Airport New Year

I am in the Atlanta-Hartsfeld Airport waiting on my flight to NYC to depart. There are LOTS of soliders here, carrying huge bags on their backs, cartons of cigarettes, stacks of magazines. It is easy sometimes to forget how young they are.

You can almost tell where the plane is going just by looking at the people in the gate area. The New Yorkers are dressed all in black, with dark jeans and expensive bags. Someone else has the same Jack Spade that I have -- which I only paid $40 for at the sample sale. That's another thing New Yorker's do: we have expensive taste, but like things to be cheap. Which means if, like me, you paid only $40 for the Jack Spade bag, you'll tell people that. And Jack Spade is so low on the totem pole of expensive taste, it's almost ridiculous. Relatively speaking.

The flight is (so far) a few minutes late, weather issues with the incoming plane. At first I thought that New Yorker's are better at waiting--since everyone in black looks to be so patiently waiting. I realized that we're not better at waiting, we're better at eavesdropping, and so everyone is listening to what's going on at the check-in counter, without having to get out of their seat. Hilarious.

The PA system here keeps reminding us that the "threat level is currently orange." As if that means anything.

Happy New Year.