| | Saturday, January 17, 9:00am PST – Now for flight #1, a trip from San Francisco International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City. I’m riding Virgin America, which actually has its gates in the international terminal. It probably has something to do with people connecting from Virgin Atlantic to Virgin America flights, with Virgin Atlantic being there main operation at the moment. Getting on the plane, there was a little bit of swank going on. It was like entering a night club with indigo mood lighting and leather seats. Interestingly, despite this flight going to New York City, it was essentially an Obama Express, or should I say, the Obama Local Stop Tour… Interestingly, out of people I talked to, I was actually the only person connecting by flight to Washington that day. Lots of other people were staying in New York and taking Amtrak (which has the ‘high’ speed Acela route to Washington) or buses closer to inauguration day. You could always say, this was the Cal express, as I kept talking to people with a Cal connection. At the gate, I was talking to an older Cal alum and his wife. We shot the breeze about basketball for a while, but lets not talk about how that turned out any further… Once I got onto the plane, I ended up sitting next to a family with a Cal connection. The lady to my right’s father went to Cal in Architecture in the pre-Wurster Hall days… Actually, as it turned out, I was pretty much an ad hoc member of the family, sitting in the middle, with the mom to my left, a son to my right, and an older son across the aisle. We had a pretty good conversation going for a couple of reasons. The mom was into trains, and was quite interested into talking to me about out once she heard I was a transportation planner. The fact that we were on a flight to New York also brought on more conversation as I had the whole plane-bird class thing earlier in the week. The mom, who said she flies quite frequently, mentioned we took off in an unusual way for SFO, south, and that she had seen a lot of birds up north by the Stick. The older son across the aisle just got a PhD, which interested me since I got to ask him about that idea as a life choice. He thoroughly endorsed the idea. Then again he got a PhD in 4 years, and I’m only getting a Masters, albeit 2 in 3 years. As for the other son, well, he was the biggest of the bunch. While really lanky, he was like 6’3” or something, so of course when he fell asleep, his arm kept dropping over into my airspace, and blocked the remote control for my TV monitor. Of course, it was funny watching the mom tell him what to do every once in a while. Turn down your music. Turn down your music again. Are you hungry? Hey, look at that flag painted on the wingtip... I get the feeling the kid was in college, so if I were him, I’d probably be rolling my eyes with the bit of nagging, but hah, it wasn’t me… well, not this time… Saturday, January 17, whatever the hell time it is in Utah… – So, I mentioned that kid next to me was blocking my remote. Of course, I was flying a run of the mill airline, he would’ve just been blocking my armrest since regular airlines don’t have the entertainment options that Virgin Airways offered. Sometimes most regular airlines will have maybe an in-flight movie, but only for longer flights. JetBlue shattered the norm offering satellite TV on individual monitors as well as satellite radios. Virgin America took it another step further adding on-demand music tracks, video games, and touch screen food and drink ordering. Although, I did wonder just how many free drinks they’d give me if I pushed it. Additionally, they had some other paid content, like movies and TV shows. That tall dude to my right ordered two episodes of “The Office.” After figuring out that you could pull the remote out of the armrest, and use it as a controller, I started playing a couple video games. I settled in for a couple games of Vectoroids (a knock off of Asteroids) and Anagrams (a knock of Text Twist, the game du jour for killing time while on shift at the Computing Center back in the day). I decided against playing a first-person shooter game on a plane. Saturday, January 17, whatever the hell time it is in Iowa… – After tiring of Vectoroids, I watched an episode of Battlestar Gallactica that was on. Having never seen a full episode of it in the four years it’s been on, I saw a full new one Friday night. It was actually the season premiere. Now, I got to see the episode before it, last season’s finale. Afterwards, they went back and played an episode that was before, or maybe a couple before that one. Knowing how the plot ends, I didn’t really feel the need to know how it begins. Sort of like how I feel about the Lord of the Rings. Now that I saw how it ends, and ends, and ends… who needs the beginning… Saturday, January 17, 6:00pm EST – Oh, I’ve got a mind-splitting headache right now. I took a nap on the plane, and woke up feeling like crap, and it got worse over time. Perhaps playing a video game that required scrambling anagrams wasn’t such a good idea when I stated feeling headache-y. Damn, I was all ready to use my four and half hour layover and hop on the subway, take the hour and half round trip into Manhattan, maybe grab a slide of Pizza, and get on my plane. Instead, I can barely move, and setting for 6 Hot Wings from a Kentucky Fried Chicken stand. Headaches kind of make feel a little nauseous, so I only eat one. I’m thinking, if only I had a screw driver, I’d drive into my skull and gouge out a part of it. This was the kind of headache that makes me think, you know what, I would trade a little brain power to have fewer headaches. Like in San Francisco, the Virgin America gates are in the international terminal. Since it’s the international terminal, you typically have lots of people waiting outside the security gates, either people saying a long goodbye, or waiting a long time for a long awaited hello. There aren’t a lot of open seats available either, so there are a lot of people on the floor, particularly people with laptops who want electrical outlet access. So like those others, I find a spot on the floor, throw my big coat and an extra pair of pants on the floor, hunker down and endeavor to take a nap. Of course, most of the others found a nice corner to sit down in, I ended up picking a spot right below the departure and arrivals screen. Saturday, January 17, 8:00pm – I’ve fallen asleep and gotten up at least four times. Each time, I sleep longer, and feel a bit better. I’ve been using the small, small second bag I brought as a pillow. I realized at this point, I put the rest of my wings in this bag, and I was pretty much lying directly on top of them… The back of my head noticed that this is a lot bonier than a normal pillow as well as the distinctive firmness of 11 herbs and spices… Saturday, January 17, 8:45pm – So, I didn’t get to follow my original plans, but I went to my self, I’ll be damned if I’m not going to explore a little of New York. So I jump on the AirTrain, which circulates people around the nine terminal airport. It also hooks up with some off-site facilities like a rental car depot. I decide to take it to the further of two subway stations it connects to, which is Jamaica Station in Queens. This thing was not like the AirTram at SFO, this takes you way the hell off the airport property. It ended up being like a 30 round trip. I thought about walking out of the Jamaica Station and take a couple of pictures, but it turns out while the AirTram is free for intra-airport travel, if you exit at a subway station, you have to pay. Interestingly, while on the AirTrain, I began to notice some doppelgangers of people I know. This would happen a few more times over the course of my trip. I saw someone who looked a lot like the girl who lives across the hall from me my 2nd-half sophomore/1st-half junior year, and another person who looked like someone in my graduate program. I suppose when you get a City of X-million people, you start running into the body doubles. This reminded of a funny Facebook post where an old suitemate of mine, who knows I moved to San Luis Obispo, left me a wall post saying she saw my twin riding on BART. It turned out, it wasn’t my twin, but it was me coming up for the 2006 Big Game Bonfire Rally. Saturday, January 17, 10:30pm So now I’m actually on my flight to Washington. This is now really the Obama Express. At first I thought I might have my own row on the plane, seeing lots of unoccupied seats when I was checking in and selecting my seat, but eventually another college student sat next to me. A recent graduate of Duke sat across the aisle. This flight was on JetBlue, so I had TV again and was reading some basketball scores on the ticker. We ended up having a college basketball commiseration session. Cal had lost. The guy next to me, while currently going to school in New York, started at Florida State who lost. While Duke won, the girl across from me really wanted Clemson to beat Wake Forest to give them a loss before facing Duke, but that didn’t happen. The guy next to me was at least to rub in the story of when Florida State upset Duke and he got to rush the court on them. Later, I was the only one of the three who found the Pacific-Cal State Fullerton game even the slightest bit interesting. Saturday, January 17, 11:30pm – Live, from New York, it’s Saturday night? I’m not in New York anymore, but on our final approach into DC, SNL came on… And for once, I’m actually watching it live, what a concept… |
