Personal Space

April 27, 2011
San Francisco, CA

I’m tired. I’m running on 40 minutes of sleep. It’s 11:09 am Pacific Daylight Time and I need to stay awake for another hour and a half before I can sleep for 13-15 hours and land in Shanghai.

Thus far the trip has been fairly uneventful. The Eugene airport was smooth sailing as usual. I was through security and waiting at the gate 39 minutes after leaving my house. I had a rather annoying seat mate from EUG to SFO. I’m typically well equipped to handle annoying people and crappy flying situations. In my backpack I have noise canceling headphones, eyeshades, snacks and a blanket. These items can typically make any seat mate tolerable. However the guy next to me today had absolutely NO sense of personal space. Sometimes you get ginormous people next to you and you sort of feel bad for them because you can tell they are trying to stay in their seat. That, however, was not the case with this guy. He wasn’t even that big, say maybe 6’ 0” 200lbs with sort of broad shoulders. He was on the plane before me (I decided to go to the bathroom one more time before boarding and therefore didn’t make my pre-board, you’re welcome for that detail). He the tray table in front of my seat down with his coffee cup on it. He seemed put out when I arrived at my row and told him I was in the window. He begrudgingly put up the tray table and stood up so I could sit down. As I slid across his seat to mine, I pulled down the armrest. Before I finished putting my backpack under the seat in front of me he had placed his arm not only on top of the entire arm rest but actually on my side of it. I don’t mean my half, I mean the part of it running perpendicular to my seat. I did my best to just lean against the window and ignore him but that become increasingly hard because he was constantly shaking. Each shake resulted in contact with me. Each time I was close to falling asleep he would elbow me again. How he didn’t find this as annoying as I, I will never know. Thankfully the flight was only an hour and five minutes. Needless to say I was happy to get off the plane in San Fran.

Upon arrival here I walked around the terminal for a half hour to get some exercise. Once I worked up an appetite I went to my usual Anchor Brewery Co. for an omelette. After finishing breakfast I walked down to the international terminal, took a few pictures of the new United paint jobs for dad. After that it was off to the Red Carpet Club where I am now. The best development here has been that the old coffee machines still exist here! In many recent RCC renovations the coffee machines have been changed so that they no longer include hot chocolate or english toffee coffee. I haven’t had either of those yet but I might take one for the road. On that note, I should start packing up to head to my gate. Here's hoping for more space in row 15 on that beauty below ;~)

I’ll write from Shanghai tonight!

Katy