Wednesday, June 2, 2010

June First: Flying CAK to Logan

I had my head against the window a little while ago, and while I wanted nothing more than to fall asleep with the steady whir of the jet engines, my section of the cabin smells like mustard and bologna. When lunchmeat operates my olfactory senses, any action but gagging seems impossible. I gave up on dozing and read more of my book instead, taking my fatigue out on my usual front locks of hair, twisted by now into soft coils that I've hidden under Chick's wool hat.

I hate flying. The two women next to me struck up a conversation about tv’s “American Idol” before we even left the gate, and kept it up well after takeoff, as far as I can tell. To be fair, I zoned them out the best I could after I heard them sizing up the talent of various contestants- it is possible that they moved on to more intellectual material, but I don’t think so. I might’ve been re-energized had they brought up a good book. I tried in vain to access the advertised in-flight wi-fi service, but while my laptop connected to the GoGoInFlight network, it failed to open any sort of website when started my web browser. Oh well. The less time wasted online, the better, I suppose, and I probably shouldn’t be spending 7 dollars on airplane net privileges anyway. Next time, I’ll spend it on a trashy magazine in the terminal.

There was some question as to whether or not I’d even be flying out tonight- bad weather in Boston delayed departure from Canton-Akron by over an hour, and then the representative at the gate announced a full flight, asking a crowd of lethargic passengers-to-be if anyone might be willing to give up a seat in exchange for a free hotel stay and two vouchers for flights to anywhere. I offered, half hoping that I’d get booted to tomorrow’s flight out- while it’d be a pain to have to spend a night battling ennui in Akron, I’d be up and out not much after dawn, and I’d walk out of the deal with two tickets to wherever I wanted to go, provided AirTran flies there.

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