~Wednesday~ A 5:40 departure from Kevin’s got me to the airport within an hour of my 7:10AM Delta flight departure time. I didn’t know it at the time, but I had one item with me that I shouldn’t have had, and didn’t have one item with me that I should have had.
In the process of emptying my pocket for metal detector sensor-triggering objects, I pulled out the proximity card and key to Kevin’s condo, which I had been entrusted with during my stay. Oops.
The Seattle-to-Atlanta flight of my trip back was oversold, and I volunteered to be on the “bump list” with a promised reward of a $600-voucher in exchange for leaving three hours later. To that end, I people-watched while all the zones were called for boarding. A guy sitting next to me, anxious for his zone to be called, at first looked a little dopey to me, but then he said with droopy eyes, “Oh man. I can’t wait to get on this plane. I’ve only had two hours sleep, two beers, and a Xanax.” I thought of a bastardization of that old Army Reserve commercial tag line, “You do more bodily abuse by 7AM than most people do all day.”
As it turned out, they were only oversold by 5 seats, and enough people didn’t show up that no bumping was unnecessary. Unfortunately, that put me on the plane as one of the last passengers of a 757, so I sat in 45B while my suitcase ended up 15 rows ahead of me and on the other side plane.
I slept for 2.5 of the 3.5 hours it took to Atlanta, and we arrived almost 30 minutes early. During the one hour I didn’t sleep on the plane, I listened to a fascinating episode of This American Life – Got You Pegged. I just loved, loved, loved the prologue to this episode, so I listened on and enjoyed the rest of it, too.
| Prologue. Amy Roberts thought it was obvious that she was an adult, not a kid, and she assumed the friendly man working at the children’s museum knew it too. Unfortunately, the man had Amy pegged all wrong. And by the time she figured it out, it was too late for either of them to save face. Host Ira Glass talks to Amy about the embarrassing ordeal that taught her never to assume she knows what someone else is thinking. (8 1/2 minutes) |
I particularly enjoyed Act Four:
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Paradise Lost. |
On the Atlanta-to-Raleigh flight, the lead flight attendant said, “May I have your attention please. For the prize of a free cocktail, I’m going to walk down the aisle listening for the first person who correctly identifies the year in which I was born. Just shout out your answers as I walk by.” He got about halfway down the plane before someone correctly guessed 1952. He didn’t look nearly that old.
Due to complaints of unfairness from those of us in the back of the plane, he announced a second question, and starting from the back he listened for anyone correctly shouting the state in which he was born. I said, “Rhode Island” as he passed by me. He made it all the way back to the front of the plane with not a single person guessing correctly.
Then he told us it was Alaska. About a minute later, he got back on the PA system and said, “One of the intellectually astute first class passengers has pointed out to me that Alaska was not a state in 1952.” We all got a good laugh out of that.
Joe picked me up and we stopped at the Longhorn Steakhouse in Brier Creek shopping center for dinner, where he had a $25 gift card, and I picked up the final tab of three dollars and some change plus a $5 tip. Sweet.
I fell asleep about an hour before dancing, and when I woke up I had to force myself to go. It was an okay night, but I really wasn’t into it like I usually am. Joe made a guest appearance, so I spent some time talking with him between dances.
For tonight’s lesson, Carl reviewed Good Time again, and since I have a bad time when I dance to Good Time, I passed on tonight’s lesson.
I was happy to get home and hop into my own bed. Homo sweet home.