Random thoughts while sitting in an airport

Airports remain the premier people-watching venue; nowhere else do you see such a diversity of human-kind thrust into such unnatural situations. One can watch the parade for hours, and since you have to get to the airport hours before your flight, you have hours to do just that. Families with children provide some of the best entertainment. Especially if they are not waiting for the same flight you are. Please, please! Don't seat me next to that kid!

Somebody help me understand here. If you know that you are going to have to take your shoes off when you go through airport security, why on earth do women insist on wearing knee-high boots when they go traveling? Maybe I'm projecting an image from cowboy films when it took two people to pull a boot off - today's fashion apparel may just slip right off, but I doubt it. And there is no place to sit down and take them off. Put them back on, yes, but do women sit on the floor to do this?

And while they are easier to take off and put back on, why do other women wear high, high heels to travel? You know that you are going to walk a mile and a quarter to your gate, dragging 3 rolling bags and lugging 2 enormous purses. Wouldn't something a bit more sensible be, well, more sensible? But then again, I'm a man so what do I know about these things?

In addition to shoes, it is always interesting to see what is being worn to travel in these days. It is always a mix of the bare minimum (and I do mean bare!) and how many coats can one person carry? Granted, your destination makes some demands on you, but I noticed a guy headed for Burbank in a top coat, hat and woolen scarf. It's easy to spot the professional men and women in their bespoke outfits; teen-age girls most often go for the grunge look, dragging their pillows along with them. Little old ladies dress up to travel just as they dress for church; single men range from Indiana Jones to Harley-Davidson leathers.

And one simply does not travel without one's electronic gadgets (never mind that I am writing this on my iPad while I sit and watch). Everyone is talking on the phone, or texting on the phone, or playing games on hand-held devices, or flipping tablet pages. Ear buds and headphones go on in the terminal and stay on through the flight regardless of the flight attendant's admonishments otherwise. The chair that I'm sitting in has multiple electrical plugs and USB charging outlets. Sitting on the floor to recharge is so yesterday! But this is  a newer airport; there are still places where you have to take extreme measures - like this:

Don't be that guy. Recharge before you leave home, else - - uh oh! Battery is dieing. Where did I pack my charger? Oh, no it's in