Return your seat back to the upright position!

Hello from our nation’s warm and sunny Capitol! It’s been quite awhile since my last travel rant, and after yesterday’s short stint in the skies, I am ready for another little rant.

1) Don’t stand, don’t stand so close to me! The seating area for my flight yesterday morning was packed with obnoxious businessmen (more on that in a sec) sprawled out all over the place. To get a little quiet with my pricey iced coffee, I walked as far away as I could get without leaving the area to stand against a wall where there were no people. Until a girl decided to come and stand a foot away from me and then proceeded to call everyone she knew. Who wants to chat at 6:40 am?! Give me my space bubble, girlfriend.

2)The title of this post says it all. The passenger in front of me threw his seat back. . . before we took off. He was European, so unless he got here on a boat, he has flown at least once before. He proceeded to sit forward and back for about 15 minutes, crashing into my bag and knees until I politely asked him to stop.

He didn’t so I spent the flight putting my tray table up and down and kneeing him in the back. Mature, I know. He may have had his seat back, but he wasn’t getting any sleep on my watch.

3) Yes, you still have to take your laptop out of your bag and your shoes off, experienced business traveler. No, you can’t bring that full 32 ounce water through security. Catch the news lately?

4) Tuna sandwiches, spraying perfume, and doing your nails should all be prohibited in the air.

5) And finally. . . what is up with men and any sort of travel?! Maybe it’s just Boston men and the experiences I have had recently, but holy rude! The morning airport scene at the shuttle flights was a sea of men in matching suits, all trying their best to talk louder and guffaw more than one another, doing skeezy once-overs of the few women in the area, cutting in front of little old ladies, and watching as women struggled to put bags in the overhead.

My favorite was the mid 20’s chap who whined and whined at the poor woman making ALL of the food for the only restaurant in the terminal. He needed TWO grape jellies and couldn’t wait. Wah.

It was an otherwise smooth flight and quick cab ride through DC to the conference hotel. I don’t think much about it, but being here makes me feel proud. It is such a cool, historic city!

Do you have any recent travel gripes? Or am I being curmudgeonly?