My Airport Misadventures

You probably thought I had made my last "Da Blog in LA" post. I thought so, too. Instead, it turned out the most eventful part of my trip came once I got back.

Never book a flight that gets in after 10.

My flight was scheduled to arrive at 10:56 PM and it did so. Before we got off, however, we were told our luggage would arrive on either Carousel 13 or 14. Uh oh.

I arrive in the baggage claim area, look at the board showing arrivals, and it says our baggage is coming on Carousel 14. Straightforward, right? Except that after a while of waiting someone comes on the loudspeaker and says our luggage is on Carousel 13. Oops. To add to the confusion, neither carousel's own electronic board ever states that my flight is on it.

Thinking maybe our luggage just hasn't come down yet, I sit and wait while a collection of other flights sees their luggage arrive. As I wait, two things occur. The ex-passengers of a different flight, arriving at around 11, complain after an hour that their luggage hasn't come down yet. Their luggage doesn't come down until around 12:40. (So I am justified in thinking it's taking a long time - it was a possibility.) While they're waiting, I meet someone else from my flight who tells me our luggage has already been "unloaded". What does that mean? That it already had its turn on the carousel and I missed it, or that it should be coming down shortly? If the former, well, if I'm an idiot I'm evidently not the only idiot.

Which is exactly what it turns out to be. After the pack of long waiters finally get their luggage, I note that there are basically no waiters left and finally find out my luggage has been sent to behind a rope. It's around 12:45 by this time, so I've waited for the better part of two hours. If it weren't for the two factors above, I might have found out what happened quite a bit sooner.

You know, I have a vague memory of something like this happening two years ago, when me and my dad went to LA partly to check out colleges in the area, but it may just be false deja vu.

Da Blog in LA Recap (what prodigious output!)

For the most part, my week in LA consisted of little more than hanging out around my dad's house. I had some enlightening conversations with him about heavy topics and briefly caught up with some family, but not much happened.

Some catchup from the week that was:

• NFL Lineal Title news: Carolina picked up the core Lineal Title off the Rams. They face Houston next week. The Colts will be defending against the Titans next week. If Houston and the Colts win unification would come Week 3. Atlanta and New Orleans are rooting for Carolina and Tennessee to win respectively.
• After a week of no CFB lineal changes we get changes galore this week. Florida held on to the Princeton title against Troy, while LSU demolished Virginia Tech to retain the 2004 Auburn title. But Boise State falls to Washington while BYU loses to UCLA, making unification between the 2006 Boise State and 2004 Utah titles likely. UCLA plays Utah next while Washington plays Ohio State; the latter has a very high risk of averting unification. Unification is certain, however, if both teams retain.
• SuperPower Rankings will start being hosted on the web site tommorow. They are currently delayed; Sporting News is joining the race but SI appears to be dropping out and if USA Today has any power rankings ongoing they don't have this week's up yet. My Week 2 picks are partly dependent on the SuperPower Rankings and are similarly delayed.
• The voting-method-for-100-greatest-movies poll received no votes whatsoever in almost two months. I'm ashamed of you.

Random, poorly-remembered thoughts from my first day in LA

One thing has stood out about my trip to LA to hang out with my dad so far.

Early on, he talked about the air quality in the suburbs, and gave me the impression he could tell when the air was heavily polluted just by breathing it. I started thinking he was some sort of hippie "connection to nature" guy.

Yesterday I went on a sojourn to Hollywood and came back with a very scratchy throat, guzzling water like mad when I came back. How on Earth can natives live just ignoring such air?

My trip has mostly centered around two trips, the one above and one where I was basically driven around the Santa Monica area.

Housing prices are insane. When I lived in LA we lived in a decent sized apartment with two bedrooms in Venice proper. My dad lives further from the sea in a secluded, behind-a-larger-house, cramped, studio apartment, where I force him to sleep on the floor, for more than it cost to live in our previous apartment and for about $100/month more than it costs my mom and me to live in a two-bedroom in Seattle. He talked to me yesterday about the possibility that, if traffic worsens too much and too many condo projects in places like downtown are built and sold to rich people, poorer people could find themselves unable to live near work and unable to get there from anywhere else.

I might have firmer thoughts later in the week.

Da Blog in LA

Tomorrow, I'll be flying to Los Angeles for a week and a half with my dad. I hope to post regular blog posts about my experience there under the label "Da Blog in LA". I'll probably be bored out of my skull there, but what the hey.

Meanwhile, if you want my NFL picks every week, they should be available here every early Tuesday morning. Please keep in mind at all times that I know nothing about football.

All the college football lineal titleholders have retained so far, with only BYU still playing.