flying with chocolate

February 6, 2007.  Flew back via JetBlue without a hitch.  My wife got me a FF card and apparently it “went through” quickly.  I just read that Jet Blue finished first in overall service last year.  They have some pretty cool things about them.  It is still COLD here but yesterday I decided to “embrace” the cold.  Otherwise, it is too hard to turn my brain to losing weight.  So far, I have managed to enjoy the frigid air blowing across my skin.  The main thing that is a problem weight wise is chocolate.  It is more densely packed with calories than I would think theoretically possible…yet, there it is.  I was looking at various alternatives at the store today.  A chocolate bar — 350 calories.  But wait!  There are “about” 2.5 SERVINGS in the chocolate bar.  There are 350 calories per SERVING.  Who in their right mind shares a chocolate bar with 1.5 OTHER people? Well, the other day I ordered some chocolate TEA.  We will check out whether that can possibly help curb the crave.  Last night I dreamt that I was at a party and had shots of something rather strong; not sure whether it was vodka or eau d’vie.  I think some kind of cold gourmet vodka.  And then, I suddenly realized that I had “forgotten” that I’m not drinking.  Oops. I don’t think this would happen in real life.  The smell and taste of vodka would surely “remind” me pretty seriously that I am not drinking any alcohol.  Of course, the smell of alcohol is fairly powerful in any case, but when you haven’t had any at all for months, you can smell it yards away.  Literally. 

Into the Wild JetBlue Yonder

February 1, 2007; Day 104.  Another adventure into the wild blue, this time on Jet Blue.  Not bad.  The seats in coach had more leg room than many carriers and the seats did not crush backward far enough into your laptop to ruin your career, your knees or both. Of course, I did get the usual security “hold” on everything because my name matches (or kinda matches) one of the aliases used by a jailed terrorist.  I think we’ve been over that ground before.  I still don’t feel any safer.  To their credit though, Jet Blue’s in-flight TV service did have show a sense of humor with some of their announcements.   And so did the pilot.  Before he turned the seat belt sign off, he announced that people would be free to get up and move through the aisles to the restrooms — or dance a jig in the aisles, although, exercise-deprived though I was, I thought it the better course not to test whether this was actually allowed.  I waited and bided my time.  I didn’t see anyone else dancing in the aisles so I decided it was just a figure of speech. 

 

Meanwhile, I’m at this great meeting in HCI.  Why great?  First, it is a small, select group of top-notch graduate students and fairly seasoned people in the field.  We have the conference in a facility which reflects on of Christopher Alexander’s Patterns with a large commons area in the middle and bedrooms around the edges.  Each paper has a 40 minute time slot with a dedicated discussant for 20 minutes followed by a half hour general discussion.  This, plus ample break times, allows plenty of time for in-depth discussion.  It is, however, at high altitude.  The air is also incredibly dry.  This typically causes headaches and sometimes other issues for folks like me who are non-acclimated. Of ten times visiting here though, this year I have so far had by far the mildest symptoms.  This leads me to wonder whether this has anything to do with not drinking anything alcoholic.  It might.  I don’t really know.

 

On the way here though we stopped for lunch at Thank God It’s Friday.  It was only Wednesday, but once inside, I saw a friendly sign saying “It’s Friday all week long” or words to that effect.  They have a multi-page, multi-colored menu.  I realized that every other time I had been in a TGIF, I had first perused the many pages of drinks.  I had always felt somewhat scornful of these choices.  They were brightly colored and cleverly named but pretty much juice and ice at a premium price but with little real “kick” compared with a nice cold double martini.  So, I would look over these fanciful drinks looking primarily for something that might be strong enough to be worth the price.  Weird.  But anyway, this time, I had a nice salad and shared some potstickers and everything was tasty, with coffee and water to drink.