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Aug
17
The Sunday Salon: Week in Review & Travel Woes
2008 at 2pm Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
It’s been a rather eventful week for this book lady. Not only did I move to this new blog (click here to find out why), I read and reviewed The Handmaid’s Tale and Matrimony, both of which I really enjoyed (click the titles for my reviews), and Possible Side Effects, which was good but not great.
I wrote about my favorite bookstore for Tuesday Thingers and Gold Medal Reading for Booking Through Thursday. I also participated in a Book Buzz meme and gave away a signed copy of Months and Seasons by Christopher Meeks, who wrote a fantastic guest post to announce the winner.
I’m back in Richmond now after spending two weeks visiting my family in Kansas City, and I am pooped! I landed in Richmond around 2pm yesterday, and after resting for a few hours, headed up to D.C. with my husband to see our favorite band Counting Crows play at the Nissan Pavilion. It was our third time seeing them together, and it was a pretty good show, though we thought it was too short and the set list wasn’t the best. Sara Bareilles and Maroon 5 opened, which meant that most of the people in attendance were either teenagers or parents of teenagers, so we had plenty fodder for people watching and snarky commentary. It was a good time.
As annoying as many of our fellow concert-goers were, I have to say that my fellow passengers on my flights home yesterday really take the cake for obnoxious behavior in public places. I knew it was going to be a rough morning when the guy in front of me in the security line didn’t even begin looking for his I.D. until he got to the check point. Then, as I sat at my gate waiting to board, I heard a “woof….woof, woof” sound coming from behind and turned around to discover that a perfectly normal looking man in his forties was making a dog shadow puppet on the wall and providing sound effects….and not for his children (thankfully, it did not appear that he had any) but for his equally normal looking wife. Appearances can be so deceiving.
As I boarded the plane, I celebrated my success in snagging an exit row seat (though I’ll admit that at five feet tall, I don’t really need the extra leg room), and I prepared to settle in to The Sex Lives of Cannibals until I could fall asleep….Alas, despite the iPod buds planted firmly in my ears and the book in my hand, the gentleman next to me decided to strike up a conversation. About Nascar. At 8:30 in the morning. Did you know it only takes one race to make a fan? How have I survived my 25 years without this knowledge?
I barely acknowledged him (rude, I know…but wasn’t he being rude by trying to converse with someone who is actively and intentionally sending multiple signals that say “leave me alone”) and napped for the remainder of the flight.
I had a short connection in Cincinnati, which is easily the most strangely laid-out airport I have ever been in, and was reminded as I boarded that flight that, regardless of the fact that there are huge signs all over the place directing us to the appropriate gates, people don’t read. Even when it’s right in front of their faces. At the Cincinnati airport, you line up to board the plane the same way you would in any other airport, but instead of going through a doorway that leads down a narrow tunnel directly to your plane, you walk through a doorway that puts you in a hallway that all of the gate doorways open onto. Then, you walk down the hallway until you see the tunnel marked with your fight number and final destination. It’s unusual compared to many airports, but it’s not difficult. For most people.
Unfortunately, the woman in front of me was not most people, and she asked me three times in the 30 second walk where she should go, then after she exited the tunnel and saw our plane sitting there, steps down and waiting for us, she required reassurance from several passengers that it was, in fact, our plane. What other plane could it be, lady? Are you going to wander aimlessly on the runway until you find one that looks like a better option? Once on the plane, I discovered that she was seated right behind me, next to another middle-aged lady, with whom she promptly struck up a conversation that she continued, loudly enough for everyone in a five-row radius to hear, for the entirety of the flight. Even my ear buds couldn’t save me from her.
Just when I start thinking I might be becoming a nice person, I have a day like yesterday—-book-ended by obnoxious travelers and screaming teenagers—-and I remember why it is that I don’t like most people. Really. How could I?
No related posts.
Ah, the joys of flying!
ah
a kindred spirit
loving books and not liking (most) people
am enjoying your blog booklady
I would have reacted in the same annoyed fashion as you. I think we’re about the same age – aren’t we too young to be misanthropes? I think we both need to find ways to be given (free) review copies of “Why We Hate Us,” it looks quite good.
Great post – it really made me laugh (but I feel your pain)! But I can also identify with the poor woman whose husband was distracting her with dog shadow puppets on the wall. Flying makes me so nervous that I’d welcome a few bow-wows and shadow puppets, or any other activity that takes my mind off the fact that we’re actually going to have to take off and fly through the air!
And, I’m probably older than all of you, but I still find that behavior bizarre and obnoxious. I hope it’s a long time before I have to fly someplace. And, it’s such a shame because I used to enjoy flying.
Your new blog is great!
Some experience! There are all kinds of people in this world!
Do check out my Sunday Salon post
SS 1: Review of The Dark Child
I think traveling makes almost everyone hate people. There is bound to be someone annoying. On a train ride I took a couple of months ago, despite the fact that I had my book open and was clearly reading it, the man next to me insisted on having a conversation for all four hours! I don’t understand how that’s okay.
Hope you have better travel experiences in the future!
How awful! I can’t even remember all of the conversations I’ve been forced into on planes. To me, earphones or a book alone would be enough of an indicator that you want to be left alone. Together, it’s hard to understand how that could be ignored.
I didn’t know that you live in Richmond? I’m in Roanoke! If I’m ever going to be in your neck of the woods, maybe we can meet for a snack or something. I’ve got about 12 additional years of experience on you, but I know that there’s at least one thing we could discuss – and it’s not Nascar!
Our last trip to the UK passed with little incident, although the infamous “stack” around Heathrow can be quite unnerving, given how close other planes appear to be. Near misses seem to be de rigueur for the skies of London!
Now I think of it, Jenney did manage to accidentally reformat her entire MP3 player about an hour into an eight hour flight. On top of that, we happened to have the only two seats in the entire plane that had broken TV screens, so we couldn’t even watch whatever crap they were showing.
LOL!!!! I am such an idiot!!!! Now I know we can just get a snack at the B&N.
good not great books are better than, i expected more and was let down books.
~~
I know very little of Counting Crows…
Though i do love myself some Mr Jones.
“We all want something beautiful
I wish I was beautiful
So come dance this silence down through the morning
Cut Maria! Show me some of them Spanish dances
Pass me a bottle, Mr. Jones”
[...] and representative of things we’ve all witnessed or fallen victim to (if you read my Sunday Salon post a few weeks ago, then you know why I don’t like most [...]
[...] just about enough of it. Click here to read my review of his fantastic book Why We Hate Us and here for another example of why I hate [...]
I have done more than my share of flying in the last few months and I am convinced that traveling makes people stupid.
I was in the security line at the Minneapolis airport several weeks back, right behind a woman who was insisting that her teenage children did not have to carry their own tickets. The security guard insisted that they did, they argued back and forth, until finally he made her stand off to the side while he let the 10-15 people in line behind her through. When I got through the metal detectors, she was still arguing with him!