This time I was unlucky enough to be in the middle although in sniffing distance of first class. I cherished the almost princess moment with my wistful view of the curtains that separated THEM in their rarified air from US, the hoi polloi.
To my left was an older-than-me male; slightly obnoxious. He moved around a lot, didn’t settle down, and then THIS: he attempted to man-usurp the shared armrest.
OH NO HE DINT.
I might be all of five feet tall and my feet might BARELY reach the floor, but NOBODY has the right to hog the shared armrest. Bad form, lack of etiquette, and not on my watch, buddy.
I strategically waited until he reached down to get something from his under-the-seat bag and I FIRMLY planted MY arm on the arm rest. HAH! I thought to myself, that’ll teach him. I let him have it back after I felt my point had been made and received.
He finally decided to nap and covered himself with his jacket which invaded MY territory, so I shoved it back over to his side- that’s when I got “Sorry.” After about fifteen minutes or twenty minutes, I must confess that I took a certain amount of pleasure in waking him up so I could use the restroom. Just a CERTAIN amount of joy, not a lot. Not too much. (Tee hee.)
Harrumph. Don’t ever mess with a short curly haired girl, old man.
To my right was a young guy who had an edition of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian wedged in the little pocket attached to the seat in front. It stared at him, unblinking, willing him to pick it up and read, but for two hours he resisted the allure of McCarthy and the urge to absorb those tortuous words. First he tweeted A LOT and then he fell asleep, woke up, and cracked open the novel. I wonder if he had any idea what he was getting himself into, and felt like telling him this might NOT the best time to read McCarthy as he’s the antithesis of a light, not-too-demanding author, but I kept my own counsel this time. His mistake, though. Cormac is the stuff of nightmares.
On the other hand, I was firmly immersed in one of my fave authors, Sophie Kinsella. This time it was her 2017 book, My Not So Perfect Life. It was like drinking the perfect cocktail on a balmy summer evening. Kinsella rarely disappoints and I was immediately drawn into the characters, their situations, and relationships. Like all great reads (in my opinion) it ended with the main character finding her happily-ever-after true love.
I read nonstop until we landed.
Home. There’s no place like it.
Enchanted Seashells by Princess Rosebud 
You make me remember why I hate flying and especially sitting in the middle. 🙂
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Flying isn’t so bad, it’s the TSA stress that gets to me, and I’m usually NEVER in the middle but I wanted a seat that was up front and took a chance. Old man was lucky I was restrained. Thank goodness it wasn’t a 13 hour flight.
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Definitely. I have a flight story that was so nightmarish (not in any safety way, but seat-neighbor way) that it turned hilarious. It was a flight from NYC to Paris. I wasn’t GOING to Paris, but to Milan. Missed a connection and got rerouted. Sat between two young women who fought the whole way and neither would trade places with me so I wasn’t stuck between them. It was five seats across in the middle of the plane. It was a million degrees, too. Stewardess was NOT handing out water. I understand French pretty well. One of the women was a French woman who worked at Bergdorf. The other was a rich Jewish girl (I know this because she made a big point of it) who complained about the treatment she’d gotten at Bergdorf’s cosmetic counter. They made a big deal (to me) about how they both spoke French, but it was ME who heard the announcement that we were getting “une petit dejeuner” (sp). The both said, at the same time, after I told them, “How do YOU know?” and I said, “I was listening.” Hilarious.
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Well, enjoy your little breakfast lol. I love doing that as I speak/understand a bit of spanish/french too. My son is a german prof so he REALLY gets to hear good stuff cos he looks so UNacademic no one would think he would be fluent. It’s fun! However, in your case, would there have been no way to ask to change seats? I change seats a lot and have accomodated others who didn’t get seats together.
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I tried to change seats, but since basically a whole plane load of people had been crammed into the plane from the flight we missed, there was no where to go. It was an incredible experience from start to finish! 😀
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Well, that makes sense. Unfortunate all the way around! I hope you enjoyed your final destination in Milan!
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🙂 Someday I’ll write the story and let you know what happened.
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