International flights: terminal 5.

Everything else: rest of the airport.

The two are not connected except by a train that’s outside security.  First of all, this is really, really stupid, on account of the airport would be severely fracked if not actually shut down if anything happened to that train.  Second, it makes me have to go through security an extra time to get to my connecting flight, whenever I connect through O’Hare on an international itinerary.

The problem with this is, when I go through security, I want to get smart.  I restrained myself from saying these things, but that was quite the effort to repeat.

TSA: Take your shoes off.
Avrila: That might be a WMD violation.

TSA: Any sharp objects?
Avrila: Do butcher knives count?

TSA: Has anyone else had access to your baggage?
Avrila: (option 1) My shrinks, but they haven’t been able to do much about it.
Avrila: (option 2) Well, there was a friendly darker-skinned fellow with a towel on his head…

TSA: Has anyone given you anything to carry?
Avrila: Just a clock with some extra wires.

Avrila: (general comment) Defend us, oh thou great defenders of freedom, from four ounce packages of exploding toothpaste!  And thank God you’re here to stop all those terrorists who can’t open Ziploc bags!

Again, I don’t say these things.  Because I know that would be dumb.  But must they really require me to restrain myself twice?

Out at Aberystwyth Castle today, I met a pest control professional hard at work:

This particular pest control professional seemed to be just barely out of kittenhood, as well as accustomed to crazy tourists (probably they usually come bearing gifts of fish and chips, but an ear rub was also accepted).

If a person accidentally books an extra connection, even if the booking company could make money by changing it, even if the airline could make money by changing it, no one will touch it. If this makes sense to you, you might be Expedia. I mean, I get that the rules are what they are, but simple dollargrabbing self-interest ought to kick in on this.

Expedia managed to tick my dad off. And that takes a bit.

The other day, Dad decided that I need a week or so in Wales this summer (and who am I to argue?). So he wandered over to Expedia and pushed the button…and then things got stupid at the travel site.

Made the drive today…with shoes still wet, ugh. Now I have a grey cat on my lap once again, off and on, making it hard for me to type. And I’ve realized, well, that I seriously need to clean my apartment. Ugh.

Apparently, that’s something I don’t have–at least, not in the necessary amounts for whale watching. The site said it’s the right part of the year for it, and I think I found the highest possible place on the beach, but…I didn’t see anything. Probably because I kept digging around in the sand and playing with the dune grass. I think I got just the tiniest bit of a sunburn out of it, though…oh yeah, that’s not a good thing.

Then, on my way off the beach, I decided it’d be fun to see if I could go back and forth across this one shallow little river that runs down the beach to the ocean, without getting wet. Well, I got wet; now my shoes are all squooshy. And I have to wear those to drive in, back to Monmouth, tomorrow. I wish I’d brought my sandals.

I took a few more pictures; I think I’ll be able to finish off the roll tomorrow, one way or another. I wish I’d brought my camera, though–it’d be so much easier to rub people’s noses in the coolness of my spring break, that way.

I went here for the late morning/lunch hour-ish kind of time, today.  Tidepools are neat!  Pictures to follow as soon as I finish the roll, get them developed, scan them…ugh.  I really wish I hadn’t forgotten my camera!!!

While I was out at the beach, looking for a good sand dollar (which I didn’t find; I just don’t have the hang of it, I guess), I found something else instead…the plastic connecting rings off a six-pack. Sitting on the beach. Not even cut up or anything, and the people must’ve gone past a garbage can to leave the beach…best possible interpretation is that someone threw it away elsewhere and it washed up on the beach, but it was pretty far above the tideline, so that’s not that likely. I picked it up, ripped it up, and threw it away in the garbage.

I’m not going to say I’ve never forgotten to cut up 6-pack rings at home; I can’t think of a time when I didn’t do that, and I don’t even get 6-packs that often, but it could’ve happened. But at the beach…where you’re looking right at the big wet thing that animals swim in and get strangled by 6-pack rings in…it takes an extra special kind of stupid dillweed to leave stuff like that out, in that context.

Good news: My advisor took my work sample on the second try, it’s spring break, and I’m at the beach.

Bad news: I forgot my fricking camera.

Or yesterday, if you want to get technical.

On the good side:

• Students are showing growth, from what I can tell, on their post-tests
• Latest order from Fry’s shipped
• The two classes I found will get me my middle school math endorsement
• Countdown to spring break dipped below 200 hours
• The online class where I thought I was gonna have to knock myself out to get a B…the professor e-mailed me to let me know I have an A so far. How, I don’t know, with all the stuff I’ve posted late, but maybe she cares more about quality I guess
• I had my 3-way conference today…either “meets objective” or “making satisfactory progress” on everything!
• I’ll be at the beach before too much longer
• It’s almost spring
• Starbase Indy is going to be over Thanksgiving weekend again; so, pending money (which I’ll almost definitely have this September), I’ve got plans!

But on the bad side:

• Because it’s almost spring, disgustingly-happy couples that hang all over each other while crossing streets and make me want to yell “get a room!” are out and swarming
• I can’t find any version of the online class I want (semi-need) to take this spring…and there used to be at least two options open to me, I thought…
• I still have to decide which is worse, having calc 1 this summer in the middle of a 4-hour block of classes and having to run back and forth to a different building for it or having it online
• WOU’s being a PIA about the practicum part of finishing up ESOL there…so it’s either talking OSU into it or paying WOU for three credits to rubberstamp me and hoping they’ll go along with the placement I already have for spring (and let me start the process for that late, since I probably won’t get my ESOL Praxis results until after the term starts and they still require test scores for everything there)…oh well, finishing everything at OSU would be my preference anyway.
• The cats are definitely tearing holes in the carpet; I’ve got to find a way to repair those and train the animals a bit

All in all, quite a decent day.