It's only supposed to be a 59 minute flight!

So, I reported for my standby stint and was in the domicile for about an hour last night, when the Coordinator called and gave me a trip. I was to fly to Boston for the night. Simple enough, right?

As my favorite brother-in-law, Dan says, "Oh, hell no!"

First, the aircraft was late in arriving, but only by a few minutes. The pilots were late in arriving, by about 30 minutes. When they arrived, we were already boarded, with a light load of about 60 passengers. The pilots have to do their safety checks--some people think they just need to put the key in the ignition and back out of the driveway like we do in our cars--but, it's not like that at all! So, delayed a little bit more for that.

While we were waiting to get going, one man and his wife were acting strangely. While walking to the bathroom, the husband literally banged into me while I was standing still talking to one of our customers--hit me hard with his body against my back and side, and never said "excuse me" or "I'm sorry." He went back to his seat--and I just chalked it up to poor manners. Two or three minutes later, he came back, and banged into me again! Again, no acknowledgement or apology was offered. While he was in the restroom the second time, he was singing! After he returned to his seat, I saw him holding his arms across his belly, and rocking back and forth, very vigorously. I felt his behavior was odd, and decided to tell our Purser--you know, just in case.

We taxied out, and got into a long line of airplanes, waiting to take off. A big storm had rolled through the area, and that had the arrivals and departures delayed. (When I spoke to Norm, prior to boarding the aircraft, he mentioned the possibility of hail and high winds where we live.) Another line of weather was delaying our departure into Boston--they had shut down the air corridor for the time being. Some of our passengers had already been previously inconvenienced--their flight, that was supposed to have departed 4 hours earlier--had cancelled. And now, long waits for weather. No fun!

The Captain turned off the engines (to save fuel) while we waited out the weather. The Flight Attendants were able to get up out of our jumpseats and tend to our passengers, as best we could. Mary and I walked through the cabin offering water, and answering questions as best we could. Suffice it to say, when I got to their row and asked them if they would like a glass of water, the aforementioned man and his wife were angry and belligerent and used a lot of profanity.

The Purser, bless her heart, was having none of this. She called the Captain and reported the behaviors we had seen and heard, and the Captain returned to the gate to have the couple removed. That was a non-event, but I was relieved we weren't having to deal with them anymore.

Since nothing associated with airplanes or airports happens quickly, we were at the gate for about an hour, before getting back in line for our trip to Boston. Originally scheduled to arrive at 11:20 p.m.....it was 1:30 in the morning when we got here. Another hour to get out of the airport and to the hotel...and that all made for a long night!


The Crew Desk decided to keep me here in Boston for the day. That would be great if I was downtown, but, I am not close to anything! The airport is 40 minutes away, and there isn't much around here....


























Tomorrow, I fly to San Francisco, then to Vegas, baby! Twenty hours there, then one leg home. Get in around 9 p.m Friday night.....maybe will have Saturday off??? Hopefully, Lady Luck will be on my side!