Of Parenting and The Ethics of Flying, Part 2.

First let me begin by saying that our last night in Charlotte we caved to our desires and went back to Mac's to have the brisket, this time with Mac and Cheese and the Green Bean Casserole. It was freaking to die for, and yes, I have pictures. Since it was the last night we celebrated with a frosty beverage. I had a local pilsner, Captain James Jack.

which was alright, not really remarkable, but not bad either. Here's the Brisket. For those that need to know, this was Carolina Hickory Smoked Beef Brisket. It was dry rubbed and slow smoked for 12 hours, and finished on the grill with red BBQ Sauce. I'm still having dreams about it.

But now, to flying.

I thought that not much could be worse than the experience I had flying in, with a child kicking my seat. I was wrong. There's something I can't stand, and have no patience for: rude adults.

While checking in and getting our seats, Susan and I were lucky enough to be able to switch to exit and aisle seats. They didn't have that much extra space, but it was nice. We boarded pretty quickly and sat down, to find some woman just standing up on the row in front of hours, ostensibly waiting for the plane to finish boarding to try to change her seat; you see, her older children had been placed in the middle seats somewhere in the back (same row though), and her younger child was in the middle seat of the row ahead of me. She wanted to at least get someone to switch with one of her children, so that they could sit together, and so that she could seat in the aisle next to her child. Sensible enough, right? And understandably so. But standing on the person's seat is not really the way to go about asking someone to take a middle seat for you, but whatever. She gets the person to switch with her (after bothering the flight attendant, and just generally standing in the middle of the aisle, getting in the way of people that are boarding) and so Susan and I look at each other thinking, "Good, now that's over, let's sleep!"

But alas, it was not to be. Just then, a "gentleman" comes over and seats on the other aisle seat, buckles himself, and then proceeds to have a conversation with the man sitting by the window - two seats and an aisle away from him. I don't know if I'll be able to explain this just with words. I want to draw y'all a diagram. Suffice it to say, that in order to be heard the men were loud, and annoying. Eventually the mom asks, in a not unfriendly tone if they plan to have a conversation over her the entire flight. The man's response? "You see that man? He's a sports news anchor at (enter small NY TV station) and I'm his producer. We were here covering the Giants/Panthers game."

I really wanted the woman to say "so the fuck what?" because after all, the freaking game is not even in Season yet, and this is a small TV news station. The game was last night. The hell. But instead, the woman feigns some interest, and what proceeds is the weirdest instance of three way flirting while in front of a child that I've ever seen. The News Anchor flirted, the mom flirted, the producer guy flirted and they all did it - LOUDLY. Eventually, the mom started to pay attention to her kid and the producer and the News Anchor just resumed their conversation.

Here's where I was torn. Unlike with Sam, these people knew better. I mean, really? In a small enclosed space like that? I was about to chew my hands off, specially since I didn't have headphones with me. To boot, just as the last few stragglers come in, turns out the News Anchor guy put both his very small bags on the overhead, and the new person putting their luggage away had to ask him twice to at least take one of his bags out. Which, he promptly put back in, on top of the other person's luggage as soon as they went away. In any case, the talking went on for ages.

Eventually, the CHILD was the one that made them shut up, by keeping interrupting the News Anchor and the Producer, asking to see things out of the News Anchor window. And then the flirting resumed between News Anchor and Mom. At least though, their voices were not as loud and annoying as the producers.

To say: I clearly hold more patience for children than for adults. But also, why not be courteous of others? Every time they talked I'd say "seriously, whatever you're discussing is not life and death, wait til we land!" But couldn't bring myself to say so, and eventually didn't really need to. But even 15 minutes of having to listen to them made the flight longer. Alas, next time, I will not forget the all important headphones.