Well, dear readers, here I am, on location, writing part one of these here notes aboard Jet Blue whilst on my way to New York, New York. I arrived at the Long Beach airport two hours early, as is my wont. Being that early I can normally get the aisle seat in the bulkhead row, because they save that seat for day of departure. Only they didn’t save that seat for day of departure so I did not get my aisle seat in the bulkhead row. Damn them, damn them all to hell. I will be having a conversation with Jet Blue about this upon my arrival at my hotel. In any case, I sat in the second row, which is okay but has not enough leg room for the likes of claustrophobic me. As boarding time approached I noticed that there was no plane to board. Finally, our plane taxied in about five minutes before boarding time. By the time they deplaned the passengers and cleaned the plane twenty minutes had gone by. Still, they managed to get us all on board quite quickly. All, that is, except one person. Olga Rodriguez. It seems that Olga Rodriguez misplaced herself – she’d checked in over an hour ahead of time and her bag was one of the first on the plane. But Olga had pulled a Houdini and disappeared. It was speculated that she might have boarded the wrong aircraft and might be on her way to Boston. They then had to find her bag and remove it from the plane. Of course, since her bag had been one of the first loaded, they had to pull eighty other bags off the plane in order to find hers. This process took forty-five minutes. Needless to say, none of us were very happy with the missing Olga Rodriguez. They finally found her bag, removed it, and we were on our way. As we taxied away from the gate, I noticed that the lady across from me was plucking her eyebrows. Yes, Virginia, the lady across from me was plucking her eyebrows. I don’t know about you, dear readers, but the plucking of eyebrows on an airplane skeeves me, oh, yes, it skeeves me. She then began asking our stewardess if there was lunch service. One would presume that anyone flying Jet Blue would know that there is no meal service, but apparently one would presume incorrectly. She was informed that they only serve snacks. She asked if she could have some. They told her no, she could not have some until after take-off. After take-off, she again asked for some snacks and was told that first the beverages had to be served. She ordered a Bloody Mary – at eight forty-five in the morning. She finally got her snacks – she got four or five things – chips, nuts, cookies, biscotti. She’s happily downed her Bloody Mary and accompanying snacks and has happily finished plucking her eyebrows. She is now leaning forward with her head on her tray. And that has been the flight thus far.
Has anyone seen Olga Rodriguez? They are showing I, Robot on the tiny TV in front of me. My headphones are in my overnight bag, which is in the overhead compartment, so I am making up my own dialogue as the film goes along. Somehow I feel it’s probably better than the dialogue they actually used. I’ll continue these here notes once ensconced in my hotel.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below to see if Olga Rodriguez might be there.
Despite our one-hour delay in taking off, we arrived right on time. I got a cab right away, but the traffic out of the airport and for the first five miles thereafter was horrendous. After that, we went very fast and I got in at five-thirty. They gave me a room on a nice high floor and I unpacked and got settled in, with still no sign of Olga Rodriguez.
I then went over to Joe Allen and met up with dear lurker Iris, who is a very nice lady. No one else showed up (not that I really expected them to – very late notice), but we had a nice meal and discussed lots of musicals and some mutual theater acquaintances like Susan Egan and Jason Graae. I had the bacon cheeseburger (the best), a Caesar salad, and we split a shrimp cocktail, which is a new addition to the menu, and which was faboo.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must go and meet Skip Kennon, a fine songwriter, and the fellow who wrote the book to his new musical of The Last Starfighter. Then I shall do a few things on my own, then head over to the signing. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your travel horror stories – the worst delays, the worst passengers, the missed connections? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, and perhaps by the end of tonight’s party, Olga Rodriguez might finally show up.