Laptop is quite the conversation starter

So I got my ass up out of bed at 5 in the morning and proceeded to the Medellin airport to fly back to New York. Except for I only got so far as Miami. My travels seem to have a recurring theme: delays and cancels. And missed flights. And pretty much everything that could go wrong with international air travel. It's times like these where I have to keep my good humor and just laugh at the fact that I was so happy that today's school day (wednesday) was cancelled and I would only have missed one day, but now I'm going to miss ANOTHER day. Ah well.

So I'm in the Miami airport and I'm thinking "Shit, what the hell am I going to do in Miami today?" Then I remembered, a friend of mine, Andrew, has been asking me over and over to come visit him since he's moved here. And look at that, here I am, forced to stay the night. So I call him and he's at the Miami Boat Show doing his thing and says he'll pick me up later when he's off of work. So I go to the Starbuck's (another recurring theme, seeking comfort in brand name espresso) and sit, open my laptop, and settle in for the long wait. I'm used to traveling alone by now, and the waits never seem as long as they are.

All of the sudden, a tall man with protection glasses on comes over and, noticing the Obama/Biden campaign sticker on my laptop, practically screams: "Hey! I'm from Texas and I noticed your sticker. You must be politically active. Were you shocked at Steve Brown's win in Massachusetts?!" Everyone's looking at us in the cafe. I look up at him and, taking in the whole picture, practically burst out laughing. Not only is this man screaming in a Southern accent, not only did he mess up the new Senator of Massachusetts' name,.... in addition, he's excitedly waving his stumpy arm. While he goes on about how Martha Coakley is an idiot because she didn't know what sports team the Red Sox were (further confirming the stereotypes about Southerners) he's at the same time pointing his stump of an arm at me and putting it in the air to emphasize his points. I could barely talk politics because of the distraction, so I resorted to only smiling in an effort to conceal my laughter, and nodding at times where he seemed serious. He then asked me where I was from and I said, Massachusetts. His face lost expression and he picked up his things and trodded on. I feel like I'm back in New York already.

I look around and people are just smiling sympathetically at me as if to say: "We know how it feels to be pin-pointed by an insane, Republican Texan with a stump for an arm. We know."