Air Travel

This weekend I went to visit my sister for her baby shower. It was good to see her and spend time hanging out. But I have to say the travel down there, and back, left something to be desired.

Almost all of my recent travels had been on another airline. An airline that doesn't charge extra for checked bags, and doesn't charge for drinks once on board. Seeing both of those shocked and annoyed me. As if travelling these days isn't annoying enough.

Security for me has generally been pretty smooth, if at times a bit slow. But I know for a lot of people that is the first annoyance they encounter. But on this occasion, my frustrations started before security: at check in. It seemed the airline lost my seat reservations. So rather than getting an aisle seat near the front of the plane, I got a middle seat at the back of the plane. Oh, and the AC thing didn't work (but that's another story).

As I said, security wasn't a problem, so I'll skip to boarding the plane. Once boarding started a mass of people clustered around the boarding line while waiting for their zone to be called. Of course, this meant that the people who's zones had been called had difficulty getting to the line. Once on board there is a struggle to get your bag into the bins, because people disregard the carry on limits. They bring on enormous bags, or three or four normal bags.

The well-travelled know that carrying on all your luggage means you save time at your destination and lessen the chance of losing a bag. Unfortunately too many people know this and there is a dearth of space for all of everyone's stuff. It probably doesn't help when the airlines charge extra for checking bags. Wouldn't it make more sense to charge people for the additional carry on bag? Or actually enforce the carry on rule? On the last leg of my trip back, a number of people had to check bags because the overhead bins were full. Big surprise.

On the first leg of my trip back, I was a bit excited because I managed to get the aisle seat in the front row. Unfortunately right before the door closed the passenger who had the seat next to me got on. He looked, and worse yet smelled, like he hadn't bathed in a day or two. I'm glad it was a short flight.

On the last leg of my trip, the guy sitting next to me was an armrest hog. He had the aisle seat, so was uncontested for one armrest. But he took over the armrest shared between us, and kept jabbing me in the side with his elbow.

I'm really trying not to be one of the jerks who complain about what jerks other people are. But as is obvious by this blog, I'm not entirely succeeding. However, since my readership is so low, I figure this is more like writing therapy. I can pretend I'm actually venting to someone.

So, the next time you travel, consider whether you're exceeding the carry on limit, and if the five minutes you save is worth the frustration to yourself and the other passengers. When you go to put your seat back, take a look behind you and see if you're about to smash the knees of the man or woman behind you.

First Houseguest

I survived my first house guest. Although to use such strong terminology implies something about my house guest that I don't intend. Since the trepidation I felt had more to do with my lack of housekeeping than any stress actually caused my my guest.

My cousin Elizabeth came to Boston to attend an APA convention and she stayed with me for four nights. It is always good to see her, even though in many ways we are diametrically opposed, specifically politically and in terms of diet. But we do have similar tastes in movies and can enjoy a bowl of popcorn together.

In other news, I'm totally vegging out watching the Olympics. Although, I tend to prefer the events that don't make primetime. I've really gotten into watching handball, waterpolo, weight lifting, wrestling, etc. I also prefer indoor volleyball to the beach volleyball. Indoor just seems faster, crisper, and the athletes don't look like postergirls for skin cancer. Now I'm looking forward to the track and field events, mainly the field events.

Olympics

I've just starting watching the Olympics, and it's always amazing. Like many people, I've participated in some of the games, but definitely not on the level of these athletes. It's hard to say which I find more impressive, the events I'm familiar with, such as volleyball, rowing, badminton, or the events I'm not familiar with, such as saber.

There are definitely some events that I can't identify with at all, like equestrian. Am I watching something that is impressive, something so-so? Without the commentators I have no idea. Then there are the events where I know when they are doing something really hard, but if they are doing it really well or just okay, such as gymnastics and diving.

So far today, I've watched women's saber, women's 48kg weightlifting, men's 4x rowing, some volleyball, some badminton, women's air rifle. I'd say the most riveting so far was the weightlifting. They are really tiny women lifting a whole lot of weight.