Talking Nonsense

Flying back from Chicago was a real treat yesterday! Not only did I forget to pre-check-in online for Southwest (thankfully we weren't put into the C-group and were able to find two seats together) but after a long, tiresome vacation, I felt so run down and just ready to jump in my own bed and go to sleep!

We had gotten to the airport early because you never know what traffic is going to be like from Indiana to Chicago on a Sunday afternoon....and it wasn't bad. So there was a lot of wandering the terminals for me. I had started feeling nauseous and extremely tired about 1.5 hours before boarding time. It had been about five hours since I had my Cracker Barrel breakfast and Sonic frozen slush so I thought perhaps I might've been hungry. So I started trolling around the food areas to see if anything struck my fancy. It didn't. I ended up having a southwest chicken sandwich from McD's. It did help, but I was still tired.

As Southwest began boarding, this family consisting of two parents and one child came up to the gate. I could smell the child was trouble when he opened his mouth and apparently didn't know how to shut it. They were a Chinese family and the kid was about 10 years old....a rather big 10, I might add. How did I know they were Chinese? Because the kid was speaking in mandarin and I could understand him. I think he thought he was running the family traveling show because he was telling his parents that this was their gate and it was time to line up, etc. His parents didn't seem to mind - I'm sure he's the apple of their eyes.

Thankfully, when we boarded the plane after them, we weren't anywhere near them on the plane, so we got the respite of having to hear him speak. But that gap was immediately filled by one of the stewardesses that took it upon herself to talk for the WHOLE, DAMN flight. We happened to get the last row in front of the drinks storage area and we heard non-stop chatter throughout the flight. Our only break came when they rolled the drinks cart towards the front of the plane to serve....but when she got back, lucky us got to hear about her life story. And all I wanted to do was sleep...silly me.

As we were deplaning, another passenger had made a comment about how 'she sure has a lot to say.' Ain't that the truth. It was time to walk to baggage claim, find our bags, get on the shuttle bus and hop in our car. And wasn't it lucky for us that we happened to be on the same shuttle bus as the Chinese family - I boarded the shuttle first not thinking much of it, praying a little that he had stopped chattering but the second he boarded the shuttle, the kid says (in Chinese), 'These seats are particularly small!' That led me to believe that he made some sort of comment about the size of the airplane seats. I really wanted to say back to him, in Chinese of course, 'Well, you're particularly chubby.' I was so close - it was on the tip of my tongue. Had I had some liquid courage, maybe it would've slipped out - but I bit it back.

Why his parents didn't shush him is beyond me - after all, in his leadership, the kid led them to the wrong bus stop to get to their car....