Flying the not so friendly skies

Air travel used to get me a lot more uptight than it does now, but it still amazes me at how incredibly rude and single minded the typical air traveler is these days.

But let me start on the flip side.

I made my way through O’Hare today as I was on my way to visit family and friends in Pennsylvania. I arrived in plenty of time, checked my bag, and even found the shortest security check line in the place. Naturally I was relaxed and aloof, and as a result unintentionally ignorant to my fellow travelers. When I was going through security check, for example, I left my things on the top of the pile of bins for the x-ray machine and in the way of the woman next to me. I quickly noticed and apologized, and she smiled and it was forgotten. After the check point, as I was putting my shoes and belt back on, I had my things spread all over the bench so no one else could sit. Another traveler approached the bench, and immediately I grabbed my things up with a hasty apology. Again I was met with a smile and “Don’t worry, it’s Sunday.”  I apologized to two different people, simply because I was being absent minded and got in their way. And you know what? They appreciated the fact I noticed, was apologetic, and it was smooth sailing.

But not everyone was as good natured as these two women were. I waited at the gate for my seating  group to be called, and when it was I stood back and waited a moment for the people in front of me to move up. It became apparent after a moment that they were in the next seating group by the way they were not advancing, so I started forward. At the same time, a middle aged woman behind me was trying to do the same thing, so we intersected and we bumped into each other. Since I sort of cut her off, I turned and made my third apology of the hour, and like the others before, I was sincere. This woman, however, simply glowered at me, and rolled her eyes. Immediately I flipped into modus annoyus, and snipped a slightly less sincere ‘Sorry,’ and continued on my way.

The latter exchange is one that I have observed and encountered most frequently in our nation’s airports. It may start, as it was with me, as an unintentional slight, but depending on the person, the weather, the line at the United counter,whatever, it can turn quite ugly just as quickly as it can be forgotten. It’s because we are naturally self centered people when traveling, moving along int he mind set “I don’t give a care about anyone elses plans, I just want to make my flights on time.” How I choose to behave in this mindset, however, is to be polite and apologetic. Don’t laugh, seriously, the airport is one place I do not wish to cause an issue. Some other people, not so much.

Take for example, last year as Rick and I waited for our flight to Ft. Lauderdale, there was a man sitting next to Rick that I immediately recognized as an annoying customer from my store. He’s the type that bitches, whines and complains about everything, but makes no effort to change for the positive. In the store environment, he complained about what the product couldn’t do, yet then he would buy it, but return it on day 29 of the 30 day return window with the reason that it couldn’t do what he bitched about it not being able to do to begin with! Twice he did this. I chalked him up to be a freak, and dubbed him Snoops, as he looked like the cartoon character Snoops from  Disney’s ‘The Rescuers’.

I took notice of Snoops immediately because, as it so happened, I was using with great success the exact item he had twice purchased and returned with the reasoning that it couldn’t do what I was having it do. His expression of disdain was priceless, and moments later he stood up and moved a few feet away with a few colleagues who had just joined him. But I digress. The terminal was extremely crowded, and lines were forming everywhere as people were boarding and deplaning and whatnot. There was one group of passengers having issues trying to board a flight, as it appeared the flight personnel were in no way managing the situation properly. It looked like utter chaos, and I acknowledge had I been in line I would have been pissed. But never in a millions years would I ever say or think the words that Snoops, in disdain yet amused with the whole situation, said next. He turned to his friends, and snarked, “God what a bunch of idiots, they can’t even form a line. I hope that plane crashes and they all die.”

I was stunned, and actually paused to make sure I hadn’t just imagined the comment. Until Rick said a moment later, “Did that man really just say what I think he said?” And at that moment I knew it to be true. The worse part was, he was on our flight, so the entire time I prayed that karma didn’t dish out payback there and then.

What possesses a person to say or act that way in an airport, or for that matter, in a public place? Were these people bothering you? Seriously, that is extreme and vile hatred of your fellow human beings to say something so disgusting. Yes this is a severe example, but the fact is that some people act this way. It’s interesting, as I flash back 6 years to the month after 9/11, and I was flying to PA for a wedding. People in the airport were so genteel, so bending over backwards to be kind and thoughtful of their fellow travelers. It made the whole experience, which at the time was naturally very tense, so much easier. What happened, did everyone get jaded again? Evidently not, as proved by my first two encounters today. But then you meet a Snoops, who is all about him or herself and makes it their business to let you know it’s all about them, and the instinct is to want to punch them and throw them onto the tarmac, bleeding and broken.

Back to today, I settled into my seat, and started getting pissed about the bugged eye bitch who bumped into me. Then I stopped myself: why be this person? Why let their bad vibe infect what had been so far an unusually stress free airport experience? So I shook it off, opened my book, and shrugged off the incident.

As the flight came to an end, and I was gathering my things, I thought I bumped the gentleman next to me, and instinctively said ‘I’m sorry.’ The guy looked up, perplexed, and asked why, to which I told him. I hadn’t, but he was appreciative, and we chatted for a moment. As I left the plane, I smiled. I didn’t let the Snoops infection spread today. Maybe that’s the secret to keeping the skies so friendly. Who knows for sure, but I was enjoying it while it lasts.

Shut it in Public!

As a person working in the mobile phone industry, you think I would be tolerant to people using their mobile phones in public situations.

Think again.

As I rode the 147 bus to work yesterday morning, this middle aged woman kept pacing the bus while on her phone. Her hair was a tangle of bad blond color jobs thrown into a bun, spilling everywhere. Thick, Euro style glasses framed her not-going-gently-into-the-goodnight face. And she seemed intent on letting everyone on the bus hear all about her business:”…Yeah, I know… we can discuss over lunch… That sounds great, I love that place… oh shit, I’m almost to the office, but wait until I tell you…”, on and on, blah blah blah, and you pretty much get the gist from there. What made it worse was that she danced about, couldn’t decide whether to exit the front or the back of the bus, and if you got up to exit, she immediately ran the opposite direction as if she feared someone might, I don’t know, touch her.

It borders between amusement and annoyance for me, these people on the CTA. Annoying, when trapped on the Red Line with the Senn High School Teenager and her three girlfriends, who incidentally reeked of BO and were not wearing any underwear (and before you ask, you could not help BUT notice), as they are jawing away at top volume about wanting “to kick tha’ bitches ass, ya knaw?”. On the other hand, priceless when you overhear (and I swear this is true) “Yeah, I just got paroled… no, no computers , at least for 5 years… I don’t know, I may need to move, too… I need a fix, can you hook me up?”.

I do have to say while the bus babblers are bad, the talk-as-you-shop-girls are worse. Nothing pissed me off more when I worked at the Gap, you were trying to finish ringing up a customer, and North Shore Nancy was jawing on the phone with her Soccer Mom gal pal, ignoring everything around her. God forbid if something rang up incorrectly; Nancy would give you the glare, then the eye roll, and then snap into her Motorola, “Sheila, I gotta call you back, these Gap idiots don’t know what they’re doing,” and in a huff flip the phone close and start in on the rant. Nails on the chalk board. But North Shore Nancys are a whole ‘nother rant… trust me.

Granted, I’ve talked on my phone too when in public, and sometimes, I’ve actually have exclaimed interesting tidbits of randomness out just for pure shock value. It can be fun, watching the horrified expressions of those evil eavesdroppers who have nothing better to do than to stick their nose into your business. But I have never intentionally had an intimate or personal conversation with someone while in public, spilling all of my deep and dark secrets to the unwitting listeners around me at the top of my lungs. My friend Erin noted over lunch today that sometimes the loud ones can’t help be but overheard, so eavesdropping in these cases are legal and justified. No arguement there. But if you have to engage in a call, and you are trying to keep it on the DL yet some nosy bitch has nothing better to do than her soduko and cock one ear to the side for juicy gossip, then by all means call her out and give her some BS so to make an ass of herself with.

It’s easy to keep your conversations private, whether you are on the bus or in a store. Just say, ‘I’ll call you back’. Or don’t answer unless it’s work or an emergency. Or text it for goodness sake. If you still want to shout, TYPE IN CAPITAL LETTERS.

But please, when I have my music headset on and I still know what you did last night at Krem, it’s time for you to shut it. Or I will be standing up and doing it for you. Seriously.

Down with the writer's strike!

Like a child throwing a temper tantrum when they don’t get their way, so is the Hollywood writers who continue this strike.

At first, I was all for it… when I thought it would last only two to three weeks, like the Broadway union strike. Hell yes, you should get the residuals from DVD sales, animated shows and online webcasts! Fight for your right to get paid properly!

That was 2 1/2 months ago.

Last night, after Rick and I watched what was the final episode of Criminal Minds for this season, Rick marveled at how short our list of TiVo ‘d shows is. “See, we’re keeping up, there’s not much to watch,” he said.

‘That’s because there ISN’T anything left on TV to watch that’s new,” I replied.

Already, because negotiations continue to falter, the rest of this season and even the Fall ’08 TV season is pretty much ruined. Thousands of people are jobless. So far, reports state that the cost this strike has on the entertainment industry is over $1 billion. In an already faltering economy, this is just plain wasteful.

So I don’t know who to be mad at… the AMPTP or the WGA. The AMPTP, like the bully parents they try to be, has said that negotiations won’t continue until the strike subsides, while the WGA continues to act that the spoiled child not getting his way,  so he will ruin every one else’s time.

My concern? Well of course I miss my TV shows. Don’t you? And while I enjoy my share of Top Chef and Project Runway, the idea of having to watch shows like Farmer takes a Wife is distressing. Won’t happen, sorry. So far daytime has not been affected, at least in what I’ve seen… yes I watch General Hospital, shut up… but how long until those shows begin to suffer. But at the worse, I fear that the Oscars will be postponed, or even more tragically, relegated to some terrible broadcast like the Golden Globes were subjected to.

And don’t give me a line about stop crying, or read a book, because a) I do read, and have been reading a historical tome on the life of Elizabeth I, ¿y tu?, and b) you know damn well if this affected the Super Bowl, people would be rioting in the damn streets. Sorry but this strike is not an equal opportunity offender on all avenues.

So while I vent, the negotiation table is still silent, and soon so will my TV.

Chicago Doomsday 3 averted

Well the threats of a mass transit shut down here in Chicago will finally stop… for now.

The Ill-annoyed Senate and House voted Thursday, after months of flailing and haggling, to pass a $530 million bail out bill to help fund Chicago’s poorly managed mass transit system. Basically, Chicago sales tax will increase again, now to 9.25% (fuck, at this point might as well take it to 10% to keep it even), real estate transfer will increase as well, and there will no longer be threats of canceling 81 bus routes and no fare increase to $3.25. All things considered, I’m just glad it’s resolved.
But the hysteria that was leading up to Doomsday- which was going to be Sunday the 20th, mind you- was ridiculous and unnecessarily fueled by politicians and the CTA itself.

First of all, the CTA is poorly run, although they got rid of that idiot Frank Kruesi who was running it into the ground. But the system needs modified and maintained better than it is now. Schedules are never kept by buses, some bus routes are repetitive. For example, I have walked 2 miles trying to get from point A to point B before a bus shows up, and then there are three more right behind the first one. It’s senseless. They waste more money by having people sit in booths at the train stations all day long, and they do… nothing. Not even clean the damn stink holes that they are, or get up to assist a traveler in need.

Then, the whole legislative mess that kept this Doomsday scenarios looming was stupid too… and in election year? Smart move idiots. For months, they have been sitting on this issue, and piddling around trying to decide what to do. Here’s a thought… cut your fat paychecks in half and give that to the transit system. It would be a start. It didn’t help that our Governor, Rod Blagojevich, kept saying no deal to their moves. And when they finally had a solution, he ups and makes an amendatory veto… he’ll approve or the bail out, but only if seniors 65 and over get to ride for free. And he came up with this, oh, last week, 10 days before the fees would go up and the buses and jobs were cut. Great timing genius. And nice try to buy votes, but sorry, you’re as transparent as saran wrap.

Needless to say, 11th hour and the damn thing passes, so no bus routes are going away, no jobs will be lost, and whoopee seniors get to ride for free. And wait, aren’t we trying to make up lost funds, and you take away more money by doing that? Yeah doesn’t make sense to me either. Don’t get me wrong, okay so old people ride for free, yeah no big deal. Even though they can probably afford it more than me and some of my friends. But some people are crying, what about handicap passengers? Hell, three seniors get bumped from their seats for a wheelchair rider, and all buses are handicap accessible, let’s not give the farm away. People, where does it stop? How about people with bicycles, or expectant mothers? Or students? Jeez, how about everyone who rides the bus to work get on for free? Stupid, stupid, no common sense.

Which brings me to the whole idea of cutting the bus routes down, from 150 or so to 76 routes. I mean, they were going to eliminate every single express bus route to downtown, so all of us would have then had to cram on to the already slow and over crowded trains. Hell, all of the buses that take Rick to work were about to be eliminated too. Seriously, he would have had to take a cab every day to work. There would have been riots if this had all gone down. And with as cold as it is this weekend, if that had happened? I think Blago’s house would have been torched by the mob. Or even worse, someone could have frozen to death waiting for a bus that never came.

One of my coworkers insisted it was a publicity stunt, that there was no way Doomsday was ever going to happen. Maybe he was right, but it sure got too close for my comfort.

About my grandfather

I received sad news from my sister today, my Grandfather Vogel passed away this morning in his sleep. He was 90.

I’m lucky I got to visit with him one last time last August, when Rick and I visited for what was his and my grandmother’s wedding anniversary. Even then, he wasn’t very well. He had a stroke the previous year, and he just wasn’t the same as I remember him as a kid. Evidently he had been worse as of late, though I really didn’t think that he was as ill as he actually was.

My dad did make a good observation to me this afternoon as we talked on the phone. Norman Vogel had lived a full life. He had survived TB at 20 and later cancer. He and my grandmother, married 60 years, got to travel to so many interesting places in the world, from Nepal to China, from Iran and Afghanistan to Egypt. He was a respected Biology professor at W & J College in my hometown. Very giving, working for Habitat for Humanity and similar endeavors. And man was he creative. Grandma wrote in a Christmas card to Rick and I that he they had a cuckoo clock that he made, and wanted us to have it next time we came to visit. And he did all sorts of things like that.

I’m, of course, a bundle of emotions. Sad that he’s gone, yet relieved he’s no longer suffering. Disappointed in myself for not sending the Christmas present I was making, some photos I had taken of them last year, but I never finished it. Concern for my grandmother, and hoping she is alright, as she is now my last surviving grandparent. And reminiscent of the memories I have of spending time with him when I was younger.

I have no idea what’s going to happen in regards to a service. I guess they had decided to donate his body to science, which I think is bizarre, but somehow very him. I understood he had wanted to be cremated, too. Either way, no traditional showing or viewing is scheduled to happen. My dad indicated that perhaps later in the spring he wanted to have a memorial of some kind back in WashPa, where they had lived most of their lives, and I think… no, I know… I want to be there for that.

But for right now, I’m just taking some time to lay low and say goodbye.

Let's start with the meaning behind the name of this blog…

Where to begin? Hmmmm… I know-

People should do one of three things:

1.Not be stupid

2. Leave me alone

3. Die

Charming isn’t it? This quote hung in one of my college friend’s dorm room during our senior year, and was a mantra that a group of us used in reference to varying degrees of people that we found to not be living in the same reality as we were, so to speak. A bit elitist, I admit, but we were 21 and thought we were worldly beyond our peers.

Over the years, this quote stuck with me. I’m a Sagittarius, and in true Sagittarian nature of course am always right. 🙂  I found anger and annoyance as things that wronged me or my friends or people in general, and for a while did grow into what I felt was a misanthrope. It didn’t win me any awards or gain me new friends… in fact for a while it cost me some… but it was a way to vent my frustration over the wrongs of the world.

I grew out of this dark angry phase, but I still can get riled up by random things that I find to be, well, just stupid. I’m not saying I’m exempt, lord knows I’ve had my fair share of moments. But I digress. I find the best way to vent is to write, because writing is very therapeutic to me, and honestly the most polite way of calling out someone’s ineptitude that I know of. If not polite, at least uninterrupted.

So this blog is to share my random thoughts, observations, whatever. You can agree, disagree, laugh, cry, love or hate it. They hopefully won’t all be ‘rants’, so to speak, but sometimes, I just gotta get it off my chest. And hell, the CTA bus driver may thank you that I direct it here and not at him. So sit back, enjoy, and let’s see what interesting situations I get myself into.