Paranoia
Despite a constant pathos peppered with sadly entertaining soundbites from our dear President, little of the crap dealt out by the current administration wafts over to my everyday life in Asia. Mind you, I'm not suggesting that US foreign policy is by any means irrelavant over here - far from it. I'm just saying that neither riding motorbikes nor battling monkeys generally depends much on American politics.
At the moment, however, I'm feeling the effects of policy changes in an unusually personal and palpable way. You see, I'd like to buy a ticket back to the States. Because I'll be going back for a while (Okay, not really. But I won't be returning to where I came from), I'd like to buy a one-way ticket. Yet in typical logic-defying fashion, buying a one-way ticket is more expensive than a return trip. So at this point, after thoroughly cursing travel agents of the past, present and future, I ask myself, "Why not just buy the return ticket and not use the other half?"
And why not? The lingering question/answer on my mind is, "Will I get put on some sort of no fly list?"
"Hahaha...stupid person," you say. "Has the Cipro gone to your head?" I agree. I'm not thinking that anyone is going to label me a terrorist for disgarding half a ticket, but am I going to end up like Senator Kennedy with my name on some list? Is airport security going to stop me every time I go to the airport and check my bags eight times because I never flew back to Istanbul? Will I be carted off to a secret room in O'Hare, emerging weeks later sans half my mind and all my hard-earned tan?
Yeah, yeah, I know. Paranoia. It's like when I was a kid and thought Jaws lived under my bed; fear forced me to jump from the door to he bed without touching the carpet for an entire week. (Maybe that explains my tendency to construct islands of dirty laundry around my room.) But the crazy idea entered my head, so regardless of its craziness, I'm affected by it and the craziness that spawned it. So there it is.
As a topic for discussion, the four people who comment (or anyone else...hello, invitation to comment) on this blog could consider how big changes far away from us affect the quotidien side of things. Of course, that all sounds so stuffy and serious. I myself am going to buy a bridge of dirty laundry across the Atlantic.
At the moment, however, I'm feeling the effects of policy changes in an unusually personal and palpable way. You see, I'd like to buy a ticket back to the States. Because I'll be going back for a while (Okay, not really. But I won't be returning to where I came from), I'd like to buy a one-way ticket. Yet in typical logic-defying fashion, buying a one-way ticket is more expensive than a return trip. So at this point, after thoroughly cursing travel agents of the past, present and future, I ask myself, "Why not just buy the return ticket and not use the other half?"
And why not? The lingering question/answer on my mind is, "Will I get put on some sort of no fly list?"
"Hahaha...stupid person," you say. "Has the Cipro gone to your head?" I agree. I'm not thinking that anyone is going to label me a terrorist for disgarding half a ticket, but am I going to end up like Senator Kennedy with my name on some list? Is airport security going to stop me every time I go to the airport and check my bags eight times because I never flew back to Istanbul? Will I be carted off to a secret room in O'Hare, emerging weeks later sans half my mind and all my hard-earned tan?
Yeah, yeah, I know. Paranoia. It's like when I was a kid and thought Jaws lived under my bed; fear forced me to jump from the door to he bed without touching the carpet for an entire week. (Maybe that explains my tendency to construct islands of dirty laundry around my room.) But the crazy idea entered my head, so regardless of its craziness, I'm affected by it and the craziness that spawned it. So there it is.
As a topic for discussion, the four people who comment (or anyone else...hello, invitation to comment) on this blog could consider how big changes far away from us affect the quotidien side of things. Of course, that all sounds so stuffy and serious. I myself am going to buy a bridge of dirty laundry across the Atlantic.
posted by bethany at 09:37
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