Journey: Flight

[from my written travel journal. Augmented. First entry for this trip.]

Cruising altitude, Southwest flight #245 MCI to Seattle, 1230 hours CDT

Its been a nice trip so far. Negatives first… I have a mild headache. I also didn’t get the website posted before I left – that annoys me. I didn’t much care for the “two hour wait” in the gate area, at least not conceptually (a one hour wait would have been fine). But, that’s it for negatives.

The bonuses – I did get much of the house clean and even got an hour of sleep last night. I also talked to my sister until my phone died. I got to spend the evening with Tyler, watching Zoolander and roaming Barnes & Noble. I used the wait at the airport to hasten off a last will for myself. With the time it took for that, mailing it, and picking up breakfast, the rest of the two hour wait was quickly spent in the boarding queue.

The flight isn’t crowded. Almost everyone has a vacant seat between them. I admit to mior creeping fear… lets call it a “heightened sence of awareness” about the flight and passengers. I chose a seat next to a young man with a degree in oceanographic microbiology, who is working as a network tech for a national “meter reading by I.P.” company.

He’s been very chummy (his name is Ben, see the pun?). We both introduced ourselves and told each other about ourselves right away. I assume he got the same e-mail I did about the first American flight after the ban was lifted, and what the crew did on that flight. He also broke his headphones apart so we could both listen ot “Me, Myself, & Irene” on DVD in his laptop. He was distracted, watching the ground and whatnot, and his battery died ONE minute before the movie was over! But, it was still very generous of him.