Three years ago today we started this adventure:
And of our adventures — we went to Europe for our honeymoon, for example — I’ve always felt the small ones were the best of all.
Love ya, Ren.
honeymoon
7
Oct 10
Researching and other fun things
Spent a fair amount of time yesterday considering a study for a presentation in class this morning. And then, in class, it never came up. So Researching Media Effects today was about four critiques of four other studies, which is just as well. Five would have been too many.
After class I made a round of meetings, visiting with my comps committee. I made jokes with one professor, who gave me the two questions which will require a great deal of attention in the coming months and four hours to answer next year.
So I visited a second committee member and got two more questions that will require a similar amount of attention to detail. After that, I had a visit with my committee chair.
Then I scheduled my comprehensive exams. No turning back now. If you need me between now and January I’ll be working my way through a lot of reading material.
Framed some posters tonight.
These are posters I picked up this summer to commemorate our trip through southern Europe. I got them cheap on e-bay. Since frames are insanely expensive, indeed even a modest frame would cost more than any three of the posters, I decided to go cheap.
I only had to visit three Target stores to get the right cheap frames, too.
Now to figure out where to hang them. When they are on the walls, do be sure to ooh and aah at them when you come visit.
21
Jun 10
Your average summer Monday
I had to call someone this morning for business purposes. Perhaps calling first thing was my mistake. The man on the other end was bemused as I stumbled through the most convoluted explanation of the situation. I re-started the story two or three times before I got it right.
That man would have never guessed I once talked for a living. Today I scarcely believe it myself.
Three soccer games today. Portugal vs. Korea DPR, where the Portugese routed their opponents, 7-1. Two different styles clashed when Chile faced Switzerland. It got chippy, a Swiss player was sent off early and the South Americans were able to capitalize on yet another poor officiating decision.
One of the changes I’d like to see in the game — long famous for its few alterations — is an ad hoc ruling on players taking dives. I’d create a three-panel commission that watched each game after it was resolved. If they vote that you faked your stumble you don’t play in the next game. That would fix the simulation. That would help solve a great many of the officials’ problems.
Maybe the issues are the same in other sports. The athletes are now bigger, faster and cunning, and thus more easily able to fool a lone official. The television angles are better, replay exposes all. Even if those aren’t the problems we’re seeing at this World Cup, they are the things we are seeing in this World Cup. It certainly would have changed things in the Chile game.
The third game was Spain vs. Honduras, which David Villa made academic early in the second half. You’re beginning to see why Spain are the World Cup favorites.
Went to buy cat food today. The young lady at the cash register was holding a snake, as if on display. I have nothing against snakes, but this can’t help their sales with many of their customers. Someone didn’t think this through.
And then I realized I hadn’t eaten much today, so I sought out Cajun. I sat on the porch of the local Cajun place, sweating, listening to Zydeco and eating beans and rice and various other things offered in a spicy denomination.
When feeling famished, stuffing one’s face is a bad idea. I’d ordered something the waitress said she’d never tried. She later asked me if it was good — it was — but I felt and looked so miserable when I answered that I wasn’t very convincing.
Spent the rest of the evening preparing a long social media presentation. I’m putting three previous programs together to make one long talk. This will be for a summer class at Alabama in which I’m guest lecturing. If the students are even still talking to me by the end of the session I’ll be pleased with the outcome.
The last honeymoon photo barrage: I have finished, finally, editing pictures from our epic adventure. There are 409 photographs in the gallery. That doesn’t count the two slideshows from Borghese and the Spanish Steps elsewhere on the site or the panoramas. It also doesn’t count the videos, which I have still to produce. There’s about an hour’s worth of footage there.
But a lot of pictures. I decided such an epic project needed its own splash page. So, check out the new honeymoon page. All the pictures are ordered chronologically in relation to the location and where that visit landed in our trip. So you’ll see four different sections of Rome pictures. We spent three days in Rome and then took our cruise. After the trip we had another day in Rome, hence the four sections.
During the trip there are pages for each of our excursions and a section for photographs from the ship itself. Off to the side you’ll see the panoramas. Hopefully this will all be self-explanatory when you see the page. Do visit.
5
Jun 10
Returning home (or: How Kelly almost stranded us in London)
On the one hand, it doesn’t take weeks to do this like it did, just a few generations ago.
But then again, this is one long day.
We caught a cab from the hotel to the airport, which is just outside of Rome. There is a fixed fee rule for cabs in Rome, so at a certain point you just pay the maximum. The hotel called us a cab and we were picked up by a guy in a suit and a Mercedes Benz van, which seemed a bit odd, but the price was right.
And riding to the airport — rather than walking to the train station, fighting luggage, exiting the train and then figuring out the airport — was absolutely the right choice. Our flight out of Rome was around 10 a.m. We left a bit late, but with no problem. From Rome to London is just over two hours. We had a small layover at Heathrow, but our plane couldn’t find a place to park. So we waited on the tarmac at London. And then we moved to another space.
We breezed through the first two stages of airport hassle with great ease, but I realized that was foreshadowing.
British airport security operates under a model of dispassion and inefficiency to which the TSA aspires. Somehow we packed a snow globe in the carry on luggage. You couldn’t just see that through the x-ray machine, but have an hourly worker go through every nook and cranny of the luggage.
With a grim, humorless determination she found compartments we didn’t even know existed in our suitcase. The snow globe, which was for Kelly, got left behind and is no doubt making someone in London very happy tonight. (Sorry, Kel!) This story goes on and on, but the big concern was that our plane back to the U.S. was running out of patience. We’d actually gotten off the plane in Rome with only 10 minutes to spare before our connection. That layover had suddenly evaporated.
But, someone with British Airways said, our next flight was delayed as well. We stayed in security — not in the line, but waiting to go through our luggage — for about 20 minutes. And then when we had to catch an airport shuttle. And then we had to hustle down the terminal. And the plane was still sitting there, patiently waiting for us. The crew were still wearing their smiles.
We got on the plane, they buttoned up and we took off. For our in-flight entertainment this plane offered an on-demand video system. I watched Robin Williams’ latest HBO special.
When you laugh out loud on a plane people tend to give you long looks.
So I toned it down a bit, following up with Sherlock Holmes. It was decent enough, but ultimately forgettable in that special way that comes with a lot of Robert Downey Jr.’s movies. I suspect the inevitable Moriarty film will be a worthy sequel.
I watched I Love You Phillip Morris, which hasn’t even been released in the U.S. yet. Jim Carrey is brilliant and this is probably one of the better comedies of the year. Just watch the trailer.
If it ever gets into the U.S., and you like off-the-wall dark comedies, you’ll probably enjoy it.
I finished the flight — yes, the trip takes this long — with Invictus. Well, I almost finished Invictus. Don’t spoil it for me! They were in the final match, just after the stirringesque Matt Damon speech to rally the troops when the flight crew began making their landing announcements. They turn the screens off for the PA system, and they were a bit wordy and redundant. I believe I could have made it if they’d made just one less anouncement.
And now I’ll never know what happens.
It was still late afternoon when we landed in Atlanta. We, as Americans, have been in four countries in the last two weeks. The one the most difficult to enter has been our own. You land and grab your checked bag way too easily. You make it through passport control where a nice gentleman welcomes us home. We are instructed to drop off our checked bag for another inspection. We are instructed to go through another set of metal detectors.
I asked one of the TSA agents the logic, just to hear the answer. It is, of course, unreasonable to assume that this TSA agent knows where I’ve been, but I’ve passed through two airport security stages today and haven’t left either controlled environment. Basically, the answer goes, is that they don’t trust the security at London or Rome (take that Allies). They don’t know where we’ve been, the “standards” of those airports or the “quality” of the security there. So, TSA figures, you’ll just pass through security one more time.
We walked through metal detectors to exit the airport.
And this will sound sarcastic — but after 17 days in Europe and Asia Minor and having compiled the Small Things I’m Looking Forward to At Home list and a day’s worth of airports I mean it to sound sincere — I love this country.
We finally made it out of the airport, having worked out this security issue and realizing, yes, it makes sense. The downside being that the airport’s design and not the policy itself. The TSA agent’s charming answer, though, “So we can keep you safe,” still annoys.
Our friend brought our car. She lives on the opposite side of the town, which could be an extra hour or more in Atlanta, but she set us up so we could head home straight from the airport. We have thoughtful friends.
My goal was to get across the state line before darkness, which we just barely did. My thought was that when the sun disappeared I’d start dragging, which I did. Fortunately we only had an hour to go. The last bit of road was no trouble. We made back to Birmingham, Ala. from Rome, Italy in 22 hours. I unpacked, threw the first load of clothes in the washing machine and, now, I’m going to sleep for a really long time.
4
Jun 10
Leaving Equinox, back to Rome
We’ve had such a nice time on the cruise we don’t want to go back to a great city like Rome. Odd how that works. But I figured out why. At breakfast this morning the theme of the cruise ship finally sank in. Told you everyone here shut their brain off when they came aboard. The secret is in the name. We’re celebrities.
And I realized that, this morning, when the crew didn’t smile and say hello and bend over backward to do every little thing for you. They weren’t bad, by any means, they were just getting ready for the next cruise and we barely registered for them.
So we’ve played the role of the low maintenance, B or D list celebrities who don’t need anyone to fuss over them overly much. Now, in port and ready to leave, you notice that the crew have let the illusion go. Not that I blame them, some people come on the ship and really try to abuse the concept to a shameful degree. We met a few of those unfortunate folks. I’m sure, in crew quarters in the bowel of the ship and at the crew bar late at night, they all secretly loathe the passengers.
“He wanted another towel. That was the ninth one of the day, I think.”
We got to know the assistant maitre’ d who told us a few stories about some of the experiences he’s endured over the course of his long career. It’s just a job, but creating the illusion for some people can be a chore, I’m sure. He was going on vacation himself — “Anywhere but a ship,” he said — when he was done with our trip. He was ready to share a few stories.
So we had breakfast, lingered a bit and then finally worked our way down to the gangway. We picked up our luggage in a confused free for all — it is true what they say, embarkation and disembarkation at this port aren’t very well organized — and then tried to catch a bus in a Paris, June, 1940 atmosphere. It was almost comical, people have spent 11 days relaxing on a cruise and the moment everyone gets back off the ship they are jostling into semi-aggressive, anxious people again.
After about three rounds of buses we manage to sneak onto that will hold our luggage. The bus takes us to the port entrance and then we are on our own. We tote luggage to the train station, get tickets and then work our way to the proper line.
We had to go down a flight of stairs, walk 25 yards and then go up a separate flight of stairs. Architects here are funny, funny people.
So we rode back down to Rome. We carried our luggage through the terminal and to our hotel. I’m really tired of carrying luggage, by now. On the way I’m performing the mental calculations to see if it is possible to bring less stuff. The formal nights really kill you here, but I think we could have removed one bag from the equation.
This afternoon we wondered around to take the last few items off of our Rome list. We stopped by the Trevi Fountain, which was designed by Bernini among others. Took forever to create, but it was worth it.
Trevi Fountain
If you throw coins in the fountain, you come back to Rome, so the legend goes. We visited a pharmacy next to the fountain and also bought some art nearby, but I don’t recall if we threw anything in the fountain or not. I did see this guy, though:
What kind of apps do gladiators have on their iPhones?
We hung out on the Spanish Steps, the widest, longest, tallest and just gosh darn adventurous stairs in Europe. The guide books say this is one of the fine places to see and be seen in Rome, so I made a slideshow.
We walked around the squares, passing where the president of Italy lives purely by accident — there was a car fire that detoured us — shopped for gifts, watched a few street performers and enjoyed the lovely cobblestone streets and beautiful weather of a spring day in Rome. The weather has been great. My feet really hurt.
We had dinner at a place called Osteria de Mario. The fare was traditional Roman, so if you wanted ox tail you were in luck. We split a chicken meal, which was good, but we thought we’d ordered two. They messed up the change, though, so it all works out.
We caught a bus back to the room. (On our last day in Rome we’ve figured out the bus system, how’s that for more than 40 years of formal education between us?) We’re staying in the Hotel Margaret again, where we spent our first three nights in Rome. The owner, thinking The Yankee was by herself, booked us into her smallest room. She was very upset and apologetic about this, but the room was cute, big enough, didn’t face the road and had a softer bed. The discount she gave us just made it that much nicer.
They told us to come back on our next visit to Rome. We just might, it is a casual, low key place that’s relatively inexpensive and convenient to most everything. It is low frills, but it is clean and everything you need for a hotel room in Rome. Our recommendation, check out Hotel Margaret.
We’re just beat. After an 11-day luxury cruise there’s no reason to be exhausted, but today, somehow, took it all out of me.
We’re catching a taxi to the airport in the morning. We figured, after our walk from the terminal to the hotel today that we just didn’t want to carry the luggage back down there again. We’re staring at an absolutely full day of travel, this is a good investment, I think.
She put together a perfect trip.
You couldn’t ask for a better adventure, a more wonderful experience or a more charming companion. We booked for a great price a long time ago when no one was cruising — indeed, the ship wasn’t at capacity.
We saw an incredible amount of history and culture. We ducked a British Airways strike to get to Europe. We had good timing in missing the unrest in Athens. We had great weather and perfect seas. We met wild donkeys, smiling, helpful locals and people from all over the world. We scaled volcanoes, swam in the Aegean Sea and prayed at St. Peter’s. We laughed and smiled and created countless memories.
