My internal bar of what's postworthy has been climbing steadily for the last several months to the point where the constant walk of existence never gets talked about on this blog.

Anyhow, here's a bit about what's going on in my life...

I went back to Pittsburgh last week on a recruiting jaunt for Google. My coworker Elizabeth and I had a great time talking to Carnegie Mellon's Interaction Design and Human-Computer Interaction masters students, and I'm looking forward to talking with them more in the coming year. This is the second time I've been out to CMU recruiting for Google, and each time being back on campus gives me this warm feeling. Sure there's nostalgia, but it's more like there's a room in my mind that I forget is there until I open it once a year. I don't think I'd want to live in Pittsburgh again, but the memory of having lived someplace so other, the feeling of singular purpose, such a shift of geography, sociality, work mentality and all the rest, and knowing that such change is not only possible but even beneficial, is a good feeling to have, and one I'm glad to be reminded of now and again.

I used to be bad about making flights at the airport, but I seem to be getting better at it. I don't mean to say that I get there early enough or plan for long enough connections, but rather that I'm getting better at making the flights anyhow.

Moments before hearing the Delta quote I posted last week I was running to the security checkpoint at San Jose International, where there was a member of Delta's ground crew asking if there was anyone else for the Atlanta flight. I and the girl in front of me both said "one more!" and he told us to hurry (though it was still 10 minutes before stated departure. Clearly we had another 3 minutes to dawdle!).

Scrambling through security, bags on shoulders and shoes in hand we ran sock-footed from security to the gate, down the jetway, into the plane and down the aisle to our assigned seats. Along the way I asked my neighbor in line if she'd ever taken her shoes off before getting on the plane and she informed me that the practice was "way ghetto".

Finding my way back to row 25 I was grateful to find that there was no center passenger next to my window seat, and as the gentleman in the aisle seat got up to let me in, I can only attribute praise to my 'ghettoriffic' socked feet and tennis-shoes-in-hand as the aisleman opted to find another seat on the plane, leaving me with the blessed cross-country row all to myself.

Five hours later I would have traded my empty 25th row for a crowded center seat in row 4 if I'd realized we would be getting in 30 minutes late for my 42-minute connection window at Atlanta. While spending 12 minutes simply getting off the plane ("Let people transferring get off the plane first? Hon, this is Atlanta. Everyone is transferring.") I commiserated with a large traveller behind me, hoping to make the same connection to Pittsburgh. Seeing that I was traveling lighter and with a more heady dose of optimism, he asked me to let them know there was one more coming. I promised I would.

Huffing my way down the left-rib of Terminal B to the inter-terminal subway, I found the subway there with open doors, which I leapt through just as they were -- well, staying open. Just as I was about to feel foolish for my dash the doors closed 2 seconds later and I got a 30 second respite as the train made its way to Terminal C.

Back out of the subway I dash up the escalator and run to the end of the terminal where I find my gate -- empty -- with only a single crew cleaning up the placard. She looks up at me. "Pittsburgh?"

"Pittsburgh."

To the radio: "One more, okay?"

"Send him through."

She re-opened the jetway door (I have never seen anyone ever re-open a jetway door!) and let me through. Walking down the empty tunnel to my fate I turn over my shoulder and say, "There's one more coming. I know you can't do anything for him, but I promised to deliver the message."

As they closed the jet's door behind me, I found myself hoping he got a good hotel room and an early flight.