...or Why You Shouldn't Cop an Attitude Post-9-11.
I recently attended Surtex in New York City. It's the conference/convention for artists to license their work to manufacturers. I've been wanting to attend for a couple of years but could not because I was at the station.
The conference was good. I learned a lot. It was the plane ride leaving JFK that was exciting... Here's the account:
My flight was supposed to leave JFK at 3:59pm on Tuesday afternoon. After we were all buckled into our seats on the plane, the pilot came on & said that Charlotte Douglas was closed for the bad weather. No flights were taking off or landing... and no flights that were scheduled to arrive in Charlotte were being given clearance to take off. That included us. So we sat there and waited. They pushed us back from the gate after about an hour to let another plane come in. We waited some more.
After 2 hours, we were allowed to head back to the gate (like, 50 feet away at that point) so we could go to the bathroom, get something to eat... and in one woman's misguided choice, sit at the bar and get hammered (see where this is heading?).
So after another 1/2 hour, they told us we could get back on the plane. I've never seen people move so quickly & efficiently! So we're all back in our seats, buckled up and getting in one final cell phone update to loved ones before the flight attendants tell us to turn our phones off... which we all do (because even though we're crabby, we're good little passengers). Oh... all of us turned our phones off EXCEPT the chick (who, bless her heart, looked like a reject from VH-1's "Rock of Love2") who had gone to the bar & gotten hammered. The flight attendants were trying to get her to comply...until she dropped the F-bomb in their direction.
Things to keep in mind when considering dropping the F-bomb on a member of a flight crew:
1) They're human & they get pissed off too.
2) It doesn't matter whether or not you respect them, because if you don't pay attention to them & follow their instructions, they call the local police department and have your little fanny dragged off the plane & into the drunk tank where you'll face federal charges the next morning!
Yes. It was exciting indeed!
But all the excitement caused us to lose our slot in the take-off line so we were delayed another 45 minutes just to get back into queue. After all was said & done, we finally took off from JFK at 9:00pm. My butt has never been so numb from sitting in those little seats.
Keep in mind that this was the polar opposite of my flight up. I got to sit by a hot guy (!!!!!) who was a tennis pro (!!!!) at a swanky yacht club (!!!!) in the wealthy part of New York. Well, okay... I was probably old enough to be his mom, but he's the one who struck up the conversation with me. :)
So, that was my adventure. I'm glad to be back.
