Ramblings from the airport

I really should start doing a blog on all the airports I have flown into, out of and through. Seriously there seem to be millions and I do have favorites.

So here I am at LA International Airport on the busiest travel day of the year. Well all the news reports of LAX showed these hideous and horrendous lines and traffic, well not at Delta at 10:30 this morning. I left the Antelope Valley on a shuttle this morning at 9am. We hit my terminal somewhere around 10:30. There were no lines and no pressure, I walked straight up to the check-in kiosk. Then I couldnt figure the darn thing out, it had instructions flashing on the screen to fast to read except the passport instructions and it didnt read my passport. Then I dropped off my bags. I think my boarding pass had a code on it that tagged me for full search. So yup I got the full blown pat down and inspection. Sorry boys there was no serious girl on girl gropage like they show on the news. She didn't even graze my breasts, which I am not sure if I am glad about that or upset. I mean I don't have a thing for women but are my breasts not good enough for the gropage we see on TV? I did get to see a guy in a cast get the inspection and they inspected his cast, which was interesting to me. All in all the worst day of the year to travel has so far been easy, by 11:15 AM I had done to walks of the Concourse, one to find my gate and another to peruse food options and shopping. Now I am sitting at a power outlet to conserve the precious battery power of my laptop. I also have 3 wi-fi links but none of them are letting me in, even though one says it is for public use. Those bastards!

I now ave 2 good hours until my plane leaves and a little less until it boards. But you can bet your tuckus I am not leaving this golden power outlet until my hunger is so ravenous, I want to jump the guy across from me and eat his McD's I would rather eat human flesh than McD's mmmmmmm flesshhhhhhhhh

Hmm maybe I should hop on that flight to Paris, I missed the one earlier to Buenos Aires, the person announcing that couldn't pronounce it and finally just said Peru. Buenos Aires is in Peru right?

Ok so my thesis on airports will start like this. LAX is not my fave by far. The bathrooms have not been updated to accomodate roll-on size carry-ons and the hooks and stands have not been reinforced so you can keep your laptop or purse off the floor. They did have auto-flush toilets which was nice. This concourse (Delta) has very few choices for food and shopping. There is a McD's, a sandwich shop, a CPK and like 3 bars that claim they serve food, but calling the selection bar food would be an exageration. I looked at one "menu" and there were 3 things on it. There are 2 shops. your typical newstand shop and a kitschy krap southwest shop, being from the Southwest and considering it crap I did not give it more than a walking glance. The newshop was typical, I heart LA stuff, some See's Candy(I might go back for that) and newstand stuff but the only bottled drinks are water. That is common in alot of airports lately, but not a big deal because they have vending machines and soda only vendors. Well not at LAX. It sucks. The check in was pretty smooth even though the attendants were inattentive, brusk and your typical CA rude which I am just not accustomed to anymore. Even though I got the full random search the security screening was smooth but I wouldnt want to do it when they are busy. The organization is poor and the area needs to be redsigned for the new standards.

Security CheckPoints:
Now ATL their security point is huge and kick ass, if I do sayso. It is like the entrance to disneyland or the line at Fry's. There are so many lanes that they should never get to long and there is someone directing and telling you where to go. Of course I saw many people not listen when the lady was clear in instructions and there were times where I could see she was speaking clearly IF we had been familiar to the airport areas.

San Diego well I don't like it, again the area needs to be redesigned But mostly I dont like it because they were rude to me and are lacking signage that says things like "Take Laptop out of bag" So since I didnt know they were pissed and angry and just very rude to me.

I have no recollection of Birmingham, Chicago-Midway or Pensacola so it coulndt be that bad.

Other Notes:

Atlanta kicks ass, lots of food and things to amuse me when I am waiting. They also have the train so you don't have to run to another terminal.

Dallas-Fort Worth had great food, that is all I remember is this restraunt with the best Albondigas I have ever had.

Phoenix was boring but did have free internet, as does ATL I think. LAX has no internet unless my wifi is hosed up again. I think Birminham had free too.


hmmmmmm ok that is all for now until I get bored and right more. I should be working on that term paper but I just don't care about it.