Made It Home

As I expected, playing Locomotion made two hours seem like ten minutes. Before I knew it, they were calling the flight, and I had to scramble to get my machine shut down and get aboard. I had the presence of mind to put the computer into the seat pocket instead of leaving it in its backpack, so I was able to fire it back up again at the first opportunity, and consequently the flight back to Oakland seemed to last almost no time at all. I was fortunate to have an exit row and the person in front of me did not lean his seat back, so I could actually look at the screen.

As if to make up for my having to spend two-plus hours hanging around PDX, the universe dealt me three straight aces:

1. Because I'd attempted to standby the earlier flight, my bag went on that earlier flight and was already waiting for me at Oakland; therefore, instead of having to wait 15 minutes for it to appear, I could just show my ID and claim check and pick it up from the baggage office.

2. This meant I was able to catch the AirBART bus that was waiting at the curb, rather than having to wait 10-20 minutes for the next one.

3. A Fremont-bound BART train pulled up to the platform at Coliseum Station just as I was coming up the stairs.

Consequently, for one of the few times I can remember, it actually took me less time to get home than it took to fly between PDX and OAK.

I started this LJ entry shortly after getting home, but was distracted replying to this thread on the Calgary Con-Version BBS. I know the Board moderator follows my LJ, so I guess I should apologize for being so sarcastic to Miko the Mouth, but IMO he deserves it. I don't know why I let people like this get my goat.

But now, I need to get some sleep.

Simultaneously Amused and Embarrassed

Surrounding me on the AirBART bus from Oakland airport last night were a bunch of college students, mostly from the USA, but also including one Korean and one from the Netherlands. In listening to one of the American girls, I was both amused at her lack of knowledge of the rest of the world and embarrassed on behalf of my fellow Americans at the same time.

At one point she was quoting some very rude things (in British English) that she couldn't even figure out what they meant. (I won't quote them here, but I'm sure y'all can think of examples.) Then came the geographic failure that almost made me laugh out loud. One of the group said he had been to Calgary, and Miss Oblivious said, "That's in Texas, right?"

To their credit, some of the others in the group, including the one who had been there, knew that it was of course in Alberta, Canada, and told her so. She insisted that she thought it was a big city in Texas. My thought was, "Having a bunch of people who wear cowboy hats does not a Texas city make it," but I kept my mouth shut.

I think she only had a vague idea where Canada is -- or any other country for that matter. For that matter, even though she'd just come off an airplane, she may not have really known where she'd been relative to where she was now. Airplanes simply swallow you at one point and spit you out at another with little feeling for the distance or direction in between.