Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Thing About Flying

    The whole airport/flying experience has the potential to be really wonderful or really not wonderful.  Wonderful is the sweet old lady in the boarding line telling you all about her grandkids and how excited she is to see them. Or the cute boy at baggage claim that helps you with your bags when you know full well that you would have had no problem getting them on your own. Not wonderful is the flight i had. 
    Let's start with security and the nickel guy. I don't know if it was senior day at MCO or if there was some sort of early bird special, but that place was crawling (or wheelchairing) with old people. So security was particularly slow. Every wheelchair and walker was searched. And this really got to me because I'm standing there shoeless watching an 80 year old woman spend 20 minutes trying to get her jacket off and they're worried that she might have weapons hidden in her wheelchair. Then there's the nickel guy. He walked through the metal detector and set it off so they asked him if he had anything in his pockets....oh yes he did! It was like he was emptying the contents of a pawn shop. He had on these cargo pants and there was something in every pocket. But mostly just a bunch of nickels. While nickel guys was doing his thing the people behind me started getting irritated-I thought about joining the voluntary "thorough pat down" line just to get out of there faster, but then i saw who would be giving that pat down. When it got to be my turn this couple behind me walked right in front of me. This didn't bother me at all because they failed to realize that my plastic contained stuff was ahead of theres. So not only were they not getting to their flight faster but they had to wait with my shoes and purse full of tampons. 
    My flight was a sold out flight so every seat was full. I just walked to the back of the plane and sat by the window. The UCF girls golf team was on this flight and they all wanted to sit together so they were saving seats and having people move around for them. One of them had two empty seats next to her and this girlfriend and her sugar daddy wanted to sit there but the golf girl told her they were saved-girlfriend was pissed, she got all "I didn't know you was allowed to save seats we all paid for? And I don't see your friends-ill sit there if i want!". Somehow Girlfriend ended up sitting next to me and she was a take-both-arm-rests kind of girl so i just looked out the window. Mid flight i started to hear music and i turn over and Girlfriend is be bopping to her ipod-now i never use the words "be bop" but that is the only possible way i could think to describe what she was doing. I looked over and Sugar Daddy and he was silent drumming to his music so i guess they work well together. When i handed my trash to the flight attendant me and Girlfriend made eye contact...mistake. I looked out the window the rest of the flight. 
      You know how earlier i talked about cute boys helping with luggage...well that never happens to me.  There was a cute and very strong man that watched me struggle with my bags and smiled at me when i almost fell into the pole. My life is not a movie. But i did get a picture with my flight attendent (you're welcome Andres) and a big hug from my niece Olive when i got to the door.
    I'll be here in Maryland until the 28th so i hope that you all at least pretend to miss me while im away.