Good Signs of Things to Come

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My alarm clock greeted me far too early this morning. In fact, when it goes off at 3:30, I think it should be technically considered "last night." I got up, got ready, and got to the airport in plenty of time. My flight to Chicago was uneventful and the five-hour layover was surprisingly quite tolerable.

But when I got on my Chicago-Tokyo flight, things momentarily--but only momentarily--took a turn for the worse. I had an aisle seat. But it was right where the plane narrowed, so my row was "squeezed" at the aisle end, giving me a few inches less of legroom and there was a utility box under my seat so I could only put one foot under the seat. The other had to remain planted in a position that basically thrust my bent knee uncomfortably into the back of the seat in front of me. I had put in a request for a seat change to the flight attendant and was waiting to hear if I could move. But as luck would have it, it appeared that I was going to have an empty seat next to me… a small miracle on an otherwise jam-packed flight.

And then he walked in.

The man walking down the aisle was heading straight for the empty seat next to me. After a couple minutes of chit-chat, I learned that he (I'll call him "E") was originally from Michigan, most recently from Indiana, and a Marine. Right before we were to leave the gate, the flight attendant came back and told me there was a middle seat for me. Yeah, that would be the middle of the 5-across section, but it was in Economy Plus where there was an extra 5" of leg room. It didn't take me but a few seconds--make that milliseconds!--to make my decision.

Me: "Well, it was nice meeting you. I just made your day. You'll have this whole seat to yourself."

E: "Actually, I'm really disappointed, because you are reeeeaaaalllly cute!"

Me: "Yeah, thanks. But I gotta go."

It wasn't but about five minutes later, when we had pulled away from the gate, when I realized with perfect clarity that I had made the right decision. A flight attendant came running up the aisle yelling, "Oh my god, there is vomit EVERYWHERE!!"

It appears that E had consumed a few too many adult beverages at good ol' O'Hare… in the late morning, nonetheless. And he couldn't hold back during the flight safety instructions. So he bolted for the bathroom, mostly missed his target (several times), and careened his vomit-soaked self back to his seat where he promptly passed out.

Lovely.

Even though we were delayed on the ground for an hour and a half, while the back end of the plane was scrubbed down by a sizeable cleaning crew and E was escorted off the flight, I was happily up in my extra legroom seat (with an empty seat next to me for a little more room to spare), reading my novel, eating my trail mix, and smiling ear to ear for my good fortune.

Oh, and yes, I got upgraded to the bulkhead row on the Tokyo-Bangkok flight, too.

I think this is a good sign of things to come.

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