10 Days

...on the road is a long time. Clothes to wash. Stuff to put up. Read through a pile of mail. Get caught up. Given my travel schedule, I did not get home until about 9:30 pm tonight. But something nice to come home and not find anything unexpected, no bad news awaiting me at my doorstep or in the mailbox and a day of rest and relaxation ahead tomorrow before I do a little more traveling this week.

The mechanics of travel have gotten so much more complicated. You can't take more than two items on the plane. If one of the two items will not fit in the overhead compartment, they will (not so) kindly check them through to your final destination. If you think your item for the overhead compartment will fit, you will more than likely be wrong. It is a fact of nature that if you are checking a bag, and you will have to pay more if it weighs more than 50 lbs., it always will. Some airlines are starting to charge for carry on bags. And the precarious balancing act involved in getting two bags on the plane that will fit in the overhead compartment or under the seat in front of you without them tipping over while you are trying to relieve all of that pressure in your bladder while running through the airport trying to make your flight is one that no one can actually do well. In short, traveling sucks.

Today, I had a three hour layover in Charlotte. IN CHARLOTTE. I could have driven from the damn airport to my place in three hours. So I went to the US Air Club (a perk of working with a guy who flies a couple hundred thousand miles a year) and set up shop. I looked over their menu, found it wanting (and likely warmed by the use of microwaves) so I walked out to get some pretty nice looking sushi. Upon returning, I was told that I couldn't bring food into the Club. Fuck. So I sneaked it in, ate it while hiding in the back behind a bush, and blew them a kiss as I walked out to catch my 50 minute flight to RDU (most of which was spent getting to and from the runway).

Then on the plane, I surrendered my aisle seat to a woman who had bought three tickets for herself and her two children (7 yrs and 18 months of age), and then wisely (meaning blindly) accepted the three middle seats in two different rows which the computer system had assigned her as the designated place for them. So... I sat between two guys with elbow wingspans so great they could touch in front of me, and tried to read the New York magazine article on Mario and Andrew Cuomo. By the time I got my bag (for budget reasons -- I paid $25 to check my bag -- US Air had one guy unloading the plane's 150+ bags and placing them on the carousel), I was too tired to even think any more.

Maybe I should buy some Sulley Sullenberger dolls and sacrifice one on the altar of efficient flying next time. Oh, and all my clothes are wrinkled now too.

I need a nap. Thanks for flying!