Thena

A few weeks ago, I was complaining about TNT's show "HawthoRNe" changing things so drastically between seasons, making it tougher to catch up. After watching the last few episodes, I've decided that won't be a problem next year. There is no way in hell that this show should be renewed.

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Sadly, I'll probably keep watching until the season ends, unless I find something better to watch on Tuesday nights.

Grabbed from rap541, who is much nicer than she claims to be.

Post a comment, and I will reply with one or two reasons why I think you're great. In return, you have to post this same meme on your blog and comment for other people.

You too, lurkers.

So recently I was in Florida with a family member for Memorial Day weekend + a few extra days. We rented a car at the airport and decided that I should drive while he navigated. However, while I had looked up directions ahead of time on Google Maps and checked them again from my smartphone's Google Maps app, he insisted that his Garmin had superior directions.

Things didn't start so well. After loading our bags into the rental car (and finding that the only one suitcase fit in the trunk of our rented Volvo so the other had to go into the backseat, wtf?), he plugged in the Garmin and turned it on. Then he spent five minutes browsing different categories, trying to find one that listed the hotel we were going to. He probably could have gone on for a while, but I wasn't so patient. I grabbed my smartphone, did a Google search, and got the hotel's address in under 60 seconds.

He entered the address of the hotel into Garmin and it started giving us directions... using our address in Illinois as a starting point. So he fiddled with it for another 5 minutes, but Garmin insisted that we were starting our journey in Illinois, even though we'd just gotten off an airplane at the Tampa International Airport.

Again, I went back to the smartphone, checked the directions in Google Maps, and found the expressway I needed to take out of the airport. So while my navigation "expert" continued to fiddle with the Garmin unit, I found my way out of the airport and onto the expressway. We were probably about 6 miles away before Garmin finally realized that we were in Florida.

But even when Garmin caught up with us, it still wasn't smooth sailing. Getting directions from Garmin via the person in the passenger seat was like a game of telephone. Witness what happened when Garmin tried to guide me to a freeway entrance ramp.

Garmin: Slight left turn ahead.
Navigator: Turn left here.
Me: That's no slight left turn. Are you sure?
Navigator: YES! TURN LEFT NOW!
Me: *turns left*
Garmin: Recalculating... In one-quarter of a mile, make a u-turn.

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I'm born in the year of the snake. Snakes eat rabbits, right?

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The first one when I was about five or six. I was taking swimming classes, and during the last class, this girl next to me began to panic. She grabbed me and pulled me under, and I ended up struggling with her for what seemed like forever before two of the instructors pulled us out of the water. I remember being pissed afterward because it was the last class and everyone was playing pool games, but they wouldn't let me go back in the water.

And I had a second experience a few years ago when I choked on a piece of shu mai at a Chinese restaurant. The thing got lodged in the top of my windpipe with enough force that I had bruising at the back of my mouth. Even worse, I couldn't get anyone's attention. I eventually managed to push myself against the table, putting enough pressure on my diaphragm to generate a good cough and loosen the dumpling from where it got stuck. I managed to compose myself enough to drive home, but later that afternoon I went into shock and started shaking uncontrollably.

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I can remember multiple dreams from multiple REM cycles. I don't always record each one, but I do pay attention. I've identified several common themes, including dreams where I need to call someone for help but can't remember how to place outgoing calls and dreams where I'm late for class but can't remember the combination to my locker from high school and can't get my books.

Lately, I've also had another type of recurring dream. If I go to bed with the intention of remembering to do something in the morning, I tend to dream about waking up in my bed and then going to do that thing, from checking my email to closing a window. But somewhere along the way, I notice something weird, like finding nonsensical email in my inbox or finding that my room is cleaner than when I went to bed. And then I wake up for real.

So I know the drill at the airports. You're allowed one quart-size zip-top baggie containing your liquid products, but only up to 3 oz. You have to take the baggie out of your carry-on and put it in the bin, along with your shoes and laptop.

This morning at O'Hare, I did all of that and emptied out my pockets. They seemed to be randomly selecting people for the full-body scanner or the magnetometer. Dad and I both got flagged for the body scanner. There was no apparent reason why, but a woman who worked her way between us in line got sent through the regular magnetometer. They thought I had stuff hidden in the extra pockets of my cargo pants and pulled me aside for a pat-down, but I turned my pockets inside out to show that they were empty. Dad wasn't so lucky. He carries a small travel pill bottle with his daily meds. He got pulled aside for a pat down and got yelled at by the TSA screener because he did not fully empty his pockets.

Meanwhile, our stuff was piling up at the end of the conveyor belt after going through x-ray. The bin with Dad's stuff actually fell on the floor, so once they finally cleared me, I was scrambling to retrieve his stuff: shoes, laptop, and carry-on, plus my own bag and shoes. Thank goodness I didn't bring my laptop, too. After he was done getting his 5-minute lecture about emptying his pockets, Dad was cleared and we started walking away.

We hadn't gotten very far when I realized I had no recollection of grabbing my baggie of liquids, so I ran back to the screening area. However, the TSA agent I approached said, "Oh, no, we don't save that stuff if you forget it. It's gone. We throw it out."

So I grumbled and ranted as we went to get breakfast, and ranted some more as we walked to the gate, and then I grabbed my phone and ranted on Twitter while we waited for our flight to board. That's when Dad went to grab something out of his laptop case and found my baggie of make-up shoved in one of the pockets.

I really have no idea how it got there, but I guess in all the chaos when I was trying to retrieve his laptop and shoes, I must have grabbed the baggie. It all works out, but ugh, I hate having to deal with the TSA.

CNN has been doing this thing where they track projects paid for with stimulus money and how many jobs they generated. Earlier tonight, one of their anchors reported on something weird he'd found with government funds going for some project at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. The same project also had money going to a couple of firm based in Colorado that were doing the work in McMurdo.

My first thought was that someone's finally caught onto the money trail for the Stargate program and Atlantis expedition.

Today just needs to end already. That is all I have to say.

I'm getting hooked on watching Conan every night. What am I going to do after this week?