Airplane Reviews

We flew back to Dallas a week ago for a week of work in Plano. This is the start of six weeks of travel including next week in Austin, the next two weeks in China, and then two more weeks in Austin. I unfortunately kicked off the journey with a nasty cold that is still lingering this morning a week and a half later from when it began. It's amazing to me that I don't get sick more often with the amount that I travel. If it's just one week or two of a cold and I can move on with my life, I guess that's not too bad.

Flying with a cold is unpleasant, but I imagine, for Jenn, flying next to someone with a cold is even more unpleasant. She handled it well though and was pretty sympathetic, especially since I wasn't particularly nice to her about the amount of luggage she was bringing with her for the trip. I travel a lot and I have two primary rules: one, only bring with you what you can carry and handle yourself, and two, any little thing you can do (within reason) that makes being mobile and getting from place to place easier, you do it. The second point is important because I was stressing about which backpack to bring for this trip, my work one or my Kelty one that I use for personal travel. The Kelty is great. It's light and has perfect pockets for personal travel. It would be perfect for Asia for the week we're traveling for fun and particularly for the hike on the Great Wall. However, it barely fits my work computer and going through airport security lines would be difficult needing to take out the computer and put it back in. It's a minor point, but for those who travel a lot, you'll completely understand. My work backpack has a side pocket what allows for easy and quick access to my laptop and allows for seamless movement through security checks. I went with my work backpack and it'll just have to suffice for the week in Asia we're traveling.

On the airplane, I watched one movie, The Lincoln Lawyer, starring Matthew McConaughey. Jenn and I actually watched it together. She prefers for us to watch the same movie at the same time when we're on flights. I didn't like the movie too much. There are a lot of plot points that are kind of thrown together to make sure they are mentioned and the way it's put together was messy. I think the whole thing was meant to be suspenseful, but the director (or editor or both) does an awful job of setting any pace to the film. It gives each plot point away blatantly before it has a chance to build any suspense. It treats the viewer like an absolute moron, which so many movies seem to do now, spelling out each plot twist clearly by the characters to ensure the lowest common denominator of moviegoer understands what's happening. The chemistry and dialogue between all characters seems so forced and unnatural that it's really difficult to take the movie seriously. Jenn read the book and said it was good, so maybe there was just too much of the story to try to fit into a ninety minute movie. I don't know. Maybe it was just too much McConaughey. It's fine for watching on a plane or if you have nothing better to do.

Jenn also watched Water For Elephants, which she said was very true to the book. I think that means it was good. I slept. Jenn wisely didn't even ask if I was interested in watching it with her.

I have nothing to report on for the food since we brought on our own lunch, sandwiches that we picked up in Heathrow. The sandwiches were good, if that counts for anything.

As we crossed the Atlantic, we reached a couple of very important milestones. I hit Platinum status on American Airlines (50K miles) for the 2nd year in a row and Jenn reached Gold status (25K miles). As the miles accumulate, while rewarding and providing a small sense of accomplishment, it's strangely a little depressing.

I'm looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend in Austin. I need to get this cold beat so I can be at my best for my fantasy football draft on Monday.