and we're off, again...

ah, travel. there’s nothing like the freedom of having your bag on your back, the ticket in your hand, and being frisked head to toe while in your stocking feet. *sigh* after the dozens of flights i had over the last couple of months… culminating with the delightful 18 hour trip back to the middle east… i am really, really sick of flying. i have also become somewhat of a connoisseur of the customer service of the airline industry. i could tell you which airlines seem to handle delays better than others… which ones have the best beverage and snack services… which ones have damaged my luggage the least… and (of course) which one i will *not* be giving my money to again. …losing your luggage may be an inconvenience in the states. try doing it where the native language is arabic. somewhere between houston, london, and dubai, they lost one of my two bags. luckily, being as worn out and lethargic from allergies as i was, i had no interest in doing anything but sleeping… which is good… because all my civvy clothes, my workout clothes, my running shoes… yeah, all in that bag. and amazingly enough, the powers that be don’t really want you wearing your uniform though the streets of a middle eastern country. they want you to “blend in”. yeah… short, white lesbians blend so well in countries where the average female is covered head to toe in black. anyways… so i slept, and i watched tv……there’s nothing lonelier than watching hotel tv with nothing better to do and no one to talk to. although flipping through 20 some arabic channels with english subtitles has got a unique air of isolation to it. i got to watch some arabic MTV, and one of the world cup games. couldn’t tell you who was playing… i’m not a big enough soccer fan to know the teams on sight. i did find one of the only 2 english based channels and watched the same two episodes of “king of queens” about 3 times through until I fell back asleep… some jokes never get old. unfortunately, KOQ isn’t one of them…