in which trying to be nice gets you an uncomfortable 4 hours

or, Cleveland Air Travel Adventures

Last thursday I headed out to Cleveland again for work, via Southwest from Midway, as usual. We boarded the plane ontime, and as I had a "B" seat I was able to snatch an aisle seat. However, the flight was full, and the middle seats also began to fill up. There was an older and quite tall man that asked if my middle seat was taken. Feeling that i could be nice and that "it's only a 40 minute flight," I offered to just move over and gave him the aisle seat. All seemed well. Except for that I didn't get off that plane until nearly 4 and a half hours later - due to bad weather mainly inbetween Chicago and Cleveland. And then, this guy was reading a book and elbowed me in the ribs virtually every time he turned a page. whatever. i'm not bitter. : )

this flight also brought the worst turbulance I have ever experienced, which happened as we flew over and around a lightning storm below that made it look like the world might be ending. After having quite a long chat with God on that flight, I was definitely more than relieved to land safely....

the return trip at least was infinitely more fun, having randomly met someone at the airport restaurant who, as chance would have it, was also on my flight back to Chicago. And, was absolutely hilarious. All in all, that 24 hours was me totally out of my comfort zone- but some really great things came out of it.