Pictures from Planes

I don't travel for work anymore, but I am fortunate enough to be able to take half a dozen flights a year, for fun. You know what? I have never been upgraded to first class, or even business class! I have had the occasional hotel upgrade; to a suite in Boston a few years ago, on Marathon weekend, no less, and once at the New York Palace. But, all my flying has been done crammed into coach, trying to get comfortable, and wondering if I should drink the free Diet Coke and praying that turbulence doesn't take away my bathroom privileges. In short, flying sucks.

Except that it doesn't, does it? It's a freaking miracle of invention that in about half a century, we went from barely getting off the ground, to landing someone on the moon. Any idiot with a few bucks and a passport can buy a ticket, head to 30,000 feet above the earth, and zoom at 500 miles per hour to another part of the world. I have had dinner in Toronto, and breakfast in Paris. Even if I have to spend 7 hours in between with some doofus's seat reclined into my face, it's not something I take for granted.

Here are some photos I have taken out from planes over the years (more of New York here). I am the one who leans out the window like I've never flown before. What can I say, I love being in the sky; I find it majestic, and it never gets old. The world is beautiful, isn't it? I wish we'd stop fucking it up...

Sweet home Toronto

On the way to Rome.

Northern Italian mountains

The Pentagon, pulling into Reagan Airport, Washington DC.

Washington Monument, and the Mall.

My beloved Harbour Island, Bahamas, on a wee plane jaunt up to Abaco.

Flying JFK to LAX.

Crop circles! Aliens!

Stunning.

And then, out of nowhere, civilization. Or, at least, people.

Comments

Writing at Night

This is how I do it. My brain turns on at the weirdest times. I first saw a pen like this when I was in my 20s, in a TV report about a movie reviewer, who used one to take his notes in a dark theatre. I searched everywhere, and finally found one. Before I had it, I tried a few other tactics to help me save for posterity the incredibly deep, meaningful thoughts I felt I was having at night. I tried just writing with a pencil in the dark, but that didn't work out too well. My writing, on a good day, looks like someone suffering from the DTs sprayed Silly String on paper during an earthquake. What I mean to say is, it's really, really bad. So, the pencil thing was a bust. Next, I bought a mini-tape recorder, but my middle-of-the-night mumbling was almost worse than my writing. It seemed like my Shakespearean musings would be lost to humanity. How tragic! The pen. Then, I got my flashlight pen. It was a revela...

Girls Who Wear Glasses

Image- Pinterest I had braces for 3 years. That may give you some idea of how out of whack my teeth were as an adolescent. My dad used to say I could eat corn on the cob through a picket fence. Even with good insurance, he still referred to my braces as "the trip to Hawaii." I had them removed just a few weeks into high school. I was perfect, for about a month. Then, one day in math class, my teacher asked me to do the problem written on the blackboard. "There's something written on the blackboard?" I said, which was both smart-ass and true. I couldn't see a damn thing on it. So, off I went for an eye exam, and, sure enough, I needed glasses. I was not pleased. Hipsters hadn't yet been spawned by the devil, and the only people who wore glasses were nerds and old people.

Now or Never Books

As I mentioned in a previous post , and as it's the season, I am in a purging and organizing mood. No, I'm not following Marie Kondo's advice as closely as I should be, mostly because it's SO HARD with books, and I have more books than anything else. I've gone over and over my bookshelves, but I just can't seem to part with any more titles. The vast majority of my books do spark joy, even if it's just the memory of having read it; I know I'm supposed to get rid of them anyway. Not sure I can. I have started making piles that I am calling "now or never" books. One of the bits of advice in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is essentially: if you haven't read it yet, you're never going to. I just can't face that. In the pile pictured above are some books that I know will be amazing, but for some reason I haven't found the time. I have to read these in the next, let's say, 2 months, or they get donated. It...

Blue Velvet Sectional

Search This Blog