Travel Travails

I spent an extended weekend visiting my family (in Rhode Island). It was good to spend time with my family, especially my new nephew. There is nothing like interacting with a small child (infant in his case) that really renews ones awe at how amazing a creature human beings are.

My flight out was a red-eye; it is that or loose almost an entire day due to travel times + time-zone changes; which was my 2nd worst red-eye ever. I strained my ankle snowboarding last weekend and my ankle cramped up after ~3-4hrs and nothing I could do would get it to relax. Of course I packed my ibuprofin in my checked luggage. Worse, I was in an aisle seat with just enough foot space for my big toe. Lets, see... United aisle seat. Apparently that means you get triple screwed. You are one of the last to board (window and middle seats board first), so there is no luggage space left. Worse, there isn't enough space under the seat in front of you to fit your feet, forget a bag. Lastly, you get the joy of rubbing elbows with everyone who walks past, thanks to the large person overflowing out of the middle seat next to you. (At least on this flight it was some cute woman, not the fat, smelly, snoring guy that made my worse-ever red-eye such the memorable experience.)

There was a pleasant aspect of my travels. For both my flights, out and back, I ran into someone I knew on the 2nd leg of the journey. On the way out, an old acquaintance recognized me as we boarded the puddle-jumper from Dulles to RI. She may have had a year to compete in the world's worse, competition, but it was great to catch up. Andrea, if you ever read this, thanks! On the way back, I had a transfer in Atlanta, and it turned out that another random acquaintance was on that flight also. That turned out to be fortuitous as well, since the plain was delayed, and we were stuck there for a while.

Strange how small the world really is.