Practicing patience

I’m really not a patient person. Not at all. I kind of hate lines. I get really frustrated in traffic. I get frustrated by people who waste my time and slow me down. Generally, I can keep it under control and choose the kinder, better option that involves less yelling. This trip to Tulsa has kind of been in exercise in controlling my lack of patience, though.

First, there was the fact that I had to be at the airport for our departure flight yesterday morning at 6 a.m. Not fun. Then there was the delay in Dallas, which I understand no one had control over since it was weather related and our plane was coming from Omaha. But it was not fun. Not. Fun. So we finally left for Tulsa about 15 minutes after we were supposed to arrive there. At least it was a short flight.

Then came today. We got to the Tulsa airport around 6:30 a.m., I’d say. And we were all carrying on our luggage, since this was a one-night trip. That means you put your liquids and such in a quart-sized carry-on. The 3-1-1 TSA requirement is well-known. Even if you don’t travel much, you probably have some idea of the things you can and can’t bring onto a plane and know that liquids have to go in a plastic bag. Let me also point out that they also set up  tables before you get into the security line with plastic bags and tons of signs telling you to get the liquids out of your bag and into the plastic one. It’s not a secret. Then why—oh why!—did we get stuck behind a young woman and her mom who seemed unclear on this concept? Who were pulling out liquids in the line to the X-ray machine? And the girl put her boarding pass into her purse and stuck it through the scanner even though TSA officials were loudly informing everyone that you had to have the boarding pass in had to get through security. So there we were, stuck behind her, unable to go through the metal detectors ourselves because she was in no hurry to retrieve her boarding pass (her purse was having to go through the scanner at least 3 times because she had a large bottle of hairspray or something in there) and the TSA guards wouldn’t let us go through until she had. I really wanted to bean her over the head with my massively overstuffed second carry-on item.

Then, our flight left Tulsa late because of gate confusion and a lot of flights that got diverted there last night due to weather (the ice that has kept my family in MO out of power for 4 days now). We got to DFW later than expected, grabbed some food so we’d get to eat lunch on the plane, and pretty much boarded the plane immediately. It took absolutely forever to board the plane, though, and spent a lot of time standing in the jetbridge while my arm was about to break off because of my aforementioned massively overstuffed second carry-on. Then, when I finally found my seat, I was next to an exec type who stayed on his phone well after we’d been told to buckle our seatbelts and get ready for the flight.

The final moment of frustration was caused by the woman in front of me who leaned back her seat almost immediately. Not a big deal, but I don’t generally lean back my chair on planes, especially domestic flights, out of consideration for the person behind me. The fact that this woman leaned her chair back didn’t really bother me that much; it’s the fact that when we were all instructed to place our chairs in the upright position, she left her’s leaning back. For. Ever. Until the flight attendant came by. I actually had to resist the urge to shove her chair. This minor annoyance may say more about me than about her, though.

All that said, I’m home. I feel kind of icky and think a nap is in order before tonight’s Fiction Family festivities.