Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2007. Each December, we took Mattie to the US Botanical Gardens. What I loved about the Gardens were they were kept hot and humid. Almost like Florida on a hot day. In the middle of winter, it was like being transported into a warmer climate. The Gardens also decorated beautifully for the holidays, with trees, flowers, and even motorized trains. Of course Mattie loved the trains. While walking around the Gardens, we got a kick out of this hanging plant. Mattie stood underneath it and I joked with him that it looked like he had a huge head of hair.
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- number of people diagnosed with the virus: 13,900,350
- number of people who died from the virus: 273,170
It was unheard of, I got from my parent's house to the actual airport gate (meaning through security) in 45 minutes. During pre-COVID times it can take 90 minutes negotiating through traffic to get to the airport, and then another 30 or more minutes to get through security. Once at the airport, it was decorated for Christmas and can you see the Christmas train up near the window arches? Mattie LOVED his Christmas train that would circulate around our tree. He would have appreciated this sighting today! In any case, I had to snap a photo! But despite sitting in a terminal waiting to board a plane with a mask on for HOURS, it was nice to be surrounded by Christmas lights and music. It actually made the mood lighter.
LAX is undergoing major expansion and modernization, including a new people-mover train scheduled to open in 2023, Los Angeles World Airports officials are looking for ways to bring a hotel into the core area that includes the Theme Building. Some say that the Theme was designed to symbolize a jet-age future, it looks like a big, white, concrete-and-steel spider. Since 1961, it has loomed over the airport as an icon of the Midcentury Modern style in Southern California. Beneath its twin parabolic arches, there’s a big, round, glass-walled dining room (now idle) that generations of confused travelers have mistaken for the airport’s traffic control tower. Above the restaurant area is an observation deck (also mostly idle). Airport officials are not suggesting the Theme Building become a hotel. But they’re wondering whether it might work as a restaurant or conference center with a hotel next door or nearby. That would be LAX’s first on-site lodging.
Because of my issues with motion and anxiety over flying, I now had to have a window seat. I need to control that window shade, because I find looking out helps both my stomach and my brain. Yet the one down fall is that I have to jump over my seat mate to get to the bathroom. My seat mate today was a pip. He came in smelling of marijuana. I am not a fan of this substance and I definitely am not a proponent of legalizing pot. If you disagree, then I suggest you spend some time living in a city where it is legalized, like DC. The smell is noxious and though you aren't supposed to smoke it in public, it is everywhere and is sickening. I am waiting for the evidence years from now that cites the mental health and physical consequences such as cancer from legalizing what once was a controlled substance. Needless to say, I felt like I smelled like him throughout the flight.
Any case, at some point during the flight, I had to get my seat mate up so I could use the restroom. When I approached the restroom, a female flight attendant told me someone was in the bathroom and I had to go back to my seat and wait. That I couldn't wait near the airplane door. I literally said no! I know how this works, if I returned to my seat I would then be competing with others who also need to go. So she walked away from me, and I spoke with her male colleague. A much more pleasant and professional individual. I basically told him that his colleague is a "piece of work."
When I entered the plane this morning, I said hello to this same female flight attendant and commented that it was an early morning. Of which her retort was.... it did not bother her because she was on East coast time. A very self involved person, and clearly not good at greeting people and making small talk. So she already set me off. Then when she confronted me about waiting for the restroom, I had it. I told her male colleague that if she said one more thing to me, I was writing her up!
