Shopping at Michael's

- Michael's is the worst. I would have an easier time finding finger paints if I went to O'Hare airport and asked the person at the United ticket counter for help than asking the worker at Michael's.

- You know the best part of shopping at Michael's? Do you? Because I have no idea. Everything about that place is horrible. Like

- Shopping at Michael's is like re-watching Rocky V. You figure it can't be as bad as you remember, but it ends up being worse than you could possibly imagine.


- Do you know what makes me feel nostalgic about the time I ate a Gyro and got food poisoning? Shopping at Michael's.

-If shopping at Michael's was a girl group it would be All Saints. "Never Ever"


-One time I tried to watch Caligula. That was kind of like shopping at Michael's.


-Shopping at Michael's made me yearn to watch Starlight Express.

 -Some people actually enjoy shopping at Michael's and some people actually enjoy listening to Nickelback.

-If shopping at Michael's was a boy band it would be LFO.


 -Shopping at Michael's gives you the same warm feeling you get when reach into a bag and touch a banana that you left there weeks ago.

-Watching an Al Snow match sounds like more fun than shopping at Michael's.

 -Shopping at Michael's is like trying to defend Mase as a good rapper. There's no point.


-Shopping at Michael's is like my new leaf blower. It both sucks AND blows.

-There are some things in life that everyone should try at least once. Shopping at Michael's isn't one of them.

-If shopping at Michael's was a cologne it would be called "Shame & Regret." It would smell of cloves and 8th grade boys, with a hint of star anise.

-Shopping at Michael's is as satisfying as eating a poorly prepared Hot Pocket.


-If George Lucas made changes to Michael's it would actually make the shopping experience better.

-Shopping at Michael's is like dressing up as the Marvel Super Hero Speedball for Halloween. It's confusing and embarrassing.


-Star Trek V: The Final Frontier makes more sense and has more charm than shopping at Michael's.


-Do you know what makes Carrie Underwood as Maria seem like a good idea by comparison?


-Shopping at Michael's. Hate-watching? Try hate-shopping.

-Billy Joe Armstrong wrote "American Idiot" about himself after he chose to go shop at Michael's.

-Do you know what's the worst part of shopping at Michael's?
Shopping at Michael's.

Halloween Fun

 

She Drive Me Crazy by The Fine Young Cannibals

Before I knew the difference between falsetto and chest voice, I knew there was something weird and kind of awesome about “She Drive Me Crazy.” Rarely does a singer make as a dramatic shift between singing styles as Roland Gift does in this 1988 hit.



While this switch from head voice to chest voice is notable, there are many other things about this song that are memorable. There’s the sparse but fitting instrumental background, the incredible hook and the overall “you can’t help but smile,” feeling you get when you hear this song. If you looked at the lyrics by themselves, they would seem a little dark. The first verse is about a feeling that he can’t control and feeling tortured by the fact that he is waiting for her. The lyrics of obsession continue in the second verse and by the third verse he states, “I can’t make it, on my own.”

The weird thing about love is that these feelings that seems like torture make you feel like you are alive in ways that you could never imagine which you feel when the words are placed to the music.

Part of the way that you know you are in love with someone is the fact that you don’t feel like you are in complete control of your thoughts or your feelings. This kind of drives you (and often your friends) crazy because you really can’t help but talk about this person. Yes, this can get a little annoying sometimes but more that this feeling of craziness is accompanied with a kind of joy that only comes from that first burst of love.

Than there’s Kermit’s version. . .



This verson plays the verses against the chorus, which flips this song into a conversation. Wait a second, is that what the original song was going for? Are the Fine Young Cannibals portraying a person with multiple personalities who is literally driving himself crazy?

Mind = blown.

Man, who isn’t in this video? Was that Dick Clark and Little Richard? Ok, anyways. Fine Young Cannibals created one of the greatest feel good rock songs of all time. While some may think of them as a one hit wonder, they had some other great songs like “The Flame” which my brother and I spent a couple months in high school believing was the greatest song of all time.

Choosing A Name For Our Boy

Son,
Right now, we are trying to figure out what to name you.  It's a big responsibility and a major decision.  As with every major decision in life, I decided to see what facebook had to say: 

God, I Love Legos

8th Grade Playlist: #2. 50 Ways To Say Goodbye by Train

I asked my 8th graders to share me songs by their music heroes.  Here are my reactions to these songs.

Sometimes we forget that pop music can be funny. Growing up in the maelstrom of gangster rap and grundge music, I remember music getting really dark and serious. Even now, sometime it seems like pop musicians feel that the only way to be taken seriously is well to have music that is not all really all that much fun.

This is one of the reasons I love PSY's “Gangnum Style.”



People laugh at the ridiculousness of this music video and revel in it. It’s a breath of fresh air, but the thing is, most music videos of the 1980s were just as silly as this one and just as fun. Also “Gangnum Style,” is a great song.

When one of my 8th graders sent me “50 Ways To Say Goodbye” by Train, I was dreading having to listen to this song. Look, I acknowledge the catchiness of Train’s music but the nonsensical lyrics of “Hey, Soul Sister” drive me crazy (here is my post about that song). Well, my student made the effort to e-mail me about this song and it deserves my attention so here we go.



Wait a second, David Hasselhoff!! I LOVED this guy on Knight Rider. There’s a mariachi band and there’s lead singer Pat Monahan dropping any level of pretention and hamming it up for the camera! This is awesome AND the lyrics totally make sense.

Okay, the story is that a guy gets dumped and because of the shame and hurt, he can’t bear to tell his friends the truth so he makes up ridiculous explanations for his ex-girlfriend’s absence including being eaten by a lion and getting hit by a purple Scion.

Genius.

Look, this is exactly what great pop music is all about. Train is incorporating some cool sounds like a Mariachi band ala Johnny Cash’s “Ring Of Fire.” Then they took a very sad and difficult feeling of being rejected and turned in it into a hilarious anthem.

Sometimes the only way to deal with difficult emotions is to make a joke out of it and Train effectively does this helping us work through these emotions by reflecting the ridiculousness of this reaction. At the same time Train makes us feel better about the impulse of hiding the truth by letting us know that we are not crazy for feeling a need to hide being dumped from our friends.

Train, you totally redeemed the nonsense of “Hey soul sister, ain’t that mister mister” with “She'll think I'm Superman, Not super minivan.”

Nicely Done.

. . . but we still got some work to do to get passed "Meet Virginia."

Cultural Weirdness in Taipei

To the left of the toilet in our hotel bathroom was this panel.  My favorite button was "oscillating."  I actually didn't use any of the buttons except for the ones across the top.  It was all just so intimidating.   

Mom, two kids, and cups of hot soup, all on one scooter.  I know Americans can sometimes go a little overboard with safety things, but really Taipei? 

That's a normal size tea cup and a normal sized fork.  Those little glasses are Chinese shot glasses.  They were about the size of thimble.  When I use them I felt like a giant.  It was awesome. 

Fun With Facebook

Grades And "Comments"

One things that is unique about my school is that in addition to grades, teachers write comments about students.  The classroom teachers write 2-3 pages for each student.  As the music teacher I write about 200 words of comments.  These comments have to be written very carefully as they are not only for the parents and the students but are part of a larger narrative record.  As I write these comments, other observations and thoughts about my students pop up.  Here are some of these comments that didn't quite make the cut (many of these are actual observations while others are made-up thoughts and not based on any actual student):   

Middle School
"_______is unmemorable."
"_______makes jokes that are not funny. . . at all."
"_______needs to learn how to tie her shoes. "
"_______needs to stop pumping his fist in the air every time we finish a song."
"_______liked the "Jasmine Flower" song a little bit too much."
"_______cried less than he did during the first semester."
"_______looks really dumb when he plays the clarinet."
"_______is a student that I am afraid to make mad because I fear that she could beat me up."
"_______looked way better before she straightened her awesome Felicity/Taylor Swift hair."
"_______is going be a students I'm really going to miss next year."
"_______dresses like nobody else in her grade and I totally love that about her."
"_______is a student I wish I could say that I'm proud of."
"_______needs to not sit on girl's laps."
"_______gives me hope for the American teenager."
"_______has powerful puppy dog eyes."
"_______is lazy like woah."
"_______needs to expand his monotone wardrobe."
"_______should never change, ever."
"_______ran into a wall and it was really funny."

Fifth Grade
"_______should consider beet farming because he walks like Dwight Shurte"
"_______ate half of his music folder.
"_______came up with the term "wet sweet" after an especially hot day."
"_______thought "Living On A Prayer," was "Living On a Prairie."
"_______needs to grow into her own ears."
"_______reminds me of my dog. . . in a good way."
"_______wore the same summer dress as one of her classmate, twice."
"_______thing where she only has one of her ears pierced needs to be addressed."
"_______always has really nice hair."
"_______is too tall."
"_______fell off his chair in class."
"_______would benefit from knowing whether of not he/she is the evil twin."
"_______reminds me of my dog. . . and not in a good way."
"_______is not as cool as she thinks she is."
"_______rolls around on the floor too much."

Third Grade
"_______ needs to develop a personality"
"_______seems to be more interested in his hand than music class"
"_______often blows into the wrong end of the recorder"
"_______still does not know how to tie her shoes
"_______would get a higher grade if he wasn't on crutches."
"_______really think he's funny, but he's not."
"_______farted in class."
"_______needs to not have an that early Justin Bieber Haircut."
"_______has really dirty fingernails."
"_______doesn't get it . . . ever."
"_______puts his hand down the front of his pants."
"_______doesn't understand that hand drums are played with your hands, not your head."
"_______sneezed on me."
"_______thinks that if you google 'bomb' the FBI will come to your house."
"_______doesn't understand the difference between 'stand up' and 'sit down.'" 

The Come Apart Kid featuring Mr. Tang

Two of my third grade girls wrote a story using my name.  I'm not sure if this is suppose to be about me or whether they just like my name.  Anyways, here it is.  I preserved the typos and spacing so that you can get a full sense of this work.

            The come apart kid

            Chapter 1

One dark and stormy night a boy named kingsly tang was walking down the street.  He had just left school and was going home.  Then out of the corner of his eye he saw some one murdered.  HIs head was cut of and his arm was too.  He saw the murderder run into the shadows.  Kingsly tang ran rite into the dark shadow.

            Chapter 2 

The he felt a bonny arm grab him.  He knew he should have run away when he felt a knife reach his skin.  The next thing he knew he was dead.  He picked up his head and put it back on.  Next he tore off both of his arms with his teeth. 

            Chapter 3

Then he ran out side and started to murder people.  He killed everybody in sight.  Then he ran to his house and murderderd his family.  He took his          pets and made them come apart pets. 

            Chapter 4

Then he bommed there house and all the body parts when flighing! Then he ate all the body parts.  His favorit part was the hearts.  he thought to himself "yummy in my tummy!"  He killed    all his friends and ate then too.

            Chapter 5

Then he started throwing up all over the streets.  Then he tore off his legs and let his dogs eat them.

            Chapter 6

He opened his eye and realized he was in bed.  He realized it was all just dream and was very scared.  Then he looked at his pants they wer soaked with PEE and POO.  Then the door opened and kingsly screamed.  "Sweety are you OK.  I smell some stiky poppy in you bed."  Then his dad came in and said, "I smell some peepee in you bed.  Lets get cleaned up." And so they did.  Then they lived happily ever after.  

            The End

We hope you liked it! your the best music teacher ever!

  

Year 2: Week 16-Laughing "at" Kids

When I looked down at one of my 3rd graders papers and saw the word “peanow.” I was really confused what musical instrument she was trying to spell and then I sounded it out and preceded to laugh out loud.  She was trying to spell “piano.” Wow.

This was after class and the student had left the room closing the door behind her so my response wasn’t in front of anyone, but I did get a good laugh out of this. One of my fellow teachers enjoyed this when I showed him after school and he laughed as well. And then when I posted this on my facebook profile seven people “liked” it and four people made comments.

Am I a bad teacher because I laugh about things that my students do or say? Well, I don’t think so. It means I'm human, and laughing about students is a fact of life teachers.  But there's some things you have to keep in mind like, first off, I never laugh at something a student does unless I’m 100% sure he or she is trying to be funny and even at those times, I often hold it in.

As a teacher one of the most important skills you learn is how to laugh on the inside. What I mean by this is the ability to keep a straight face and show no reaction when a student does something like raise he left hand when you ask them to raise their right hand, which would be fine if this student wasn’t in 8th grade!

It’s usually not very hard for me to do this because when you look at someone who says or does something that is inadvertently humorous, they usually aren’t smiling so you just take your cue from them.

Then the student leaves the room and you let it out. Sometimes at the end of the day, I sit in my office, go through the funny things kids did or say and laugh for five minutes straight. More often then not I find another teacher, share these stories and have a good time reflecting on the silly things our kids do.

Is this mean? Well, I think it could easily become mean. It’s one thing to laugh in private about students asking an obvious question and another thing to talk about how “dumb” they are. Almost all the time when I tell people stories about kids, which are funny, somewhere in there I express how much I like the kid.

I say this, because it’s true. I like my students and I like how sometimes kids say silly things that seem like something someone far younger then them would say. That’s part of the charm of kids they aren’t perfect. The thing is, if you really have done a good job at making your students feel comfortable in your class and take chances in learning, these moments will occur more often as you’ve allowed that students to feel more comfortable taking chances. That’s a powerful thing. If you as a teacher can keep that laughter inside it will teach the other kids to react to students taking chances and sometimes failing in an appropriate and respectful way.

Yes, teachers can be very mean when they talk about students and I've walked out of situations when I feel teachers cross the line from being mean to laughing about a cute mistake.  There is a line and we need to be conscious as teachers about where that is, because the instant our laughter becomes meanness it shades the way we think about our students.  This is something that we can't hide from students at any age.  Once a students feels that you make fun of them in a mean way, your effectiveness as a teacher dramatically diminishes.

That's something that's not funny at all.

Iran So Far by Andy Samberg and Adam Levine

Is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad harboring a secret love affair with Andy Samberg?



Now there's an important distinction to make with this video.  Andy Samberg is not making fun of Ahmadinejad for being a homosexual.  The implication is not that Ahmadinejada is an inferior person because he's a homosexual.  What this song is saying is that Ahmadinejad is horrible human being because of his hypocrisy, the deplorable way he treats his people and the lies that he continues to spread.

By making fun of his sexuality Samberg is saying that Ahmadinejad is hiding something from us and is a coward.  He deserves our scorn because of his inability to acknowledge the most basic of human rights and sometimes the best way to deal with this anger is to laugh.

The Lumberjack Song

Everyone has a dream.



I'm not even that big a fan of Monty Python, but this thing is one of the best examples of musical humor.  He's just so earnest and his back-up singers are in such disbelief.  One of my goals in life are to perform this song with a group of guys.  I'm not sure if I'd rather be the lead singer who is proud of who he is or one of the back-up singers. . . hmm 

. . . still dreaming . . .

Green Grass Grows All Around

This post is coming up as I'm spending time at a four day retreat with 54 fifth graders our "soft" camping in the woods.  One of my jobs is to lead this songs so I spent WAY too long last weekend learning this particular one.



Ok let's see if I got this . . .

hole --> tree --> limb --> nest --> egg --> bird --> feather --> bug

I can find something better then that:



hole --> tree --> limb --> nest --> egg -->bird --> heart --> blood --> T-Cels?!?

Ok, maybe not.



Ok, well, clearly this is a song that lends itself to many different interpretations.  I decided I need to makes this as long as possible so here's my path . .

hole --> tree --> limb --> branch --> nest --> egg --> bird --> feather --> bug --> PARAMECIUM!!!

good times.

Just A Friend by Biz Markie

“Just A Friend” is one of most memorable raps songs of all time. It was one of those songs that you felt like you knew even if you only listened to part of it. I don’t remember the first time I heard this song and I can’t remember a time that I didn’t know this song.

One of the things people credit country music with is its ability to tell stories. Well, rap music does a pretty good job of this as well and “Just A Friend” is prime example.


Biz Markie - Just A Friend by rikma

This song is a cautionary tale, warning that if a girl tells you that another man in her life is “just a friend,” don’t trust her. Chances are, she’s just leading you on and probably cheating on this other guy with you.

In-between the verses which tells this tragic love story Biz Markie “sings” the chorus. Yes, the word sings is in quotes because like someone posted on youtube about Biz Markie, he is a cross between “Biggie and Tracy Morgan.” The singing part is definitely Tracy Morgan.  After hearing him get through the verses of the song, well, he . . . um. . . . yeah, it’s one of the most hilariously awful vocal performances in pop music. The things is, that I wouldn’t have it any other way.

His delivery perfectly matches the tone of this song. Yes, this story is something that could make some sad and upset, but Biz’s reactions like the chorus is one of humor. He’s looking at this frustration circumstance and you can just imagine him in his retelling of this story laughing about it.

“Just A Friend” is a beautiful example of an artists abilities matching up with a type of song that creates something amazing. Biz Markie would not be as successful doing a more serious song and a different rapper like Eminem couldn’t really pull of this song without Biz’s unique charm.

While Biz’s song can definitely from an objective point of view be of a low quality, his rapping is different story. No, he doesn’t have the spit-fire delivery of 2pac or the lyric fluidity of Jay-Z. However Biz Markie, is able to rap around the beats is a casual and unpretentious way. If you rap along with him you definitely notice moments when things don’t initially seem feel right but fall into place moment slater. While his skills are subtle, they are definitely there.

1989 was a very different time for rap music. It hadn’t gotten deep into Gangsta Rap and while there was a lot of socially conscious Rap music that was serious, some of it was light-hearted. Biz Markie looked at his life with humor and his ability through this song to remind us to not take ourselves too seriously has created a place for this song in the canon of popular music.

My Heart Will Go On . . . on the recorder

If you can make it all the way through this video, you have more endurance then I do (you have to at least make it to the part when the singing enter).

This is my default song to play when someone asks me to play a song on the recorder. By the way, I teach recorder to my 3rd and 5th graders and well. . . yeah. . . it's um. . . kind of like this . . . j/k.

?!?!?!?!?!

I remember watching this as a kid and it's still as awesomely-consfusing and transcendentally silly as it was back then.

God Bless Jim Henson.

Busy Being Fabulous by The Eagles

Since The Eagles got butchered by the ‘Cats last Saturday I think the Eagles could use a little love.

Let me explain.

Last weekend the Northwestern University Wildcats played the Boston University Eagles at football. Since most of my friends are from Northwestern there was a flurry of Facebook posts Saturday morning in support of the Northwestern. Most of them were some variation of “Go ‘Cats beat the Eagles.”

Facebook grouped all of these posts as comments about the rock band The Eagles. So on my feed it says “_______________ and 30 friends also posted about the Eagles,” with a hyperlink on the word Eagles, linking to the Eagles Facebook fan page. Now if you go to The Eagles fan page you will find a long list of posts celebrating the ‘Cats victory.

Since there’s all this misdirected negative energy against The Eagles, I feel like they could use a little love.

When hell froze over and The Eagles reunited in 1994 the accompanying album and concert special was incredibly successful and introduced a whole new generation including myself to one of the greatest and most successful band in the history of rock. For fans of The Eagles this reunion seemed like something that would never happen and in 2007, The Eagles answered the prayers of their fans again and recorded an album of new music.

During at time when CD sales were plummeting the Eagles release of “Long Road Out Of Eden,” their first album of original music since 1979, ended up selling over seven million copies. This double album featured some great songs but the one that always stuck with me is “Busy Being Fabulous.”

Busy Being Fabulous

Eagles | Myspace Music Videos

One of the things I love about artists who record music past middle age is that they are able to sing about things in a way that younger artists can’t. “Busy Being Fabulous” is about a person telling someone how much they missed out on because they were out partying.

This songs has a refreshing and beautiful blend of rock and country which instantly brings us back to the feeling of California rock which the Eagles so beautifully defined in the 1970s.

If you read the lyrics off the page this song may seem full of bitterness and anger. However Henley’s singing and the beautiful back-up vocals transforms the lyrics. While the songs exists as an “I told you so,” message telling someone they messed up, it is also a celebration of the great things in life the protagonist didn’t miss out on.

Like the Eagle’s greatest music, this song has layers that go beyond the surface with a surprisingly layer of maturity and depth.

So check out this song and the accompanying album. It’s really great stuff. The ‘Cats aren’t playing anyone who could mistaken by Facebook as a band again this year so hopefully this sad/hilarious instance of school spirit gone wrong will not happen again.

Madea Goes To Jail

Sorry, reverend, doctor, bishop, preacher lady, whatever your name is. I don't agree with all of this. I hear what you say about forgiveness. You're supposed to forgive. This child is telling what her daddy did. Your dad is somewhere living his life and you're on lockdown. You're in jail because of what you did. Learn how to take some responsibility for yourself. For your own stuff. I can't stand folks wanna be the victim. "This person did this so I'm this way." Everybody got a story.

Your mama and daddy gave you life. That's all they do. No matter how good, how bad the life was...it's up to you to make something of it. Suck it up and shut up.

Everybody got a life. What you do with that life is up to you. Stop being the victim. That's all I say.

                                     -Madea
                                             
I’ve always found the character of Madea entertaining whenever she’s featured on a trailer for one of Tyler Perry’s film. I have no idea why but the weird mispronunciations of words like “Hallelu-er” and her swagger seem like a lot of fun. So when I sat down to watch Madea Goes To Jail, I expected to see Madea go through some comic shenanigans but I got a whole lot more.




Madea Goes To Jail tells two stories. One of Madea getting in trouble with the law and ending up in jail and the other of a district attorney who is engaged with another attorney dealing with a childhood friend who is a prostitute. While these stories interweave together they stand in contrast throughout the film that makes an important statement not just about African-Americans but about all of us.

Tyler Perry both embraces stereotypes with the character of Madea but also presents African-Americans like the character of the district attorney as college educated, well-dressed and well-spoken professionals. And I understand why some people may not like Tyler Perry’s over-the-top portrayal of Madea, but it’s a caricature, almost like a cartoon. It’s so obliviously not suppose to be a real reflection of anyone. The other characters buck the trend of the way that many images in our culture portray African-Americans as rappers, gansta’s or professional sports players.

This film reveals the multiplicity within the African-American culture, which is often forgotten. The district attorney’s fiancée doesn’t understand his sympathy towards the prostitute because she feels like they’ve been given the same opportunities but the district attorney reminds her that she didn’t grow up in a poor neighborhood.  As the story unfolds the interconnections and the way that people deal with the choices in their lives are revealed in an unexpected and powerful way.

The plot-line with the district attorney is intense and only with the comic interjections of Madea’s plot line is the viewer able to process the more emotional plot-line. While the film is does not represent great technique in film making it reflects a deep desire to make a positive statement about what it means to take responsibility for your life.

There are no quick fixes in this film. It realistically portrays the struggles and the consequences the characters deal with.  You don’t seen many films really addressing the issues that Madea Goes To Jail touches upon in a way that both entertains and challenges the viewer.

I’m an Asian-American and probably like many people who are not African-American, I didn’t feel that Tyler Perry’s films were for me. And I’m sure that I’m missing things in the film and I don’t really understand everything that is going on.  However,  I really enjoyed watching the film and if you haven’t checked out one of Perry’s films, I highly recommend that you do.

Rob Humanick put it best in his review of another of Perry's film I Can Do Bad All By Myself:

"It isn't great art, but it's popular art worth believing in."

Worst Airport Experience Ever

Okay, so I'm going to take a break from this whole, "purple reaction as a positive reaction to music and life-experiences" and go on a rant.

Yesterday I went on the eighth air plane ride this summer and while I've had some airport craziness but nothing was mind-blowlingly and astoundingly ridiculous as my ninth flight of the summer yesterday.

One and a half minutes. That was how late Diana and I were checking in so they wouldn't let us check our bag and therefore had to get bumped to another flight. While this was annoying we simply should have got their earlier so that was our bad.

The thing is even if we had made it one and half minutes earlier we probably would had missed our flight because of bins, or the lack of bins at the security line.

In our security line they ran out of bins to put shoes and jackets and stuff. So one of the staff asked for more bins over his radio. After about five minutes and the line having completely stopped there were no bins. Now I could see a whole cart of bins about to topple over and three guards standing around on the both sides of the screening devices.

The really weird thing was that the person who requested more bins didn't seem to be concerned that the line was getting longer and that no one seemed to making ANY effort to push the cart of bins ten feet so that the line could move forward.

Well, eventually the bins came across and we made it through security. Since we had been moved to another flight we had time to get breakfast. After getting through this ridiculous ordeal of a morning I figure I deserved some McDonalds.

Lunch at 10am?!? Yup, they switched over to lunch at 10am.

Now most McDonalds (according to searches on Google) switch to lunch at 10:30. But the one at O’Hare decided to switch early. Who really wants to eat a hamburger at 10am? Check out this article for more on this issue. I couldn’t even get a McSkillet Burrito, so I had to settle for a quarter-pounder, which really felt weird that early in the morning, BECAUSE IT WASN'T BREAKFAST!

After a gate switch, boarding the plane was announced but wait a second . . . hold on there was a delay. One of the flight attendants was missing, so we waited another 10 minutes to board until he showed up.

Awesome. When we finally got on the plane, we couldn’t take off for another ten minutes because the pilot was late. Really American Airlines? We are taking off 20 minutes late because personnel couldn’t get to work on time.

Ok, so when the pilot finally got on the plane he announced that we had to wait for a “part” so we could take off. REALLY!?!? You couldn’t have taken care of this before hand or during the last two delays?

So, we finally take off, and land without any drama but then we had one final issue to deal with. Logan International Airport hadn’t received a 777 in a couple years and they were having issues getting the Jet Bridge set up. Apparently this was a “delicate” procedure. Y’know people it’s not like you didn’t know this plane was coming.

I don't any meaningful conclusion or reflection, all I know is that morning was truly miserable.  I try to be positive but even I have my limits.  Anyways we made it to Boston. 

Let's just hope the flight back goes a little bit more smoothly.