I flew from JFK to Florida via JetBlue, taking the 6 pm flight so that I could get some work done before staying with my mom while my dad was in the hospital.
I got to the airport at 4:45, grabbed a sandwich and water and headed over to the boarding area. At 5:30 pm, an announcement said that our plane was being delayed because it was coming in from one of the Islands and it needed to go to the international arrivals first before we could get on.
I looked at my neighbor sitting next to me. “Did I just hear right?” I asked. “Don’t you think they would have coordinated this better? Why wouldn’t they use a Florida plane?”
She laughed and agreed.
At 6:30, an hour later, the flight attendants asked passengers to board the plane. Since they usually board from the back to the front and since I was sitting in seat 9F, I decided to grab a quick cup of coffee from a freestanding kiosk.
The woman gave me the coffee and of course, while I was putting the skim milk and splenda in it, the coffee cup spilled, but not all the way. I was happy about that because I definitely needed a pick me up after being up at more than 12 hours.
I was last to board the plane. When I got to my seat, I was surprised to see that I didn’t have one. Someone was in my seat! “Excuse me,” I said, “I think you’re in my seat…”
“Well, since I have 9D and the man over there has 9D we are sitting in your seat,” the older woman said.
Okay, I thought. That makes sense? I called the flight attendant over.
Meanwhile, I was standing in the aisle with my coffee in one hand, my backpack on and I was holding the suitcase. “Excuse me,” a woman said to me as she pushed her way past me. “I need to go to the bathroom.”
“Can’t you wait a moment?” I asked.
“No,” she said and with that, my coffee spilled all over an old woman wearing a white shirt. I was so embarrassed.
After several minutes, the flight attendants finally figured everything out by rearranging everyone in my section of the plane.
Everyone was seated. The plane took off. The man next to me blessed himself. I looked at him and thought I go on way too many planes…
Once up in the air, I could still feel the tension from passengers but it slowly dissipated. As we landed, the man next to me said another prayer and we were down.
I took my luggage down from the overhead bin and headed to the car rental place. I decided to rent a car from the same place I had rented from before because the last time I was in town, I left my hat in the car and asked the manager to hold on to it for me. Unfortunately, the hat was gone but I got a rental car quickly and went outside to start the car. When I put the key in the ignition, the car wouldn’t start… I started to laugh… Another travel adventure!
