Gripes aside, I will admit that flying has gotten ever slightly better since I watched the first season of Lost.  Now, every time I fly, I look at each of my fellow passengers and wonder "What skills and secrets would this unasssuming chap or lass bring to the island?"  Such speculation certainly beats reading the in-flight magazine, that's for sure.

I landed and took the only-mildly insane ride around the beltway (y'all move 4 lanes, without a turn signal?!?) to my hotel at the University of Maryland.  Oy... they built a shiny new building for the new inn/conference center right next to the old one.  The garage is UMD standard, with parking spaces about 3 inches wider than the shiny Ford Taurus that Avis rented me.  Alas, I've forgotten my Avis membership number so I have to restrain the urge to bust out laughing when the Avis shuttle driver says things like "If you don't have a Preferred Customer Number, please board at the back of the bus."  Ah, sweet irony.

The hotel receptionist didn't offer any sympathetic remarks when I said "I'm getting old-- when I went here, this building didn't even exist." I suppose that's the true hallmark of old age... people don't chuckle or snort when you say you're old. 

As it turns out, they still use the old building too, and it was with mixed feelings that I took my room in the face-lifted but still cramped hotel where I first moved into UMD so long ago.  We'll see what this trip brings.