Blogger On the Go!

You would think with last night's double-post that I would take tonight off. Not so, fearless reader!

I have just booked a bunch of flights for my next vacation. This one will be a bit more complicated than my previous ones. On 03 MAR I'm leaving out of Ontario and flying to Philadelphia. There I am meeting with a friend from way, way back in my past— Russell— whom I have not seen since late 1977. As he is also recently unemployed, we decided it would be fun to spend some time together. His folks still live in New Jersey, where we were friends and went to the same school together for a few years. Russell has since settled in Atlanta but is currently staying with his folks. I'll join them for a few days and I expect we'll probably spend a day or two exploring New York City as well as some time wandering about the old New Jersey haunts.

From New Jersey then we'll drive down to Atlanta. His sister and my brother are both in North Carolina, she in Asheville and he in Raleigh. I expect along the way we will visit with one or both of them. Then I'll stay a few days in Atlanta. My next scheduled flight is on 12 MAR, from Atlanta to Raleigh, where I'll stay with my brother's family for a long weekend, returning back home on the 16 MAR.

I managed to book all three flights, with taxes blah blah blah, for less than $350. There are some great airfares right now if you're up to some travel.

I also booked a motel in Westminster for tomorrow night and reserved a car rental through the weekend. Tomorrow night is the 50th birthday party for my dear friend Bill Word, comedy producer extraordinaire. I have been looking forward to tomorrow night for the last month, since the party was announced. Not only will it be a great chance to see Bill again, but it will afford me the opportunity to catch up with many of my comic friends.

I'm staying in Orange County on Friday to have lunch with some friends where I *used* to work, and then I hope to spend Friday evening with Gary and Pooka. I haven't seen Gary and Pooka for months and I miss them so much! I hope everything works out as planned.

I don't want to upset anyone getting near the end of the post and wondering where the sarcasm went so I'll add this: I drove over to Wal-Mart this evening to pick up a few necessities. It was 10:30 PM and the store is open until Midnight. When I got there I found the store under physical reconstruction. What had been the Men's Clothing section was boarded off and there was the constant din of power tools coming from inside. The noise was inescapable and echoed throughout the store. I found the items I was looking for and hurried to the registers so I could leave with some of my hearing still intact. However, when I got to the front, I discovered that all the self-checkout lanes were closed and only two cashiers were open. There were 10+ groups of people in each line already. I picked one and stood there for about three minutes, during which time neither line moved except to grow longer. Frustrated and deafened, I gave up. I actually took the time to replace my items from the shelves where I'd got them— a fact which I'm sure will go unappreciated— and walked out. It's not like I experience any enjoyment when shopping at Wal-Mart to begin with, but this shit really makes me mad. If the store is open, the store should be run as if it's open. If you can't manage to run the store that way due to reconstruction or some other reason, then close the store for those few hours.

I know, I'm already expecting too much if I expect Wal-Mart to give a shit.

Until next time.

"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move."— Robert Louis Stevenson