I was reading fark.com and ran across a reference to an MSNBC story on the top ten annoying things our fellow travelers do. As Chuck and I have been doing a fair amount of traveling lately (and are about to head across the country for yet more), this list really hit home. Number eight, seat etiquette (whcih has a link to an expanded rant), is my personal pet peeve. And I’m willing to bet you, come Monday morning and Chuck and I board our Southwest flight to Cleveland by way of Phoenix, one of us will edxperience the joy of the person in front of us who thinks their seat is a barcalounger. I mean, for god’s sake, folks, we’re in this together, okay?

Our goal is to be in boarding group A on every Southwest flight we take, that way we have our pick of seats (I love the cattle-like rush for the plane when they announce the boarding groups. It’s such a marvelous free-for-all. When we fly other airlines, it isn’t nearly as thrilling to get on the plane). We sit and then watch warily as our fellow passengers board and look for seats. The best possible outcome is a not-full flight, when the third seat in our row is empty. The next best outcome is a skinny quiet person. but then there’s always the dreaded big-person-who-takes-all-the-armrests, or the not-so-big-but-really-really-chatty person. *sigh* My secret dream is to someday fly first class (I realize that isn’t going to happen as long as we favor Southwest but still a girl can dream). Imagine, all the leg room you could want, champagne, slippers, movies that I can actually see and hear…ahhhhhh.