I can fly!

I'm off on a business trip, which seems like a good time to blog a bit more. Let's see if I can!

Topic number one: travel. In this day and age, travel can only be described as a serious pain. To my slight surprise, my experience getting from San Jose to Albuquerque was pretty darn easy.

Let's start with the airport security nightmare. Given the War on Fluids, I came prepared. After checking in my one bag (which was easy, as there was no line), I headed for security, not knowing what I'd find. To my surprise, the line was entirely empty. I breezed through in no time, and had a nice chat with the TSA folks in the meantime. I was mildly annoyed by this, actually, as I signed up for a Clear card to help speed my way through security. It didn't have a value add this time, since there was no one in line! (I expect to test this next month when I fly out of terminal A at San Jose, which often has a line out to the parking garage.)

Once the plane showed up, we managed to board. I was a little concerned about my flights, as both legs were on CRJ-700s. I don't mind regional jets for short hops (and these were both only 90 minutes each), but I've always flown on the ERJ series, which have only three seats in a row, and I always sit on the 'A' side to avoid sitting next to anyone. The CRJs are two+two seating, so that wasn't an option. To my surprise, both legs of my flight were nearly full, but no one sat next to me on either flight! The CRJs seem to also have just a wee bit more room than the ERJs, which was helpful. In SLC, I ended up leaving from the gate where I arrived. (Different aircraft, though.) Certainly made the plane change trivial.

After arriving in ABQ, I simply took a cab to my hotel. As stressful as travel has gotten, I was really quite relieved that it was so simple and easy.

Next topic: the end of the internet as we (well, some very exclusive and geeky version of "we") know it.