today's lesson...read the following definition...(and don't say i never taught you anything...and yes at some point there actually may be a test...and if you're linear now you are getting out your organizer and special lined note paper so you can write this down with other words/phrases you have encountered and are going to memorize the definitions for)...
Stream-of-consciousness writing: writing that is usually regarded as a special form of interior monologue and is characterized by associative leaps in syntax and punctuation that can make the prose difficult to follow, tracing a character's fragmentary thoughts and sensory feelings.
Pay special attention to the fragmentary thoughts part...fragmentary/random along with honest is exactly what you can expect my writing to be...Feel smarter now?? Ok...let's move on...it's late ---or early depending on how you look at things...but i gotta be up and getting ready to go to Amarillo in 5 hours or so...
No...Today was not a travel day, but it was a travel prep day...So...why am I blogging??? Well, I've decided in order to truly appreciate the moments of magnificence of the queen’s travel tour that everyone should also trudge through the mire of the mundane that is required to actually get to the plane, train, ship, etc. and on the way...
And today was in some ways an adventure...In order to really travel I've realized I must buy really good luggage...while i initially considered the oh so chic and incredibly classic vuitton luggage (...btw they now make a pink monogram vernis that is fabulous...) however i soon realized that carrying a $2400 bag into the balmorhea motel 6 seemed incredibly incongruent...
so... after hours and hours of online searching, i actually decided to travel to a real world retail establishment and actually lift and look at luggage...and after that confusing and sorta creepy retail venture, i'm really thinking that maybe it would have been worth the odd stares and incredible price tag to carry that vuitton into motel 6...
Luggage shopping sounded easy and possibly even fun...How hard can it be to find a durable, lightweight, funky/cute/easily identifiable at the luggage carousel piece of luggage?...I needed a carry-on with wheels and a larger piece of luggage to be checked...Apparently Jansport is cute and contemporary, but flimsy...Vera Bradley is incredibly stylish, but not incredibly durable and simply does not come with any bags that have shoulder straps (another thing I need because it's so much easier to throw a bag over my right shoulder than to try to carry it in my right hand) ...Swiss Army (or some such brand -- i just know it has that same red background with white cross logo that the knives have) is fairly durable and lightweight, but comes in a total of four colors and none of them are even remotely feminine or interesting...Briggs and Riley is apparently the top of the line in the particular establishment that I was in, and it does come in silver -- which isn't terrible -- but it's very pricey...and if I'm going for pricey I want it to be cute/cool/something I actually like...which reminded me that if i was going to have to deal with an obnoxious salesman that was confusing me much more than he was helping me that i would be much more interested in going to look a cute/cool Volkswagen EOS (which is btw the next car i think i'm going to buy...it's has a completely retractable hard top, but also has a back seat...it's not a Mercedes SLK or a Saturn Sky, but it is a super sporty sedan and it's convertible...) ...SO...even though i THOUGHT i'd come home with luggage -- even cleaned my trunk out (ok, not all of it, but enough to make room for luggage...and, yes i DO need two pair of flip flops, a pair of loafers and 2 hoodies in my trunk at ALL times) i REALIZED after i literally went from the jansport to the vera bradley to the briggs lifting, dragging, pretending to shove them into overhead compartments, and trying in vain to find ways i might possibly hook a shoulder strap on at least one piece of all that luggage no less than 6 times and spending well over an hour in that store i was not going to buy luggage today and that thus i have NO new luggage.
BUT i did learn something... and here's what i now know about good luggage...1) it's freaking expensive -- even when it's damn ugly...2) you can either have high quality/durability OR cute...but apparently not both...3) i will likely be going to luggage.com and buying luggage online...shopping online in pjs with no creepy looking over my shoulder and somehow talking me out of every piece of luggage i THINK i want and somehow convincing me i NEED ugly luggage is not something i can deal with...and although i'm pretty sure i can't travel to Cleveland, DC, Boston, NYC, Costa Rica, and the cruise with the Wal Mart bags and cheap duffels that i carry to the lake, Amarillo and other random places I've gone luggage shopping is neither easy nor fun...SO...I'm going back online this weekend and the goal is to have luggage that I like that is durable and lightweight before August 22nd AND to have it without having any more stress about buying it...
Despite the fact that today's foray into the world of travel prep was neither productive or enjoyable I do feel sure that when I stroll to the baggage carousel as I depart from my first plane trip on this voyage and grab my fabulous, fashionable and fortified luggage and carry it with ease (which means I somehow find someone to carry it for me) to my first destination I will feel magnificent and laugh at the maddening and mundane experience of purchasing really good luggage...
btw...i'm sleepy...and it's late/early and so although i fully intended to discuss how i re-defined unathletic and uncoordinated during my scuba lessons and to help you understand the challenges of not breathing through your nose while choking causing further burning in your brain as well as slight panic because you are unable to clear your mask or seamlessly move from an apparatus that basically breathes for you to breathing through what is nothing more than a large straw while underwater...i just can't tonight...because then i'd also want to tell you all about searching for short term full immersion teaching assignments in foreign countries with minor language proficiency requirements...and btw each and every descriptor in that particular sentence makes it harder and harder to find a suitable volunteer opportunity (try searching that on google...i'll bet you won't find anything...and you do have to put the whole thing in quotes or it just doesn't count,)... But i haven't given up yet...AND you shouldn't give up on me either...I will continue in the near future with parts B and 3 (hahaha...it's late and to me that's actually quite funny) and cover the joys of scuba and searching online for 'voluntourism' opportunities...because i am truly completely convinced that our final destinations will be much more of an achievement if you experience with me all of the ridiculousness along the way...
whew! You wore me out.....but I DID laugh along the way. Good luck with the luggage issue. I feel confident you won't rest until it's the PERFECT set. (a great quality btw!)
ReplyDelete(and yes....I am one of those "linear persons" you spoke of....ha!)