Day One: I'm a travelin' (wo)man.

Today I flew into Atlanta, GA where I then got my rental car (based not only on color, but on the fact that it had automatic windows and doors, thankyouverymuch) and drove 3 1/2 hours to Columbia, SC to stay the night at my brother and sister-in-law's place.

My original schedule consisted of me boarding my first flight at 8 AM, and then, two changeovers later, arriving in Atlanta at 9 PM. Yuck. However, a snowstorm hit last night, which forced a cancellation of one of my flights. I received a voicemail stating that Delta had taken care of it--and booked me on a non-stop to Atlanta, leaving at 8:30 AM and arriving at 2:30 PM. Hallelujah! Delta, I really like you right now. I haven't been on a non-stop flight in yea

rs. They put me in the front of the plane, which meant no stowing space, but a ton of leg room. Plus, thanks to Google* Chrome, I got free WiFi during my flight. I put my feet up, surfed, and watched Going the Distance (which caused me to laugh out loud a few times, to the befuddlement of surrounding passengers.)

*Have you noticed that no one ever says, "I Binged it" or "Just Yahoo it?" There's a reason for that. One evening, Google went down for about half an hour. It was basically as if the Apocalypse had arrived. In horror, I looked over at my roommate and the following conversation ensued:

Me: "Google's down."

Her: "Really? Okay."

Me: "It's down."

Her: "So?"

Me: "Well, what do I do?"

Her: "Are you kidding me? The internet isn't down. Use Yahoo or something."

This is a great example of branding, and the power it has. This is also a commentary on our dependence to the internet and search engines in general, but I won't go there right now. Suffice to say, you also don't see anyone saying "I MySpaced you" or "Add him/her on Friendster" anymore.

You know you have a powerful brand when it's not only used to address your product, but is also adopted into our language as a noun and a verb.