Just Whining!!

As I am flying at about 40000 feet over the atlantic ocean, and its my worst flights I have taken in a long time. Here is the scene...

First of all I havent slept in a long time!! Knowing I will be flying tonite, I decided to sleep very little last night, hoping that would make me very tired and put me to sleep in the flight. So i was screwing around last night doing nothing productive and started packing at 12pm today for my flight at 4.15pm...blah...blah. Anyways that was all fine as, I did finish packing and made it alright to the Airport in time.

I check in my bags and the delta agent tells me sir, you are 4 lbs over...do you want to take out 4 lbs or pay the $25 fee. Needless to say I was shocked as all I had checked in was 1 bag and I knew the free baggage allowance was 2 bags of 50 lbs each. Then she clarified saying my bag weighed 54lbs and I have to remove 4 lbs. she said you can check in another bag if you want but we can't let you check in this 54 lbs bag. Reluctantly I removed 4 lbs from my check in luggage and put it in my hand luggage and still didnt understand what the big deal was all about though!!

And then I walk to the security check. I am not even going to get into that because, if you flown into or out of an airport in the United States you probably already know how big a hassle it is. Its the part of the war on terrorism, which attacks poor tax paying civilians esp. ppl travelling frequently on business, who pay for the war on terrorism in the first place. Anyways to make a long story short, within the security clearence area which is about 20 Sq. Ft, I was asked for my boarding pass 3 times by 3 different people. I am convinced now that 25% of the American workforce works in Airport Security.

Everything went smooth after that till I was about to board the flight to Paris from Cincinnati. I walk to the gate late (I was drinking Starbucks coffee, ate a Banana nut muffin and "parag pathyfying" the flights) only to realize the flight is going to be full and that there are no more exit row or bulk head seats available. so I am stuck in Zone 5 in an aisle (Thankfully) seat for 8 long hours.

Anyways all that was about 6 hours back..the reason I am writing this blog now is because..well i can't go to sleep. My master plan of being awake last night worked well because I am feeling very sleepy now...however I just don't seem to be able to find a position I can goto sleep in. I first tried to sit back and relax, but then there is a kid sitting right behind me who is screaming her guts off. I then put the tray out and tried to rest my head on it. after getting over the initial discomfort of squeezing in my big belly in so i could put head in the tray, while sitting in my coach seat, I realized the guy sitting in front of me seemed to get a kick out of moving his seat front and back every 30 seconds. Meanwhile thankfully the kid behind me stopped crying and started playing. Her game was to kick my seat with both her legs as fast as possible. All along we were running into soo much turbulence that the seat belt sign was on throughout and so I couldnt even walk out. i dont mean to be a whining S.O.B but thats not all! There is this guy sitting next to me or in my neighbourhood, who is farting like crazy. And I am not talking about mild farts here....I am talking about farts, that if left out of the plane will drill considerable sized holes in the ozone layer. So to protect the environment and save the world I decided to bear it all.

Atleast the journey has taught me of 2 things

1) Get to the gate early, beg, borrow or steal but somehow manage to get an exit row seat or a bulk head seat. Its worth waiting in the gate for an hour.

2) Stop being a cheap bastard and get those noise cancelling headphones. I am still not rich enough to buy the Bose headphones for $250 but I know Sony has some for under $50. I might just have to get that.

Btw did I mention about how the flight attendent threw an empty water bottle on me and refused to ask/give me something to drink while serving the 2 guys sitting next to me? Guess its just one of those days or nights.....whatever!!

I guess the screwed up Paris CDG airport is just exactly what I need after a miserable flight and over 24 hours without sleep....oh well!!