Almost Worth It

In terms of danger, etc. my flight here was absolutely fine. A bit of shaking every now and again, but nothing major.

In terms of irritation, however, it was mighty and fierce. This mighty fierceness came in the form of two little girls sitting directly behind me, probably about 5 and 8, in around there. Their parents were across the aisle from me.

I was set. I had This American Life queued up in the ipod, I had my knitting out. Good to go. And then they started screeching.

As an auntie in close contact with two of her toddler nieces, I have a pretty high tolerance for happy shrieking. I hoped that they might calm down during the flight. Instead, they started kicking the back of my seat and slamming the tray up and down. They'd go at it hard for 5 minutes or so, and then calm down. My heart rate and annoyance level would drift back down, and without fail, just as I thought, "Ah, they've settled-" one of them would land a mighty kick to the back of the empty seat beside me.

And so it went. I spent most of the flight trying to figure out if the annoyance of having the back of my seat kicked fiercely for short spurts was worth the mighty pain in the ass of talking to the very ineffectual parents. I discussed this with myself until there was no point in saying anything.

At the end of the flight, I was getting jumpy, waiting for the next slam.

"We're in Chicago!" the older one said.

"I LOVE Chicago!" the younger one said. "Kate, did you know? I LOVE CHICAGO!"

"I am not Kate. I am MONSTER KATE!"

Mighty and fierce.