Adventures in Air Travel

Adventures in Air Travel

So, I'm sitting at the airport, minding my own business, listening to my iPod when I hear my name being called over the loudspeaker. The last time my name was called over the loudspeaker at the airport, I was asleep and the plane was waiting for me to board so it could take off. I took inventory of myself, made sure I wasn't asleep, and made my way over to the gate. Turns out, some international summer exchange kids wanted to sit together and I traded in my center seat for one by a window ... right in the middle of a gaggle of Orthodox Jewish girls. They were almost all teenagers and were gossipy and giggly and talkative, as teenaged girls are wont to be. So I put on my headphones, dig deep into my New Yorker magazine, and lean back ... and I realize the seat is broken. If I lean on it hard enough, the seat reclines. So I try not to lean too far back, and resume listening and digging. When the plane takes off, however, the G-forces suddenly push me back into my seat, my seat reclines, of course, and I'm rather startled and I exclaim, "Jesus!" The girl sitting next to me looks at me and I pretend nothing happened. Heh.

I manage to fall asleep. I wake up several times to the girl sitting next to me shouting back two rows to her friend. In between shouting, she's chewing her gum like it's her job. And since she's a teenager, it pretty much is her job. I try to fall asleep again, and this time I wake up and she's leaning towards me, shouting back at her friend through the gap between our seats. I try and ignore it, but even my iPod at ear-damaging volume levels can't drown her out.

That girl, she had great Jersey girl potential. Except, I think she was from Chicago.

I'm staying with friends in Evanston tonight. They just bought a house and will soon start work as first-year associates. They have a lovely home. And a happy life. Yeay for friends with happy lives!