Deja vu?
After my last thrilling airport experience, you would think that at the slightest hint of flight problems, I might flip out. I tried checking in on the web for my flight (I actually just wanted to change my seat...), but I couldn't get in. The system told me it could not find my reservation (couldn't find it?!) and gave me a phone number to call. After 20 minutes of being on hold with the "special" hotline waiting for a representative so I could ask if I still had a reservation, I gave up and decided to go straight to the airport to try my luck. Also no luck on the self check-in machines. Could a second confirmed reservation be cancelled (by a different airline)? In the end, I got to the ticket counter, they gave me a boarding pass, even managed to find me a window seat (I know for sure which seat I selected when buying the ticket, even though the computer managed to put me in a middle seat now), and I went on my merry way, all the while wondering how it was possible for the computer not to find my reservation with my confirmation number. I wonder if I'll have the same problem on the return flight.
Milling Around
The airport wasn't too bad early this afternoon, but I suspect that's because I beat the rush. Maybe it's also because the airport seemed pretty well-organized and on the ball. The security lines were slow and some neighboring travelers were a little too anxious to get moving on the line (to the lady behind me: there is no need to move my bin with my coat further toward the back of the line so you can go around me to pick up your bin to put it in front. Do you really think I will go through the security thing without my stuff?), but generally, while crowded, it seemed pretty tame for a major holiday weekend. Judging by the way the airport looked when I disembarked, however, I suspect it was very different at 5 pm than it was at 1 pm. Thank goodness for being able to skip class. The most waiting I did all afternoon was on line at Potbelly's. It was a decently long line that stretched out of the storefront and into the main lobby area. It was worth it though. :)
Fox's Center of the Universe
While dining on my yummy turkey sandwich from Potbelly's, I read the headlines that scrolled on the ticker inside the Hudson News store. I kept seeing the Fox logo, so I assumed the ticker was being run by Fox. Sure enough, when it got back to the beginning of the scroll, it said, "From Fox News Corner of the World." My first thought? "Oh, you mean, the truth according to Fox." That's what it sounded like: this is the way things are going in the Fox News Corner of the World. As if the news should be different there than it is anywhere else!! The "corner of the world" part just bothers me! A sampling of some of the things in their headlines: "ucchy tasting goop" when describing K-rations and "32 bad guys captured in first thrust." Bad guys? They couldn't find a better phrase? Or maybe they just didn't want to in the first place.
Exit Row
The only window seats available on the plane when I checked in were in the exit rows. I figured I'd be nice and would take the non-reclining exit row window seat, since I don't recline the seat anyway. I'm glad I got a window seat, so I could take pictures like this:
If only it hadn't been so cloudy and so hazy, that might have actually been a good picture. In any event, I was glad with how my row situation turned out. I had the window, this other guy had the aisle and then we threw our stuff in the middle seat. Before the flight started moving, they offered a $40 upgrade to business class. Some woman bit, and moved her whole family up to business class (at least that's how it seemed to be, unless they just moved to more forward rows, but it didn't look like it). The guy in the aisle seat in my row decided he needed a reclining seat so he could sleep, so he switched to their old seats. So, short little me ended up with an exit row and tons of legroom all to myself. When the seatbelt sign wasn't illuminated, I could have done a full yoga routine had I been so inclined. I'm not used to having so much space! Anyway, it made for a much more pleasurable trip as I could sprawl around reading and watching the sunset.
Grounded Sleep
Since I didn't get much sleep this week and last night, I figured I'd be knocked out cold for most of the flight, the way I usually am every time I fly to New York. Yet somehow I was awake for the entire duration of the flight, even doing some (little, very little) work on my laptop. It had nothing to do with the fact that the oxygen masks from the safety demo reminded me of Lost. (I'm not being sarcastic; that didn't keep me up at all.) It was strange. I'm used to just dozing off for the entire duration of the flight. Yet I only seemed to nap while the plane was on the ground. I dozed off between the safety demo and takeoff, while we sat on the long line of planes waiting to leave (a good 20+ minutes). After the plane landed, I started to feel really sleepy as it was kind of dark outside, and dozed off between landing and the time we made it to the gate. (We had to wait for the "alley" to clear and for some machine to pull us into the gate, probably 10-15 minutes total.) Just amusing how somehow I didn't sleep while in the air, but could only nap on the ground tonight.
Family dinner tomorrow night and doing cooking/preparing/baking (and nothing to tape on TV), Thanksgiving in 2 days (need to tape Survivor & Apprentice), getting up super-early on Friday for the Black Friday deals... so I'm not sure when I'll next post. But knowing me, I won't be able to stay away from the keyboard. After all, my accounting final is due on Monday...
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