Happy New Year

It's the 2nd day of the new year, it's a little after 9pm, and it's in the high 30's outside going down to the high 20's. What's the big deal? I'm no longer in Amsterdam!!!! I got back to Orlando last night right before midnight. The flights were between Amsterdam and Minneapolis then Orlando. Concerning the flights....those who fly know the poor state of that type of travel first hand these days. Boarding was almost completed on the transatlantic leg, and the seat next to me was still vacant. I was so hopeful...but you know how it goes. The flight attendants put an old, large, non-English speaking muslim woman with mobility issues there. She plopped in, with her large paper tote bag loaded with cloth, pringles, papers, and all sorts of odds and ends in her lap. She stayed in the same exact position for the entire flight! Trapped for 9 hours, I couldn't get up to stretch, splash water on my face, nothing!! Even worse, she took up a fair portion of my space, so I didn't have much room to twist, wriggle, shift....we were so tight if I had gotten a goosebump on my right arm it would've knocked her out of her seat!! The attendants would try to talk to her, but she would just smile. I helped her a couple of times with her seat belt, meal, and paper work. If it wasn't for movies on demand ("Into The Wild" *****, "Rush Hour 3" ***, "The Game Plan" **) and 5 hours of warm, orange and red sunset light bouncing off the ice in Greenland, Canada, and the leading edge of the plane's wing I would've been in a worse way. Entering the US you are asked many, many, many questions. I think we have gone over the edge with Homeland Security. Are they really going to catch an "evil doer" by asking if they like their apartment? And Orlando is still announcing the threat level (orange, if anyone still gives a shit about that nonsense). The flight was delayed to Orlando because they were waiting on a flight attendant. Is that insane, or what? You're late to work and you could end up sticking it to thousands of people if the wait is long enough!!! I would have to give NWA a C. Grading on todays curve, that's probably an A+!!! One moment, Stevie Wonder is kicking it......30 year old song and it still kicks ass....
New Years eve in Dam Square, Amsterdam. Picture it, Sicily, 1935 (props to Sophia...yeah...I watched Golden Girls...you got a problem with that?) okay, seriously, picture it....humans allowed to smoke pot in public, drink beer - champagne - turpentine - axle grease - AND manipulating explosives!!!!!!!!!! I don't mean little sparklers or some weenie little cardboard cone that burps little puffs of smoke. These dolts are setting off M-80 type explosives and larger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The state sponsored firework show was embarrassingly boring (basically non-existant), which is possibly why the citizendry has taken it upon themselves to provide the excitement such an earth-shattering event dictates. We had to dodge "incoming" on our walk home. Radhika almost yanked my arm out of the socket trying to pull me out of the way of an RPG as it bounced off of my right shoulder/chest area. Perhaps it's a good thing that a number of dolts were spraying the crowd with champagne...it kept the number of people bursting into flames down below the number of people who were being told by police to get down off of various structures they had climbed upon to get a better view of the idiots at ground level. I had enough and couldn't wait to get back to our flat. There was an apartment building totally engulfed in flames on our route back! According to the article it was due to fireworks!!
http://www.at5.nl/nieuwsartikel.asp?newsid=31994
http://tip.at5.nl/2008/01/01/meer-hgracht/
Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting a little warm weather by this weekend. It's going to have to hold me until May from what I understand about Amsterdam weather. Great!!!