Wherein we discover the duplicity of airlines.

This past weekend the Awesome One and I packed up our little bag and flew to the homeland for a brief (very, very brief) visit. Only, when we got there the strangest thing happened.

It wasn't the homeland anymore. Weird.

Also weird? We spent a good half hour watching bags go by on the baggage claim, desperately hoping our big black rolly bag would be among them as it should, only to watch the carousel come to a desolated halt without ever producing our black rolly bag. As is customary whenever something goes wrong for us, I began to panic and outline exactly how this was about to ruin my life forever and ever and ever, and Mr. Awesome listened calmly and before taking my hand and leading me to the baggage-claim-office-place-with-the-people-who-do-the-stuff. We explained that our big black rolly bag had not come on the plane and we were therefore about to die and never be happy again, ever. So they helped us look over the unclaimed baggage and had us unzip one big black rolly bag (that I knew was not ours, btw) just to be sure. And I mean, come on people. I packed that bag and he lugged it several blocks to the metro, through several airports, and all around Scotland previously. We know what our bag looks like, mmmmkay? Eventually one of the people-who-does-the-stuff took our little baggage claim slip sticker, read it, got a very funny wrinkled-brow expression and said "It's right there. That big blue one." And it was. That big blue rolly bag that was not at all black was filled to the top with our clothes and goodies. Can you believe it, people?

The airline had died our bag blue!

The audacity. I'm telling you. Good thing I caught on to their little game or I might have been feeling reaaaaally stupid right about then.

And then we departed for what would become a three day festival of driving and eating with occasional stops for sleep. At one point, in the course of two hours, we ate four courses of Thai food followed by some random frozen custard, and then the biggest slice of homemade chocolate cake I have ever seen. I nearly died. It was awesome.

Eight nieces, two nephews, five hundred miles of driving and two suitcases full of my old textbooks later, we took our big I-swear-it-was-black, blue rolly bag back to the airport. And for the first time in my life, I was flying home and away from Utah at the same time. It was bliss.

Conversation in the car on the way through SLC:
Me - "So, Utah is kind of fun huh?"
Him - "Yeah, it is."
Me - "Yeah, so many good memories..."
Him - "mmmhmmm, yeah."
Me - "Let's never live here."
Him - "Deal."

PS. In the course of packing up and getting rid of my life-storage in my mother's basement, along with the two suitcases full of books (what? I gave up like four boxes of books here people! That was me exercising restraint!) I ended up taking home my prom dress. Why? Because it fits, obviously. Also Mr. Awesome suggested I wear it out dancing with him at least once. He'll get a tux and buy me a corsage and we'll go waltzing. Who says no to that?

A few thoughts you don't want to hear

Because it's a blog, people. I use it to air my biased, ill-formed opinions on an innocent world. That's how this deal works, yo.

It won't come as any surprise that I don't swing right, and don't have any respect for Palin as a legitimate political figure. And her reactions to this whole thing have done nothing to sway my opinion. Although, can we just take a second and realize that while the use of the term "blood-libel" was ill-judged, calling Palin anti-Semitic for that is just a tad far-fetched. I mean, come on, does anyone honestly believe she knew what the term meant? Let's not start overestimating her intelligence here, people.

Actually, let's take more than a moment to disect this "blood-libel" anti-semite moment. Because, by golly, it's bothering me. I will totally get behind the idea that it was innappropriate, but this reaction to it has a nauseating familiarity. Taking one small detail and using it to caricature someone into a horrible, anti-semitic, anti-american, satanic messenger of evil? Who does this sort of reaction remind us of, students? Hint: rhymes with Then Heck!

Honestly, children, the last thing we need is to start modeling ourselves on that type of reaction. Speaking of reactions, there were two that pretty much summed it up for me. One was Jon Stewart's opening for the Daily Show on Monday. If you haven't yet, I recommend watching it. And don't worry, it's safe for conservatives and liberals both.

The second was this dude. Because you know, when he is off he can be pretty off. But when he is on? He is awesome.

Finis et Principii

Alas, dear ones, January 6th has come. Which means, of course, that with the Feast of the Epiphany today, Christmas must finally come to a close. And you all knew that, of course. None of you have been guilty of cutting the season off early, or (heinous thought indeed!) taking the Christmas tree down on January first! January 1st, my dears, can you imagine? Why, that is only the seventh day of Christmas. Imagine, cutting off the season before the full twelve days have passed! Unthinkable, my dears. But you knew that, didn't you? Yes, of course you did. And that, my lovelies, is why are are such close friends.

Ahem, as I was saying, Christmas is now ended. One always knows, when setting up the tree and stringing the lights and finally turning up the volume on the Christmas tunes you have been listening to since September, that someday it must all come down. And that day, my friends, is today. Or possibly next week. Or sometime in February. Listen, I don't like to push these things, ok? I try to have it all packed away by Valentine's Day but don't rush me!

So, here we are. 2011. And I must say, so far it's been quite pleasant. Some of you may remember last year's resolution post wherein I described the difficulty and inherent silliness of New Year's Resolutions. And if you do remember that, well, you are obviously clogging your brain with irrelevancies and should probably knock it off. And if not, then I have just reminded you. So we are all on the same page. Excellent. Let's begin.

Despite my vague antipathy to year-long resolutions, since discovering "self-parenting" I've developed a good relationship with goals and the setting thereof. This year I've set a goal with Mr. Awesome to spend at least an hour a week doing something active together. Since we set this goal halfway through our weekend hike through the woods, it feels not only doable but natural. And when the weather is good we're a pretty active couple anyway. So this isn't a goal to really start something new so much as to be more consistent about something we already do. Also, instead of a boring (and ultimately useless) "exercise more" goal, this one has the benefit of actually being fun. Hiking, ice-skating, swing-dancing, biking, kayaking, fencing, and all the things we already do for fun, only now we get to pat ourselves on the back for doing it. So basically, our goal is to be proud of ourselves for doing what we already do. Nice.

For myself, I'm sticking with last years "lifely" goal of eating fresh produce, and I even got a shiny new veggie cookbook to help out. (Can you say steamed artichoke? Yes, yes please.) Also I'm going to spend less on books (good luck, now that I have a kindle and the ability to download books anytime, anywhere.). Truly we live in a day of instant temptation and fulfillment. Now if you'll excuse me, there are three new books positively screaming to be read on my Kindle. Adieu, dear ones, may this season-leading-up-to-Christmas be as fulfilling and productive as last year was.