Our Flight Home

Henry and I flew from Salt Lake to St. Louis on Wednesday. The flight was fairly full, but not completely filled. Up until the last few minutes, I had two empty seats next to me as I sat on the isle with Henry on my lap.

Then a woman came and sat next to me. Not in the window seat as you would expect, but literally next to me. I was wondering how I could politely hint that she should scoot over. I mentioned that it looked like everyone had found a seat, so no one would be claiming that window seat. "Oh good. We can spread out if we need to, " but as she said that, she was doing up her seat belt in the middle seat with no intention of moving.

Now, I understand that I only paid for one seat and am therefore only entitle to one seat. But it seems to me that if there's an empty seat on the row, you should share the extra space. (She also only paid for one seat, so why should she get the extra all to herself?) With a baby on your lap, you can't use the seat-back tray. Also, it is much harder to feed him without a little elbow room. I realize these are small complaints, and things I'm completely ready to deal with on a full row. Eventually when I was feeding him, the woman moved into the window seat. Who's so anxious to sit right next to a woman with a baby anyway? No one wants to sit next to a baby. That's why I had two empty seats by me for so long.

Nick compared her seat selection to a breach of urinal etiquette. In the absence of a long line for the urinals, you never use the urinal next to a urinal already in use.

But then again, how can I complain that in a flight that lasts just under three hours I returned to my home 1300 miles away from where I started? It's pretty amazing, even if the seat doesn't recline very far and all they serve is peanuts.

This video is pretty funny. The relevant airplane ingratitude segment starts at about 2 1/2 minutes.

Everything is amazing, and no one is happy . . . .