I'm Walkin'

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before all the walking I do.  Some of the walking I do is necessary.  For instance, the nearest bus stop to home is 1.4 miles away,  I do this particular walk four or five times per week, either going to the stop, or heading home.  I've reached a point where I can usually do this distance in about twenty minutes.

That's what I did today, but it wasn't fast enough.  I got held up waiting for traffic at the crosswalk at Capital Circle.  As I crossed the road, I saw my bus (early, naturally) making the turn into the stop, and it pulled away before I could catch up with it.  The next bus wasn't due for another forty minutes.  The routes don't sync up on the weekends the way they do on weekdays, and I was worried that I'd miss the transfer bus which carries me to work.  I made a snap decision, and started walking toward the connection stop.  I wasn't sure of the distance.  I wasn't certain that I could make it, but I wasn't willing to hang around and take my chances with the next bus.

Google Maps tells me that the distance from my usual stop to the transfer point is 2.7 miles.  I did that walk in a little under forty minutes.  I made it to the stop with about ten minutes to spare.  A few minutes after I arrived, so too did the bus I was afraid would miss the transfer.  It arrived about five minutes before the bus I wanted to catch, even though the schedule shows it arriving later than that bus.  I could have waited, I suppose, but I would have missed a heck of a walk.

The weather was beautiful today.  It was sunny and hot, but there was a nice breeze.  The last couple of times I went walking, it rained.  Not so today.  I did get a bit hot, especially toward the end of my walk, but the activity felt good.  This was my second outing in a pair of sneakers I picked up at Payless this week.  I think they're well broken-in now.

Fashion Faux Pas on Airline Flights

What Will Get You Kicked Off US Airways? Saggy pants or underpants?

I'm a big fan of letting people dress however they choose... within reason.  I'm not sure what to say here.

No Fooling

Today is April Fools Day, and I'm not celebrating. If you want some appropriate tomfoolery, it's all over the web today. Google turned itself into "Topeka" for the day. Southwest Airlines produced a spot wherein they introduce the new trailer that's going to be towed behind their jets. A Polish website announced that Bioware are doing a Mass Effect game for the Wii. (Actually, that last one might be true, but as I said somewhere else, until Bioware says so, it's vaporware.)

I am still looking for work, though with not as much gusto as I had a few weeks ago. The job market here sucks just as badly as the one in Virginia. In an ironic turn, I actually moved away from a resort area again. There are lots of hotels here, but the only job listings Ive seen have been for the low-paying non-guest service variety. Tips are nice, but I want a job that pays a real wage, thank you very much.

Lately my thoughts have turned to returning to Virginia. It's not really feasible at the moment. I'm broke. There wasn't enough tax taken out of my wages last year, so I'm not going to get a refund. I've got no friends here, and as great as family can be, it's suffocating to have them all here, all the time. I want to honor my mother's wish that we all stick together, but I don't want to live with my brother forever. If I'm ever going to be able to transition, I've got to get out on my own, or at least out from under him.

The sad part is, I may have to take a job here for a time, just to raise enough money to get myself back home. I'd hate to do that to someone, work for a time, then run away. I may have to part with a lot of stuff, as I can't see taking it all with me, again. Hey, if I have a big enough sale, that might help to raise the money, right? I just don't know.

Getting There

This was supposed to be my first post from Tallahassee, but things didn't exactly go according to plan. Before I get into that, let me recap the events since my last post.

Last Monday, we got the truck looked at. $1200 is a conservative estimate of the cost to fix everything. Even if I had the money, there was no guarantee the truck would make the trip, so we ended up selling it to a neighbor for $300. I booked a flight to Tallahassee out of Richmond, and made arrangements with another neighbor to get there.

Tuesday morning I went out and picked up my pre-order copy of Mass Effect 2. It is everything I could have hoped for in a game and more. It gave me something to do with my spare time between packing and sleeping last week.

Tuesday night was my last full shift at the hotel, but I made the mistake of letting them know that I had signed on to work until Wednesday, so I got dragooned into coming in for a couple of hours Wednesday night to show the new guy the ropes.

We spent Thursday and Friday packing out the apartment. You never realize how much stuff you own until you're trying to move. I packed up three or four boxes of clothes, and two plastic totes full of shoes, plus another four boxes of model kits.

Friday night saw the beginning of the worst winter storm Hampton Roads has seen since 1980. Our area got somewhere in the neighborhood of twelve inches of snow. It snowed, then sleeted, then snowed some more, and left the area blanketed in ice. Nate got the moving truck Saturday morning. We loaded all but a few essentials before calling it a day, and walked out to London Boulevard for pizza.

Sunday morning we finished packing, and Nate hit the road around 1500. I overnighted with a neighbor, and we got on the road to come to Richmond around 1000. My flight left for La Guardia, NY at 1450, and we arrived in New York a little after 1600. The next leg brought me from New York to Atlanta, GA a little after 1900.

Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson airport is a frakking zoo! From the arrival gate, I went down, and down, and down a long, long concourse back to the main terminal, only to travel down and escalator, go around a corner, and up another escalator, to reverse myself going up the other side of the terminal. I got held up in security lines, and got to my gate just in time to see the plane pulling away.

They put me on standby for another flight at 2249. Standby means you're waiting to see if there's an open seat. I was given the last seat, only to arrive at the plane and find the aircraft already full. So I'm spending the night in a nice hotel (the Sheraton Gateway), and I get to go back to the airport in the morning, and will hopefully arrive in Tallahassee a little after 0900. Wish me luck, or pray for me, or whatever you people do. In any case, I'll appreciate the thought.

I did get lots of nifty photos. :-)