the airport thing

I am a bit of an odd duck in that I like airports, as opposed to just tolerating them as a way to get there. No, not the security and the lines, of course, but walking around in the mini-malls and seeing how the city views itself. The PHX airport, for example, sells lovely cheap vinyl purses with beads all over that make them very expensive. You can put a lot of bling on a denim jacket and sell it for a couple of hundred bucks there. They have airplanes woven into the carpet, although the walkways connecting the wings are otherwise boring and uninspiring. SFO does great displays of tile, recording devices, scrimshaw - something new all the time. The ELP airport seems much nicer than the city of El Paso. I could spend some time here, and the boots on display are quite elegant.

I like that people are so unselfconscious and one can just sit and stare and no one seems to notice being watched. People eat, drink, talk on the phone or occasionally to each other but don't look at me watch them. People at an office, at the grocery store or other public building are for the most part homogeneous and display behavior appropriate for the place, but it seems to be anything goes at an airport. You see all kinds of dress, hear all kinds of phone conversations that would be embarrassing to hear in any other setting. Because there are so many people and everyone is intent on getting their seat on the big silver bird, it's like no one else is on the floor. It is as close as I will come to being invisible.