Restricting Freedom of the [Word]Press

I was happy to learn that Southwest has $5 WiFi because it would give me a great opportunity to catch up on all the lessons I have scribbled on paper or filed in email.

It’s easy connect and it’s fun to track the plane over America (crossing border from Kansas to Colorado as I type this) but when I go to WordPress.com I this:

Oops!

You are trying to view a restricted site.

Please head back and remember that, in order to provide a fast, safe WiFi environment, Southwest must restrict access to some web sites

How rude!

 

Seasoned Travelers or What?

I have no idea how many times I am going to have to learn to prepare and pack for a trip earlier than I’ve been doing.

We travel enough to know what we need (yes we have printed checklists and yes they work really well so never mind making fun of that) for a trip.  It’s the little stuff that does not have to wait for the day of or the day before the trip.  For me it was finding a quart-size ziplock bag, or transferring something out of one in use elsewhere so I could use it for the carryon liquids.  And restocking business cards.  And printing stuff to bring.  And recording a colleague’s cell phone number. And a whole bunch of other stupid stuff.  For Steve it was replacing his shoelaces.  Really?  We can’t think of this and do it ahead of time?

It’s important that we leave on time, so that we have time to go back to check to see if we actually locked the door. (Answer is yes.  Every time.)  I am not even trying to learn to change that!

 

Please Elaborate

I have learned that Facebook is not the forum for posting cryptic obscure status updates.

I wrote “Nothing’s broken” because that’s what came into my head to describe this delicious state of everything working and peaceful in my life: no crisis, nothing to fix.  To me it was reminiscent of my mom’s Yiddish-rooted “Nothing hurts me”.

But no, this was not a good idea.  I got worried comments and even a concerned phone call!  For some, this sounded like I had been in an accident, or maybe someone else had.

So I learned to be more careful with what I post.  Or at least less obscure.

 

Sock Hazard

If my late father could only read this (Or… maybe he can?  Hi Dad!  I miss you!  Look! I have a blog!)  then he would tell me that he told me so:  Never go in a workshop in your socks!

I stepped on a staple.  It was horrible.  I can’t even tell you about it, it was so bad.  But the lesson is, as my father always told me: don’t go in the workshop without shoes!

Here is another dad/sock connection for me.  It has nothing to do with this lesson.  He used to get so mad when we went outside in our socks.  He’d yell “Take off your socks or put on your shoes!”  Then one day, as an adult, I went out to get the mail in my socks when he was visiting.  I said “Oh no, you’re catching me outside in socks-without-shoes!” and he said “I don’t care, I’m not paying for them!”  It had never, once, occurred to me to find out what his specific objection was!

 

Who you callin’ “Missy”?

I learned something that really surprised me: Petite and Misses sizes are different shapes, not just different lengths, as I have always believed.   I found myself between two sizes in pants, let’s just call them x Petite and y Petite.  OK?  Thanks.   And the very-helpful salesperson at Coldwater Creek suggested that I get size x not-Petite, which she calls “Missy”.  How can that be, I wondered?  But she explained that the proportions are different all around.

So I bought them and had them hemmed (I have learned that we have a great tailor in Goffstown, at the organic cleaners!) and now I have some nice new pants that fit beautifully!  (in the smaller size, to boot, as x < y)

 

Be Grateful and Thrive

OK, I confess I just stole this title from looking at someone else’s magazine on this plane, but I’m sure the article is also about what I learned in February.

For each day of the month, I posted something for which I was grateful, as my Facebook status.  It was a very rewarding experience and made me very aware of how fortunate I am and how many things there are to be grateful for*, both large and small, in my life.

From the obvious and big, including my wonderful friends and family, to the obvious and small, Egg McMuffins, and on to the not so obvious, a taxi or superglue when nothing else would do the job.

I am learning that my awareness of my gratitude has extended beyond February.

* I am grateful that I having my own blog means that I can end sentences and phrases with prepositions.

 

Pizza Night (part 1 & part 2)

Pizza night part 1 and 2

Sally taught me that if you forget which night is Pizza Night at the gym, you’ll be the only one who forgot!  The place is packed!  (She has learned this at least twice!)

And Gale taught me that the morning after Pizza Night at the gym is not exactly the atmosphere you may be seeking for an early morning workout.