that I can conceivably orient any of my electronic devices. For that matter, my palm pilot DOES NOT TURN OFF. I can’t even remove the battery. Don’t get me started.

My Atlanta-DC leg of the trip had an interesting bit of fun when they asked for folks willing to take a bump. What, arrive a few hours later, get a free cab ride from Baltimore to my hotel, and $400 delta-bucks to spend on anything from delta within the next year. Check!

I probably had a more interesting flight on the second one anyway. There was a world-class para-olympics athelete (multiple gold metals and all) which, while some might suppose is kinda like saying that someone was a brilliant retard, was not the case) on board who, when he needed to get back 13 rows and his wheel chair wouldn’t fit, merely lifted himself up out of the chair, and swung himself pomel horse style back and forth between armrests (he had no legs) to his seat. Dude was freaking ripped in the half of his body he did have. The other lady with a wheelchair on the flight sat with her daughter next to me (I typically go for window seats) and we had a very interesting couple of conversations (she’s the one who knew about the para-athelete).

It was interesting listening to one conversation between the two; the mother was explaining to the daughter why gambling was bad because it was basically a problem for poor people who waste money they barely have hoping to make a lot of money and all the problems it can cause (their father/husband is apparently an on-staff psychologist for some large-unnamed company and this is apparently one of the issues he regularly deals with). The daughter expressed some slight discorn: “but it’s their own fault” she said, “I mean, they choose to do it, right?” Wow, what an interesting philosophical, moral, and political discussion that brings up. Of course, the mom didn’t try to get into it with her 10 year old daughter, but it was fun watching the way she did handle it.

When I got off the flight, I was the second person out the door (the row behind the exit row isn’t quite the best seat in the house, but it’s freaking quick when you want to get off the plane. (Yes, I was on the window seat on an aisle with a lady who needed a wheelchair–I hopped the row in front of us. Nobody seemed to mind much, there was lots of space by the exit row). I ended up asking the agent by the exit ramp where the travel-vouchers could be obtained right as another 30s-ish woman asked the same question. We ended up finding and getting our vouchers together (both technically to Ronald Reagan Intl airport, but in actually we were both going to try to get our cabbies to go right to our hotel and pay the difference). We were planning on getting seperate cab (hey, seperate vouchers…), but the cabbie dispatcher at the airport took one look at the vouchers and asked if we were going to the same place. I told him, no, we were going to different hotels, and he clarified that he meant the same city. Oh. Well, yeah, I guess so, so we ended up sharing the cab ride together. The cabbie got both vouchers and so we both just ended up having to pay a tip only instead of any actual fare (like I would have had to pay if I landed directly at RR). I had a $20 and $4, I ended up just giving him the $4, because if I had to guess the value of the two vouchers together was more than he would have actually gotten if he drove the route he did to drop us both off. Oh well, if that was a bad call I at least hope I get a different cabbie on the ride back to the airport (though I may just take the Metro).

Why in the heck do I get so loquacious this late? I gotta get some sleep.

Till the morrow.

[Update 2005-04-04@22:12]
Well, it’s certainly earlier in the evening for this post, but I don’t feel much more coherent. After a long day of various meetings and talks, I hunt out with my cousin and her fiance. They were great hosts, helping me grab photos of a few places I didn’t yet have pictures of. Didn’t have enough time to do the Spy museum unfortunately (apparently you have to get tickets the day before or something), but we did catch the supreme court. Thanks for the idea, Dan. I’m wiped. I may even take a bump on the way back if there’s a good opportunity. That could combine for a very nice amount of delta bucks (can you say free flight to Changchun?), but I’ll need to be rested for a long day of travel.

Posted by Jordan on Sunday, April 3rd, 2005 at 4:53 pm.