Enjablog

And I thought I’d have nothing to blog about tonight…

8 fire trucks, 2 ambulances, and 1 fire. No details yet, but the 2nd and 3rd floors smelled smoky when I walked past.

On the second leg of my trip home today, there was a bit of a skirmish…

It started out with a “security breach,” which caused the partially filled plane to have to deboard and wait half an hour. Fortunately, there were enough people still in line that I hadn’t even bothered to pack up my work yet.

So after they got that all straightened out, I gathered my things and headed to my seat. I brought a book to read while I waited to be allowed to turn on my laptop and get some work done. After a while I “decided” to take a nap instead.

A few minutes later, I was awakened by some thudding and shaking. Not of the plane, really… and then I noticed it was coming from across the aisle.

A man was trying to recline his seat and the woman behind him was punching the back of his seat. As far as I could tell, she didn’t try asking politely first. She just made it a pain for him to recline his seat. So then they just had an all-out fight about it with the seat taking the brunt of the beating. The two people never actually conversed.

Finally, the flight attendant had to come over to see what the ruckus was about. She politely asked the woman if she would like to move to another seat. Clearly, that was the easiest thing to do. The woman ignored the flight attendant and continued to complain that the person in front of her insists on reclining, even though the seat was hitting her knees. (It wasn’t.)

The flight attendant asked 2 more times before being forced to explicitly tell the woman that it was his right to recline his seat if he wants to. Would she like to switch to another seat? The woman huffed, “No. It’s fine.” Then proceeded to mutter complaints under her breath (but audibly, of course) for the next 5 minutes.

Now, this whole time, I was very careful to keep my mouth shut. Sealed shut. (You all know how good I am at doing that…)

In the whole seat reclining debate, I tend toward the do not lean side. Unless airlines intend to start doing a reclining and non-reclining section — or, you know, space the seats far enough apart that it’s actually possible to recline without being in some stranger’s lap — it seems simplest for everyone to be considerate of those around them and not recline their seat. Especially since there ARE a lot of people who simply do not fit comfortably in those seats to begin with.

So. The reason I would not say anything and could not possibly side with this woman? She had her seat fully RECLINED.

She did.

Really. Really.

And didn’t even recognize the hypocrisy. Fortunately for her, the person behind her was conked out asleep (with her seat upright, btw) and didn’t seem to care either way.

Fast-forward 15 minutes later, when the guy in front of me decides to recline his seat all the way back and not even lean on it. He was sitting up regularly doing work.

I had been trying to do work too. On my laptop, which I could no longer keep open on my tray table because there was a seat above it.

So, I actually talked to the guy. I politely asked him if he could lean his seat up a few inches (half-way) because I couldn’t open my laptop with his seat where it was.

He glares at the ruckus-makers across the aisle. Then calmly explains to me that the guy in front of him was reclined and if I wanted him to sit up, the whole row would have to sit up.

As he points to the one other person who would be affected. There were 2 meters between the guy in front of him and the first class seats. That and the guy in front of him only had his seat reclined about an inch, whereas Mr. Professor in front of me had his reclined about 4 inches.

One person.

I should’ve asked to be reseated. Sigh.