Bean-town: Revisited
After spending a mere 36-ish hours in Massachusetts, I have returned to the home which will be a home for only eight more days.
There was a little bit of fallout from the fact that I booked my flights so close to the travel dates.
Most importantly, I ended up flying Hoi Polloi Air, also known as ATA and AirTran, because all the seats on the less crappy airlines were taken. ATA stopped at Chicago Midway on the way to Boston, and that airport ranks up near Cincinnati on my list of bad airports simply because it was muggy, hot, and nasty on the inside of the terminal. Mayor Daley (I know his name because it's plastered all over Chicago) should really install an air conditioner or something there. At least a window unit. AirTran was worse in some ways and better in others; the passengers were more grungy, and the staff was far less friendly, but they had a first class cabin with free drinks, of which I took advantage, but the seats there were some funky (like funk funky, not neato! funky) suede stuff. Ah, well. Again, the question arises: when do I get my private jet?
The actual mini-vacation to Massachusetts was worth the difficult travel experience (the paragraph above doesn't really begin to describe the whole thing), though. Taylor's art show was super-cool, and Taylor's art was particularly awesome. Seeing family is always good, especially in small-to-medium doses. And, the Plum Island beach never fails to provide an instant sense of relaxation and calm. Oh, and Boston is just a really cool city by itself.
I registered for CMU classes while I was there, but I can't remember exactly what they are, and the online registration thingy is closed right now, so I can't find out. I know definitely one is a computer security class, but the other two are vague. Perhaps a VLSI CAD class? I wanted to get into an analog IC design class, but I ended up at the top of the waiting list, instead, so I enrolled in something less interesting, for use in the event of a water landing, er, if I don't get a spot in the class.
Eight days until Pittsburgh. Marvelous. I'm excited, and I think Dorian is finally warming up to the idea, too.
"You have heard of the yeti? The ubanamanamanala snowman? That is, of course, not an animal or a prehuman being. That is originally one of the shamans' gods. The real name is Banjhakri; that means shaman of the forest. So, therefore, nobody will ever find the yeti in nature because you have to go in trance, and then you'll find the yeti easily." -- Unknown; sampled in The Herb Garden by Hallucinogen.