It all began at the airport. We got out of the house a little later than anticipated, but arrived at Midway having plenty of time for me to get checked in and over to my gate. The lines were long, but moving steadily to check the luggage. Uneventful, one interesting thing was listening to the two young ladies discussing thing in the line behind me. They discussed people mainly. They were both wearing shirts that said this or that dancing, but the shirts were different. They were really people bashing…how so-and-so was difficult about this or that, and how someone else was in a relationship with so-and-so and they would never work out.

While in the line, I saw Kelly. A lady who works at one of my clients, and she is an employee of Southwest Airlines. She was doing some line management, meaning she was re-ordering the lines that people were in to check their luggage. I was in the express line, because I already had my boarding pass. Kelly was managing the lines for the full service side. Once I checked my luggage, I stopped and said hello to Kelly. I told her I was on the way to see Mom & Dad in Arizona. We exchanged other pleasantries, and I was told to say hi to my Dad for her. Which I pass on once I see them in AZ, but I’m ahead of myself.

I headed over to my gate. The gate is B20, which is basically at the end of the B terminal. Down the middle of the B terminal are electronic walkways which make quick work of the journey. I arrived to discover that the plane is delayed until 10am. My original departure time was 8:10am, so that was a big bummer. Of course I shoot off some texts right away to my lovely wife letting her know I’m delayed and the family in AZ to inform them of the same. Then I sit for a little while. It wasn’t even 7am yet, so I had over 2 hours to wait for the 9:30am boarding of the plane. I decided I would go back to the food court and get a little something to eat. I booked down to the food court and found an egg, cheese, and sausage sandwich. Relaxed and ate at a table. Lonely but lots of people look at.

Still thinking that I had lots of time to get on the plane, I meandered back to gate B20. I was going to find a comfy place to set up and pull out the computer and maybe do something productive. When I got back to the gate at 7:50am, boy was I surprised when the sign at the agent station said the plane was back on time! Yike! If I had goofed around much longer in the food court, I might have missed my plane…that would have been an interesting situation. Luckily, no problem. Except that the plane was back on schedule. The gate agents seemed a little frazzled, and finally announced that our gate had been changed to B11. Not unlike a heard of cattle, an entire plane worth of people make their way down to gate B11. What was interesting is that B11 was boarding a plane to San Francisco, people that belonged on the plane to AZ just went ahead and started to get in line to board this other plane. The agents at B11 had to make several announcements that the plane that was being boarded wasn’t going to Phoenix. Funny that people would think that just because they relocated the plane’s gate, they were going to be left behind without even trying to assess the situation at the next gate.

The gate agent at B11 made an announcement that the plane to Phoenix was not confirmed at this gate, and they were still waiting to hear the final decision. We just stood around for about 10 minutes waiting for news. I felt bad for the guy eating a sandwich at Gate B11. Moments before the AZ plane was told to re-locate to B11 he was just eating in relative peace and quiet when suddenly the herd of people surround him. He didn’t seemed that phased, but perhaps he was happy to have something to look at while he finished his sandwich. (It was a pre-made deli sandwich on an onion roll and it was 8 in the morning, it struck me as an odd choice for breakfast.)

Anyway, after a few minutes at gate B11, we were told that they plane was now coming in at gate B18. Again, the herd of people moved towards B18. When we arrived at the gate the gate agent at B18 said, “Thanks for participating in the Southwest fitness program!” Everyone got a nice chuckle.

I stood for a while and again sent some texts updating everyone on the situation of the planes. After about 10 minutes, the agent announced that the crew required for the plane was just landing, and they would be over to our plane in a few moments and then they could board the passengers onto the plane. We just had to wait 10 or 15 minutes. That was a bunch of lies, but I was happy because it caused some people to get up and move. I don’t know if they were moving to stretch their legs, or use the restroom or what, but I was happy because they moved, and I got a seat to sit in. What time is it in my story? I think it was around 8:30 or so when I finally got comfy at gate B18.

Despite the announcement that we would be on the plane in 15 minutes, it took nealy 45 minutes before they started boarding us on the plane. My boarding number was B59, the alst number in a boarding group is 60, so I was pretty much at the end of the 2nd group. Basically that means that 119 people had the chance to board the plane before me. I was sure I was going to get stuck in a really crummy seat. However, I found a row where I was the first person in the row. I took the window seat because I was planning on snoozing the entire flight. 

It wasn’t long before a mom with 2 kids came down the aisle saying that she needed three seats together because her kids wouldn’t sit by strangers. The flight attendants made an announcement, but I asked one of the attendants if there was an aisle seat nearby, which there was, and I took it so the lady could have my row and sit together.