I'm really not kidding here.
With all the time I spent in airports (four different airports) last weekend, I noticed an extrordinary amount of people wearing flip-flops on their feet.
While I understand the hassles of modern day security and dislike having to remove my shoes as much as anyone, you should NEVER EVER wear flip-flops on a plane.
If that plane should go down and there's fire, your feet have absolutely no protection and you may not be able to get out of the plane if your feet are injured or burned.
Couple this with the danger of having your feet stomped upon in a panicked mob.
Bite the bullet. Wear actual shoes that will provide you some protection. Trust me...The extra two minutes it takes at security to take them off and put them back on will be repaid tenfold if (God forbid) something ever goes wrong with your plane.
Many plane crashes are survivable...but the passengers need to do their part to help ensure their own survival.
The airlines will not tell you this because they do not want to remind anyone that it's possible that a plane could go down. By the time the flight attendents do the safety speech, it's too late.
Protect yourselves. Don't be stupid. Thank me later.
The trip to Denver last weekend was great, I have to say. But the traveling managed to turn me into a big ball of stress. Oh, it wasn't pretty and neither was I by the end of it.
When my friend initially invited me to join him for a long weekend in the Mile High City, I called my brother, the airline pilot, and asked him about arranging a standby ticket on his airline. It's not free, but it's amazingly cheap. The trade-off is that you don't get on the plane unless there's an open seat and anyone and everyone else who might be on the standby list (airline employees, people who've missed their scheduled flights, people who want to take an earlier flight then they'd planned, etc.) is automatically above you on the list because they, in theory, have paid for their ticket or have to get somewhere on airline business.
Anyway, here's the story...
I leave my apartment at 2.00am on Wednesday night/Thursday morning and take the subway up to the Upper West Side and transfer to a bus to take me to LaGuardia Airport, where the first plane to Atlanta (my brother's airline is based in Atlanta, so no matter where you're going, you pretty much have to go through there) is at 6.00am. I arrive at the airport a little after 4.00am, which should be plenty of time to get checked in and go through security.
Except that the ticket agent didn't like my shoes. You see, another issue with flying standby is that you need to dress "business casual," so that the airline can attempt to maintain some sort of dress standard. Nevermind what their actual customers wear. My shoes were canvas top docksiders (for lack of a better word) and were deemed not dressy enough. I pointed out that I had worn these very shoes in many business casual environments, but the agent didn't care because he perceived them to be "sneakers." I offered to pull my actual sneakers out of my luggage and show him the difference, but he was not interested. You know the type...not interested in facts, just wielding whatever limited power is available. He had the power and nothing else mattered. I just hope that being incredibly rude made him feel good, because there was no other reason for it. And he knew that by keeping me off that 6.00am flight, I would not be able to get out of LaGuardia that day due to very full planes.
After a phone call to my brother, who could not believe what I was telling him anymore than I believed it myself, a new plan was hatched.
I took a bus from LaGuardia back to the subway and back to my apartment, where I changed shoes. I then walked over to Grand Central Station and got a MetroNorth train up to White Plains, a northern suburb in Westchester County. From the White Plains train station, I took a bus to the White Plains/Westchester County Airport to try to get a flight out from there.
This was, surprisingly, incredibly easy and fast. I definitely recommend this airport as an alternative if you can't get in or out of one of the three NYC area airports. And, the ticket agents in White Plains didn't even look at my shoes and were as nice as could be.
But I still sat around in White Plains all day waiting for space on a plane to open up. Finally, by late afternoon, a kind gate agent up there was able to not only find space for me on a plane to Atlanta, but also to book me through all the way to Denver.
I got to Denver at 10.30pm local time, meaning that I had been awake for 39.5 hours straight and was getting in 12 hours later than I had originally planned. I was remarkably lucid and my friend and I were even able to take a walk around downtown Denver for an hour or so before I collapsed into bed.
Welcome to flying standby.
Coming back was less harrowing, but longer. I got to the airport in Denver early and sat there all day waiting for a seat to open. Finally the gate agents were able to put me on the last flight of the day out of Denver...but that meant it was too late to get a flight out of Atlanta to take me back to New York. So I spent the night in Atlanta.
Again, the gate agents were very nice and gave me a discount certificate for a cheap rate at some airport hotels and got a room at a seedy Days Inn near the Atlanta airport for only $50. Of course, by the time I got there, I could only spend 3 or 4 hours in the hotel, but I guess 3 or 4 hours rest is better than none. I probably should have just saved the money and camped out in the airport. But whatever.
I was back at the airport by 6.00am and then proceeded to sit around all day going from gate to gate trying to get on any plane back to LaGuardia, Newark, or White Plains (my brother's airline doesn't serve JFK). Complicating matters were thunderstorms in the NYC area.
At one point in the afternoon, all the flights to LaGuardia and Newark were delayed a couple of hours, but the White Plains flights were not. Weird. And, luckily, I was able to get on a flight to White Plains. Whoo-Hoo!
When we were landing in White Plains, we were descending through the cloud cover and suddenly the tops of trees were RIGHT THERE below us. We felt the plane ascending again and the pilot got on the intercom to tell us that they had not been able to see the runway and had missed it. Oops. Luckily, on the second try, they were able to see it and we landed. Had the second try not worked, we'd have been diverted to Albany and who know what would have happened.
I was back in New York by 5.00pm. This time it was only a 31 hour or so odyssey.
Again, welcome to flying standby.
Last night I dreamed that I was an actress making my West End debut in the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago.
I had visions of my name and it was Aoife or Aoifa or Aoife or Aoifa with the last name Holland.
No idea what it all meant and I emailed my friend Tim in London to ask if that meant anything to him. It didn't. But I did a google search today and found this.
It's real. That freaks me out like you have no idea.
I have no idea who this person is or what she looks like, but I dreamed that I was her. What could that possibly mean?
My only explanation is that she must have been playing Roxie in the London production of Chicago when I was there in March. And I must have seen advertisements with her name on them. But I have no real recollection of this.
Eeeeeeeeek!
Denver's a blast! I'll write more about it when I return probably. Tired now.
There has, apparently, been some kind of explosion in Midtown Manhattan. It happened over on the east side near Grand Central Terminal. It appears to not be terrorism, but rather something to do with steam building up under ground.
I'm fine. I'm home in my apartment watching NY1 and trying to figure out what's going on. Michael Bloomberg, the mayor, is holding a press conference shortly.
As some of you already know, the comments are down. Jon, of The Jon Blog and, more recently, Jon's Knit Blog, and the parent of this space, is working on it and, hopefully, everything will be up and running soon.
In the meantime, feel free to send any comments this way via email and I can post them myself.
Jeff, sometimes known as Rebel Prince, sends the following:
"No need to apologize for lack of updates. Life happens. And heck, I'm in front of a computer constantly, and my blogging pace is glacial these days. Nice to hear about your acting work. I've *always* thought you were creepy. LOL, so kidding. ;-) Have fun in Denver!"
Thanks, Jeff!
I must apologize to anyone out there who checks in here on a regular basis and gets frustrated at the lack of updates. Even though I'm not working a day job right now, it still seems like I'm running from one thing to the next and I rarely have time to sit down and write.
But I was really excited last week to have some actual acting work. The first project was a student film at New York University. I got the script on Monday and we were filming the scene on Tuesday morning. Wow. This one was a really fast turn-around. I played a lonely guy whose ex-boyfriend shows up in the middle of the night looking for a place to crash...with a new boyfriend in tow.
This was going to be challenging in any case, but the fact that my character was so off-kilter and weird (in a really sad way) was something that was really different for me. Having to memorize the script and come up with a characterization overnight was just the icing on the cake.
Actually, the hardest part of learning the lines was that my character tended to spout these long monologues of non-sequitors and that's always challenging.
Anyway, I arrived on set having only briefly met one of the other two people in the scene. The other actor came and introduced himself to me as we were waiting in the building lobby where the scene was being shot. We were told to arrive at 9.30am, but no one came to fetch us until about 10.15am. We were thisclose to heading out. But it was fine.
We got the good news that about half the scene was being cut for time. This being a student project, they had only so much time in the studio and there just wasn't enough to do the whole scene. Fine with me. We rehearsed a couple of times, both for our own sake and for the cameras and lights and all that stuff.
Then we did it. We ended up doing the scene three or four times altogether and it went really well. After the final take, I got a really nice compliment from one of the crew...I was told that I had been really "creepy" and how cool that was. Nice, right?
And then on Friday I made my very first television commericial, a local advertisement for a Radiology Center out on Staten Island. The gist of it is that a young guy is running a marathon and feels pain in his chest and goes into this place for the fancy schmancy treatment to look at his heart.
I was one of the marathon runners and shooting basically involved showing up early at a park on Staten Island and running a course over and over while they got shots of our various body parts and got us in different running orders and such things.
The hitch came when park security showed up. Apparently, no one thought to get a permit to shoot in the park and we got kicked out just before completing the final shot. Ugh. We picked up and relocated to the Staten Island Zoo, where we finally got our final shots and I was able to pack up and head back to Manhattan.
But it was fun and I got paid a little, which is nice.
I've been fighting a little cold over the past couple of days. Sadly, it seems to be sitting right in my throat and is affecting my voice. Ugh.
As per usual, I've seen some theatre. We'll see when I have time to sit down and write about it.
And...oh, Hey...here's news...
I'm taking this completely random trip to Denver this week. I've never been before, other than changing planes at the airport. A friend is there on business and invited me to come hang out for a couple of days. So I called my brother, the airline pilot, and got him to arrange a standby ticket on his airline. This basically means that I have to get to LaGuardia Airport at the crack of dawn on Thursday in hopes of getting on a plane. And I could get kicked off at any point in the process. Usually, when I do this, I end up sleeping in an airport somewhere along the way. We'll see.
So...anyone reading this in Denver? Got any tips on what to see and where to go? One person has said that I must see the Brown Palace Hotel. That's all I got at the moment. Help me out here, folks.
Tonight in the audience of Romeo and Juliet at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, I saw Mario Cantone, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, John McMartin, Kathleen Chalfont, Jason Antoon, and Joey Slotnik. Before the show, I saw one of its stars, Austin Pendleton, who played Friar Laurence, walking through the park checking out the ticket line.
Here in New York, the Fourth of July was overcast and rainy, a fairly unusual occurance. I decided not to fight the crowds at the big city fireworks over the east river this year, but did end up seeing a few stray fireworks from various rooftops in the neighbourhood.
I spent part of the afternoon in the park, which was great...until the rain started in earnest. So I headed back to my place and ended up having a late dinner with my friend Bill, visiting from Michigan, at Vynl before adjourning to Barrage for a quick drink.
It was a rather low key holiday, but it was fine with me.
I sort of miss the big family barbeques of yore. I really do.
When we lived in Alabama, the place to go for the annual fireworks was the parking lot at McFarland Mall. We'd go every year and even got to get an ice cream cone at Baskin-Robbins. I would always get their Peanut Butter and Chocolate in a sugar cone, a favorite to this day. Good times.
It's the Fourth of July! Whoo-Hoo!
I hope everyone's doing something fun for the holiday!
I have no plans at all. I decided not to head down the shore to the family, and I haven't been invited anywhere here in the city. So here I am.
I may head to the park in a bit, just to spend some time outdoors.
We'll see.
So I have temp work this week. Whoo-Hoo!
I'm working as an Executive Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer of some sort of financial firm. Honestly, I have no idea what the firm does. It doesn't matter. I'm only sitting here for a week while the regular assistant is on vacation. Well...four days, actually, since tomorrow is Independence Day.
It's actually a pretty good gig and the people seem nice. The worst part is that I have to be in the office at 8.00am. In the fuckin' morning. Not only do I have to be physically present (difficult enough), I have to be dressed (shirt and tie required) and presentable and COGNIZANT.
At 8.00am.
Luckily, it's a quiet week in this office and I don't have to manage to think and chew gum at the same time.
I'll live, but it's not going to be pretty.
Last night, I met up with Jim in the park and we tried to get standby tickets to see Romeo and Juliet at the Delacorte. Didn't happen. We didn't even get anywhere near the front of the line. First time that's happened in quite a while. So we went to see this new Disney/Pixar movie, Ratatouille, instead. It's pretty good, although some of the scenes of rats running around in a kitchen were a little too realistic for me.
I, of course, hadn't eaten all day, so I splurged and got a tub of popcorn, of which I am still feeling the effects this morning. Remind me never to do that again. It would have been better just to wait another couple of hours and have something at home.
I'm guessing the office will be dead by lunchtime. Maybe my boss will head home early. Maybe I will as well. Of course, then I don't get paid for the full day. Which really isn't fair to me since I did block out the whole day for this job. Getting paid by the hour in an environment where everyone else is on salary has its downsides.
I'm so tired.