How to Avoid Flying Filth: Keeping clean at the airport

Photo credit: VanDammeMaarten.be (Flickr)

Trust me, I am not a neat freak.

Nor am I particularly, um, organized in a way most people would understand. However, I feel compelled to share something with you.  Something that makes me crazy.

Something so frequently done, yet so illogical that I want to scream every time I see it happening.

I just don’t think the TSA would approve. They would agree with me, but the screaming thing would get me into trouble.

Ready? Here goes:

You’re going on a trip. In fact, you’re flying to a fabulous destination...

You’ve meticulously packed your carry-on so that you don’t have to check a bag.  You’ve learned the “roll your clothes” method along with the “stuff your underwear and socks in your shoes” trick.

Heck, you even know to take all of your old underwear & T-shirts and just throw them away while you’re on vacation - thus freeing up room for new purchases...

Your 3 oz containers of liquid necessities are also methodically wrapped in a quart-sized ziploc bag that is so tight you’re afraid it might burst open before you hit the screening area. You have planned out everything.

And then you do something so incredibly stupid during the security screening area.

Lord knows you are praying that you don’t get called out of line for a pat-down; you’re just keeping your head down, and doing exactly what everyone else in front of you is doing.

It’s almost your turn. You get a couple of bins from the stack. You put your laptop or iPAD in one of them. The next one you put your purse or wallet in along with your quart-sized toiletry bag, and then....YOUR SHOES! NO! Don’t do it! The shoes DON’T go in the bin! They go directly on the conveyor belt.

People. I beg you. Please hear me on this one.

When your shoes get put in that bin and touch all of your other belongings, you might as well eat off the floor. And not a clean floor. The nastiest floor you walked on that day. Or yesterday. Or ever.

Think about it. You walk through Lord-Knows-What everyday. Then you put your shoes in a bin with your coat/wallet/purse, etc. The most disgusting thing you walked through recently is now on the collar of your coat, or on your toiletry bag, or your purse.

But here’s the thing: Even if you’re thinking that you didn’t walk through anything gross - how about the 1,000 other people that used that exact bin this week?

I actually asked one of the TSA agents during a recent trip about this particular point. This gentleman made a face and told me that I would not BELIEVE the nastiness people call footwear and put into those bins. It’s bad enough we have to walk in socks or barefoot on that floor.

Now that nastiness is all over your clothes, purse, etc. And your hands. And everything else you touch. Yuck!

Photo credit: Redjar (Flickr)

Let’s just all agree not to put our shoes in the bins, ok?

Taking a Closer "Look" at Photographic Memory

We've all seen these people in movies.

They can recall page 268 of a book and read it to you as though the book is right in front of them.  Well, I'm here to tell you that, unfortunately, just like Santa Clause -  it's a nice story but no practical evidence of it exists.

Don't get me wrong - there are plenty of people with the ability to stare at a picture for a few seconds and then give exact details, but not only is it purposeful memorization, but it doesn't last that long.   After an average of four hours most people can't recall the information.

Even with the realization that Santa isn't real, we still get presents out of the deal. While researching the phenomenon of photographic (Eidetic) memory, I still learned some fun and useful facts.  Useful being the key word...fun if you're into being a nerd!

Most people with great memories are called mnemonists - they use mnemonic devices to remember things.  I consider myself one of these people;  I use them all the time.  Anyone who's ever taken piano lessons knows the Treble Clef Scale of EGBDF: Every Good Boy Does Fine.   Recently while in pharmaceutical training, I had to remember all the different types of Leukocytes (white blood cells) the body makes.  I made up "Little Monkeys Eat Bananas Naturally."  Each first letter symbolizing the first letter of a type of cell:  Lymphocytes, Monocytes, Eosinophils, Basophils, and Neutrophils.  

However, there is another really neat trick that the pros use.  You know those people that can remember lists of things that are 100+ items long?  Well, they have an even easier trick than thinking up stupid sayings.  It's called the Method of Loci - or the Mental Walk.

The Mental Walk basically works like this: you imagine taking a walk through your house, and in each room you imagine an object.  Each object is part of the list you are trying to memorize.   By imagining the object in a funny or gross way, it's easier to remember.

For example, let’s say that I wanted to remember the following list of items: cat litter, diapers, chocolate syrup, furniture polish, frozen peas. 

Here is my mental walk:  I start at my front door and walk into my house.  There in front of me I see a giant catbox with an enormous steamy poop on top.  I then turn and walk into my dining room where I imagine my dining room table covered with stinky dirty diapers (see a theme?).   Next I’m heading into the kitchen where I slip and fall because there is chocolate syrup all over the floor because it dripped off the counter, down the cabinets and onto the floor.  I try to find furniture polish to clean it up, but I don’t have any.  Next, I run outside to the baby pool to get clean, but instead of water it’s filled with frozen peas.

Kinda cool, huh?   Almost like telling a story...

Definitely useful if you don't have anything to write with, or your kid needs a quick cramming session for a test.   What kind of fun stories can you come up with?

The First One!

OK, well - here goes.  The first official posting of my writing blog.  Kinda scary.

Until now - I have been my only fan.  As soon as I make a Facebook page for my cat, Ginny, I'm sure I'll have another one.

So of course I'm thinking about all these great topics to write about and then -  I have this silly thought: what if I move?  I've based my whole blog name on a town in which I live, and yet, I've never lived anywhere consistently for more than a few years.  I suppose subconsciously I've decided to never leave.

This actually brings up an interesting fact about Rennerdale:  people don't leave.  When you meet people here, they'll tell you how they live in the house that they grew up in.  It's one of those few towns that families pass down houses like hand-me-down clothes.  Nobody moves, and if they do, they move back.  I've moved back twice, myself.

You know what that makes me think of?  How people probably died in all of these houses.  And all the ghosts of Rennerdale floating around.  And there really is not a town cemetery, so where are all these people buried?  Great writing fodder, for sure!

I'm going to keep it short and sweet this first time.  And yes, I took some artistic liberties on the title of my blog: RennerdaleRiter.   I'm allowed.

Up next:  what does a photographic memory REALLY mean?  Check back to find out!