Follow Me Around the World

After getting a late start to the airport, I arrived at 3:45PM for my 5:30PM flight.  This is highly unusual for me as I ordinarily get to the airport with many hours to spare.  But now as a seasoned traveler I realized that as long as you have your seat you are fine.  When I approached the check in counter for Northwest the lady told me that I had to bring my checked luggage to the security station and then immediately proceed to security.  I said “are you sure, its only 345PM?”  “Yes, there is a long line” she replied.  I found this rather odd that I would have to go through security almost 2 hours prior to my flight.  So as I passed all of the new shops that I was tempted to stop in I went through the extremely annoying security checkpoint.

Once I was down to just my boxers they finally let me through…Oh I’m only kidding, well not really.  After I took off my jacket, my flip flops and my belt the security gate was still dinging.  At this point I was very frustrated but had to bite my tongue thanks to Uncle Sam and Homeland Security.  After taking off my watch and basically opening up my pants they let me through.  It took me about 5 minutes to make sure I didn’t leave anything behind and gather up all of my stuff.

Once through I immediately proceeded to the airport bar.  I needed some time to relax and with well over an hour to kill before my flight even began to board I figured it was time for cocktails.  I ordered a drink, put on my iphone and just relaxed while listening to a mix of music I had prepared before I left.  Another drink and a glass of water later it was time to head to the gate.  But before I could I promised I would call a friend to say goodbye.  But since I had left my SIM card with my mom (the card that operates your phone allowing one to make calls), I had to get 4 quarters and use the payphone.

Getting quarters was a challenge in itself.  Every stupid kiosk operator I would ask would say “Oh I can’t open up the register unless something is purchased.”  What bullshit, clearly they just don’t want to sit there and give change all day.  At one point I contemplated getting some chocolate or something just to get quarters, but I resisted since I am on this new semi-health kick.

So I finally got 4 quarters by going to one of the magazine shops near my gate and waited for someone to buy something.  As soon as the lady gave the money and the employee gave the change I swooped in and said “hey can I get 4 quarters please?”  You could see the pain in this person’s face as she accepted my dollar and handed me four quarters.  It felt good to finally beat them at their own system and now I had the quarters available to make the necessary phone calls.

At around 5:15PM the flight started to board.  I was in row 24 so I had to wait a while since mostly all planes board from the back first.  Once I got onto the plane I situated myself rather nicely and was in an aisle seat, just as I like it.  An aisle seat is crucial on long flights.  I like to get up, stretch, walk around, be able to go to the bathroom when necessary etc…So I always have to get an aisle seat.  That is usually why I arrive at the airport so early, to secure an aisle seat when the airline does not let me request a seat sooner.

Even though it was only 530PM I was tired.  I ended up falling asleep for about an hour, but when I awoke I noticed that we were still on the runway.  I turned to a Dutch woman sitting across the aisle from me and said “what’s going on?”  “We are in a massive line waiting to takeoff” she replied.

We ended up taking off at approximately 630PM or about an hour late.  The flight was supposed to be roughly six hours and thirty minutes.  During the flight I watched 3.5 movies and a one half hour television show.  There was no way I would be able to fall asleep, but the entertainment system was so good with a fabulous selection of movies that I was set for the entire flight.

One sour note was that at one point on the flight I was attempting to take off my ring and it fell to the ground but when I went to look for it I couldn’t find it.  I even got down on my hands and knees to look, but to no avail.  I had gotten this ring from a very special Tibetan clothing shop in Simla, India.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 2:25 am and is filed under 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.