Trying To Find Beauty In The World

I HATE calling people on the phone.

I'm not talking about people I know (though I tend to shy away from that if I know it has potential to be awkward, as well). I'm talking about business, professional contacts, ordering take-out from restaurants, things like that. I've ALWAYS hated it. When I was a kid, every time my parents ordered pizza, my dad would make me call to order it. I HATED calling. I STILL HATE CALLING. I will not order food unless someone else is there to do it for me, or unless the restaurant has the foresight to use the wonderful invention known as the internet to set up an online ordering system.

Why do I bring this particular brand of crazy up in a public forum when I could so easily keep it deceptively hidden below the surface? Because right now I have a completely stupid problem that could be totally solved by me just calling a store on the phone. But instead, I'm trying to hatch overly complicated schemes to find away around just making a simple phone call. And I thought you all might appreciate a little time to laugh at me for this.

Here's the situation:

I've spent the better part of the last few months trying to come up with a really kick-butt Christmas present for B. Until this past weekend I have been entirely unsuccessful. Then I had a brilliant idea. And all that idea required was me going to a store (via train...this is important) and buying something. Today while I was in the shower, I had a different, even more brilliant idea for a gift. This one has a bit of a timeline on it, so it moved previous brilliant idea (hereby known as gift 1) to the birthday option. I assumed that I could order the second brilliant idea (hereby known as gift 2) on the internet. Well. I spent this morning checking, and it turns out I'm wrong. Or rather, I can order several very similar things on the internet, but not quite exactly what I want. So....I could settle for a mostly passable gift 2 and call it that, or I could check one more place. This place.......does not have a website. I'm also not entirely sure if they can even get me what I want. Here's where the "via train" portion of this tale comes in. I don't own a car (yet.....really old, can't-pass-emissions-in-WI Saturn, come on down!!!). B owns a car, but I do not. I also hate driving. In a different way than I hate calling stores on the phone.....in a way that means I should probably not drive EVER, especially with other cars on the road, on the MN Highway system, or when it's winter or dark. Most especially not all 4. This means that unless I physically CALL the store to find out if I can get what I need from them and if they can ship it to me (or some other scheme that I cannot go into here for fear of divulging too many key details regarding the nature of the gift), I will have to either get B to drive me (in which case he will know EXACTLY what he is getting) or I will have to convince someone else that they want to go horribly out of their way just to drive me to a store because I'm too afraid of having to have an awkward conversation with the high-school student/retiree/college dropout (sorry.....that was mean) working at the store.

See what I mean? F-ing ridiculous. Yet it's the option I'm currently entertaining the most..........</span>

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know that I spent my Friday traveling from Savannah, GA to Atlanta, GA to Minneapolis, MN on my way back home from a conference. You also know that I kept making "jokes" about hoping my luggage didn't get lost in Atlanta. Now, allow me to tell you a story.........

On the way down to Savannah, I purposely flew via Cincinnati since even though I've never had a problem with missed flights, lost luggage, or any sort of general cock-up in Atlanta in several trips through there....I've heard stories of woe from pretty much everyone else I know who has. So, to minimize problems getting to my conference, because the flights I would take would have only a 50 minute layover in Atlanta, and because I've recently embarked on a mission to see every major airport in the US, I routed myself through Cincinnati. I also didn't check my bag. In fact, I had gone out and made a special trip to get a bag that was both small enough to fly carry-on and big enough to hold my things for 4 days. But! I flew from MSP to Cinci on a very tiny Canadair Regional jet, then I flew from Cinci to Savannah on a plane that was somehow smaller than that, so no one's luggage fit in the overhead bins anyway and I had to gate check things. However, they were nice and gave them back to me when I arrived at each of my destinations. No problems, no delays, everything was in order.

On the way home, I managed to score flights with a 2.5 hour layover in Atlanta. It'd been awhile since I'd visited Hartsfield-Jackson, and I figured I was on my way home so even if they somehow canceled/delayed my flight it wouldn't impact me that much. So I flew through Atlanta. Again, I'd gotten my carry-on bag to try to minimize cock-ups in ATL, so I was feeling pretty ok. When I got to Savannah, they made me gate check my bag again. I expected that they would then just give it back to me in Atlanta and I could go on my way, but such was not the case. Instead, they took it, then asked me where my final destination was. I told them. I even GAVE them my boarding pass from ATL to MSP to show them the flight number and my name. They said they'd fill out the gate check tag, bring me the stub, and it would be waiting in baggage claim at MSP. I double-checked this by asking, "Baggage in MSP? I'm not picking it up in Atlanta? Pick it up in baggage claim at MSP?" They said yes. I foolishly trusted them. They brought me a stub from a supposed gate check ticket that they supposedly correctly filled out and supposedly put on my bag. I still foolishly trusted them.

So....I happily went on my way. I spent a delightful 2-and-a-half hours wandering about Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport buying some things, eating a delicious southern dinner (chicken, collard greens, sweet potatoes, cornbread, and a coke) from Paschal's in the airport. Then I boarded my plane, bid a fond farewell to Atlanta, and headed back to MSP. Where I went to baggage claim with a joking comment on my Twitter page about "the moment of truth". I wasn't serious. But. Delta was.

So......they lost my bag. Which doesn't have a scan tag on it because it was gate checked. Heck, I don't even know if it has a GATE CHECK tag on it. I don't know if the tag was even filled out correctly. And no one at Delta seems to know or care where it went.
I briefly came home for an appointment, then I headed back over to the airport to sit in front of baggage carousel 6 and wait for all bags from subsequent flights from Atlanta. I even went and checked on flights from Hartford, Connecticut since that's where my plane from Savannah to Atlanta was going next. No luck. And all the not-so-nice, not-so-caring, completely not helpful baggage agents at MSP (who are conveniently located at a desk immediately next to the carousel where all the bags from Atlanta end up) would tell me was that no one had scanned it yet so they couldn't do anything. I kept telling them that it didn't have a scan tag so no one WOULD scan it, but they didn't seem to care. They just gave me a $25 off coupon and a thing to redeem for 1,000 bonus miles. Great. Because I want to fly with you some more.

And so......after 12 hours and hanging out in Baggage Claim at MSP for 4 hours......my stuff is STILL lost somewhere in Atlanta. Here's hoping someone happens upon it and decides to get it where it needs to go.

EDIT: Saturday morning---The Delta agent last night assured me that it would more than likely come in on the overnight flight and someone would call me in the morning. They haven't.

EDIT: The nice folks in baggage in Connecticut returned my call to tell me they hadn't seen anything. Which, I appreciate. They actually took the time to call me back to tell me. And they were polite about it. Beats the folks at MSP who couldn't care less about my problem.

EDIT: Saturday night---still nothing. At all. No one cares.

EDIT: Sunday morning---a nice woman called from Delta in Pensacola, FL to tell me they had a bag here with no scan tag, no destination tag, no gate check tag, only my luggage tag with my address/phone number. I thanked her profusely and informed her that it was to go to MSP. She told me it will come at 3:15PM. I could kiss that lady. The folks at MSP are once again going to get dirty looks when I go over there to get it. Especially if they don't call me to tell me it's coming in.

So.....Pensacola, Florida. That's exactly where I would have thought to send it. Way to rock Delta, gate agents in Savannah, and the still overly uncaring people working the help desk in MSP. At least SOMEONE found my stuff and is sending it my way.

EDIT: At around 4 I happened to be out looking for plastic fencing for a super-secret special project so I just swung into the airport to see if my bag had arrived since no one at the MSP desk had called me about it yet. There it was. Sitting at the luggage carousel with no one paying it any mind whatsoever. So, apparently it got there on time, but no one at the desk had bothered to check on the bags that were just sitting at the carousel. Honestly. What stops people from just hanging out in baggage claim and stealing luggage???

BUT! My things have made their triumphant return home. And it doesn't even look like anyone had opened it up or anything. By some weird miracle. And the desk lady today reassured me that it probably got to Florida because "sometimes the bags just get left on the plane on accident." Fan-freaking-tastic.

I decided, after a fantastic lunch on River Street, that it was far too nice a day (especially in light of the current weather conditions back in TC) for me to go back inside and listen to more talks about fire, carbon sequestration, and climate change. So, instead I decided to wander about Savannah and play freelance photojournalist. And then I got back here to my room and realized that I don't actually have the USB cable for my camera so I can't post the pictures. And then I realized I never posted the pictures from Tahoe. And then I realized that there are a LOT of pictures on my camera that I never downloaded onto my computer. So instead of posting pictures of this very beautiful southern city......I will just tell you that I fail at life and I'm sorry.

What I CAN give you, however, are pictures from my phone thanks to the hard-to-use magic of bluetooth:

What I DIDN'T have to drink with my lunch (something called Artillery Punch):

What I DID have to drink with my lunch (the southern specialty--a mint julep):

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=293360275

Did my Badgers beat my Dukies last night? Did I watch it with my main guy B (who was back home in TC) via conference call? Did we just hand Duke their first ever ACC/Big Ten Challenge loss in 11 years? Did the Big Ten finally win the challenge in the 11th year?

Yes we did! Indeed. Heck yes! and Heeeellll yes!!!!

Did I enjoy every second of it? Yes.

Did I DVR it in case I missed it? Yes.

Am I going to re-watch it? Do you have to ask?

Will I keep it for perpetuity*? Again, do you have to ask?



There are very very very very few teams that I actively want to beat Duke. One of them did so last night. Count it.

*Until I run out of room on the DVR and have to start erasing stuff to make room for V, Torchwood, and Dr. Who

Hello from Savannah, Georgia!

I just got here at 4:30 then headed directly to my conference, so I can't say as I've seen much of the town yet, but it certainly does feel good to be back in the south. Where people on the street say "how ya doing?" as a matter of course. I'm hoping to find some time to explore, because this city is just steeped in history and historic buildings and classic southern charm.

I did, however, have an AMAZING dinner on Tybee Island at a little restaurant on the marsh called, no lie, The Crab Shack. Photos to come as soon as I can round up the USB cable for my camera. I will, however, inform you all that I ate: 4 raw oysters on the half shell, a half a pound of blue crab, a half a pound of shrimp, and a quarter piece each of key lime pie and pecan pie. And I'm totally not over full.

And now I will watch the ACC/Big Ten challenge.......the only non-tournament week of college basketball that I look forward to for the entire year. Though.........no one had better ruin tomorrow's game for me. Threats of death will follow this post.

Long live the south! (and my laptop.....it's starting to break again)

I ate week (and a day) old Korean food for lunch today. I'd intended to eat it last week Monday, but didn't get to it. Then I intended to eat it last week Tuesday, but decided to be masochistic and eat 3 slices of K-day pizza instead. Then I left town for 5 days. And I left my food in the fridge at work.

Today, I came in with the plan that I'd take a look at the food and see if it was still good before eating it. This seems like the thing to do, in theory. Generally that's the practice I follow. What I failed to realize however, is that it's actually a formidable task to determine whether Korean food has gone off or not. Seriously. Much harder than it sounds. Nearly impossible, perhaps.

The foods in question were Nakji Bokum and Pajeon in case you were wondering.

It looked, smelled, and tasted exactly like it did when I ate it the first time, so I ate it again. I'm still operating under the assumption that it hadn't gone off. I hope that assumption doesn't come back to haunt me. I'll try to keep you posted on my status.

So, I was watching the news here in Milwaukee last night after enjoying a rather fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with my delightful family.(No lie there, I’m serious) It was DEFINITELY the news B-team. No doubt there. My main point is one about the news that gets covered on Thanksgiving Day. It was, of course, about shopping. And crazy people. Now….I don’t know. Maybe you’re one of those people that gets up at some hour of the morning where people really ought be sleeping for at least 3 more hours to go line up at a store to get a chance at maybe, possibly getting some kind of electronic gadget that you may or may not need. I don’t know. I’m just going to state my thoughts on these matters.

1. There is absolutely nothing I need that will make me sit in front of a store for the entirety of Thanksgiving Day until it opens just so I can hope to get a shot at it.

We’ve ruined Thanksgiving, people. Thanksgiving is about taking some time to sit with people we love and care about and think about how lucky we are that we have what we have. It’s NOT about sitting in front of the outlet mall in the cold for 24 hours because your job doesn’t pay that well and your kids want UGG boots, a North Face coat, and designer jeans.You know what you should do for your kids instead? You should take them to the Hunger Task Force or some other similar mission and have them serve Thanksgiving dinner to people who don’t have houses, beds, or winter coats at all. Then you should have a talk with them afterward about being thankful for what they do have and what you CAN afford to buy them for Christmas.

2. Eating Thanksgiving dinner out of tupperware in front of the parking lot of Best Buy sorta ruins the whole experience, doesn’t it?

At what point in your life do you tell your family that the TV you want is more important than eating a meal with them and just having them pack it to go? There are many many people in this country who would give almost anything to be able to be with family or friends on Thanksgiving. You’ve decided that you’d rather spend it with strangers in a store parking lot eating cold turkey slices and congealed gravy because they have laptops for $200 and you “can always use a laptop”. What are your priorities, and how did they get so drastically different from mine?

3. Driving to Milwaukee from St. Louis to get bargains at the outlet mall COMPLETELY defeats the purpose.

Seriously.How much money did you spend on gas to drive here from St. Louis? I bet it’s not more than you’re going to save on the ridiculous stuff you don’t even need. There are malls in St. Louis. And places closer to St. Louis than Milwaukee is. Stay home. See your families. Go to the mall in St. Louis.

Everyone seems so keen to talk about how there’s an economic crisis on, but you wouldn’t know it from the “stuff”-hungry consumers of the world that would rather make sure they get electronics just because they’re cheaper than actually try to help out people who NEED things. If you’ve got $200 to drop on a laptop just because it’s nice to have around, then go buy food and clothes for people who’ve lost everything. If you DON’T have $200 to drop on a laptop. Then stay home and tell your family you love them and you’ll all come out of this by sticking together. By NO MEANS should you still BUY the laptop!!!!

That’s my piece for the day. Happy Thanksgiving folks.Please take a minute and think about what really matters in your life.If it’s having more stuff……I guess that’s fine……but I’ll probably think less of you for subscribing to the capitalist, consumeristic, disgusting mess this country has made people.

Pictures from Tahoe are forthcoming. I've spent the bulk of the 4 days I've been home in my travel interim (heading out again on Wednesday) catching up from the week I was gone and not looking at the internet. Seriously. I spent 4 consecutive hours at work on Friday answering e-mails and dealing with the projects that ensued. I could have spent more time doing that, but I was so taxed from all this atmosphere crushing down on me here down in the sprawling suburbs of the midwest that I had to go home and sleep. I've also spent a lot of time sleeping. I got a new bed this weekend, and let me tell you all, it's VERY conducive to sleeping. Unlike my last bed. My last bed was formerly very very conducive to sleeping, but I slept in it so much that I wore it out. That bed was a good friend of mine, having been a major player in the "sleep when you're tired" project that I sometimes refer to as grad school, but it had finally lived out its days and wasn't really doing anyone much good anymore, so I put it out to pasture.

I've also been buying and setting up electronics. Last Monday while I was en route to Tahoe, my faithful assistant ventured to the Comcast folks and picked me up a DVR since I never have time to actually watch TV while it's on, but I do actually want to watch TV. He then brought it to my house, set it up, and programmed it to record the things I would miss while I was in Tahoe. Upon my return, I went to Best Buy to scout out which surround sound receiver and speaker system I was going to buy myself for Christmas. While I was there, I found a very nice one that was on sale for something like $150 off the original price. So, I bought it. And I've spent the last 2 hours of my evening setting it up and realizing that I do, in fact, need to purchase optical audio cables if I want my speakers to be anything other than nice little black-box decorations scattered around the living room, as well as realizing that I have no idea how to use the remote for this thing.

Tomorrow.....is one of our favorite days of the year at MRO. It's a now 15-year tradition...and it's called K-day. The K stands for 3 things...........and I didn't name it, so I refuse to be blamed for the cheesy, oft-overused replacement of the letter "c" with the letter "k" at the beginning of words. K stands for...Koffee, Kookies, and Kahlua. That's right, friends. Also known as, get in early and start drinking. AND! As an added bonus, tomorrow is also office-cleaning day. So first I will drink and then I will clean the office. For someone who's spending 4 out of 15 weekdays (retroactive to last week) in the office, this sounds like a really great use of one of them!

I have a lot of work to do, actually.......

I'm currently at a conference/workshop at a ski/racket resort on the California side of Lake Tahoe. It's nearly breakfast time so I won't say much here, but I hope to have a nice report upon my return. Not that I've gotten to see much except the inside of the lodge conference center. But! There are Jeffrey pine (NOT Ponderosa Pine) everywhere and it smells like pine and there are mountains and it actually did snow overnight even though I didn't think it would. AND! I keep getting winded walking up the gentle slope to the townhouse I'm staying in........definitely in the mountains.

I've been hanging out with my Michigan colleagues helping them on their project (and learning how to do things I need to learn how to do), and dining with my North Carolina colleagues because, well, North Carolina is flat awesome. We're all going to drive to Nevada and go to a casino tomorrow night just for the hell of it. I'm sharing the townhouse with one of them. She's a PhD student at UNC...though her masters is from Duke......so I guess all is forgiven. She's pretty great. And we've talked about ACC basketball, the Brewers (she's originally from St. Louis), and the Twins. I like it.

That's all for now. Heading out with Jen for another rigorous day of figuring out how the hell our overly complex models work.

I foolishly had the hopes that once the weekend of October 23-25 (my foray into Madison for unmentionable nerdiness and unnecessary stress) had passed, I'd have all sorts of time to myself. Not so, my friends. Not so. Something that I am unhappy about.

Not that it was bad spending my Halloween by:

1. Wearing my first cosplay of 2009 (there's that nerdiness coming out again....)
2. Going (in cosplay) to see Zombieland at the Mall of America
3. Going (also in cosplay) to Rosedale Center to see my Tomodachi, Denny at his store for his annual Halloween cosplay contest (which I did not enter....it was unfair to the other participants......)
4. Using a "taste and buy" of Vampire wines at one of the shadier suburban liquor stores I'd ever had the opportunity of visiting, to purchase bottles of Vampire Wines Pinot Noir (which are very hard to find in the TC metro, and very easy to find in Madison) at a discounted price (still in cosplay).
5. Watching almost all the vampire movies/first episodes of vampire shows I own (that's actually a substantial amount of things...........) while drinking a previously purchased bottle of Vampire Wines Pinot Noir (I bought the one earlier that day as a replacement).

However....it pretty much killed my Saturday. And I clearly still have no time to myself.

Happy (belated) Halloweenus. And happy (belated) birthday to my father (Oct. 31) and Miss Arabito (Nov. 2).