Category Archives: travel

January 5, 2010 · 9:10 pm

Verizon Rocks

Seriously, you don’t hear that often, right? Always complaining about not getting what you need from giant Telecom? Well I would like to personally thank Veronica at Verizon customer service (no joke, I wonder if all the CS peops are alliterations), who felt my mom pain and allowed us an early upgrade on my daughter’s blackberry to an international Tour so she can BBM us from her semester abroad.

When does this happen? Um, hardly ever. For me anyway. It’s usually all sorts of fighting and carrying on to not get what you need. Thankfully Verizon recognized my family’s superior status as a quality customer and showed us some mercy. Either that or poor Veronica simply felt bad for me. Big Telecom with a personal touch, how lovely.

For those unfamiliar, BBM is Blackberry Messenger. This is like texting but it is internet-based and you do not pay per message. To translate that into dollars and cents, international texts, are 99 cents each, national are 54 cents. Let’s be conservative and assume she would only text the boyfriend three times a day (unlikely), her other assorted friends that she is traveling with 5 times a day, and us, well probably once a week or when there was a problem. That would be around $818 for the five months she is away. Yeh, crazy right? And those were conservative estimates.

These few little comments could have helped me get what we needed:

  1. Veronica, are you a mom? Ok, well imagine your daughter being in a foriegn country and not being able to stay in touch.
  2. You know Veronica, I am a rabid Apple user. I want an iphone more than anything but I won’t ever leave Verizon.
  3. What? You need to ask your supervisor? Oh, is she a mom? Tell her as a mom I would really appreciate her consideration on an early upgrade to help my family out.
  4. And my favorite of all times which really made her happy: Veronica, YOU ROCK MY WORLD!

The moral of this story? If you are persistent, personable and play on the mommy heartstrings you can usually move mountains. But you all new that already!

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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December 22, 2009 · 9:21 pm

Let’s Play Holiday Air Travel – A Reality Show

Flying. It just plain sucks these days. Weather, no weather, it’s all the same. Delays, cancellations, cranky passengers, bag fees, no meals… no fun.

Today, Jana played the third installment of fly home at Christmastime from a school in the Midwest.

After a huge snowstorm that crippled the east coast airports.

With very heavy luggage.

Now that the stage is set here is how the reality show went. These were the parameters: Connecting flights through Milwaukee. Two different airlines (thanks studentuniverse.com). Ok, flight one is delayed 1 hour. Flight 2 is delayed only 1/2 hour. Here is the catch, airline one will neither check the bag through to final destination, nor will they assign a seat on flight two (airline two). She is now required to do the following:

1. take delayed flight #1.

2. retrieve bags at baggage claim.

3. go to airline #2 ticketing desk to check bag (pay fee and heavy surchage AGAIN – bags flew for more money than she did)

4. get seat assignment.

5. go back through security.

6. arrive at gate and board plane.

All this had to be achieved in under 45 minutes. Now THAT is what I call incredible customer service! Jeez, can they be any more alienating?

I placed a little over/under on Facebook but I am happy to report she is now seated on flight 2 (behind a crying baby, of course) and on her way home.

Hey, at least her next flight will be to Europe for semester abroad. I am sure connecting flights in Madrid will go much smoother. Imagine, the Telemundo version in Spanish!

2/23 UPDATE:

To the idiot behind the counter at Airtran in Milwaukee… thanks for your undying lack of compassion, completely inexcusable lack of customer service and your totally inane comment of, “There is no way either you OR your bag will make this flight.” Seriously, do they give you a handbook on how to be a total creep when you do your training? Oh and of course, thanks also for being the slowest moving damn ticket agent in the midwest, just to add insult to injury. No thanks to you, she AND her bag made it. Perhaps that was due to the good nature of each and every person on the security line that let her cut through, and a great pair of 20-year-old legs that sprinted to (of course) the furthest gate in the airport.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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November 19, 2009 · 11:13 pm

What are you thinking

Over the next few days you will hear all the reasons why I love the W Hotel in Miami. This first reason is a biggie. How can I, the Magnet for the Absurd, ever resist a coaster in the bathroom under glass that asks me:

What are you thinking right at this very second?

Then, as if that were not endearing enough, I am told to:

(write it down)

Seriously, I had to look around that bathroom for the camera.

Talk about a brand that GETS me! I am smitten.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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October 12, 2009 · 9:49 pm

Time to Cry Tuesday – Get What You Need

IMG_3945

Three days at the beach and I no longer have that knot in my neck I have been carrying around for weeks. I read a book in a beach chair, slept through the night, napped(ish) in the afternoon, hardly touched the keyboard saw dolphins(!) and watched birds for a solid 20 minutes at a time.

Fire ants and 95 degree scorching heat aside, this long weekend was perfect. Nothing a little cortisone cream and a float in the gulf could not fix.

A beach house. That is my little slice of heaven. I am not the Ritz Carlton/Canyon Ranch kinda girl. Not that I don’t enjoy a little luxury now and then, but give me a barefoot community with the sand and surf out the back door and I am Home.

Yes, Home with a capital H.

Each one of us has something in our core that gives us peace. Sadly many don’t ever break down the walls surrounding it to find out what it is. Or find the ability to Be Here Now and drink it in when they have the chance. For me it is the beach. Even off season. The sight of a majestic sky over the water, the sound of the surf, a morning walk to discover a cove that almost brought me to tears for the sense of peace I found there; these are all my core and bring me back to who I am.

Over the past few years, for circumstantial reasons, we have not been able to take the week to 10-day vacations that we really could use. Instead we have honed the fine art of the few day getaway. I am not saying I don’t want the long vacation, but this is not about want.

It’s about need.

A huge Thank-you with a capital T to Gary, who knew exactly what I needed and made turning 50 the best birthday ever.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog.For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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September 1, 2009 · 9:19 pm

Recombobulation

recombobulation-area

Have any of you seen this yet?

After walking through airport security; juggling my laptop, shoes, belt, carry-on, ipod, keys and a partridge in a pear tree, I came across this sign. I promptly dropped all that crap and grabbed my camera.

Admit it, who doesn’t feel discombobulated at that moment. BTW, recombobulation comes up as a misspelled word in my blog software, I think they made this word up! Seems the only place I can find it is in my old favorite spot, Urban Dictionary.

So, picture the committee that had to name this area. The meeting probably went something like this:

“How do you feel when you walk through security?”

“Well, discombobulated, of course!”

“Exactly, so we will call this the Recombobulation Area and everyone will relate and we will appear to be sensitive to our target market and everyone will forgive us for making them walk barefoot and half naked through the airport.”

I am thinking that this might catch on. Maybe in the corporate setting. Every office should have a Recombobulation Area. You get chewed out by your boss, you lose a big account, just having a bad day. Simply step into the “RA” and get your self good and combobulated.

Wait, does recombobulation infer that you were once combobulated in the first place, became ‘dis’ and then needed to ‘re’.

Yeh, you’re right, I need to get some sleep.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visitLeaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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August 30, 2009 · 9:55 pm

Traveling Shoes

travelin-shoes

Believe it or not, there was a woman on line in front of me at airport security that was wearing these shoes. Imagine what the rest of her outfit looked like. Whatever it is that you are imagining, go one step further.

I am always amazed that anyone would want to travel in anything this uncomfortable. I love her toenail color and the hint of the tattoo on her right angle.

Jana and I loved this woman. We really got a kick out of the way the security screener spent and extra long time looking back and forth between this woman and her photo ID. Her face was a botox playground and I would bet her photo ID was taken before the surgical enhancement.

Don’t you wonder what who was waiting for her on the other end of her flight?

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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June 30, 2009 · 10:03 pm

To the young women on the cell phone on the train…

Travelling backpacker

Did you think you were alone in that car? Were you under the impression that all of us sitting near you were deaf? More than once I have been on a train where people have aired their dirty laundry as if they were the only ones around. I have heard about family feuds, business deals gone bad, the intimate details of teen children’s social lives and marriages on the brink. But never have I heard a conversation quite like this one.

By the end of the 35 minute trip to the city I knew more about your life than I do about most of my dear friends. Because of the sheer stupidity of airing your dirty laundry on a commuter train, I will honor that by sharing some sound bytes with my readers. Hold on to your hats, kids, this chick is out there. Quotes are from her, italics are my commentary.

“So he said to me, “Tell your dad if all he cares about is his money, he can suck my dick.”

Hmmm, good start, right?

“I mean he broke my heart and stole my money. I told him he is going to have to work really hard to win me back.”

Ummm, why do you WANT him back?

“He wants to know why we can’t just be together. It’s so sad cuz we used to have so much fun till he stole my (dad’s) credit cards.”

Wait, he stole your credit cards and you are thinking you can work things out?

“He complained that my family is just all about the money and I told him that is what Long Island is like. He’s from Brooklyn and just does not get it.”

Sweetie, I think he gets it fine. He seems pretty much about the money if he stole yours. And, correct me if I am wrong but I think there are plenty of parts of Brooklyn that are about the money. Have you ever been to the Heights?

“He gets all defensive as if I did something wrong whenever I want to talk about him paying us back. It is so weird.”

Weird? Sounds kind of psychopathic to me.

And this is my fave of all:

“I told him he needs to learn that going to school is better than stealing and dealing drugs.”

Ya think? What the hell!

I was told today that people sense my being and then they perform for me so I can blog about it. Could that actually be true? Could I be a cosmic magnet for the absurd?

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog. For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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April 16, 2009 · 10:36 pm

String Cheese Incident

worlds-longest-stringcheese

No, not the band. This is about my own personal string cheese incident.

While driving through the heartland  today I passed a billboard announcing Weyauwega Wisconsin, the home of the world’s longest string cheese. Sadly I was behind the wheel and could not get my camera out fast enough to snap the picture.

Luckily, thanks to Jazzian‘s flickr photostream I found this shot. 2700 ft and nearly 4 city blocks long. That is one hell of a piece of cheese!

Only in Wisconsin!

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog.

For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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April 4, 2009 · 11:47 pm

Nomadic Ancestory

Pile of backpacksPacking.

What is it with putting things in a bag to go away that makes all my insecurities bubble up to the surface?

There is so much to consider; unpredictable weather systems, multiple options of my basically all black wardrobe (complete with white dog hair), health and beauty aids, hot flashes (keep your comments to yourself, this is a 50th birthday celebration weekend), music (thank goodness for the invention of the ipod), and of course electronics. The last item is paired down to a blackberry, flip video and a still camera – I am traveling techno-lite this weekend.

It stands to reason that the whole experience is overdone, I hardly leave the basement let alone the zipcode!

Seriously, an overnight trip and I could stay there for a week with what is my bag! I would have sucked at the 40 days and 40 nights thing.

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog.

For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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February 14, 2009 · 12:23 am

Dan in Danville

dan_as_prize

Seriously, it is not child abuse when they are willingly participating in a humiliating act. Actually, this is the second time Danny and I have staged a shot like this. We love these machines. It makes me laugh because when his sister was little we had more than one meltdown in front of one of these machines soon after I had used the words, “This is absolutely the LAST quarter”.

This weekend is college tour roadtrip volume one. Hard to believe we are doing this with ‘the baby’ but we surely are. The pediatrician was right, nobody goes off to college still wearing diapers.

On the long strange trip of Route 80 to Penn State from NY we came across a town called Danville and new that we HAD to stop there for dinner. At Perkins! Everyone loves Perkins! I have fond college memories of the Perkins in Rochester (at 3AM).

So this is Danny in Danville. And yes he carries my warped affection for the absurd. After all, I labored with this child on my birthday and he was born at 1AM the next morning.

We are practically twins!

Haven’t had enough of me yet? You can also read me at 50-Something Moms Blog.

For photo enthusiasts, visit Leaving the zip code, photos from outside the comfort zone.

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