I know I've been talking a lot about travel lately but I'll try to make this my last travel entry for a while.
I just completed another business trip to the East Coast. The first leg home from Boston was mostly uneventful. Yeah, it was an O-dark-30 flight connecting through Dallas. I did discover that there's a direct flight from Boston to Denver, on American, that leaves later in the morning and still arrives in the early afternoon. Note to self, next time book that flight. Even though I didn't swing an upgrade, one flight attendant gave me a free headset and another comp'd me a Bailey's and Coffee. Even at 50 I still have the charm. Just call my Roger Sterling.
The next leg I was not so fortunate. Didn't try for the upgrade. Really didn't make sense since there was no meal and it's a relatively short flight. I had exit row so I figured I was pretty much set. Let me tell you, as quickly as the travel gods giveth, they just as quickly take away. As I'm sitting in my seat watching folks shuffle by, this pretty young thing says "excuse me, that's my seat next to you". Now understand I almost always get stuck sitting next to crotchety old businessmen. But now I'm thinking for the next hour and 45 minutes I get to sit next to a little hottie! But no sooner does my inner voice yell, "YIPPIE!", a strapping young man says to me, "Excuse me, sir (man I hate that), but would you mind trading seats with me so I can sit next to my girlfriend?" Damn, stymied in my hour of glory. Oh well, being the wonderful, good natured guy that I am I said "sure, not a problem". I figured I'll still be sitting in an exit row seat. Unfortunately that seat was next to an incredibly large Orc (think Lord of the Rings). I glanced over at Mr. Wonderful and caught a little smirk and a look that was almost apologetic. He thanked me several times and even offered to buy me a drink. I'm sure my facial expression adequately conveyed my ultimate frustration.
Oh well, let's make the best of it, I thought. Hey, I like to think I'm not all that judgmental. Ok, I may have entertained a few negative thoughts but quickly righted my thinking and convinced myself this was a pretty decent fellow who I'm sure is not happy with his current condition and is probably more uncomfortable than I am. Yeah, that idea immediately started to slip away when it became brutally apparent this guy misplaced his bar of soap in the shower this morning. Ok, that's fine. I can manage. But there's more...
Now as I said, I'm trying hard not to be judgmental. I definitely know that being severely overweight is a danger to one's health and deep down inside I'm sure this gentleman is feeling pretty bad about himself. It really has to be a tough situation. Heck, I didn't even really mind that he made no effort to share the armrest and it didn't really bother me all that much as he kinda spilled over into my seat. But as I was trying to project these positive thoughts towards this fellow, I see him reach down to grab his bag. I'm thinking he's going to pull out his laptop or iPad. Well, not unless that iPad looks like a huge bag of beef jerky. He tore that thing open as if he hadn't seen food in a week. Within no time the bag was empty and as he balled up the now empty jerky package with one hand he was pulling out a container of mixed nuts in the other. I just so happened to notice it was an eight serving container.! Wow, wonder what happened to the other seven fellows. He went after those nuts with the same frenzied vengeance that he did with the jerky. I have to admit, I did chuckled a bit to myself when the flight attendant came up to take our drink order and he ordered a Diet Coke. Hey, guess you make concessions where you can.
So, other than spending the better part of the flight breathing through my mouth and leaning completely over into the aisle way, getting slammed by the refreshment cart and a few old ladies, I managed to arrive safe and sound in beautiful Colorado. Hey, after reading that stuff about JetBlue, I'm just thrilled our pilot didn't try to lawn dart the plane into the Boulder Flatirons.
Here's to another successful trip. Now, let's open that bottle of wine!
Cheers!
PS - the photos above were all taken at either Boston Logan or DFW. Some of you may recognize them.
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