Farewell to Conformity

As I walked by the trash chute at my apartment today, I found a pleasant surprise lingering by the door. It appears that an unidentified college student (likely male) is taking his first daring step into manhood. I can imagine that letting go of this enchanting, rare photo was a tough moment for him, so I just wanted to offer some public solace. Don’t worry--you can still be a young, rebellious college partier without posters of Animal House and Scarface pinned up on your walls. Good luck out there…I believe in you.

Is this your bag sir?

I have a major love/hate relationship with airport baggage claims. On one side, it involves a lot of waiting around and awkward conversation with fellow passengers. “Is this where our bags are coming out?” But on the flip side, you are sure to see some chaotic and frantic movement between family members and strangers alike. Lucky for my sister and I, we had a fantastic experience at the Kauai baggage claim. Blame it on the bottle of champagne we polished off on our 4 hour flight, but the people-watching at this airport was particularly amazing. After coming to find that Dad had upgraded our Monte Carlo rental car to a H3 Hummer, we were feeling like a cool million and ready to take on another Johnson family vacation.

Now I don’t know what it is about Hawaii, but it’s a place that really seems to attract the older couples that DEFINE the term ‘tourists’. You know them…you know them well. Fanny packs, cameras around the neck, noticeably white walking shoes (style usually taking a backseat to comfort in these cases), khakis, safari hats…the whole package.

Anyways, I’ll let the picture do the talking here, but let’s just say we got the pleasure of seeing this doozy of a couple attempt to get their suitcases off the carousel. As you can see, the man was watching the bags come out LIKE A HAWK...mouth open, eyes fixated, He WAS NOT going to miss his bag. My sister can vouch... as soon at that shining beauty came his way, all hell broke loose. After a failed attempt at catching it, the surrounding people took on the necessary hospitable duties, and were practically in a dog pile to help this kind man get his very heavy luggage off the conveyor belt. It all ended after a proactive father with a small child on his shoulders pulled the bag off. I’m guessing one too many bucket hats packed in there…

Now I could go on about airports for days, but I’ll just leave you with a picture of Cristina, Katie and I dressed up as tacky tourists for a fratty Around the World party freshman year. Wearing oversized button-ups and running shoes to a party filled with sexy Indians and Eskimos really put us in that hot, slutty freshman category, as you probably all know. Cheers to 3 years down.