This is fun--listen to the senior class of Smith react to the announcement that Rachel Maddow is going to be their commencement speaker: [link]

I love how their excitement ramps up the more they realize who it is before her name is mentioned.

I would love to have foot rests on planes. My legs are too short for my feet to reach the floor when I'm sitting in a plane seat, and sitting with my legs dangling like that is really painful for my hips and back. When I'm in a normal chair and have that problem, I just sit with my legs crossed. But airplane seats are way too narrow for that. Sometimes I can put my carryon right in front of me and rest my feet on that, but that's nearly impossible to do without the bag getting at least a little bit into the foot space of the person next to me.

but to also like to not be scrunched into my seat because someone else is in my space.

Of course. Like men who colonize the arm rest and spread their legs. I hate them.

I'm just so sick of comments on the order of "If those disgusting people would just make an effort and lose some weight instead of sitting on their fat asses watching TV." And people who think fat people shouldn't be allowed on airlines because they'll block the emergency exits.

I would love to have foot rests on planes.

Seriously! I love that on trains. I end up putting one leg up against the side of the plane (another reason I'm window seat all the way!)

we drove by the house again. it is still there. meep!

msbelle is the cutest.

I am having such data integrity issues, and it's not my fault. I can't believe this is still ongoing.

I need to complain about something that isn't really a big deal, but still. I am in National Harbor (which, in itself isn't terrible I guess) for this conference that I've been looking forward to for months. The content is important to me, since I am in the middle of choosing an EDMS provider.

However: this stupid National Harbor locale offers NO pub trans, outside of an extremely limited bus (that is targeted to employee's schedules) into DC. Last night, to meet Sparky and Maria, I ended up in a cab after the hotel concierge laughed at my suggestion at pubtrans. The cab got caught in traffic, completely expectedly, but the driver erroneously told me I was two blocks away from the restaurant (we weren't moving and the fare was already $40+) and I was like "great, I can walk from here!". No, it wasn't two blocks to the restaurant: it was two blocks to the street that the restaurant was on! I was more than pissed to look up and see that I was on the 800 block and the restaurant was on the 1800s. Normally I love a good walk in brisk weather. But not in work heels, in snow, knowing poor Sparky and baby were waiting for me! So, that's one gripe. Maria was incredibly sweet and drove me back to the hotel, as I really didn't want to expense $90 in cab fares for one day. Tonight I am meeting another friend, and this time I am armed with Metro knowledge. I can see that a $10 or so cab fare will get me over to Alexandria, and from there I can yellow-line it in to town. Whew! Much better.

But my second larger gripe is that here I am for this conference, and I've not yet been able to leave my damned hotel room to actually attend even one event for today. I am in charge of exactly two things that I can't give to my subordinate, and since they're due diligence related, the requests are always unpredictable and have to be handled very quickly and with utmost care (huge confidentiality issues, which is why I can't hand them off to a subordinate who is in the office). So I've been taking calls all day from our biz dev folks, and loading docs and restricting and granting access and blah blah blah blah. And I am tired of this stupid hotel room which has crankified me beyond belief.

I'm going downstairs to get a drink at the bar and then outside to breathe some fresh air.

Thanks for listening.

I have some bad news about the result of a screw-up of mine which I have to call the COO and tell him about. I am putting it off until ANOTHER crappy thing happens first. Not. My. Day.

msbelle, I am so excited for you. It's going to be really amusing to watch you move and renovate and have fun with all that space.

I'm just so sick of comments on the order of "If those disgusting people would just make an effort and lose some weight instead of sitting on their fat asses watching TV." And people who think fat people shouldn't be allowed on airlines because they'll block the emergency exits.

Absolutely. Hateful people who make rude comments come in all sizes.

I can't understand blaming the passengers for the lack of room on an airplane, it's so clearly the airlines' fault. Oh well.

I try to fly as little as possible anymore. It's just too uncomfortable. Last time I flew I was sitting next to one of my best friends, who happens to be about 5'5" and 110 pounds, and we were practically sitting on top of each other. If she hadn't been my friend it would have been unbearable.