The.Worst.Flight.Ever.

I had to fly back to New Jersey last night to finish my last week of a month-long business trip. I was already pretty bummed out about having to leave Miller & Riley behind but knew that I would be heading back to Austin on Friday for good. (Or until my next business trip...)

I'm not a picky flyer. Honestly. I work in the aviation industry so I'm pretty tolerant of a lot of the bureaucratic shiz that most people complain about. Standing in line for a security check doesn't bother me. I know better than to wear knee-high lace-up boots that I'm going to have to remove and send through the x-ray screener. I always pack my travel-sized liquids in my quart-sized ziploc bag and sometimes even have extras for those travellers that haven't gotten the memo. I don't even get mad when the flight is delayed. I completely understand that a lot of stuff is out of the hands of the airline and don't feel the need to berate the gate agent when the flight is overbooked. You know...'cause they totally did it on purpose to make your life more difficult.

Once I'm on the plane & it's safely in the air...that's when I start to get testy. The airlines have control over what happens in the airplane, and for those parts they don't...you can usually blame on a rude individual with no class/heart/soul. Apparently, all of those people (rude, classless, heartless, etc.) were on my flight. AND...the airline fubar-ed some too.

• My seat didn't recline. There's nothing worse than sitting fully erect for a full 4 hours. My back and neck still hurt.
• The guy next to me was a TOTAL arm-rest whore. Not only did he keep his arm fully occupying the arm-rest a couple times, he even dropped his arm onto MY side. DUDE...just because my ass doesn't take up the entire seat doesn't mean you can bogart what's left!!
• The girl behind me thought it would be "fun" to raise & lower her tray table the entire flight. The entire flight (while sitting erect, mind you), I could feel her dropping it down, and then slamming it back into my seat back. I think I would have rather her been kicking me the entire flight.
• I finally managed to fall alseep (leaning forward using my tray table as a pillow) and the gentleman in front of me dropped his pillow through the space between the seat & the airplane wall. Instead of letting it be, he TAPPED ME ON THE HEAD so I could give it to him. I have no idea where you hands have been, sir. Thank you for making my decision for me on whether or not I was going to wash my hair tonight.

Maybe that doesn't seem like much...but considering the fact that I deliberately choose window seats to minimize my interactions with dumb people, it just drives me absolutely bananas that all three people around me had to be such douche-bags.

Okay...rant over. You can continue surfing the internet now.