It's Raining Men ...in flannel...

After a relaxing 3-day Holiday weekend, I had a fun, frenetic Tuesday.  If you follow me on twitter, you saw some of my snarky tweets about the day.  Here is a recap, in case you missed the play-by-play.

I hit the road at 5am, on my way to Boise for a flight.  Groggy, still in the dark, and wondering if the 'check engine' light on my car was going to be a problem, I set off on my trek.  I had a 4 hour drive ahead of me, and a lot of open road.

My car stereo doesn't have an mp3 jack, so I burned some CD's for the drive.  I labeled them, like one normally would.  A combination of distraction and my general dumbassery led me to label one 'travelling music.'  My girlfriend loved the typo, and poked me about a half-dozen times about it in one night.

As the sun rose, I took in the beauty of the open road.  I'm not used to 260 miles of empty pavement, and being able to just set the cruise control and not worry about stop-and-go traffic.  The farmland, the winding river that runs parallel to the freeway, and the gorgeous sunrise made it a very amazing drive.

I get into Boise, and I feel like I'm back in California.  Patrol cars everywhere, construction, traffic congestion, and a handful of rude drivers.  It's funny how it reminded me of California, and almost made me miss it all.

Almost.  There are a lot of things I miss about cali, but the drivers are not on that list.  I still laugh at California drivers when it rains.  You'd think it were the apocalypse... nobody knows what to do...

I get to the airport 90 minutes before my flight, just in case.  If I flew out of Ontario Ca, I'd only need to show up 20 minutes before boarding.  LAX, 2 hours... today being the day after Memorial Day, it could go either way... but I get in, go through screening, get to 2nd base with my TSA agent, and get to my gate all in about 15 minutes.

If you have read my observations posts, you know I love to people watch.  (If you haven't read them, click HERE!!!)  I found a seat facing the main causeway, got out a notebook, and waited for the hilarity to find me.

And wow, it was easy to find.  I have never seen such a wide variety of flannel in my life.  About 80% of the men were wearing some sort of flannel shirt, coat or hat.  If I had a flannel fetish, I'd be in heaven (hey, that's a good idea for a freaky friday post...)

While the men were sporting every single flannel color and design known in existence, the women were doing the same thing with horrid floral patterns.  I was wearing a pair of black slacks and a green dress-shirt.  While I looked good, I stood out.  Apparently solid colors were out of season?

The flight was quick and painless.  I did my thing, and got back to the 'away' airport to go back home.  TOTAL change of scenery...

This airport was near a college party school, and apparently a lot of students were flying home for the season.  Or, maybe to go party?  My flight continued on to Reno, and not a lot of people got off.  While less interesting than the flannel brigade, I did appreciate sharing a plane with a few dozen drinking, partying, lowered-inhibition college kids.  It made the 40min flight seem to whizz by.

The drive home wasn't nearly as interesting, because I just wanted to get home.  I had a good day, had some great news, and was looking forward to being home and celebrating.  But I had to wait.  4 hours...

A 4 hour drive when you're bouncy and excited is like pulling teeth.  You want to go 150 mph, but know you can't.

I finally roll into the driveway at 11pm: an 18 hour day.  And I was PUMPED (as you could probably tell from the post when I got home...).  I haven't slept a good night's sleep since then, and am hoping to catch up on the weekend.

I hope I don't dream about flannel....

I can't drive... 5.

One thing that bothers me about this area, above all else, are the speed limits.

In California, speed limits were pretty moderate.  Most streets had a 40-50 limit, and freeways were 65 but rarely enforced.  Up in tater-town, things are completely different.

If you're downtown, the speed limit is 25.  If you're out of the major downtown area, you're blessed to get a limit of 35.

AND IT'S STRICTLY ENFORCED.

Now, in the snow, or when roads are icy, 25 is a reasonable speed.  You slip and slide a bit, but seem to have control when you're in the 20's or low 30's.

However, when it's warmer and you can only go 25, you feel like you're barely moving at all.  You can look outside and see snails whizzing by...

The only good news is the freeway.  The speed limit is 75, and the roads are always open.  There is no traffic like in Cali, and you can get from town to town at a decent speed.  HOWEVER, it makes the transition from freeway to town roads that much more unbearable.  You get to cruise at 80, lovin every minute of it, and then it's back to 25!!

I recently worked at a store where my commute to work war about 33 miles.  I loved my freeway time, because it let me know that my car can still move.  When your car is only allowed to get to about 35 on most days, there's no real reason to shift past 3rd gear, and the car likes that just about as much as I do...

Just to be an ass, I'm going to buy a V8 sports car, JUST so I can drive it around town, at 5% of it's true potential.  *grumble*