A Better Seat Assignment, Please
I had to drive at 05:58 yesterday morning from the Inter Continental Hotel Cleveland to the John Glenn Columbus International Airport to catch a flight to DC. Because I had to get to DC to hear extraordinary German baritone, Benjamin Appl's last US Debut Tour Recital at the a Philips Collection's Music Room, Sunday, 20 January 2019 at 16:00. Accompanied by none other than brilliant pianist, James Baillieu.
At the gate I met an incredible young woman to whom I found myself telling stories about Benjamin and James, about the recent and untimely passing of my beloved Mother and about the Christians with whom I had spent part of my visit to Israel in the Autumn of 2018. We were laughing within minutes and also establishing a quick bond between us. It's really amazing when this happens and her telling me that she was heading to Charlotte didn't faze me at all.
As soon as I noticed the check-in desk open I requested a better seat assignment from the agent and my wish was granted.
This new friend and I marched down a ramp and into our aeroplane to in time find out that someone else had been assigned to my seat. I checked my boarding pass and it had her name on it! And I was already upset enough because soon after I had accommodated myself in my seat a man rushed in complaining about purses and backpacks being inside overhead compartments and not under the seat. I invited him to check his bloody luggage in the hold, asked him to stop complaining and told him that my backpack is a bsckback and not an oversize purse and that my winter coat was not going to travel under my seat, space which was already occupied by the Intercontinental's Continental Breakfast which I intended to eat on the plane.
A steward thought about the boarding passes for a moment, checked them and realised that I had boarded a flight to Charlotte! Yes, in North Carolina! So the luggage, coat and food grabbing started along with the running which got me into an aeroplane bound for DC, but in bloody seat 19D.
This all happened because I had to meet Charmaine. Praise be!
Labels: American Airlines, Benjamin Appl, Charmaine, Cleveland, DC, Driving, Flying, Harper, James Baillieu, Snow Storm, The Inter Continental Hotel, The Philips Collection, Washington
