After our breakfast meeting in Chicago this week, I ended up chitting and chatting with my boss, Andy, for about an hour in the lobby of the JW. He asked about my trip out yesterday and I told him about my seat mate and gave him the requisite visuals. That led to some travel stories of his own. Andy used to work in the travel industry as a big time marketing executive.
I’ve worked for Andy since 2001 and I think it’s fair to say he’s seen nearly every emotion and feeling of mine. Poor man. He’s seen happy; he’s seen sad. He’s seen confident; he’s seen insecure. We’ve done: overjoyed, despondent, angry, indifferent, grateful, ungrateful, lucky, and unlucky; we’ve even done maudlin. And, to be fair, I’ve seen all two of his emotions: relaxed and what he calls “Irish angry.”
I’m joking of course, but he is one to play things close to his vest; “Inscrutable” may be the word. Anyway, as we’re talking, I’m just dying to tell him about this blog of mine. I don’t know why. I guess because I tell him pretty much everything. “I’ve got a secret,” I say. When he hears what it is, he gets up and says, “Let’s go. I want to see it.”
He boots up the computer in his office and with little delay we land on Point of Departure. “Wow! Cool! Well done!” He’s not really a honey pourer, so this felt pretty good.
We talked about male corporate travelers and he said, “Chivalry is checked curbside.” (I thought that was a pretty cool quote.) He said he is often embarrassed to be a man when he sees what other male travelers do. He called them “selfish” when they put both their bags in the overhead and actually visually showed me how to handle putting one under the seat and not relinquishing legroom. In his little mock session, he stowed a second bag under the seat in front of him for take-off and promptly took it out once airborne and stuck it behind his knees and stretched out his legs. He’s 6’1” – he looked pretty comfortable.
Then he said the coat should only go overhead once everyone else is boarded and you can safely find a spot that doesn’t impact others. I thought about this and agreed that I have seen some men wait and do it this way, but I’ve seen many more grab the space pronto.
So why don’t more men do what Andy does? If anyone has any theories, feel free to comment.
Leave a Reply