An interesting trip indeed. First, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to make sure I didn't forget anything for my three month sojourn here in DC, and then my taxi didn't show up on time (hello, stress). Just as I was about to frantically dial the cab company, my taxi rolled up, and of course, his A/C was broken so I had a nice, hot, and windy ride to the airport. Frankly, it didn't really bother me... I was just so happy to be getting out of Tucson.
Note the brown rocks and old freight train... very Tucson-esque.
The first leg of my flight from Tucson to Dallas was lovely. I sat next to a very sweet and quiet 60-something year old woman named Linda from Chicago, who had been assisting her elderly mother in Tucson after a hip replacement. While I'm not much for talking to strangers on airplanes, Linda was pretty cool and didn't over-do it on the chit-chat (which generally makes me want to stick a barf bag over my own head)...
Please imagine me pulling this over my large noggin.
...although she did tell me all about her and her husband's visits to Pakistan and China, where he buys hotel furnishings in bulk to sell as a distributor, which I did find genuinely interesting. The rest of the time I listened to music and read the novel, "Prep."
Which, by the way, is really good.
The second leg of my flight, from Dallas to DC, was not nearly as relaxing. As I boarded the plane, I came to a quick and intensely disappointing realization that I was in a dreaded "center" seat. Nooooooo! Worse still, I was next to an abnormally thin old man, on the aisle, who appeared to be in his mid-80s. I was at least pleased to see that he wasn't a large person that might invade my space with body fat.
As I plopped myself down next to him and an empty seat, I wondered who might be on my other side. Holding my breath in anticipation, I watched as a middle-aged Chinese woman (not Asian-American, but seemingly very much from-China- Chinese) with a very bad perm came barreling down the aisle carrying what appeared to be the largest carry-on bag this side of the Yangtze River. I watched as she struggled to lift it over her head and then managed to jam, pack, push, cram, pull, and wiggle the enormous suitcase into position, crushing every other person's items in the overhead bin. At that moment, I just knew she was my other seatmate. And I was right.
She clomped over the old man and me to get into her window seat, where she immediately placed a bird flu mask over her face. Hmmm, strangely discomforting, I thought...
At least she didn't cough a lot or seem sickly.
As for the thin old geezer on my other side, he and I quickly became engaged in an armrest turf war. Although I didn't even attempt to put my elbows on the armrest we shared, he insisted upon dangling his bony old elbows over the armrest into my seat area, which made for constant rubbing on my own elbow, tucked neatly into my ribs. It really started to piss me off. I looked over at him silently trying to give him the subliminal message of "Get the hell out of my seat territory, old man," but then I caught a good look at his face. What I saw was quite horrifying...imagine at least 25 scabs like small pieces of carcinoma pepperoni covering his age spotted old cheeks and nose. I really wished I hadn't looked over at him...
Because it looked a lot like this...
I thought I might really need the barf bag.
While his elbows were covered by long sleeves, I kept thinking about what his old lesioned elbows must look like, and how only two thin layers of cloth (my shirt and his) were separating our skin from each other. I tried to push these thoughts into the back recesses of my mind, but the idea lingered around for the entire flight, especially when he didn't get my hints and kept smacking his elbow into my own.
We finally landed in DC around 9pm, and my sweet boyfriend was there waiting for me. It was sooo nice to be home!! I quickly forgot the traumatic center seat experience, and spent last night talking to him for hours and enjoyed today by sleeping in, hanging out with his brother, reading my book, and taking a walk in the green lushness of DC (where the streets are wet from rain!).
Time to go now... I'm at my mom's and she just got home from work. We're going speed walking in a few minutes... ahhhh, to be home!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment