Fortunately the weather has been unseasonably warm, which is fine by me. After all, the prospect of doing a walk around in North Dakota in freezing rain wearing nothing more than a short-sleeved pilot shirt is not very appealing. Around 2:00 today, and nine hours into my reserve, I ventured off to the Mall of America to see what all the fuss is about. It is indeed a mall, and I really had no purpose in being there. I didn't really intend to do any shopping. I had, in effect, become one of those mall walkers, but I played it off cool. When I got to a dead end, or in my case, a Macy's -- I did an about face, looked at my phone as if to say, "Ah, my "friends" must be waiting for me at the Nordstrom's. Let me head the opposite direction now..." I ventured briefly into a Pac Sun thinking there might be cheap board shorts, but they were only selling sweaters. I checked out the Lego store, a few clothing stores, and a Barnes & Noble. The central area of the mall has all sorts of rides. Log flumes, roller coasters, carousels etc. By far the scariest thing would have been this Dora the Explorer ferris wheel. And I don't intend that to be a joke. I have an irrational fear of ferris wheels. And you may be thinking, "But aren't you a pilot?" It's not the heights. It's that weird over-the-top feeling as you circle around. Why would anyone want that? And putting Dora on it is only going to trick some poor child into wanting to go on their first ferris wheel ride, only to be traumatized for life! Then they're going to have an irrational fear of ferris wheels and an irrational distrust of hispanic girls. I present you with an example here...Remember my post from Orlando about a particularly sassy niece?
Not so sassy anymore, is she?
Because about half of our class is still hanging out in the twin cities, I caught up with my old roommate from Salt Lake. We ventured to a place called Surly's Brewing Co. At first glance, I was a little concerned because it looks like an old industrial area that was probably condemned, but the inside expanded to a large beer hall atmosphere filled with lots of customers. By this time we were officially off the clock, so I enjoyed my first beer in more than a week. We talked about pilot things and work, work, work, BIDDING, work, work, work, DEICING, and so on. Two more days on reserve and I can finally pack new clothes. Who knows how much longer this 55 degree heat wave will last.
