Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to have a few fallback options for
Speaker 1: having more fun. Inline lines can be incredibly frustrating. They
Speaker 1: feel like a waste of time on this planet, and
Speaker 1: in many cases they are just that torments created because
Speaker 1: of someone's mismanagement. But if you can't do anything about
Speaker 1: the line's existence, at least you can tolerate the time
Speaker 1: instead of wishing precious minutes away. Sometimes we can predict lines,
Speaker 1: and sometimes we can't. On my family's recent vacation to
Speaker 1: the Virgin Islands, my family was warned repeatedly that for
Speaker 1: the home bound leg of the trip, we needed to
Speaker 1: get to the airport in St. Thomas three hours ahead
Speaker 1: of time. Even my frequent flying husband, who likes to
Speaker 1: show up at precisely the moment when the plane boards
Speaker 1: and no earlier, thought the warnings sounded ominous. So we
Speaker 1: got there early and then proceeded to get through customs
Speaker 1: and security in about twenty minutes, and that includes waiting
Speaker 1: for my bag to be searched. But then the next day,
Speaker 1: when my husband took our eldest kid to camp they
Speaker 1: got stuck in a two hour line just to check in.
Speaker 1: Who would have thought these days we do almost always
Speaker 1: have our phones with us, which can make waiting in
Speaker 1: line mildly more tolerable. You can consider it a guilt
Speaker 1: free time to scroll around online, looking at pretty pictures
Speaker 1: on Instagram, more reading the snarky comments on someone's Facebook post,
Speaker 1: or I guess this is really a better idea. You
Speaker 1: can do more cerebral things and read through that article
Speaker 1: you have been saving, or read a book on the
Speaker 1: Kindle or nook app. If you don't have to pay
Speaker 1: immediate attention because maybe the line is moving quite slowly,
Speaker 1: feel free to put on your headphones and listen to
Speaker 1: a podcast or some music. This can help you tune
Speaker 1: out other folks who might be doing some of these
Speaker 1: other suggestions, like, if it seems appropriate, you could have
Speaker 1: a quick and lighthearted chat with the people around you. Now,
Speaker 1: this can be risky because if things don't go well,
Speaker 1: you can't escape and the other person can't escape either,
Speaker 1: which could be awkward for them. But almost everyone, and
Speaker 1: let's say a security line in the Caribbean island was
Speaker 1: probably just on vacation. You can ask what they did,
Speaker 1: what they saw. If it's their first time there, did
Speaker 1: they enjoy diving? Would they do it again with that group?
Speaker 1: And so forth. Now, if you are in line with
Speaker 1: someone else that you know, you can use the opportunity
Speaker 1: to chat about life in general. I hope my husband
Speaker 1: and son use their time in that to our camp
Speaker 1: check in line to bond. Maybe not, but maybe they did.
Speaker 1: I actually have some fond memories of waiting in a
Speaker 1: line at Animal Kingdom at Disney World a few years ago,
Speaker 1: because I was there only with my big kids. The
Speaker 1: little ones had left with my husband, and the heat
Speaker 1: had broken as the sun went down. It was an
Speaker 1: absolutely lovely Florida night. My kids didn't have their devices
Speaker 1: with them, and so they chatted with me for the hour.
Speaker 1: It might help to look up a list of conversation
Speaker 1: starters and ask your own partner one of them, as
Speaker 1: long as you're considerate of everyone around you. Now, of course,
Speaker 1: lines are very different if you've got little kids with you.
Speaker 1: Corralling them can be tough, but sometimes a game of
Speaker 1: I Spy or giving them little things to play with
Speaker 1: like poppets can help. Or hand out the snacks one
Speaker 1: gummy at a time can get you through something of
Speaker 1: a weight dolled out every thirty seconds or so. Well,
Speaker 1: at least it's something I would say that, if at
Speaker 1: all possible, try not to wait in line with little kids.
Speaker 1: Look for any way around it. That's why we have
Speaker 1: t s, a pre check and do fast passes when
Speaker 1: we can, or any other way that you might be
Speaker 1: able to skip a line. But in any case, usually
Speaker 1: the time in line isn't and lists it might help
Speaker 1: mentally to guess about how long you think this line
Speaker 1: is going to be, and then you can make a
Speaker 1: rational choice about what to do with that time. So
Speaker 1: right now, if you knew you had an hour that
Speaker 1: you needed to fill, what would you do with it?
Speaker 1: If you had access to your phone, how would you
Speaker 1: choose to spend that hour? Think this through ahead of time,
Speaker 1: and choose to do those things, and then lines can
Speaker 1: be mildly less annoying because most lines don't take too
Speaker 1: much longer than an hour. I mean at least I hope.
Speaker 1: And by the way, if you are in a situation
Speaker 1: where you are the one managing a queue, especially if
Speaker 1: you manage them frequently, please think it through so you
Speaker 1: can manage it as well. As you can. Time is
Speaker 1: precious and having a long, needlessly slow moving line it's
Speaker 1: not respectful to your customers or guests. Try waiting in
Speaker 1: the line yourself to see what goes wrong. It will
Speaker 1: go a long way toward easing the problem. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's b E the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
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Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. Yeah,