Zen and the Art of Speedskating

What is it with flying and me? Is there some fundamentally busted part of my Karma that makes my traveling via air so prone to extended bouts of misery? I do enjoy the varied smorgasbord of airport people watching quite a bit, but today I am spending almost 12 hours in the Detroit airport, and I have had an overdose of:

• Women in floral print jumpsuits & badly dyed blond hair
• Fat guys in software company polo shirts
• Couples who cant bear to be out of physical contact, next to the baggage claim
• Precicely groomed men talking earnestly on cel phones with clients
• Airline stewardesses with ponytails like perfect paintbrushes
• Skinny Japanese tourists sleeping off jet lag in corners
• Pale guys in flip flops, khaki shorts, & t-shirts from bars proclaiming vapid young alchololic attitude
• $7 tuna fish sandwiches served by hardworking folks who make less than that per hour
• and my favorite people watching gem of today; -a harried Northwest employee yelling into her cel phone as she rushes down a hall “Damm! I told her over and over! That is something an Embassy needs to approve!”.

Wow, maybe my day is not that bad after all. What would I look like in that unflattering peoplewatching searchlight?? hmmm…

• Shambling grad student with a huge ass and coffee stained ibook.

At least there is wireless here, and a coffee spigot every 10 feet, I spent much of the day surfing pictures of the burning man festival, I am absolutely fascinated, maybe that will be my week vacation next year. hmmmmm….

I am looking forward to being home, looking forward to getting back to hard training. Ever miss work after a long vacation? Truly I needed this break, but am really rested & eager to go again. It’s been ass-busting training since April, but now there are only 3 more hard weeks of training then the competitive season will truly be here. A wise friend said to me once, “Things are best in their beginnings”. Once this season starts, all beginnings will truly be over, and I will get to weigh my self-esteem against the stopwatch again, and the days will fly by, each day descending rapidly to Olympic trials, I better not blink, or I will miss it.

Here is one of my favorite pieces of the Detroit airport. How many eyes have stopped to appreciate this work of splashy art? & how the water jets splash off/on/patterns/etc. Last time I was here, I tossed a euro in, today, just a quarter.

Filed under: on the road