Be it ever so humble there's no place like home. Especially after a long flight/week/etc. That flight was ridiculously turbulent as we were flying through some pretty hefty storms and as the plane was tossed to and fro like some toy in a toddler's hand I just closed my eyes and prayed our way home.

I love people watching at the airport. As I was sitting in the food court there was a rukus behind me and low and behold who should just be wandering around the Orlando airport but Ben Stein. Why do people have such an over the top interest in meeting celebrities? They are just normal people trying to get from here to there just like the rest of us!

I'm sure he was maybe a little hungry and trying to decide from the totally pathetic choice of food court options - should I go with greasy pizza or a hot dog?

And really, Orlando International Airport if you insist on whisking us away from the main terminal to dinky terminal "gates #1 - 64" how about putting a sit down restaurant or at the very least something other than a Pepitos and a Nathan's hot dog stand for people to eat at? Especially when you didn't catch the 4:30 standby flight and now are faced with four fun hours of NOTHING...a little sustanance that isn't fast food might help while the day away. (Okay I'm done with the rant...and return you back to my ponderings about Ben Stein.)

One woman even shouted through the food court - "Hey Ben Stein - I love you."

I have to give him credit for it. He was very gracious through the process and patient with these people when I'm sure he just really wanted to get on his plane and go where he was traveling.

I also love talkative people. Sometimes. My cab driver who drove me back to the airport was one of those people. I think she might be a character in one of the books floating around in my head that maybe I'll have the wearwithall to actually write someday.

Carmella from Columbia. She's married and has three children - two daughters and a son.

When I travel home from trade shows there's a ton of stuff I have to bring back with me like a zillion pounds of leads to type and my ancient laptop computer that weighs a zillion pounds. Carmella couldn't have weighed 90 pounds...in fact my two suitcases put together probably weighed as much as her...there was no way I was making her lift my suitcases into the car. (In fact they are still sitting in my trunk because I just didn't want to schlep them upstairs just yet - figured I'd give my back the weekend to get in shape for the excrutiating pain it is lifting them up three flights of stairs... except for my computer which I carried upstairs last night.)

Her eldest daughter, who is 19, wants to study to become a nurse however much to carmella's dismay she doesn't want to get married or give carmella grandchildren.

Carmella grew up with 10 brothers and sisters. Her mom still lives in Columbia in a small house and rents out the lower floor for income. Carmella left home when she was 16 to intern at a French restaurant and it was there that she met her soon to be husband. His father apparently was an american living in Boston so after a couple of years they both ended up moving to Boston.
Just four years ago Carmella received her US Citizenship - on her birthday (March 20)

She's driving the town car for 2 years to earn extra money for her kids college education.

Did I mention we only had a 15 minute cab ride to the airport? For once I wasn't the one doing the talking!