The early bird....

Well, here’s a shock…I’m back in the air. This time it’s flight 222, which is the sunrise flight out of LAX to Boston. It’s really not so bad to have to get to the airport at 6am….as long as you lie to yourself and pretend it’s 8.

Really though, I’m not sure anyone was feeling up to being suave and charming this morning. I say this because in the few rows near me there was not only the obligatory crying child, but also an unhappy barking dog who was less than thrilled with having to lie down to fit under the seat for the next 5 hours. This, combined with the man in the seat next to me who promptly removed his shoes, and cleverly stuffed his pillow in the arm of his coat and then put the other sleeve back on to hold it in place while he slept his way across the country, led me to decide no one felt they got enough rest last night.

And this plane’s occupants are far from alone in this. Due to the massive snowstorms that left 75% of the country under snow this week, thousands of flights were cancelled and their passengers left to fend for themselves. Speaking of which, I had the …pleasure…I guess… of meeting several of them in my hotel last night.

A few of them who were trying to get back to ATL had a few drinks in the lounge, and then spent quite a good deal of time trying to impress me (why me I’m still not sure). They thought that this could be accomplished by calling the “new age life” conference that had taken up residence in the attached conference center an “alien convention” and warning me that “one or two of them might be in the lounge even as we speak.”

Now, in all honesty, I wasn’t about to go join the convention either….and the guy attending who probably should have been wearing more than light sweatpants in the lobby made me slightly uncomfortable. But the bottom line is that its Southern California…and anything goes, and that’s the beauty of it. Besides, if there’s one attribute that the vast range of people who might be attending this conference might share, it’s a genuine peaceful “niceness” that was severely lacking in my impromptu lounge companions.

What’s more, upon walking onto my floor from the elevator (before the above incident), I was nearly accosted by a woman looking for the executive lounge because she desperately needed to make it there for the free food before they stopped serving. I was looking for the same thing, and so we shared an elevator down the one floor. In this time she managed to tell me emphatically that she was a) stranded (also) trying to get back to Atlanta due to the unusual snow, and b) that she didn’t like Los Angeles because the people were rude and self-obsessed. After smiling and nodding a bit, and the obligatory “but you can’t beat the weather,” I excused myself to a table (whereupon I met the above ‘gentlemen’). Later that night I came back to my room, and found her on the floor of the hall more than a little drunk….belt unbuckled….and claiming that she was having “A good time.”

Conclusion…people who aren’t used to getting stranded due to snow clearly have no idea how to handle themselves on such an occasion. That or I just picked a bad weekend to hit up the Hilton LAX.

Now…. Where was I going with this?

No idea.

Onwards and upwards then I suppose.