Brianna110107

Brianna's Travel and Tales

Yeah....so I write blogs for work detailing the trips and events we go to...and I'm
way behind on those...but right now I'd rather write about Phoenix which is fresh
in my mind and probably more interesting as a result. Okay, maybe not
interesting, but whatever. How about that run on sentence, by the way?

I went out to Phoenix last Friday. Got up at the nice hour of 4am to head to the
airport. Pretty uneventful other than the ridiculous line for security. I seriously
see probably 25+ different airports a year, and not one has security lines as bad
as Philadelphia. And it's almost every time I go - especially if it's one of the
bigger terminals. But i was in one of the small terminals this time - and the line
was so long that I actually pulled out my ipod, plugged in my headphones, and
enjoyed half an hour of music while I waited. It wouldn't be so bad, but
1. I was tired, 2. I was hungry, 3. I got the airport nearly 2 hours before my
flight, and barely made it through security with 15 minutes to spare before
boarding. I don't know if it's because the airport is too small, or if the people (as
in passengers, not airport employees) are just slow. Anyway, I ended up sleeping
through most of the first flight, with barely any interruptions.

As for the second flight, I really didn't sleep too much on it. It was about 4 hours
long if I remember correctly. I got really sucked into the book I had with me and
ended up reading for most of the flight. I had a really sweet older couple next to
me. Not sweet to me, but sweet to each other. They held hands a lot and
seemed to really enjoy each other's company. It was cute. Then the "snack
box" came (for $5.00 a box), and that old woman ate faster than I've ever seen
anyone eat! Wow!

Phoenix airport was okay. Not really that nice, nor were they too quick with
unloading the bags. Took a while for the bags to show up at baggage claim,
while Rob had the pleasure of making multiple loops around the airport...haha.

After leaving the airport Rob, Paul, and I stopped to grab some lunch. Paul is a
flat track racer as well as friend of Rob's (and hopefully of me, now!). This was
the second show that Paul worked with us. His first was Moto GP which is our
busiest event of the year. So this was quite a change for him.

After lunch we went to the show to unpack all the helmets for our display - only
to see consumers walking around with bags (they are given bags upon entering
the show to put in all the catalogs, flyers, business cards, etc that they collect). It
turns out that the show opened at 2pm, not 4pm as every other show does for
the rest of the year (with the exception of NYC). Oops!

The show itself was good. Met new customers, got more people into proper
fitting helmets, and hopefully improved their riding experience. As usual, the
show was a bit quiet on Friday night, Saturday afternoon was busy, and after
4pm, was dead. Arizona State University had their homecoming game Saturday
night so that surely affected attendence. Sunday was very strange - not much of
a crowd at all.

Sunday night we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. Rob and I are big HRC fans and
this was a new one for me. There was hardly anyone there! I guess downtown
Phoenix isn't very busy on Sunday evenings. Dinner was good. I yelped with
joy when a Coheed and Cambria song came on. Somehow during the course of
dinner, Rob mentioned that he and I saw Guns and Roses in concert last year.
To that, Paul made a comment about the old GNR guitarist, "Stash". And no, I
didn't mean to write Slash - Paul called him "Stash". I loved it. He had a reason
for mixing up the name, but I'd rather pretend he didn't and enjoy that he called
him Stash. And I know what Rob is thinking right now - that I live in some
fantasy world. Maybe I do, but I'm happy. :)

On Monday, we had the chance to spend the day in Phoenix. We spent the
morning at the hotel taking care of some things before heading out for some
sightseeing. We headed down to the University of Arizona campus-area thing.
There was a nice little section of town with cutesy shops and eateries and
whatnot. That was fun. At least for Rob and I. Paul is the one that had to run
back after 40 minutes and feed the meter for our truck and trailer. Oh, but Paul
ordered his Excitebike tee shirt, so i think he left happy as well. While we were
there, we had lunch at Fatburger. Mmmm...if you haven't ever eaten at a
Fatburger, you should. Although we don't have them around here so that doesn't
help anyone in PA.

White in the Phoenix area, Rob mentioned that he wanted to get some tires for
his trailer. He was trying to think of the name of this place that offers warranties
on the tires. He thought that it was a person's name - like "Tire Sam's." I realize
this may not be funny to other people, but I am easily amused and it's funny to
me. I guess I just think the logical choice would be Sam's Tires, before Tire
Sam's. Oh, and the best part is that it's called Big O Tires - Sam is nowhere in
the name. In fact, no one's name is in the title - unless, of course, Big O happens
to be someone's nickname.

Okay, back to our travels in Phoenix. After leaving the campus area, we decided
to go to the movies. Only we didn't know where any movie theaters were, so
using Paul's map skills we went to a shopping mall in the hope of finding a movie
theater. Well, we did. But it wasn't your average movie theather. Our first clue
should have been that is was called "Cinema Latino". As we walked toward the
building, we noticed that the name on the outside was in Spanish. We continued
towards the building. As we got close, we noticed we weren't entering a movie
theater, but a department store. Yup, we were the only non-Latino's in there.
All of the signs were in Spanish. It was interesting. Then we walked through the
mall until we found the "Cinema Latino". We went in and talked to two of the
girls that worked there. Apparently the movies just have Spanish subtitles. Since
there happened to be another theater down the street, we decided to skip the
subtitles and head to the other theater.

Okay, here's my thought on this whole issue. I don't have anything against any
group of people. But, I do think it's reasonable to expect people to learn English
if they are going to live in the USA. And while it is up to the people themselves
to learn the language, I think that we really don't give them reason to do so.
Why should they when we put billboards, airline safety videos, credit card
customer service automated menus, as well as tons of other stuff in both Spanish
and English? In fact, I've seen billboards that are ONLY in Spanish. I can't read
it. And now there are movies theaters and department stores that operate
primarily in Spanish. Honestly, I think it's good for us to embrace anyone that
wants to make a life in the United States. Other cultures can only enrich our
own. But it's going to be a problem when we can't understand each other. I
used to encounter it all the time at TJ Maxx. People didn't know what I was
saying to them. They didn't understand when I told them their total bill.
Fortunately, some of the people that worked there were bilingual. I would
actually like to learn Spanish - but I don't think it's smart to learn it and speak it
so that other people don't have to learn English. I don't know. I get that people
may need assistance and that it takes time to learn another language. But we
aren't making it any easier for people by just putting everything in two languages.

And maybe I'm a jerk. Maybe we are fortunate because we can go almost
anywhere in the world and speak English and be understood. I know that in a lot
of other countries, children are taught multiple languages from an early age.
Maybe it's a failure of our school system that we are not taught more languages.
I don't know. But I do know that if I moved to a country where English was
NOT the primary language, I would learn the language that was spoken there. I
don't want to sound like a jerk, I just really worry about the growing language
barrier in this country.

Okay, moving on. After the movie, Rob and Paul dropped me off at the airport
and they went to see Sick of it All, a NY Hardcore group. Rob said the show
was great, despite moving venues (which he didn't find out until he was at the
door of the originally planned venue).

I, unfortunately, spent the weekend in 95 degree heat and left Phoenix with a
cold, sore throat, and fever. The airport was the emptiest I've ever seen an
airport. There was no one there, and almost every store was closed. It was
7:30pm. Wow. My only choice for dinner was Wendy's, which didn't really
agree with me. After dinner, I sat at my gate, bundled up in my coat and still
freezing (due to my fever).

I was fortunate enough to get an exit row window seat for my first flight to
Detroit. I did some reading but slept for about 2 hours. The flight was only 3
hours long, rather than the 4 hours it was supposed to be. I was a little bummed,
because I was looking forward to the extra hour of sleep (I don't sleep well in
airports). As a result, my layover in Detroit was a few hours long. I still had the
fever and just felt really yucky. I had some breakfast and then boarded my
second flight. This flight was also shorter than it was supposed to be. It was
only an hour long. However, the flight was half empty, so I managed to get an
entire row to myself. This was only after I had to ask the miserable lady I was
sitting with if she could let me out so I could move to an empty row. I thought I
was doing both of us a favor, but apparently she didn't see it that way.

Anyway, I managed to sleep for about 40 minutes on that flight with a cover over
my entire body - my head, face, and all. I have never, ever been able to sleep
with my face covered, but I was that cold that I could do it. Surprisingly, I felt a
bit better after that flight - I think the fever was gone. Then I headed home and
slept until 2pm.

Now here I am two and a half days later, seeming to get sicker every day. I even
had to cancel plans with a good friend because I just really needed to stay in
tonight. I even found myself drinking hot tea, which I really don't care for. The
fever hasn't returned, but my cough and throat soreness are only increasing. I
feel bad for anyone that has to sit next to me on tomorrow's flights. I can't stand
myself at times like this, I don't know how anyone else can tolerate me. Haha,
that being said, watch out Rob, Paul, and the city of Houston, TX. Here I come!

Wednesday, November 01, 2007
"Tire Sam’s, Stash, and Hot Tea "