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F.A.A.

26 July 2005

There is a little known F.A.A. regulation that I am not permitted to board any plane which does not have a screaming child seated 4 rows in front of me.

It's enough to turn a person kinder-phobic.

Unlike the baby on the LA-DC leg of my trip, the one on the DC-Phoenix leg didn't cry the entire four hours; just most of them.  I don't know whether there was a crying child on the Phoenix-Sacramento leg because the flight had been delayed nearly 2 hours and by the time we actually got on the plane, I was so exhausted that I was asleep before the plane took off and wasn't aware of anything until they came on the overhead speakers to tell us to prepare for landing.

So, yeah, I'm home.   Another whirlwind trip, but an enjoyable one, especially reconnecting with Melody, Laura and Shirley.  It's been entirely too long.

We never did get the sightseeing done that we had planned to do so that Laura, who was making her first trip to the area, could see the sights of the nation's capitol.  The three of us sat at the breakfast table for a long time talking.  I swear I have had more in-depth conversations in the last three days than in the last three years.  It's been very nice.

By the time we finally left the house, there was a slight window of opportunity, so we did drive into the district so Melody could show off  her new office.  She heads up the UC Santa Barbara Washington DC program, where students come from California for a quarter and serve internships in all forms of business and government.  She began as the Administrative Assistant for the UC Davis program and now is the Student Coordinator for the UC Santa Barbara program.

I worked her job for 6 weeks when she went on maternity leave, 14 years ago, and so I had seen the office when it was teeny tiny.  Now they have built their own center and I was eager to see the difference.  The lobby alone is pretty impressive

Then we went up and saw her office and finally ended up on the 11th floor where she showed us their view of the Washington monument.

What?  You can't see it?  You just aren't trying hard enough.    Look again.

We then rushed through the outskirts of downtown DC tossing out comments like "if you look through those trees you can see the top of the monument" just as a big truck pulled along side us.   So Laura didn't see much of DC, but I suspect that it was the company that she had some for, and in light of that, the trip was a big success.

We dropped her at Dulles Airport and then had 3 hours to get me to BWI (Baltimore) for my own flight.  We made good time and were able to stop for lunch at a Chinese restaurant in Laurel, Maryland.  It was our only time on the whole weekend to have some one-on-one time and we had a very good chat.  I really miss Melody.

So that takes us up to boarding the plane and the new F.A.A. regulation, and realizing that it is 1:00 a.m. California time, which makes it 4 a.m. Maryland time and I'm exhausted.

I will deal with all those promised photographs tomorrow, but for now I'm going to get some sleep.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Melody, Bev, Shirley, Laura

 
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