Weirdos at 10,000 feet

After saying goodbye for the second time, I drove to airport with Russell, Jennie and Jennie's mom. Time went by very slowly because Russell pretty much slept in the back and I had to make conversation with Jennie's mom. She's very nice but she had a Jersey accent and talked and talked and talked and talked. I was so happy when I saw the airport exit.

Russell said goodbye to Jennie and I could tell they were sad. While I made fun of them, I realized that I would be saying goodbye to Brian in a couple of weeks to leave for Mexico.

Our first flight was great. Russell and I sat next to each other and had a great time. The flight leaving Chicago was a different story.

Russell and I were in the middle seats on the 13th and 14 rows. Russell put a book down on his middle seat and put his carry-on stuff in the overhead bins. As he did this, the guy in the window seat picked up his book and started looking through it. He then moved to the aisle seat. When Russell said, "Excuse me" to him, the guy said, "Where are you sitting?" Russell pointed to his seat and the man let him pass.

One would think that the near interrogation would be the end of Russell's trouble. As we were talking, Russell said the word "hijack" twice before I told him to shut up. Realizing the error in his choice of words, he sat down and started reading his book.

Because Russell and I weren't sitting next to each other, we hoped that someone wouldn't show up and we could sit next to each other. Two minutes to departure, the aisle seat on Russell's row was empty (the interrogator moved to another row). We thought we had made it until a middle aged man appeared in the front of the plane. He took the seat that could have been ours.

Ten minutes later, Russell leaned forward and asked if I could smell an odor. When I said I couldn't, he complained that this middle-aged man smelt of ham and feces. He contacted a flight attendant and requested a new seat. I felt badly for Russell. The rest of the flight went smoothly.

Needless to say, it was extremely nice to see Brian. He had made his yummy chicken.

Confidential to Megan and Scott: When I say yummy chicken, I mean yummy chicken. ;)