After my last meeting today in upper Manhattan I took the subway downtown. While walking around I ended up at the World Trade Center site, doing a loop around what has become know as Ground Zero.

Ground Zero is now a construction site. But it’s hard not to get emotional just taking in the vast emptiness in the middle of such a dense environment. While I was taking in the view a low flying jet captured everyones attention - silence - then realization that it was simply taking off from a nearby airport.

All foot traffic is routed in a ring of covered walkways around the construction zone which packs commuters in with tourists. The tourists are easy to spot because they are the ones lined up against the fence taking photos of the construction (me). The commuters are easy to spot because they are the ones giving somber glances at the tourists lined up at the fence.

This is the way to go. All of sudden I don’t feel stranded out in the middle of nowhere. I have Chicago a train ride away! Well, a 20 minute car ride and then a 4 to 5 hour train ride, but still. ;-)

The time flew by and it was easy. You do need flexibility with your arrival time. The train is certain to be late. By the time the California Zephyr reaches Iowa it is hours behind. You can easily track it online though. Which, I found out, people in Fairfield do even if they are not taking the train (the train goes through Fairfield but does not stop until the next town over; Mount Pleasant). The good news is, the Zephyr starts in Chicago so you are assured of a prompt exit time.

The train ride was the closest thing I have had to a “city bus experience” since my trip to Seattle in the spring (unless you count this interaction with the ex-movie star homeless guy). The fear of becoming an uppity white chick gets me in the mix any chance I can. Hence the conversations with the traveling hippy (probably on X), the brother snacking on chips in the lounge car and the computer geek hobo from CO. Thank-you!

In the end, Will photo blogged our way through most of our good food and good art. He missed a couple of key traveling points. My cab ride with restaurant expert, “cabbie John”, to see a college girlfriend and my ride in the trunk of a Toyota Prius with another college girlfriend. The later, was after one of the best dinners I have ever had at the Calypso Cafe. Our friends graciously squeezed us into their car after no cabs could be found in Hyde Park.

Seriously, a car trip to Chicago would of been lame in comparison.

Living In Small Sizes is going on vacation. See you later. We plan on creating some sort of drama to report on when we return.

One of the great things for me to do in Seattle was late night grocery shopping. Squeezed into an urban landscape, at 2am a store can feel strangely deserted and very much like your own. You can roam the isles forever, leaving your cart wherever you dam well please.

And you see the most interesting people!

I think it was the first or second year I moved to Seattle I spotted Kurt Cobain at my QFC (Quality Food Center) on Capital Hill. Although it wasn’t a pretty sight (he did look like a serious heroin addict), that pretty much sealed the deal for me and Saturday nights became my favorite time to shop.

I believe it was a Saturday night grocery excursion when I discovered Sesame Seed Bran Sticks and Organic Pizza Rolls.

When I met Will I discovered he shared my love for nocturnal cuisine cruising. When we moved to Bainbridge Island it was a disappointment for the both of us to find that the T&C (The Town and Country) closed each night at, gasp, 11pm! Actually, this fact would matter little due to the wonderful fact we soon had a child and rarely found ourselves conscious after 10pm. This store got quiet in the late evenings but I always felt like I was being watched. I also got the distinct feeling that the cashiers would really rather I be quick about my shopping business so they could get home.

Now here in Fairfield, I shop at Everybody’s most of the time. It is always a packed who’s who scene. I wade my way through hordes of white wearing people with my itty bitty cart (what is the deal with those tiny carts?!), and have to apologize like five times for blocking someone’s way.

But, tonight. Ah, tonight. Dome time on Maharishi’s birthday. Paradise, a gift from the Maharishi. It was so dead that I could pretend it was midnight. And the music. It was like my own personal Karaoke! And those kids working don’t care what I am doing or how long I take. I celebrated by taking 20 minutes to browse the cosmetic products. While singing, “I want Candy” I picked out some foot creme.

I can’t figure out what the etiquette is when driving around the square.

Here is my guess. There are clearly two lanes. Yet most people do not use them independently. It’s more like one large lane and you should only pass another car that is not moving. This is polite small town driving.

There is however the lunch time exception*: during lunch time there are two lanes. One lane for those who have a limited time for lunch and one for the rest. The most critical aspect to this exception: DO NOT dilly dally in the “lane of limited time”.

*Driving experience in LA and/or New York City helpful during the lunch time exception.

I learned something on my flight back to Burbank this week: electronic devices like iPods and the Nintendo DS, are deemed more dangerous to air travel than smoking. I flew out on one of the new Embraer 170 jets and the lighted signs above the seats have been “updated”.

No longer is there a “no smoking” message (since we can assume that no one is crazy enough to light a cigarette in the aircraft), but instead a “no electronics” message (since there are still many whackos out there that insist on passing on the excitement of sitting in a cramped seat and instead decide to endanger everyone by playing video games or listening to music).

After returning from Burbank late Friday night, I had to spend Saturday shipping equipment, doing laundry and packing for my trip back out Sunday for the next two weeks. The exhaustion is being kept at bay by the excitement of the project we’re working on (more details later).

On the jet ride out I found myself trying to figure out just what the hell this graphic on the safety instruction card means:

I’m sitting in the Ontario airport, having logged into a WiFi hotspot moments ago. When I opened up my wireless connection control panel, I saw a list of 19 networks to join, most listing their rock bottom prices in the SSID (the name of the network). Competition is tough at the Ontario airport!

Ok now I’m in the Denver airport on a 5 hour layover - this place is becoming my satellite office. For those of you thinking about getting into the WiFi hotspot market, I suggest you try this airport. It has 50 times the traffic of Ontario and quarter of the number of hotspots. All of which are a pain in the ass to connect to.

Gotta go - someone is trying to bogart my power.

My family flew out of the Cedar Rapids airport a couple weeks ago. Since 9/11 I’ve been through LAX, Sea-Tac, O’Hare, Sky Harbor, Denver International, Lambert and San Francisco International. Up until a few weeks ago my perception was that O’Hare and Sea-Tac had the tightest security.

Then I went through Cedar Rapids, a small airport just north of the University of Iowa. The security was surprisingly tight. As I went through the screening process, the only thing keeping me from thinking that the country wasn’t on condition Red, was the lack of police dogs or machine guns.

I make no secret that I think the whole airport security system has become a complete joke - I mean a policy that doesn’t allow you to take on a bottle of water that you purchase at the airport but does let you bring on a laptop is either retarded, or a complete farce (or both). However the Cedar Rapids TSA take their job very seriously. Check out this sign “The Faces of Global Terrorism” posted in the airport lobby:

Yes, that’s Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri in the upper right! Because, if Bin or Al come through the Cedar Rapids, you’ll want the general public to be able to pick them out from the Iowa crowd.

Feeling secure yet?