So this time I was off to Indianapolis. I used to go there
about once a month to support our products at a huge customer of ours about an
hour south of Indy, but we eventually hired a full time engineer to work there,
and so I lost my monthly trips. This annoyed me quite a bit at the time because
I had grown to kind of know the Indy area and had made several friends
there. The bad news is that there would
not be any personal time while I was there, because if I had free time, I would
have to spend it with the colleague that
I just mentioned. I am not the most socially adept person in the world, but
even I knew that it would be considered awful rude to be so close and to not
invite him to a lunch or dinner.
“Hey dude, I was right down the street from you for the
first time in years but I didn’t think that you were worth spending time with”
sort of sends the wrong message.
I think that I’ve mentioned this a few times already, but
the US Airways folks in Austin have decided to warm up to me a bit. They used to
be pretty cold and impersonal with me. I’m not sure if that was just the way
that they treated everyone, or if
that was the way that they treated me
for being TG, but I sort of had the impression that they were not terribly
friendly with any of their customers. Anyway, I’ve noticed that for the last six
months or so that they have changed, and more often than not these days, they
greet me with a smile and go out of their way to chat with me a little.
This time one of their male customer service reps waved me
up to his counter and asked me where I was going and how many bags I was
checking.
“I’m going to Indianapolis and I am checking two bags. Two heavy bags that you’re gonna hate me
for!” I told him with a laugh. He gave me a smile and started checking me in
when one of the female agents that often check me in walked behind him and
stopped him.
“No hun, she is checking in two bags, not one!” she told him
“You know she said two, I even heard two, but still I
checked only one. I am so sorry – give me a sec.” he acknowledge to both of us
with a laugh.
“No worries!” I assured him. “She checks me in so often that
she has come to know exactly how I travel.”
“Only about once a week for a few years now huh?” she agreed
with me, and we went on to chat for a few more minutes about nothing in
particular. It just kind of struck me that they were now treating me with the
same kind of friendly service that Delta airlines had always extended to me. Nothing
Earth shattering, and no one ran around the counter to hug me or anything, but
they treated as more than just someone that had to be dealt with.
The flight attendant on the flight from Austin to Charlotte
(where I was to catch a connecting flight) was a real sweetheart. I was sitting
in the very first row, and so as the plane was taking off, she and I were
seated facing each other. I caught her doing the very typical female thing of
looking over my outfit. She was staring at my shoes for a moment, and then
looked up to notice that I was looking at her. Her face broke out into a huge
grin.
“Those shoes are adorable!” she said, loud enough to be
heard over the engines.
“Thank you! They are just about perfect for this dress too,
huh? It’s almost like they were made to go together!” I replied.
“Yep. Very cute!”
she agreed.
We had just finished this deeply philosophical conversation
when there was a loud “BOOM!” from directly in front of me. Now I am a seasoned air traveler, but I don’t
care how much experience you have on airplanes, when you hear a loud crashing
sound on takeoff, your heart will go
directly into your throat, and I guess I must have physically jumped just a
bit, because she laughed and pointed at the bathroom door.
“I’m so sorry – I should have warned you that the door
sometimes slams open on takeoff.”
“That’s OK. You would think that I’d be expecting that sort
of thing by now.” I just about gasped back at her, while my heart was still
trying to beat its way outta my chest.
Once the plane had landed and the airplane was making its
way to our assigned gate, the same flight attendant got on to the PA system.
“Ladies and gentlemen, our gate does not have a jet bridge,
and so we will be deplaning in what I like to call ‘Presidential style” – using
the rolling stairs. They are kind of steep, and so please be careful, use caution, and make sure that you use the
hand rail.”
Her deplaning ‘presidential style’ comment brought back a
few childhood memories, and before I had time to think about it, I blurted it
out.
“I just hope that I won’t be deplaning president Ford style!”
Much to my surprise, most of the first class section laughed at this. If you
are old enough to remember President Ford, he was all but notorious for
tripping and stumbling on the stairs of Air Force One on multiple occasions. And
yeah, if I have to explain the joke to you, it aint funny anymore. . .
On my flight from Charlotte to Indianapolis, the man seated
next to me was kind of an enigma. I couldn’t decide for a while if he was a nice
guy or a bit of an asshole, but in the end he turned out to be a little of
both. We exchanged the usual
pleasantries as we took our seats and then sat quietly as people boarded the
plane and filled the aisle. Suddenly there was a big commotion about halfway
down the aircraft that turned out to be a fairly large woman shoving her way
back up the isle that everyone else
was trying to get down. In short order, she had pushed and shoved her
way back up to our seats and we could see that she was brandishing a baby
bottle with dry formula in it in front of her as if it was a sword or a scythe.
“Look, I’m sorry, but I HAVE to get water for my babies
bottle!” she all but yelled over and over as she literally shoved people out of
her way. Considering that this was the busiest part of the boarding process and
the aisle was full, this was no small feat on her part and so I was shaking my
head in wonder as she plowed her way past us. The man seated next to me was
watching the show as well and turned to me with a laugh.
“You know, you would think that she would have thought of
that before she boarded the plane
wouldn’t you? I mean it’s not like she suddenly had the baby just this very
moment in the back of the plane is it?”
“You got me!” I replied, not sure if I really thought it was
funny or not. I’ve traveled once or twice with my children, and there aint a
damn thing about it that is easy, or that is not exhausting, so I did sort of feel sorry for the
woman. On the other hand, she had been remarkably
rude, and let’s face it, she, and everyone else, would have been much better
off if she had just taken her seat and waited five minutes for things to calm
down before calling a flight attendant to ask for some water. Tired people often do not think straight, and
let’s face it, no one is as tired as a mother traveling with an infant, so I
was inclined to cut her some slack.
A few minutes later, a lady across the aisle from us broke
out a great looking sandwich and was just about to dig in when my seatmate
stopped her.
“Hey, hold on now! You can’t eat that unless you brought
enough for everyone!” Everyone busted
out laughing, and to her credit, she offered to give him some but he laughingly
declined. He and I traded a few more words once we took flight, but it was kind
of noisy and so it was difficult to hold a conversation without speaking very
loudly. Given that the louder I get, the more obvious my male voice is, I
really wasn’t inclined to do much talking.
At one point in the flight, both of our drinks were empty
and our flight attendants seemed to be having a long chat session in the front
of the plane, so he got up and went to them for a refill. When he came back, he
asked me if I wanted another drink, and offered to go get it for me. I told him
I was kind of on the fence since I didn’t think that we had too long before the
flight landed, but he took this as encouragement, and before I knew it, he had
gone back to the front of the plane and returned with a screw driver for me. I
thanked him, and then told him that I thought he made a fine flight attendant,
much to his great amusement.
The more that I thought about it though, the more
significant that I thought this interaction was. He was clearly going out of
his way to converse with me, and it was really only my own lack of confidence
and my own reluctance to out myself with my voice that stood in the way of
having a conversation with him. When the flight attendants weren’t terribly
concerned about doing their job, he had gone out of his way to try and do
something nice for me, even though I certainly hadn’t asked him to. He had wanted to do something thoughtful for
me, and that really kind of impressed me. I am probably making more out of it
than I should. . .
Oh, just to top the trip off with a complete lack of style
and class, when it came time to leave the plane, I stood up and grabbed my 35
pound backpack out of the overhead. It’s been a while since I’ve worn heels,
and so I went just a bit off balance as I slung the heavy bag onto my shoulder. Yeah,
I more or less stumbled my way up the aisle. In the hour and a half flight, I’d
only had two drinks, so I knew it wasn’t the alcohol, but I also knew how it
must have looked, so I was bright red
as I passed by the flight attendant and she grinned from ear to ear.
“You all right hun?”
“More or less . . .” I replied as I made my way off of the
airplane, hiding my face behind my upraised hand.
