Scientific Calculations

People are always throwing around the fact that 60% of your body is water. Except sometimes the fact is 75%, sometimes 90%, etc. Regardless, I am convinced that after an extended flight, the body's composition changes to approximately 104.7% water--based on a few quick calculations. And the conviction that if I'm offered another beverage in the next 24 hours (which is 100% possible as I have yet another flight from LHR-VIE), I will be sorely tempted to accept and then throw it right back at the flight attendant. Or whatever politically correct thing steward/stewardesses are now called.

Irrational? Perhaps. Just politely decline the beverage? No can do. My ability to accept or decline the drink is governed by a higher power, a universal law which tells me that I paid for the flight, including the drink, and I better drink it. On another level my senses tell me that most likely my body is getting dehydrated and I really should take it, for my own health. As if that weren't enough, I know that "X" (stewardess, flight attendant, waitress, or whatever) does not come by my row in the economy class to offer me beverages every ten minutes, in which case I better seize the opportunity to get a drink while I can.

Result: Far more trips to the airplane lavoratory (of which I have an irrational fear of being sucked out) and the feeling that, as aforementioned, I am now composed of 104.7% water. Not a fan.

Anyways...made it safely from SLC to NYC. Barely survived my six-hour layover at JFK, carefully avoiding the health hazards which were scurrying about in the lounge where I purchased and ate my dinner. This was quite the interesting experience. It was amazing to me how unaffected people were by the birds landing at the table beside them while they were eating. Perhaps in a park that's more than natural, but we were INDOORS! I just missed a picture of a bird taking down a french fry. At the table next to me. I joined with the norm and decided that I could handle the birds. But then I looked down and knew I needed to leave.

It's a bit interesting to consider, though, how easily humans adapt to their surroundings. You can see how things once viewed as disgusting: cannibalism, for example, or abject poverty and living amongst animals could become normal. As proven throughout history, mankind can survive in even the most dreadful circumstances. And I survived JFK.

A skip across the pond and now I'm hanging in the London airport, where I can not afford anything. Primarily because I'm surrounded by names such as Gucci, Dior, and Prada---the three stores are literally right in a row to my right---but also because the measly US dollar accomplished nothing when compared to the pound. End of story. I do appreciate London thoroughly, however. There's something about traveling abroad and still arriving in a country where you understand the language that is extremely comforting. But hey, who wants comfort? Let's go to Austria.