Laurie's light travel travel tips

Either staff have been instructed to spin the story or this is genuinely a nothing burger, I am not sure. But, there is just a minimal amount of foot traffic through Terminal A, which has been consistent for about the past two hours. I asked a Jet Blue agent if this was a normal night, and she said yes, for a Tuesday. She also didn't see any difference in terms of air traffic controllers showing up to work. Yet, speaking to a TSA agent sheds a different light. "We have to work for fear of retribution," she told me, "even if we aren't getting paid." I told the agent thank you for working and I hoped the government shutdown didn't last long. As I look around me in the airport , though, I cannot help but wonder if people are staying away for fear of another airline incident. I mean, who wants to get on a plane knowing the air traffic controllers aren't getting paid? The U.S. shutdown has entered its seventh day. It was just reported that across the cou...

After Lawn Love came out with a list of the most popular states for a "green" burial , it gave me pause: just what is a green burial, do I want one, and why hadn't I (Miss Green) ever heard of one? I had always figured cremation to be the greenest - or arguably, GREENER - alternative. I had seen death as bifurcated - I will be burnt or I will be buried. Scratch that, my body. I will be somewhere else, I hope, sipping a Mai Tai with Elvis, my mom and Uncle John. Connecticut is 24th in the nation for green burials, but Massachusetts is an impressive fifth. (Analyses of these figures is on Lawn Love's site.) A green burial, turns out, can take several forms - from choosing a Redwood we like (while alive!) and buying the little plot of earth around it (then buying a plaque to mark our spot) to, more popularly I think, being buried in a green fashion by forgoing embalming fluids or a toxic burial containers in favor of one that is biodegradable. Connecticut has Better Plac...

Awakening to another smoky sky is horrifying. We in Connecticut need to do more than pray for our Canadian neighbors or Google "when will smoke clear?" We must recycle, reuse and be conservative with energy, water and all precious resources. I can't tell you how many SUV-driving climate destroyers look down on ME for walking or riding the bus. (Shout out to that guy packing his bicycle basket at Big Y in Branford the other day.) We remain under an Air Quality Alert issued Monday by the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental protection until midnight. Climate change has already decimated or impaired many regions of the world, from Australia to California, depending on the season. Last time I checked, Canada was in the northernmost part of the continent, where warm weather has been a punchline. The New York Times has published an interactive map that shows frightening dark clouds intermittently shrouding the Tri State. They report data from the Canadian Interag...

Twenty nineteen - Not so wacky . More like wack, as in not or no longer working or functioning properly or very bad. Of course, not all year, not all months. The year began beautifully albeit somberly. My mother had suddenly passed away in August of the previous year, and as much as I was looking forward to graduation at King's, I spent part(s) of every day doubled over in tears. I was tasked with finding a job but given that I was still in Britain through the end of January, it was a little tricky. I conducted two phone interviews, one for a reporting job in Dubai (felt uneasy moving there) and Minnesota (read the weather report, so ditto). But frankly, the issue was the stage of my grief. I went to see a psychiatrist at King's, a wonderfully erudite and sensitive man, and in that one visit learned a lot: "Your confusion will not go away quickly; it will be more like months." This helped immensely. January On 14 January many in our small cohort of Eighteenth-...

I came to DC for a job in mid-May, from Connecticut by way of South Texas (long story). I had scarcely shaken the bugs out of my luggage from San Antonio when I had to up and leave beautiful Milford, Connecticut again. Some people love the sun, others the mountains, others the beach. I am in the latter category. I was born in Southern California, raised near San Francisco and spent my 20s and 30s on the Pacific Ocean. I moved to Connecticut and of course, had to live by the beach. While I griped about the Sound being puny compared to the Pacific, in retrospect, it sure was blissful breathing in that sea air every morning and seeing the sea gulls squawk overhead. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I agreed to this detour on my life's journey, as a beach lover (always a California girl), who never pined for men in power so much as men in Berkeley cafes, stooped over their Macs thinking up mathematical equations while listening to Bach. I wasn't prepared for the culture ...

Milford, Connecticut has been home for most of the past decade and change, minus a short stint in nearby New Haven and four years in neighboring West Haven. Like Playdough, Shawn Cassidy and crunching leaves under my sneakers, it makes me smile. I've been away for a few weeks, and this makes me miss Milford all the more. Just an hour and a half by train or a little over an hour by car from New York, it's amazing how quiet and serene the town is. Believe it or not, some people I've met in Milford haven't even been to New York City in years. But others of us go all the time, some people even commuting into Manhattan for jobs. Though it's more popular for people in Milford to work locally or no farther than New Haven to the north or Stamford to the south. In 2014 Milford celebrated a pretty big birthday: its 375th . Yes, that may sound old to you, but I assure you Milford still has quite the body (of water) and keeps up on all the latest trends (Archie Moore...

Stonington, Connecticut, in New London County just ten minutes north of the more touristed Mystic , is a kind of proverbial Throwback Thursday if one is "throwing back" all the way to pre-Colonial days. Whether you're looking at the Native Americans who settled the area or the English founders who battled to build here, it's ripe with history. Several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places dot the landscape, including the Stanton Davis House , the oldest house in town. It was built by Thomas Stanton, one of Stonington's founders, beginning in 1670 (see below). Overall, the town's architecture is so historic and charming you'll feel as if Sandra Bullock as an 18th century maiden will come skipping out from behind an old fashioned diner or soda shoppe. Other things in town include: 1) Watching the sun set from the Point at the end of Water Street. 2) Heading out to DuBois Beach at the end of the Peninsula. Don't be deterred by a wint...