Thursday, December 25, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
CRAMPED..
..LIKE a middle seat in row 33 of a 737. What would any self-respecting jet-setter do but to UPRADE??
That's right. I'm shedding my Blogger garbs as of Spring 2009 and headed to the www.brunetteandjetset.com. After all, isn't a .COM the ultimate upgrade? Web-wise that is.
More info coming soon. Just thought i'd give you the 411.
Peace.
-Your Brunette.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
To be or not to be... grounded.
Grounded. That's a verb.
To be gounded. To be prevented from flying or confined to the ground (i.e. snow, sleet, tardy flight crew, bad weather in Boston). THE (now official) RECESSION? Just sayin'.
But what's that phrase...you're a well "gounded" person? What does that mean? Does it involve snow? Obviously not, but it portrays sensibility, having one's "feet on the ground" or "sound arguements" if you will. But let's run with "feet on the ground"... (laugh laugh. okay lets move on).
If nothing else ladies and gents, these last few months of land-locked-ness has kept me literally and figuatively grounded. Reflecting without a birds-eye, cloud-latent sky that is borderline devine, inspirational-like sunrise view has not only been feasible but might have actually been fruitful. Sans fruit.
I've talked to a lot of people, and i've listened to even more. I don't have iDevice compatible head phones in my ears or luggage on my mind. I dont buy discounted SkyMiles points. (Maybe because they are quite literally worth nothing). I dont peruse travel sites. (Well, as frequently as I once did). And i've learned a little bit.
Today in my class, Phil Boas, a life-long journalist and current editor of the editorial page at theArizona Republic said to my ethics class, "I love journalism. I love journlists."
"But," said Boas, "I don't know if I will have a job tomorrow with the layoffs happening at the Arizona Republic."
Boas' speech continued, adopting inspirational as its apparent theme.
"I talked to an economist in his 60's this week and he told me that we are going to witness the worst recession over the next 6 months that we have seen in our lives," Boas said.
No newspapers in airport newstands? No "Hudson News," littered in every airport and terminal across the country?
What about the handsome CEO's with coffee that hide behind the expansive pages of The Wall Street Journal? (They can barely hide as is nowadays as papers have been reduced to smaller font and are now tabloid-style in width.)
Maybe the world we live in is changing. Gas is $1.59, Delta sends me phenomenal fares and I still wouldnt want to hop on a plane in the carpe-diem sort of way I did last year--I dont know why. Perhaps as a nation we are sobering up. Ironic, we sober up when I just turn 21.
Don't get me wrong, I'll be on a flight more than once or twice this Christmas holiday season, this is just the confessions of a grounded brunette once jet-set at 1:37 a.m.
To be gounded. To be prevented from flying or confined to the ground (i.e. snow, sleet, tardy flight crew, bad weather in Boston). THE (now official) RECESSION? Just sayin'.
But what's that phrase...you're a well "gounded" person? What does that mean? Does it involve snow? Obviously not, but it portrays sensibility, having one's "feet on the ground" or "sound arguements" if you will. But let's run with "feet on the ground"... (laugh laugh. okay lets move on).
If nothing else ladies and gents, these last few months of land-locked-ness has kept me literally and figuatively grounded. Reflecting without a birds-eye, cloud-latent sky that is borderline devine, inspirational-like sunrise view has not only been feasible but might have actually been fruitful. Sans fruit.
I've talked to a lot of people, and i've listened to even more. I don't have iDevice compatible head phones in my ears or luggage on my mind. I dont buy discounted SkyMiles points. (Maybe because they are quite literally worth nothing). I dont peruse travel sites. (Well, as frequently as I once did). And i've learned a little bit.
Today in my class, Phil Boas, a life-long journalist and current editor of the editorial page at theArizona Republic said to my ethics class, "I love journalism. I love journlists."
"But," said Boas, "I don't know if I will have a job tomorrow with the layoffs happening at the Arizona Republic."
Boas' speech continued, adopting inspirational as its apparent theme.
"I talked to an economist in his 60's this week and he told me that we are going to witness the worst recession over the next 6 months that we have seen in our lives," Boas said.
No newspapers in airport newstands? No "Hudson News," littered in every airport and terminal across the country?
What about the handsome CEO's with coffee that hide behind the expansive pages of The Wall Street Journal? (They can barely hide as is nowadays as papers have been reduced to smaller font and are now tabloid-style in width.)
Maybe the world we live in is changing. Gas is $1.59, Delta sends me phenomenal fares and I still wouldnt want to hop on a plane in the carpe-diem sort of way I did last year--I dont know why. Perhaps as a nation we are sobering up. Ironic, we sober up when I just turn 21.
Don't get me wrong, I'll be on a flight more than once or twice this Christmas holiday season, this is just the confessions of a grounded brunette once jet-set at 1:37 a.m.
PS Happy Belated Turkey Day. I rode horseback in my neveaux gounded style along the Suhauro Lake in northeast Arizona and the attached picture is of my brother crossing the lake in city slicker style-- courtesy of moi.
Monday, November 17, 2008
I stay fresh. Like I'm wrapped in plastic. (Continued)
So what happens when the economy is in the tank, the 2008 Presidential election consumes every aspect of ones life and then there is that thing called undergraduate studies, 21st birthday and lsat prep? Spending hours on kayak.com and opening emails from Delta JUST DOESNT HAPPEN. You have to give me some credit, far more legitimate blogs took an unexplained vaca. from blogging without giving any heads-up about a lack of posts pre-Nov. 4th (i.e. --cough.cough-- potomacflacks.com).
And what, might you ask, do the jet-setters of the world do when they take a vaca.. from vacas? They marvel in the consumption of hand-made spinach & cheese ravioli, hide their gym membership card in order to pretend it's lost and say HEY, you don't need to pack a bikini in your Tumi for a Colorado trip for the encroaching (slash already present) ski season. Erroneous. I should have been filling 3-oz. bottle full of shampoo and stocking up on ziploc bags, nevermind saying to h#ll with the gym regiment.
..To Be Continued..
I stay fresh. Like I'm wrapped in plastic.
Unfortunately, my blog has been anything but fresh. My sincerest, Phoenix-based apologies from both my MAC and myself.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Cronicles of Narnia.. NOT for the jet-set.
Cronicles of Narnia is not for the jet-set. I know this because I watched it twice flying to the southwest and southeast and luckily for me, Delta showed it on both flights.
Brunette and Jet-Set’s Guide to Dating (as written on a layover in Hartsfield-Jackson):
There are several things to pick-apart in the airline industy. One of the most obvious: seat assignments
This is no guide to love but it’s my two-cents about how something readily available to every traveler, seating assignments, may lead you to love if not compatibility… the non-superficial kind that is.
Let’s start with a quick run-through. There are three types of traveler: the bum who picks the middle seat and then those who stake claim to the window or the aisle seats. Bum aka flying novice.. that’s the first kind of traveler. And then the rest of us savy jet-setters.. we are two. But who are these people? Are aislers more attractive than windowers? Oops… with that very statement I am guilty of perpetrating my own rule of non-superficiality. Let us refocus.
If there’s been a study that has linked personality (not looks) to seat selection, I’d like to see it.
If whether we carry a blackberry or iPhone categorizes us as a certain type of individual (and it most certainly does), why wouldn’t’ what seat we sit in tell us something about who we are as well?
It took me a few minutes on my flight from PHX to ATL (final destination: PVD) to hypothesis the aforementioned, but I think I have it. And here it is:
The window-seat-sitter.
You like your privacy or have a strong bladder. You’re a dreamer, or you’re an observer of scenery.. and in this case, clouds and tiny cars that look like they belong on the boardgame LIFE. Maybe you like that two inches of extra space you have between the window and your armrest. You might even just use the window as a stand-in shoulder on which to sleep… a hard, plastic, germ-ridden, fingerprint-laden shoulder at that. Perhaps, a little bit of all of the aforementioned. Or maybe it was between the middle seat and the window… and you chose the window. Good call.
The aisle-seat-enthusiast.
You don’t mind getting up to let the window seat sitter in because you think you have claim to the best seat in the entire row. How arrogant. But you probably are. And you probably feel like you’ll get off the plane faster than window-seat picker in your aisle. By 2 seconds, but still. You’re are a social butterfly who doesn’t mind having a neighbor to their left, one foot to thier right, and several neighbors at their diaganols. Maybe you fidget, maybe, you drink a half a can of soda and you have the guts to use the airplane restroom (and that’s gutsy). If it’s not one of the above than you are a window-seat-sitter who doesn’t want to sit in the middle. Good call.
The Bum. AKA the man or woman in the middle seat.
There is a reason first and business classes have eliminated the middle seat. It’s for the un-travelled. In my opinion: the bums. There are few "bums" in business class and in my opinion, it would practically be a financially liabilitiy to offer a middle seat in anything but coach because what flying veteran would pick a middle-seat? And what CEO or “miles by the million rewards program whore” wouldn’t be a flying veteran? I have a point.. and you know it.
Maybe you want to de-plane quicker and brave a middle seat. I hope you enjoy those 10 minutes of being off the plane quicker because you just spent 4+ hours sandwiched between two people who overlap on the armrests to your left and right. Faulty logic.
I’ll cut you some slack. Maybe you are married. Maybe you want to sit next to your husband or wife and decide to brave the middle seat. Well, good for you.. but I would say adieu to my spouse past the gate and sit in a different row over choosing the middle seat… honeymoon flight to Europe or not.
Last but not least, maybe you were too lazy to check-in for your flight in the first 22 hrs Delta gave you to, or look at your pre-assigned seatting assignment. And for that, you are a bum.
As you can tell, the type of character that a middle-seat sitter exhibits is not that of a worldy travel (perhaps the very opposite) and hence, not for the jet-set. All middle seat sitters are henceforth eliminated as this brunette’s future husbands.
Brunette and Jet-Set’s Guide to Dating (as written on a layover in Hartsfield-Jackson):
There are several things to pick-apart in the airline industy. One of the most obvious: seat assignments
This is no guide to love but it’s my two-cents about how something readily available to every traveler, seating assignments, may lead you to love if not compatibility… the non-superficial kind that is.
Let’s start with a quick run-through. There are three types of traveler: the bum who picks the middle seat and then those who stake claim to the window or the aisle seats. Bum aka flying novice.. that’s the first kind of traveler. And then the rest of us savy jet-setters.. we are two. But who are these people? Are aislers more attractive than windowers? Oops… with that very statement I am guilty of perpetrating my own rule of non-superficiality. Let us refocus.
If there’s been a study that has linked personality (not looks) to seat selection, I’d like to see it.
If whether we carry a blackberry or iPhone categorizes us as a certain type of individual (and it most certainly does), why wouldn’t’ what seat we sit in tell us something about who we are as well?
It took me a few minutes on my flight from PHX to ATL (final destination: PVD) to hypothesis the aforementioned, but I think I have it. And here it is:
The window-seat-sitter.
You like your privacy or have a strong bladder. You’re a dreamer, or you’re an observer of scenery.. and in this case, clouds and tiny cars that look like they belong on the boardgame LIFE. Maybe you like that two inches of extra space you have between the window and your armrest. You might even just use the window as a stand-in shoulder on which to sleep… a hard, plastic, germ-ridden, fingerprint-laden shoulder at that. Perhaps, a little bit of all of the aforementioned. Or maybe it was between the middle seat and the window… and you chose the window. Good call.
The aisle-seat-enthusiast.
You don’t mind getting up to let the window seat sitter in because you think you have claim to the best seat in the entire row. How arrogant. But you probably are. And you probably feel like you’ll get off the plane faster than window-seat picker in your aisle. By 2 seconds, but still. You’re are a social butterfly who doesn’t mind having a neighbor to their left, one foot to thier right, and several neighbors at their diaganols. Maybe you fidget, maybe, you drink a half a can of soda and you have the guts to use the airplane restroom (and that’s gutsy). If it’s not one of the above than you are a window-seat-sitter who doesn’t want to sit in the middle. Good call.
The Bum. AKA the man or woman in the middle seat.
There is a reason first and business classes have eliminated the middle seat. It’s for the un-travelled. In my opinion: the bums. There are few "bums" in business class and in my opinion, it would practically be a financially liabilitiy to offer a middle seat in anything but coach because what flying veteran would pick a middle-seat? And what CEO or “miles by the million rewards program whore” wouldn’t be a flying veteran? I have a point.. and you know it.
Maybe you want to de-plane quicker and brave a middle seat. I hope you enjoy those 10 minutes of being off the plane quicker because you just spent 4+ hours sandwiched between two people who overlap on the armrests to your left and right. Faulty logic.
I’ll cut you some slack. Maybe you are married. Maybe you want to sit next to your husband or wife and decide to brave the middle seat. Well, good for you.. but I would say adieu to my spouse past the gate and sit in a different row over choosing the middle seat… honeymoon flight to Europe or not.
Last but not least, maybe you were too lazy to check-in for your flight in the first 22 hrs Delta gave you to, or look at your pre-assigned seatting assignment. And for that, you are a bum.
As you can tell, the type of character that a middle-seat sitter exhibits is not that of a worldy travel (perhaps the very opposite) and hence, not for the jet-set. All middle seat sitters are henceforth eliminated as this brunette’s future husbands.
CONCLUSION: Seat assignments may be a portal to compatability, or at the very least, narrow down a plane of 100 bachelors down to 50.
Until next time,
A window seat sitter.
Monday, August 4, 2008
An Off-Day at the Airport
I've gone from glam to ham. Label-buying madam(oiselle) to a traveler sans harpers bazarr or a fully-charged cam. And frankly my dear, I don't give a da#n. Thank you Clark Gable.. because that felt good.
I haven't exactly traded Manolo's for Crocs, nor will I ever, but I wonder.. is it possible that an unperfect vaca. can be.. more perfect?
If you grab the middle seat to sit in row 9 rather than 24, waste 1200+ calories on a dissapointing bag of generic pretzels only to find the "Hudson News" store near year gate sells Shneiders.. does your trip's ranking suffer? Does "sh*t hit the fan" when you wear an outfit twice, wander around in a parking lot looking for your car after a flight.. in the WRONG terminal, or go watch a stream instead in the Colorado Rockies instead of white water raft? If the air conditioning in your hotel room doesn't get to an even 63 degrees or even below 90 should you vow to never again travel between june and august? Does it matter if a couple of drunktards are sitting next to you at a sports bar if your baseball team pulls off the come from behind win after the 7th inning stretch (all hail quickly approaching October postseason)?? My verdict: NO.
Experiences are just that. Vaca's wouldnt be memorable if everything went according to plan or if you are left with a clean pair of socks on the last day of your trip. By no means am I suggesting having luggage dissapear or flight delayed* (see note below) is enjoyable. I am merely suggesting that spontinuity may infact breed creativity and increased memorability. It certainly makes for good story-telling.
So are you really looking for R&R if you fly? No--don't kid yourself. You my friend, as well as I, know that out of everyone on that 200+ passenger airline you will be seated next to the one person who drools or invades your armrest. It's not pesimism, it's the truth. You will step onto an airport shuttle and be left in a parking lot because the driver is done with his shift at midnight... awesome. The aforementioned hypothetical situation is infact personal experience.
If you havent already guessed, I love flying. I have a deep love for the finer things in life like... rating the skill of pilots of landing aircraft, text message AFTER the cabin door has been secured and the plane has pulling away from the gate, and feeling a sense of risk when I stuff my New York Times in the seat-back-pocket infront of me instead of hand it to the stewardess. Along with tuna steaks at nice restauraunts, grey goose "a la rocks," and size 0 BlackWatch plaid dresses for Fall '08 and Brooks Brothers pencil skirts ---- of course.
Question: Is eye cream a liquid, aresol or gel? How about eye serum? I frequently feel insecure thanks to homeland secutity about my inability to determin the state of, or classification of, my carrying items.
Fact: SkyHarbor airport, along with having ownership of the most poorly planned inter-terminal system, now asks: "May I ask why you are going to [insert destination]" at the security checkpoint. Next time my response will be "to party like a rockstar" or various other song lyrics. Creativity to ensue.
*Is it just me or are flights arriving not late or on-time, but early??? I blame airlines need for increased efficiency in a unkind economy and the cut back of routes, but then again that is just not a sufficient explanation for nearly all of my flights in the last year having been premature to the printed time of "deplaning". I am hereby sentencing myself to karma by saying this but.. I find it almost equally annoying, especially when trying to coordinate with ground transportation.
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