Day One- Flying The Friendly Skies?

As many of you know, I'm currently in my second week of travel. This morning I left Sacramento heading East.

Something I was unaware of- if you go through security with a baggy sweater or sweatshirt on, you get a full-body pat-down. I may go back for seconds.
Also before I boarded: my cell has a... unique wake-up alarm. It's me, screaming "WAKE UP, MOTHFUCKER! WAKE UP!!!". And it's very, very loud. I forgot to turn it off so everybody at my gate got to hear it. I think the young boy seated to my right was quite amused.

The flight itself was it's own usual hell- too small of seats & no leg-room (I had to tilt my entire laptop to see it), and odd co-travelers. I had a center seat and the young lady to my left had a microcephallic head while the old biddy to my right smelt of a lactose-intolerant person who had cheese for breakfast.
In the row ahead of me was Tennessee- a young, male Golden Retriever service-animal-in-training. Poor guy (easily 50 lbs) was stuck in the "under the seat in front of you" carry-on section. He must have smelt Fred on my cloths and was playing peek-a-boo with me for a bit- staring at me from under the seat then popping his head between the seats. ...What gets me about service animals: 1) despite years of training, only about 40% pass the "tests" to become official, and 2) they are emblazoned with signs requesting no one pet or touch them. Dogs LIKE to be pet. Basically these animals are denied love and attention and then- might not even get the job. All this made me wonder if I remember seeing a happy service animal. ...NOPE.

O'Hare, like DFW Airport, is a wonderful cross-section of the worst America has to offer. This one guy slammed his rolling bag into me on two separate occasions (I let the first one go but commented on the second (I apparently still "got it" as far as being intimidating)). ORD had changed from the last time I was there and now has NO places to plug in your electronic devices in the terminals, and every terminal sports the same, tasteless yuppie food. I paid $12 for a smoked turkey sammich with jalapeno relish on an onion roll and a Coke. Looked like crap, tasted like crap. The sammich sucked too.
Plus, those who run ORD now think the acceptable temperature indoors should be in the high 80s.


ORD to CMH was better for the most part- smaller plane, bigger seats.
This one section of my trip celebrated my 325th flight since 1989. I used to travel quite a bit.
What I love about flying is watching other people- seeing people get WAY too serious about their flights, parents dealing with their brats, the way people dress for flights (older people dress in their Sunday best, younger women as though they're either going to bed in their jammies and going to a club (thigh-high boots can NOT be comfortable on a 4-hour flight), etc). And my favorites are those special people who go out and buy all the gear they THINK they need to survive a few hours in an airport- a fold-up table, special u-shaped neck pillow, document pouches that hang from your neck, a portable DVD player (and they still bring their laptop). All this CRAP they don't need.
During this section of my trip, my roomie's brother-in-the-law was struck by a car while jogging and died of his injuries. My condolences go out to her and her family. I found this out after I touched down and retrieved my messages.

My luggage arrived 45 minutes after I did, so my schedule was thrown off a bit. Seriously. I had 4 places to go before 5pm and only got to 3.
I blew off some stress by stopping at a park around 5:30 and playing in the snow.

My hotel is nothing special. However, right across the street is a Japanese steakhouse, a titty bar, and an antique mall- in that order. It's like Ohio went out of its way just to make me feel like I belong!
:)