airport experiences

I flew back to eDmonton for the holidays. I surprised my family, which was fun, but here are some reflections of my recent airport experiences.

1) nobody wants to work on christmas eve and I was fortunate enough to not be at work but I saw many people who were working. this got me to thinking what is the worst job in the airport? security isn't all that fun and I'm sure the airline reps aren't always having a blast. I thought I figured out the worst job when I thought about the guys who have to deal with luggage complaints but then my luggage was lost and I think their job is actually pretty cushy. Then it hit me. The worst job at the airport is those people who sit inside the security gates at the kiosks. They are either selling cheap junk, regional trinkets, postcards OR the worst job of them all..... the credit card sales people. Everyone is annoyed at "the credit card people" and pretend to be busy when walking buy and they just sit there all day pestering strangers. there kiosk isn't even nice or entertaining. I wouldn't want to do this job. I especially wouldn't want it on christmas.

2) Sometimes I feel like an ant in an ant farm and if someone were to look at a city as if it were one of those clear ant farms or bee hives that are used to teach children they would have to agree that we are ants. Grocery shopping is usually when I get this feeling. we all walk into the building and come out with a cart of food. going in and out of the aisles, through the checkout, returning the cart. We are all just little working ants/bees going through the motions and doing the exact same thing as everyone around us. The airport definitely replicates the ant farm feeling for me. dropped off at terminal, through line, through security line, wait, wait more, through boarding line, onto plane, wait, line up to get off plane, line up for luggage, leave. we are small.

3) as I was waiting for my flight back to where I live and was waiting for boarding (this was before the flight was delayed and eventually canceled and my luggage was lost) I noticed the energy in the room was much happier. I am under the assumption that most people were returning to their homes after christmas with friends/family. The happy vibe kind of surprised me. I was happy to be going back home, not because I hated my visit or anything like that but rather was simply ready to go back to my own home with my own bed. maybe people were feeling the same thing as me, maybe people had been fed well, were rested, got the gifts they wanted, were now going on a vacation, didn't have holiday stress to deal with, felt the love from those friends/family? whatever the reason a lot of people seemed much happier after christmas then before. interesting.

so there are some more of my perceptions and opinions.

lazy talkers

a while back I saw an ad for Tim Hortons Coffee. The ad was simply a cup of coffee and a line that said "true patriot love" next to it. As I read it I of course understood that this line was from the national anthem 'O Canada' what I also thought was how when I sing the anthem or when I hear it the line seems to be screwed up. I sing it and I always hear it being sung sounding like "true pay trit love" the I and O really aren't shown much respect. Then I started thinking to other words that we as canadians get lazy about. Edmonton, my home city, not often but from time to time gets pronounced emonton. where's the D? Another big one is the city of Toronto. that second T gets no love. I often hear people talking about Toronto as Torono. Is this the Canadian accent or are we just a bunch of lazy talkers?