Busy. Went to a zendo yesterday, saw Because I Said So today (damn Catch and Release only being in the evening!), I still need to write a paper due tomorrow. Oy.

I am back safely from my conference trip to FL :wave:

I do have some stories to tell though :lmao:

Out with them, Carol!

:yay: Carol's back, can't wait to hear your stories!

Carol., welcome back :hug: Can't wait to hear your stories :D

Gaby, good luck with the paper. Whats it about?

Steph Star Trek.... TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise (old or new)?

Alex, pizza sounds yummy. Hope you enjoyed it :D

andie it was amazing, thanks:P Thanks for the chat too:hug:

and carol's back:look: I guess that's good, someone to :smirk: with;)

It's about my experiences at the zendo seen through the lens of my Roman Catholic faith background.

Well, I didn't finish it. But I got most of it done. It wasn't really due today, I was just hoping to have a draft done so I could have it looked over by the Writing Center at school today. There's a peer review in class on Wednesday and then I'm handing it into the professor that day so he can give me some comments on it. I'm hoping to get it back from the professor on Friday so I can make the changes he's requested over the weekend as well as incorporate thoughts from the peer review. Then next Monday, I'm meeting with the Writing Center *again* for one final look over and see if there's anything else to be corrected. If so, I'll have Monday and Tuesday (although that day tends to be quite busy) to look over it one final time and it's finally due on the 21st.

Original Series! I got season 1 for Christmas and a little while ago we found seasons 2 and 3 on for real cheap at Costco. So I have the entire show. I'm up to episode 10 of season 2.

Yesterday I ended up watching three episodes of Star Trek, series 4 of Blackadder, POTC 2, and Rome and Battlestar Galactica on TV.

I spent most of today reading from my HTML/XHTML book, and taking 140 pages from information and turning them into six pages of notes. Go me!

As promised, I have stories to tell from my trip. :lol: Don’t I always have odd things happen to me? :P

The trip was an adventure to say the least. I had everything from being asked for my phone number (jokingly of course) before I would be allowed through security .... to being ask to move to the back of the plane so that I wouldn't affect the center of gravity .... to our bus driver getting lost ... to being randomly selected to be patted down for extra security .... to almost being sucked up a vacuum cleaner by the cleaning guy :lmao:

Florida travel adventures


Tuesday, Feb 6, 2007


The local airport

1:20 pm – Arrive at the Fort Smith Municipal airport. Check luggage. Usual questions plus an odd one: “Do you have anything that you can spray other than on your body in your luggage?” Huh? “You know, like air freshener or oven cleaner.” Uh, no. (I wasn’t exactly planning on cleaning the hotel ovens while I was away.)

1:26 – Security check-in. I’m carrying illegal items … lip gloss and small lotions. Quickly bag them… anything wet to touch, which also included my toothpaste and chap stick.

1:28 – Security guy checks my boarding pass and ID. “You’re from Muldrow?” Yes. “ID… boarding pass. Looks like you forgot something, though.” Eyes wide. Uh-oh, what’d I forget? “To give me your number.” Laugh. That ain’t gonna work.

1:32 – shoes, purse, carryon luggage are all piled into tubs on the conveyor belt. Drop my boarding pass. Scoop it back up. Drop ziplock bag of “liquids” into tub and pass through the metal detector unharmed.

1:34 – “Ma’am. Is this your purse? I need to send it back through.”

1:36 – “Ma’am. I need to look through your purse” Pulls me and my purse aside. Opps…there are a few more tubes of lipstick and a bottle of lotion. He allows me to put it in the ziplock bag. Laughing, relieved, I’m free.

At least all the TSA workers were jovial and teasing.

2:05 – Board plane

2:15 – Air traffic controller dude with orange vest and large earphones comes up to Jill (my traveling partner) and I. “Ladies, I’m going to have to ask you to move to row 17.” What? Why? We honestly think he’s joking. “Because of the center of gravity.” The plane is a small Embrea jet with 18 rows of 3 seats. However, it’s not so small that the two of us should affect the center of gravity. “The computer model told me that seats 4B and 4C must move to row 17” Not wanting to be arrested for disobeying a TSA officer, to the back of the plane we go.


The bus at Orlando

8:55 pm Florida time -- attempt to get the free ticket for the bus ride to the hotel -- not many problems. It's a weird system where when we registered at the hotel online, we were sent an e-ticket to print and bring to the airport with us. We did. The man at the ticket counter gave us a bright orange ticket in place of our printed sheet and directed us to Lonnie outside. We tried to find Lonnie, but instead got some girl. That was okay. She was out of the pager/vibrating beepers (you know the kind you get at a restaurant which vibrate and light up to indicate when it's your turn to be seated) but she told us she'd just call out #133 when it was our turn. Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long until our bus -- and let me tell you it was a bus, a large Greyhound type bus -- arrived.

The wait for the bus was kinda neat because I wasn't used to such warm weather and spring sights....flowers were blooming! flowers! And palm trees. And green grass.

9:15 -- Bus ride to Hotel -- Hilarious! As I mentioned, the bus was a large bus, a Greyhound type thing. Our driver leaves the airport with 6 folks on board.

9:25 -- Driver calls the station. "How do you get to the Florida Hotel" She doesn't know where she's going? :eek:

9:32 -- We see Florida Hotel in the distance, but the driver is attempting to turn the bus around. Jill points out the hotel. The driver still makes a half-u turn. No, ma'am, the hotel is just straight ahead. Just keep going. Mind you, we've never been to Orlando before.

9:35 -- We arrive in front of the Florida Hotel. The sign at the gate of the circle drive (which surrounds this awesome fountain) reads No Vehicles with more than 2 axles. I'm pretty sure the Greyhound sized bus has more than 2axels. Our driver proceeds forward anyway.

9:36 – The valet comes running out. back up! Back up! We do back up.

9:37 -- We tell the driver just to drop us at the entrance of the circle drive. Instead, she proceeds to attempt to find a bus entrance. We drive around to the side of the hotel and she finds a set of doors.

9:42 -- Luggage in tow, bus left, we discover the doors are locked. A trek around the hotel to the entrance we were at 15 minutes ago.

9:45 -- Inside the hotel! Finally!


Friday, Feb 9, 2007

Orlando airport

3:45 – Security check-in. Remembering the liquid incident at Ft. Smith, all liquids are packed accordingly.

3:47 – “Ma’am. You’ve been randomly selected to receive additional screening.” :sigh: Wouldn’t you know it. Of course I have been randomly selected for additional screening. I want a shirt that says “I’m random. Pick me.”

3:48 – I stand, spread eagle, in a glass cubicle while the lines and lines of passengers snake around me, all gawking at me as the women pats me down. “I’m going to touch your back. Down you legs. Inside your thighs.”


Dallas airport

6:50 – We sit on the floor awaiting the boarding of our connecting flight. My cell phone was going dead, so I found an electrical outlet and both Jill and I sat on the floor by the wall while my phone charged.

6:52 – Vacuum guy comes up and literally starts sucking at Jill’s jacket. He is determined to vacuum underneath us despite the fact our butts are there! :lmao: We quickly leap up; I unplug my phone, and we move to the chairs near the gate.

7:12 – Vacuum guys has reached us again. We know to lift our feet and bags. We are safe!

:rotfl: Carol, you always have the funniest stories to share!

Carol you have the best stories :lol:

Oh my god, buses are evil. Do not sit in the front seat of the bus diagonal from the bus driver if you're in British Columbia and you have to go on the mountain.

It's... it's scary. I made this mistake. I could see down the side of the mountain and I could see that the bus driver was going at least 20kms over the speed limit.

My sister was smart and sat in the back with some guy. I got stuck in the front seat with this nice old lady (who fell asleep half way through the trip).

This was a about three years ago though...

Anyways, yesterday my parents went to the city. I spent all day watching CSI and answering the phone and stuff.

Parents came home, my mom had got season 5 of Smallville for me (I gave her some money and she agreed to get it). So I spent the rest of the night watching Smallville :D

Steph I avoid bus rides altogether :lol:

Nat & Andie I know :lmao: The oddest things always happen to me

:group_hug: So how is everyone?

I'm doing better than the last few days! But first I need to eat some dinner so I'll be back in about 30 minutes (:yay: for my evening class being cancelled!)

And I am back.

Let's see:
:star: After a rushed lunch (there was only about 30 minutes before my 1pm class when I left my room to go to Health Services due to a sore shoulder.. I think I slept on it funny), I went to check my mail and I had two Valentine's Day cards and two packages. One VD card was from my mom and there was a $20 bill! The other was from her mom (Mom-Mom in New York, I call her). The packages were things I ordered on eBay.
:star: In mailing some things to my dad (forms I had to sign to get my refund, some rebates he got when he purchased my and my sister's laptops that were sent here), I found my student ID that I spent most of the morning tearing my room apart, trying to find. It was in my binder. Ha.
:star: Anthro class. Nothing too thrilling, most of the class wasn't there 'coz the weather is still looking pretty bad.
:star: I get assignment 2 back for CIS 101 and I got a 100 :yay:
:star: In doing the class assignment for CIS 101, I almost type "analysing" instead of "analyzing." Clearly I have spent too much time typing with my Kiwi friends!
:star: Like I said above, my evening class was cancelled.
:star: On account of yesterday's snow day, my professor has moved the zendo paper to having the peer review next week and the final draft due the 28th.
:star: Paper registration for fall 2007 classes begins immediately! I still have to decide what I'll take.

Some other things:

• On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had some very bad headaches. Probably stress related.
• I can receive email on my campus account, but I can not send messages even though I'm way under the 100MB limit. "Your message did not send." I am the only one with this issue, my roommate could send me an email this morning from her campus account.
• I had a film test on Tuesday. I think I did okay.

That's it for now!