Unintentionally inconsiderate

I did a terrible job at getting sleep last night, so I woke up later than expected and was rushing all the way to the airport. I did make it by fifteen minutes prior to the listed departure time, but as I walked up to the gate, they were announcing "last call for boarding", so I'm comfortable saying I barely made it.

I was mostly packed last night, so that wasn't too big a deal, but I really needed to not hit snooze this morning (I failed). Then I wasn't expecting more snow, so I had to scrape the coating off the rental car when I was already behind. After I checked out of the hotel, I grabbed a complimentary muffin for breakfast on the go (a treat, as I don't usually eat breakfast). It didn't help my hurry that the airport is ten miles outside the city.

At most airports I've been to in the last several years, you pull up to a "rental car return" area and someone gives you a receipt and takes the car. Expecting a similar routing (incorrectly), I didn't think the rental return would take much time at all. However, at the small regional airport, you park the car yourself in roughly the same area you got it from, which it turns out is about the furthest away from the terminal possible. It was 14 degrees and I had packed my heavy jacket away to save airplane seat space, so I was rather chilly, dragging my bag behind me with one hand, my laptop backpack on, and the muffin I grabbed earlier in the other hand.

The check-in process was longer than expected because I had questions about being reimbursed my $50 from the lost luggage replacement items. When I finally got to security, I heard them announce boarding for my flight. I started to hurry more, and in the process I inadvertently crushed my muffin. Bummer. Holding it all that time I started to get hungry.

So I was pretty much the last person on the plane, and when I got to my seat I was next to a lady with two kids, one young enough to sit on her lap. I expected bad things from this experience, but I tried to remain open minded as I have two kids and so shouldn't rush to judgment about someone else's.

Right before we got underway, a flight attendant asked if I wanted to move to an open seat in the exit row. Feeling like it might give the impression of offense to the lady with children, I declined. However, it would appear as though that was the wrong decision. After I decided not to move seats, the lady huffed and puffed a few times, and made comments to her kids like, "no honey, don't do that, it's very cramped in here". It was only an hour long flight, but she had to sit there with that kid on her lap the whole time. I had actually fallen asleep, a by-product I'm sure of my lack of sleep last night, and was only occasionally awaken by the lady's comments/actions.

So I considered moving my seat half-way through the flight, but then it really seemed like it would be saying, "you're bothering me, I'm moving". I had no ill will in staying in my assigned seat. And let's not forget that every flight I've been on during this trip has been full, so how could I have assumed there were free seats? Somehow I still find myself feeling as though I did something wrong, something greatly inconsiderate.

So once we landed, I got out of there quickly, to get that whole situation behind me, not that the guilt didn't follow. Now I'm serving out my 3.5 hour layover in Minneapolis. I've found a comfy sports bar not far from my gate. The chips were horribly stale, but the BBQ brisket sandwich was decent. I'm sitting in the middle of four TVs with various flavors of news, and one sports channel, which I found a little strange. Seems like a sports bar should have more sports than news.

Hopefully, the airline doesn't lose my bags again in the three hour wait.