4.0 GPA! Woo-hoo! And i start again Tuesday...

This is my Seattle...

My second favorite poem

Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out
by Shel Silverstein

Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out!
She'd scour the pots and scrape the pans,
Candy the yams and spice the hams,
And though her daddy would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out.
And so it piled up the ceilings:
Coffee grounds, potato peelings,
Brown bananas, rotten peas,
Chunks of sour cottage cheese.
It filled the can, it covered the floor,
It cracked the window and blocked the door
With bacon rinds and chicken bones,
Drippy ends of ice cream cones,
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel,
Gloppy glumps of cold outmeal,
Pizza crust and withered greens,
Soggy beans and tangerines,
Crusts of black burned buttered toast,
Gristly bits of beefy roasts...
The garbage rolled on down the hall,
It raised the roof, it broke the wall...
Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
Globs of gooey bubble gum,
Cellophane from green baloney,
Rubbery blubbery macaroni,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Curdled milk and crusts of pie,
Moldy melons, dried-up mustard,
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Cold french fries and rancid meat,
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.
At last the garbage reached so high
That finally it touched the sky.
And all the neighbors moved away,
And none of her friends would come to play.
And finally Sarah Cynthia Stout said,
"OK, I'll take the garbage out!"
But then, of course, it was too late...
The garbage reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate.
And there, in the garbage she did hate,
Poor Sarah met an awful fate,
That I cannot right now relate
Because the hour is much too late.
But children, remember Sarah Stout
And always take the garbage out!

Excerpt from my travel book

The idea with this, is that each chapter will start with a description of someone that I have sat next to while traveling, be that a plane, train, etc..I have a habit of writing about people I sit next to. This habit has probably been since I was 16, so I have a lot of these descriptions. As you can see I haven't finished all descriptions yet, but left little notes for myself so that I could remember that person and write about them later.

Lady with mysterious book who smelled of alcohol
Stats:
Older lady, fake blonde/grey hair, skinny, short white shorts
From D.C. to Jacksonville, Florida
To my right in seat 26 F
July 28, 2006

She dove into her book like you would dive into the pool. Complete with out loud commentaries such as “Oh my Goodness,” “No, she didn’t!” along with “Don’t go in there,” followed by bursts of laughter. To anyone else it would seem she was reading a thriller or a murder mystery but then those outbursts of simple and sincere laughs kept you off track. I can understand bursts of laughter if you are watching “The Office” on your i-pod as you ride the metro; even I am guilty of that. It wasn’t even that long of a flight, how an author could fit that much stuff in an hour or two is beyond me. The average adult reader reads 200 words a minute which translates to 12,000 words an hour so for a two hour flight that would mean she read roughly 24,000 words that kept her entertained. My hats off to the author. I kept trying to read the title, any glimpse would do, because any book that could have a woman in an enclosed space sharing commentary about a book with everyone on a plane had to peak my interest, if not a little. I kept trying to read the title, but she would guard it as if it was secret spy information that would lead to a revolution and overthrow the Bush administration (but then again, wouldn’t we want that information public).

Now I could have said “Oh that sounds like a good book, what are you reading?” But then I have a rule to speak only when spoken to on airplanes. For instance, these are the few words I spoke on that plane. “Ginger ale.” “Thank you.” “Correct.” “Yes, Please.” And that is it. Four phrases/words. This isn’t my record. My record is two words on a long flight and it wasn’t even two different words. It was one word twice! “Ginger ale.” Why is it that the only place I drink Ginger ale is on the airplane?

Back to lady with mysterious book who smelled of alcohol. She ordered a white wine and paid the gay steward (insert description here) and tipped him. She downed it in five seconds. Then called gay steward back and again same thing. By this time she was tipping the guy quite a lot so of course he kept coming back. A pattern had started. He was being positively reinforced. I kept thinking maybe I should quit my day job and start a career as a stewardess following lady with mysterious book that smelled of alcohol all around on her travels.

Normal
30 something, male,
From Seattle to London
To my right in seat #13G

The guy sat next to me and didn’t say one word, kept to himself. Read his book, watched the movie, didn’t smell, turned the light off, pulled the “shade” on the window at the appropriate time, and listened to his i-pod. Maybe he was my soul mate?


No “R” boy
12 year old, male, glasses
From London to Prague
Sitting directly behind me in 26 E

Cried because he wasn’t allowed to sit in the middle before he had even sat down. I knew it was going to be a long flight…

Big Fat Greek Guy
Middle-aged, fabulous pin striped shirt
From London to Dublin
To my left in 26D

Psychiatrist Needed
80 year old woman, wealthy, single, perfectly white hair is was almost iridescent
From Seattle to D.C. via Chicago
To my right two seats over in 16C

Love affair…what makes someone talk to me? I have headphones on whether they are turned on or not is beside the point. I also have my nose in a book. People need to learn some social manners.

Pentecostal Fest
“Praise the Lord Jesus” when entering the elevator.
I’m under dressed..the bishop was there in gold and purple wardrobe with 7 Georgian women primping him and themselves…their hats…amazing hats….I wanted to pluck the feathers right off of one of them and use it to dust my house.

FYI

Just a little note here to those of you who may read this blog. It is true that my last career was as a writer (notice the glasses to the left that make me look kind of writerish). I had two editors and i was getting paid to write which made my writing that much better. In this blog, I do not put so much emphasis on my style, grammar, or syntax of my writing or else i would never write anything and it wouldn't be that fun. So please forgive the errors. You may also notice that i rarely capitalize my "i's." I'm not trying to be fancy and perfect. I'm just trying to get my thoughts down as a way to journal what goes through my weird little head (and it is little, as those who go hat shopping with me can attest). So I hope you enjoy it even though it seems quite random sometimes.