Hey Team,

The day I gave up on traveling by air is the day it all fell into place. I was flying from Orlando to Dayton, OH one way (which of course means I was going to be super-searched because everyone knows terrorists fly one way) and thanks to my previous experience with TSA I had finally decided, “Eff those guys. If they’re going to want everything out of my bag and all of my liquids thrown away they can do it themselves.”

So I rolled up to an extra long security line that didn’t seem to be moving and handed my ticket to the TSA agent at the end of the line. Sure enough, I was pulled out for a thorough ion scan and delousing…which in this case meant I skipped to the front of the line! AND thanks to shoddy security NOTHING was taken out of my bag and none of my oversized liquids were thrown away.

Lesson learned: The harder you make TSA’s job the less likely they are to do it. Seems obvious now that I know.

I got on the plane flying stand-by without any problem and was assigned an extra roomy exit row aisle but before I could even sit down a woman asked if I would trade places with her husband.

“If you don’t mind trading places with my husband I’ll give you twenty dollars.”

I laughed at her and said, “There’s no way I would let you pay me to switch places with your husband. Where is he?”

“He’s in the very back row.”

Crap. No legroom and no reclining. That’s where being a nice guy gets me.

Turns out being a nice guy also got me the respect of the entire flight attendant staff. Extra donuts, all the drinks I wanted and free TV for that trip AND the next one. AND the lady came back later and INSISTED I take her money for having to sit in such a bad seat. For the record I continued to refuse until it reached the point where it was ruder not to accept. (Honest.)

After a short layover the next leg of my flight was spent next to Bill and Diane

who had plenty of interesting travel stories to share and kept me entertained throughout the entire flight. They were super-nice people and it didn’t even feel like I was sitting in the back row again for hours. Thanks guys!

Now, after a couple days distraction with one of my best friends I’m back in Dayton sitting in the airport at 4am trying to figure out how to navigate Ohio so I can make it to Olivia

and some potential sloth petting!

That’s right, sloth petting! How cool is that?!

Answer: Very freakin’.

Okay, I’m done.

Brett

Welcome to the wonderful world of the kindness of strangers:

Why NOT be a kind stranger?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 12:41 am.