"First Class"

As I mentioned in my last post, my mom & I went to Louisiana to visit some friends a couple weeks ago. What I didn’t mention is the ridiculous time we had trying to get home after our little vacation was over. Let’s first start out by saying that when we arrived at the tiny airport in Louisiana we were met with a line that was amazingly long. But no big deal, right? We were clearly in compliance with arriving at least one hour before the flight left so we thought everything would be a-ok. Well, the hour quickly slipped away as the line barely inched along. Then an announcement was made that our flight had been cancelled! Still, no reason to panic or get annoyed, in my opinion.
UNTIL…this man, his wife & his teenage daughters come rolling into the airport. They had one of those carts like the hotels use, LOADED with luggage. Easily two very large suitcases for each of them, plus 2 oversized carry-ons each. But still, you’d think, who cares anyway because they came in so much later than everyone else & would obviously be at the back of the line. NO…get this, the man rolled his huge luggage filled cart to the front of the line & blocked the walkway for all of us that had been waiting for over an hour at this point, to demand that he be checked in before everyone else in line. You see, he was “in a hurry” and made mention several times of being “first class”. So he obviously was better than the rest of us poor, lowly regular class fliers, it would only make sense that he go before us.
***Side note: He was scheduled on the same flight that I was…you know, the flight that was already cancelled, so why the hurry? AND we were flying on one of those tiny planes, the kind that only hold about 20 people max and guess what…first class doesn’t exist on planes that small! I came to two conclusions: 1. either this guy is a liar & just thinks he deserves first class treatment or 2. the whole tiny plane is first class! I was hoping for option #2 because I've always been too poor to fly first class. I'd love to know what first class is like & maybe by having such a VIP on our plane my luck was about to change & I'd get to experience the greatness of first class. (Unfortunately, first class was not all that it was cracked up to be. I got no warm towel, no special meal or even those eye cover things. All I got was a seat under a malfunctioning ac vent that dropped CHUNKS of ice on me throughout the flight. Weird experience. Anyway- my first conclusion was the correct one.)***
Now back to our "First Class" friend....after a few minutes of harassing the poor ticket counter guy he got his way! He got checked in before ALL of us who at this point had been standing in line for over an hour and a half. He waited no time at all just because he was so annoying and demanding. It was disgusting. At this point I was pretty close to the front of the line so I could hear every lame word the man was saying. He kept talking about how important it was for him to get to Venezuela. So once we unimportant people finally got checked in and up to the gate I called Andrew to express my disgust at this man & his behavior. I told him the whole story and threw in “my guess is that this guy is a missionary, cause why else would he be going to Venezuela?” And as soon as I said that, this cute little lady sitting across from me started cracking up. She came over and whispered to me that he was indeed a Christian Speaker & was the head of an organization called the “God Chasers”. I’ve only vaguely heard about this organization, but let me tell you one thing…I think it’s time for them to look for a new representative. How disappointing.
Back to mister important: at this point, he is sitting in the terminal with his sunglasses on (you know, celebrity style). It is not bright in the terminal, why sir must you wear your sunglasses? Did he think he was just that cool OR was he afraid that he would be recognized and we’d all have just seen his ridiculous display down at the ticket counter? So THEN…the little flight gate boy (which might I add was the same boy that gave us our tickets at the ticketing counter) called our flight number after we had been waiting a good 2 hours in the terminal for our new flight. So we got up and casually made our way to the gate. When I say “we”, I mean ALL of us in that part of the terminal with exception of our “God Chaser”. He grabbed his giant carry ons and started a VERY brisk walk (run, if you will) towards the gate, elbowed his way around me and almost knocked me over! Besides the fact that I am 5 months pregnant, I am also a woman & that is no way for a man to act! His mission was accomplished however and he made it to the gate before any of us could. He got to be FIRST in line! Great accomplishment buddy… I bet God is so proud. Anyway- once we all got to the gate, we found out that we weren’t actually boarding the plane, they just wanted to tell us that they weren’t quite sure when our flight would be leaving & to thank us for our patience. So we all sat back down and kept waiting. With the exception of course of our first class friend….he stood and waited in the front of the line, even though the line did not exist anymore. But you better believe that when it was time to line up for real…he was the FIRST in line & did his very best to be the first on the plane.
There were so many flights that had been cancelled that day, and so many people that had been inconvenienced, but there was not ONE single person that was more rude & obnoxious than our little “Christian Speaker”. Ugh…what a day. Why do people act like this? I do not understand.
This was just one of the many experiences of that day. Maybe I’ll post another one at a later time. None are worse than this guy though. Consider yourself warned… if you’re traveling in the near future, watch out for the “first class” man with the sunglasses….he might try and knock you over.