Traffic for 2005 October 28 (entry 0)

(6) Fri Oct 28 2005 10:30 PST Jerks are People too: I just don't get people. On my flight back home last night, I had the aisle seat and there was a man next to the window. We lucked out in that the seat inbetween us was empty. So I set a small reading book in the seat for a few minutes and this guy plops down thirty pounds of luggage onto the seat. On top of my book. And goes to sleep. And his luggage was really practically falling down on top of me. Why does he get the seat, anyway? Who does he think he is?

Then there's the guy in front of me. This man has all three seats to himself in the row. So where does he sit? In front of me, naturally. And he reclines his chair, even though I am trying to study for my CPA on the little desk. Why couldn't he sit in the middle seat where nobody was behind him? I was going to recline my seat to give me more room, but there was a woman sitting behind me reading and I didn't want to do the same thing to her that was being done to me--bad karma and all.

So it's a dilemma for me. Am I being too nice? Do I look at stuff like that and think it's rude but really it's not, and I'm just overly-cognizant of my world? And who sets the social rules on this? Seinfeld?

But this trip did add two more states to my repertoire, thanks to layovers in Minneapolis and Detroit. While in Detroit, I even had a Philly Cheese Steak that was way yum. But it was my third trip to OH, so that was a bummer. Why have I even been to OH three times? Bizarre.

The training they put me through was hideous. I had to get up at 4 am SoCal time, for starters. And half of the people there were from NY office and started one week ago. Counting my internship, I've been here 6 months now. So, obviously, this training was a complete waste of time to me. And the food sucked too. I will never eat at Dave N Busters again; all that place does is serve stuff straight from Costco's frozen food section.

But, though it was freezing, it was nice to see the fall colors for a few days. Now it's back to sunshine and green.

Comments:

Posted by Frances at Fri Oct 28 2005 11:04

I've never eaten Philly Cheese Steak. What is on it?

Posted by John at Sat Oct 29 2005 08:33

It has warm sliced steak with lettuce, tomato, and grilled onions (which I could smell on me the whole plane ride home). It also has melted provolone, I believe. It was really good.

Posted by Kristen at Sun Oct 30 2005 13:21

I never recline my seat b/c I hate when people do it to me. The flight attendant should have told the guy that luggage wasn't allowed to be on the seat--at least I don't think it is.

Posted by Rachel at Sun Oct 30 2005 21:10

ewww onions

Posted by Sumana at Wed Nov 02 2005 18:11

It stinks that there are all these contradictory ethics and norms of politeness in these colliding groups of people from different cultures. And that some people are just bone-stick-stone rude or stupid.

If you ever have similar problems in the future, you can ask the flight attendants to stow that luggage under a seat or in an overhead bin; it really, really, really should NOT be just lying around on a seat where it would become a hazard if the plane experienced turbulence.

Also, on a half-full flight, in my experience, flight attendants are generally nice about requests to switch seats, especially if you can mention your particular extenuating circumstances (such as rude neighbors and a need to study).

I wish I could give you some of the nice flying experiences I had over the past two weeks.

Posted by Alyson at Tue Nov 08 2005 19:49

Hey! You and Dave were in the same airport only days apart! Small world.