The Wave

I spent almost all of Labor Day weekend in Omaha, NE for a wedding.  It was great fun.  My first time in Omaha.  I'll dive into the drinking and facebook statuses and food and dancing and fanciness in another post.  However, one of those wonderfully awkward moments happened at the airport on the way home.

On the last day that Annie and I were in Omaha, we were eating lunch with the bride and groom and the groom's brother and girlfriend, and some other peeps.  The groom's brother and I realized that we were taking the same shuttle from the hotel to the airport.  Ha.  That's funny.  We're like the same people.  (Except they were heading back home to Brooklyn, and we were flying to San Francisco.)

But then we asked what flight they were taking, and we pieced together that we were actually taking the exact same flight out of Omaha.  We had a layover in Chicago (yeah, look at a map, Southwest), and they had the same one.  We also learned that the groom's father was going to be on the flight with us.  Look how cute we are!

So, we all get to the airport.  Annie and I apparently run through the airport, because we were through security and at our gate in a few minutes.  (By the way, Omaha is the emptiest airport I've ever seen in my life.  It was almost creepy.  The TSA agents were lonely and wanted to be our friends.)  We sat down at our gate, and we ran into the groom's father within a few minutes.  We wondered how the groom's brother and sister had gotten so far behind us, which led Annie and I to realize just how quickly we move through airports these days.

There was also one last kicker we discovered.  For those that have never flown Southwest, it has open seating, and you just walk on in the order that you checked in.  For the flight to Chicago, the order we were in line was:
A40 - Groom's Dad
A41 - ~RoB
A42 - Annie
A43 - Groom's Brother
A44 - Groom's Brother's Girlfriend.
One big happy family.  Though it is half true to say that it all happened by chance, we were on the same schedule forcing us to check in after the wedding reception, so it's not too surprising.  Yet, why is it so difficult to make this happen when you actually try?

Anyway, I took off to the bathroom and to fill up my TSA-emptied water bottle.  Upon coming out and walking in front of my departure gate, I looked toward the hallway leading from security.  I saw the groom's brother finally coming through and he waved.  That's fun.  I waved back.  Then I turned to continue my way to my seat, and I realized the groom's dad was behind me.  I hadn't just been waved at.  Yet, there was no mistake in my 'standing in an empty airport terminal waving wildly at, what turns out to be, nobody' wave.  Awesome.  Why am I so awkward?

I mean, I totally understand.  I had just met the groom's father this weekend and I absolutely loved him.  He was kind and smart and nice and always smiling.  I'd enthusiastically wave at him on sight if he was my dad.  Especially if we didn't see each other often and we got to spend most of the rest of the day together.  Me on the other hand, I'd only wave at me if I had to.  (Most people have to, when I awkwardly wave at them across BART cars and public venues, lest they look foolish.  By most people I mean Annie.  I usually wave like a toddler, too.)

Not exactly related, but the same feeling.

Suddenly we all got our hands up...
~RoB

Where's the Blog, RoB?

The blog took a backseat this month to 47 pages of paperwork that were required in order for me to start my new job.  I'm still not completely finished, but I've at least submitted the biggest part for review.  March Madness and drinking have taken a big part of the last week, too, but I will have posts regarding both of those.

I am hoping to run a 5K this weekend as part of the Oakland Run/Walk festival.  I wanted to run on Sunday, in order to train, but instead got caught with Angel in a downpour.  I ran home, but it was apparently too late.  5 hours later, while at a friends house, you could hear/watch me descending into sickness oblivion.  I woke up Monday completely incapable of moving (full-body muscle cramps, pressure headache, head congestion, and wooziness).  I called off work, and I slept from 10pm Sunday to 4pm Monday with few sporadic 20 minute pee-drink-Nyquil-passbackout periods.

I feel better today, aside from a headache, slight dizziness, and weird stomach pings.  I'm sure I'll be fine by Saturday, but I'm thinking about leaving work a little early just to finish sleeping my way to 100%.

I also returned to upstate NY for a little business 2 weeks ago.  It did nothing to make me either more excited or less at the prospect of moving there.  I still worry that we won't find friends or fun things to do, but I am also excited at the prospect of buying a reasonably-priced house and having all those things that I miss about the Midwest (space, Fall, snow, etc.) and being so close to NYC (or should I just say Broadway).

By the way, I really want to see Book of Mormon, and our apartment taped and watched the 25th Anniversary Les Miserables Concert.  It was amazing!!!

So, there we are with a life update, and I'll return you to your regularly scheduled (though profanity free for 30-something more days even though I failed to implement it in my life) programming,
~RoB

Too School for Cool

Instead of concentrating on DIWMGf, we spent most of the time arguing rather the beanie she was wearing was orange or red.  I say orange, and I might have mentioned that she looked like a male Dutch soccer fan.  She said that I am just color confused, and spent some time looking around the room for orange-colored things to compare to: Chicago Bears stuff is usually everywhere, but we couldn't see any.  Is she hiding my Chicago Bears stuff?  That bitch!

Anyway, we then got into a deep conversation about what it will be like in Albany if we can't find any cool people to hang out with.  Their Michigan Alumni Club looks like it sucks, and it's not the coolest area, but there has to be some sort of young scene, right?  There's some colleges nearby.  It's a state capital of a flaming, blue state!?!

The conversation helped us discover that deep down, we think we are way cool.  Probably cooler than we actually are.  We also, apparently, have high standards for the quality of friends that we make.  Good luck, upstate New York.

I never knew I'd become so snobby,
~RoB