Thursday, September 15, 2005

how the airport never disappoints

people i saw at the oakland airport today, en route to los angeles:

1. the vegas guy - i rode with him on the bart shuttle from the train to the airport. during the course of his extremely loud cell phone call, i learned that he rocks vegas, he got into a $1000/hand table his last time at the mirage and that he was on his way to los angeles to pick his friend up and then it's vegas, baby, vegas. i also loved the fact that he had priority "C" seating which means that he had to wait until all the "A" and "B" travelers boarded and sat before he could get on. in fact, that one bit of information restored my faith in a higher being.

2. confused gender role couple - she wore a button down shirt, pleated black dress pants, penny loafers and a haircut reminiscent of joe pesci's in "goodfellas". he wore a black j.crew ribbed sweater, black pants, black shoes, a beige checkerboard blazer and wire-rimmed glasses. and when he successfully tossed his coffee cup into a dumpster, he pumped his hands as if he were syaing "yippee!"

3. the "is she retarted or not?" older chinese woman - she sat next to me on the plane. her granddaughter had the task of not only buckling her into her seat belt, but also to pick up her garbage for her - all tasks that anyone over six can handle. she didn't seem retarted or incapable (she did go to the bathroom by herself), and she spoke well (then again, i had no idea what she was saying) - but she didn't lift a finger the whole trip and never bothered to. my favorite part was when the granddaughter showed her what to do in case the plane crashes. not for nothing, but if someone can't buckle themself in, then, in a plane crash, they in essense become a floatational device. that's not mean. it's just treading water is much more difficult than buckling in.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

thank the gods for the airport. how else would we know that we are far surperior to most humans?