Soapbox Sermons

I used to have a lot of what were once termed "Soapbox Sermons." I tend to not get on my soapbox so much anymore -- well, at least not on my blog. My dad would have a different tale to tell :). As would pretty much everyone else in my family :). However, I have a couple of thoughts in light of my recent trip to and arrival in Florida :). Which is where I am at this present time :).

The good news is that both of my flights were on time! Woohoo!!! Always a plus :). They were both very full too. I got some sleep on the first flight. I slept pretty soundly on the second flight. Sure makes the flight go faster! On the second flight, this punk kid who was probably all of about 14 sat next to me. He was obviously the recent acquirer of an iPhone. I have an opinion about that, too, but I won't go there. But seriously, both he and his older brother (who was probably about 16) had to be chastised by the flight attendants for not turning off their "portable electronics" after hearing it announced THREE times over the loud speaker. He finally turned his off after he was point-blank told to. And then he could barely stand it for the 10 minutes he had to wait before he could turn it back on. He didn't even wait until the announcement was made that he could use the ridiculous thing. He just turned it on when he decided we'd been in the air long enough. Seriously... What is this world coming to when you can't wait 10 minutes to play a video game on an iPhone? Especially when those 10 minutes are required for some safety reason that could possibly affect the lives of, oh, a couple hundred people on an airplane? And we had a repeat of this when we were landing. Nice. I wanted to whop him a good one. I am not nice. I don't have anything against the use of the thing in general. I love texting and my cell phone and my mp3 player just as much as the next guy. But I can follow a few simple rules when I'm flying. It's called consideration and compliance.

Anyway, so that was my "soapbox sermon." I was annoyed.

On the up-side, I arrived safely :)! Julie, Jon, Alysha, and Shayla were awaiting me at the Tampa airport. We went straight to The Cheesecake Factory and enjoyed a fabulously filling lunch. Then we drove the 1.5 or 2 hours back to Julie's, and Julie and I promptly fell asleep for 2 hours. Then we went to Wal-Mart to get some stuff. And then we came home, showered, watched some tv, hung out; and then we played a new game (for me :))! It's called "Mexican Train" and it is way fun and way addicting!! It's played with dominoes and it was soooo fun! We had to call it quits at about 11:15, at which point Julie and I went to bed and had about 30 minutes of giggly-girl time. And since I'd drunk a stinkin' Mountain Dew at about 10, I was wide awake. So, I ended up talking to Mary until 2:15 in the morning. And this morning, I got up with Julie at 8:45. And we went garaging, and I bought a pair of jeans and a vegetable slicer, which I'm very excited to utilize in the near future for my yummy vegetable soup. But Julie will have to send that to me, since I'm sure it will be classified as a weapon on the airplane. Then Julie's friend Randi came over and we played another full game of "Mexican Train." For the record, I came in 3rd place out of 4. Blah. But still blast! And we just returned from Publix, where we bought the ever-delicious mint cookie frozen yogurt that I love so much :). It should be a blast of a night! Woohoo. Plus we have to make a Wal-Mart run. Vacation is fun. And I'm having a great time already :).

P.S.... I forgot that it is still so hot and humid, even in October, in the South. Ick!