SYR to CMH

Weird that this is the first time in recent memory that I've flown
without knowing for sure that there will be another flight in the
relatively near future. And thus college ends...

In other news, follow me on Twitter, where all the real excitement
happens. @ebsteiger

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Plane etiquette

There are four empty ROWS behind me--yes, ROWS--and yet the woman
sitting next to me isn't moving into one of them. Always move into the
empty rows. Then everyone gets more room. I can't cause I'm a window
seat.

RUDE. I want an empty seat next to me, dammit!

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Chaos on the plane

There's a non English-speaking woman sitting in my seat...and her
husband sitting next to her...don't really know what to do about this.
Just grabbed a random seat. Sheer chaos.

Also, CMH got a full body scanner. Fancy.

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Well, this is...different

My seat only has half a seatbelt. And this is one of those prop planes
where it's as wide as my arm span. SYR to LGA get crunk!

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O-hi-o

On my way to Columbus for about 36 hours to interview for a fellowship
with the Ohio State Legislature. I intended to drink a casual beer
while waiting for my plane, but instead got distracted working on my
thesis (due on Friday!) and ended up having to essentially chug the
whole thing. Well, nothin' wrong with bein' a little tipsy in the sky...

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Ryanair introduces "childfree" flights!

I can totally get behind this. From the Ryanair website:

Ryanair, the world’s favourite airlines, today announced that it will introduce ‘Child Free’ flights from October (winter schedule) after a Europe-wide survey of 1,000 passengers showed that half would pay higher fares to avoid other people’s children. The survey showed that a third of passengers (36%) have had flights ‘ruined’ by other people’s noisy kids with one in five passengers (18%) urging Ryanair to restrict the number of children on flights.

While the survey found that passengers would prefer to avoid other people’s children, it placed ‘blame’ firmly with parents with top gripes being:

1. 50% Parents who expect ‘special treatment’ because they have children.

2. 25% Parents who allow children to annoy those in seats behind.

3. 15% Parents who board late and expect others to accommodate them.

4. 10% Parents who allow children to run in the aisles or kick seats.

Tales from the runway

On the runway preparing to depart ORD and we were told we're 35th in
line. I timed it and it seems to take about four minutes and fifteen
seconds for each plane to take off. That's an estimated two and a half
hours of runway time ahead of us.

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DFW to ORD

Second worst turbulence of my life.

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Off to the All-Star State

From SYR to DFW early this morning for the Tri Delta Regional
Leadership Conference. I'm wearing a cowboy hat.

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Last time back to Colgate

Weird to think that after this semester, my frequent traveler status
will essentially end...I'll have no need to fly back and forth between
school and my parents' house anymore and I'll probably be too poor to
travel often on my own.

Winter break ended just in time, though; there was some pretty
unpleasant familial tension going on in Terre Haute and it's such a
relief to get away from it. I'm still in shock that I won't be going
back in the foreseeable future, though.

So far today my travel adventures include artfully avoiding having to
hug my father when my parents dropped me off at the airport; having
the guy sitting next to me on the plane help me take off my
coat...come on, dude, I'm 22, I can dress and undress myself, thanks;
and overhearing the shocked comments of this big group of young women
in business attire who are on my flight about how terribly small this
flight is...they clearly either aren't used to flying at all or aren't
used to flying regionally, because this plane is two large seats on
either side of the aisle and enough overhead space to avoid gate
checking, so as far as regional jets go, this is really quite a large
one.

Update: it's official, they're infrequent fliers. I just heard one of
them squeal in delight over a SkyMall.

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