a study in contrast

last wednesday -- obam-era +1 -- i traveled from dc to syracuse because my mom was having surgery on thursday. i booked the flight far in advance and got a great fare. i thought i was "da bomb!" - low fare, non-stop flight, get to see the inauguration AND be home in time for my mom's operation. it never occurred to me that half of the free world would also be leaving from national that wednesday. seriously, there must have been 50,000 people at the airport when i arrived at 2:00 pm. there were people in line who had been waiting to check a bag since 9:30 am!! fortunately, i was one of the lucky ones who already had a boarding pass and didn't need to check a bag. i breezed through security only to find that there were just as many people waiting for flights as there were waiting to check a bag - no place to sit, nothing to eat, and people magazine was all sold out.

cut to today -- obam-era + 5 -- i'm in the syracuse airport and i can count the people on one hand! they even have free wireless!

one last example of contrast - unlike the last three months of 2008, 2009 will be the year of the flipflop fed. i plan to blog like never before. stay tuned.

p.s. - the mouse count's up to eight!!