{"id":1304,"date":"2012-08-23T09:33:16","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T14:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bennesvig.apps-1and1.com\/?p=1304"},"modified":"2012-08-23T09:33:16","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T14:33:16","slug":"random-thoughts-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bennesvig.com\/random-thoughts-airport\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts At An Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything and it is open to everything.<\/em>\u201d – Shunryu Suzuki<\/p>\n

Lately I\u2019ve been spending time in silence, letting my mind wander. On the way home from work, I used to either listen to music, a podcast, or an audiobook. Now, 80% of the trip is silence. I think isolation helps creativity. Especially when you have nothing but your thoughts.<\/p>\n

If you want to know what an hour is like inside my ADD head, here are my thoughts while at an airport, up until the flight took off.<\/p>\n

Neck Pillows<\/strong>
\nI forgot how much I love neck pillows. On my honeymoon, I wore my neck pillow during the entire flight and continued to wear it through customs in Jamaica. You don\u2019t see many people wearing neck pillows outside of planes an airports. If it were socially acceptable, I\u2019d probably bring one to work or keep one on hand during long baseball games.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s acceptable to wear neck pillows in airports, I\u2019d consider working at an airport, though I don\u2019t think neck pillow privileges transfer over to employees at airports. You can wear one in pretty much any context in an airport: walking, sitting, napping, or while anxiously waiting to board the plane. You\u2019d never see someone sitting on a park bench wearing a neck pillow. They likely fear social judgment and bringing the neck pillow could be a hassle, unless of course they wore it the whole time.<\/p>\n

Mentos<\/strong>
\nWhile using the bathroom, I was forced to use a stall since the urinals were occupied. On top of the metal container that secures the toilet paper, I noticed an empty Mentos wrapper. Clearly someone ate Mentos to freshen up while or after using the toilet. I don\u2019t think anyone would carry around a candy wrapper and choose that place for disposal. Likely someone was forced to use the airport restroom out of necessecity and was in dire need of feeling fresh.<\/p>\n

Gum<\/strong>
\nI bought gum before the flight. I had to because I had a sparking green tea lemonade from Caribou, which is a phenomenal drink, but left me with the impression that I should stand at least 2-3 feet away from people while talking directly to them. The little kiosk where I bought the gum only had two selections: kiosk brand and a package that mentioned starving children. Both were poor gum choices, but I decided to help the kids. The pack of gum was the flat rectangle with punch out pieces. It\u2019s fun to push out the gum, but the package makes noise while in pockets. I generally prefer my gum packaging to be silent. There\u2019s no need to remind myself with every step that I\u2019m carrying gum in my right pocket.<\/p>\n

Tax<\/strong>
\nWhile paying for the gum, I forgot about sales tax. When the price of something is $2.99, I assume sales tax is going to be added. When the price is $3.00, as was the gum, I assume sales tax is inclusive. Due to this, the cashier reminded me that I couldn\u2019t count properly and I owed her another bill. I left with 76 cents of change in my pocket, which is another thing that will make noise.<\/p>\n

Bald Men<\/strong>
\nThere are a lot of bald men at Gate 19 today. All of them except one either have a shaved head or a very short buzz cut. If one goes bald while relatively young, you pretty much have to shave or buzz your head. You just hope the rest of your head isn\u2019t covered with moles, making your shaved head look like a chocolate chip muffin. I wonder what I\u2019d do if I went completely bald. A lot of guys wear hats as they bald. I\u2019ve only worn hats in short phases in high school and college. If the balding hit me full-force, it\u2019s too late to start wearing hats. No one really starts wearing hats after college unless they are balding or they\u2019ve just retired.<\/p>\n

String Cheese<\/strong>
\nIf you think experience doesn\u2019t factor into purchase decisions, look at string cheese. 80% of the enjoyment that comes from string cheese is due to the peeling of the cheese. I once had string cheese that wouldn’t peel and ended up being just a cheese stick. It wasn\u2019t very good. I wonder how big the string cheese industry is? I did a quick Google search, but nothing relevant came up. I\u2019d guess it\u2019s at least over 50mil\/year.<\/p>\n

Employees Using Scripts<\/strong>
\nI hate scripts. They don\u2019t work. There is a big difference between hearing someone say something and believing what they say. Is the Delta employee at the gate sorry for and the inconvenience and grateful for our patience? I don\u2019t think so. It sounds scripted. A robot might as well have said it. If your goal is to connect with people, you have to approach them as human to human, not training manual to human. The stewardess who gave me a free beer on the flight seemed sympathetic at least.<\/p>\n

Yelling<\/strong>
\nA guy getting off the plane from Chicago forgot his black suit coat on the plane. As he yelled to the flight attendant what item he left behind, as she headed back to the airplane, he progressively began to sound more furious, yelling \u201cBLACK. SUIT. COAT.\u201d He wasn\u2019t mad, but he sounded mad due to volume.<\/p>\n

Stowed Items<\/strong>
\nI never heard someone use the word \u201cstowed\u201d outside of an airplane. Never. Yet, I heard the flight attendant use it at least 5 times in the scripted speech about making sure items are stowed before takeoff. \u201cHoney, where did you put my car keys?\u201d \u201c I stowed them back in your purse.\u201d That conversation has never happened.<\/p>\n

Turning Off Electronics<\/strong>
\nWhy? This has to be a \u201cBetter safe than sorry\u201d measure. I\u2019ve never completely turned off electronics I bring with me. I\u2019ll turn my cell phone into \u201cAirplane Mode\u201d but not completely off. The flight attendants even specify that \u201cAirplane Mode\u201d isn\u2019t sufficient. Has a plane ever crashed due to a cell phone? I\u2019ve been in a three seater airplane that had an iPad connected to 3G. Didn\u2019t crash. If a plane is at risk of being brought down by a 7 year old who forgot to turn off his iPod, maybe I should be worried.<\/p>\n

Shortcuts<\/strong>
\nThe pilot announced, \u201cWe might try to shorten up the trip to make up for the delay.\u201d Why not do that anyway? Is there a scenic route that was voted on prior to boarding?<\/p>\n

Waiting<\/strong>
\nAirports and airlines don\u2019t do much to deal with waiting. It\u2019s up to you to pass the time. Some have TVs, today there was nothing. Maybe that was a good thing since I ended up writing over 1,000 words on observations, but probably not since everyone hates waiting. I have to believe there is a reason that waiting for a flight hasn\u2019t been made more enjoyable. It\u2019s not a valid reason, but someone has one.<\/p>\n

Follow my musings on Twitter @BenNesvig<\/a> or join my weekly Best of the Web<\/a> email.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything and it is open to everything.\u201d – Shunryu Suzuki Lately I\u2019ve been spending time in silence, letting my mind wander. On the way home from work, I used to either listen to music, a podcast, or an audiobook. Now, 80% of the trip is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nRandom Thoughts At An Airport | Ben's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you want to know what an hour is like inside my ADD head, here are my random thoughts at an airport up until the flight took off.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bennesvig.com\/random-thoughts-airport\/\" \/>\n<meta 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