The unreasonable sub-optimality of people waiting in lines, especially at airports, amazes me. People will stand in line in front of the gate, backpacks hanging, babies in carriages, doing nothing, for twenty whole minutes just to board the airplane in the order that the airline suggests. Yes, on some airlines you will get to choose your seat. I get it, you're quirky, you have specific seat requirements. Or you need extra carry-on space for your fragile guitar, I see your point. But for all others? What are you accomplishing by standing there, idly tiring your legs, fitting yourself, your backpack, and your rolling suitcases, perhaps even the people you're traveling with and talking to, into the narrrowest possible single file? And when the line starts moving at 0.05 m/s, and you're forced to keep that speed, in consideration of the guy behind you who will board the airplane at virtually the same time whether you move with the line or not? Do you really care whether the guy in front of you moves, as long as he's at the counter when his turn arrives? Are people that possessive of the "line spot"? I think that, by conditioning, yes, many people are.
And what futile consideration. What silly nursery-school rules are placed these days to deal with the "line spot" possessiveness. "We will board only the next 30 now". And so they can make the line remain shorter, and have everyone look for their exact spot. Good fix, yes, but what unnecessary selfish reflex that caused it in the first place.
And now I see a standing line, also, of around 40 people, all waiting to board the 28x airport bus back to Pittsburgh. Out in the cold, wearing sweaters and jackets, some of them shaking a little...
It is not that cold at all. It is practically Spring already, but oh, how useless the line! I might be wrong - the bus might fill up, leaving me and perhaps a few other stragglers behind to wait for the next one in half an hour. But I risk it, and in exchange, I get to comfortably sit inside the airport, on cushioned chairs, and type this little text out of my mind and into my hard drive.
5 minutes later...
Funny thing, the risk activated, and I am left behind at the airport, waiting for the next bus along with a few stragglers. The apparent misfortune, possibly seemingly brought on by my haughty comments on the behavior of the masses, does not affect me much, as I have no appointments to keep today nor am I in a rush to get back home. "Ten minutes or less", as the driver said (though I think it will more likely be half an hour). On another hand, if the bus indeed comes soon, I will likely sit on a bus chair on the hour-long ride back to Pittsburgh, instead of standing, holding my backpacks with one hand, a bus pole with the other, keeping balance with the bus accelerations, looking at blank-eyed strangers out of instinct, whose breaths I feel on my neck because their mouths are close enough. (This might seem less bad when those strangers are pretty girls, but it really isn't that much better. In fact, sometimes it's worse, because the specific situation doesn't yield to much conversation, getting to know one another, let alone flirts, but one wants to anyway).
But the bus does not come soon, and I see a sizeable line form outside, my co-stragglers at the front, and a bunch of recent arrivals in the back. And I sit inside still, trusting to statistics and to a decent airport transportation planning that the same situation will not happen again. Although, with CMU's spring break just finished, St. Patrick's Day happening today/this weekend, it being a weekend at all, plus a set of initial stragglers, I might just have hit the high tail of the Poisson.
Yay, bus is here now (just under 30 minutes later), and the line looks pretty short now. I'm pretty sure I'll get in - not that sure about the sitting, though.
An hour later...
Ah, bus ride was comfy. It also allowed for a nice experiment. I wanted to be comfy and relax on the way, so I relaxed the torso muscles that usually hold the body upright, and let the torso move to where it wanted to. It bent down towards the ground along with my limp arms, which just almost touched the bus floor, and I just hung there, half-jokingly, but actually quite comfortable.
About 10 minutes later I got tired of that position, so I brought my body back up, and looked around for other ways to be comfy. I saw a grabber hanging down from a bus pole, and I got an idea. I tied my gray A's hoodie on the grabber, and tried to reach my neck onto the hanging middle. It wasn't long enough (nor me tall enough), but the hood of the jacket was just within reach of my face. So I put my face in it, and indeed, it was such a comfy feeling. I just let my head hang on it, I could breathe through the fabric perfectly, and my back and neck muscles were fully relaxed. It felt awesome. A couple of girls came in and said "That's weird", and though I couldn't see them, I knew they were talking about me because they said "It's his face in it! How can he breathe in there?", and I doubted anyone else was doing the same thing. I brought my face out once, looked at them, and said with a smile: "It's comfy :)". I put my face back in the hood, and rode the bus most of the way back like that. I removed it when a seemingly-tired woman came and wanted the seat beside me, which was kinda-blocked by my hoodie. A few minutes later, I dozed off my resting my head on my large backpack. But I dozed off long enough that I missed my stop, so I ended up walking from CMU back to my apartment. Which wasn't so far anyway.
And what futile consideration. What silly nursery-school rules are placed these days to deal with the "line spot" possessiveness. "We will board only the next 30 now". And so they can make the line remain shorter, and have everyone look for their exact spot. Good fix, yes, but what unnecessary selfish reflex that caused it in the first place.
And now I see a standing line, also, of around 40 people, all waiting to board the 28x airport bus back to Pittsburgh. Out in the cold, wearing sweaters and jackets, some of them shaking a little...
It is not that cold at all. It is practically Spring already, but oh, how useless the line! I might be wrong - the bus might fill up, leaving me and perhaps a few other stragglers behind to wait for the next one in half an hour. But I risk it, and in exchange, I get to comfortably sit inside the airport, on cushioned chairs, and type this little text out of my mind and into my hard drive.
5 minutes later...
Funny thing, the risk activated, and I am left behind at the airport, waiting for the next bus along with a few stragglers. The apparent misfortune, possibly seemingly brought on by my haughty comments on the behavior of the masses, does not affect me much, as I have no appointments to keep today nor am I in a rush to get back home. "Ten minutes or less", as the driver said (though I think it will more likely be half an hour). On another hand, if the bus indeed comes soon, I will likely sit on a bus chair on the hour-long ride back to Pittsburgh, instead of standing, holding my backpacks with one hand, a bus pole with the other, keeping balance with the bus accelerations, looking at blank-eyed strangers out of instinct, whose breaths I feel on my neck because their mouths are close enough. (This might seem less bad when those strangers are pretty girls, but it really isn't that much better. In fact, sometimes it's worse, because the specific situation doesn't yield to much conversation, getting to know one another, let alone flirts, but one wants to anyway).
But the bus does not come soon, and I see a sizeable line form outside, my co-stragglers at the front, and a bunch of recent arrivals in the back. And I sit inside still, trusting to statistics and to a decent airport transportation planning that the same situation will not happen again. Although, with CMU's spring break just finished, St. Patrick's Day happening today/this weekend, it being a weekend at all, plus a set of initial stragglers, I might just have hit the high tail of the Poisson.
Yay, bus is here now (just under 30 minutes later), and the line looks pretty short now. I'm pretty sure I'll get in - not that sure about the sitting, though.
An hour later...
Ah, bus ride was comfy. It also allowed for a nice experiment. I wanted to be comfy and relax on the way, so I relaxed the torso muscles that usually hold the body upright, and let the torso move to where it wanted to. It bent down towards the ground along with my limp arms, which just almost touched the bus floor, and I just hung there, half-jokingly, but actually quite comfortable.
About 10 minutes later I got tired of that position, so I brought my body back up, and looked around for other ways to be comfy. I saw a grabber hanging down from a bus pole, and I got an idea. I tied my gray A's hoodie on the grabber, and tried to reach my neck onto the hanging middle. It wasn't long enough (nor me tall enough), but the hood of the jacket was just within reach of my face. So I put my face in it, and indeed, it was such a comfy feeling. I just let my head hang on it, I could breathe through the fabric perfectly, and my back and neck muscles were fully relaxed. It felt awesome. A couple of girls came in and said "That's weird", and though I couldn't see them, I knew they were talking about me because they said "It's his face in it! How can he breathe in there?", and I doubted anyone else was doing the same thing. I brought my face out once, looked at them, and said with a smile: "It's comfy :)". I put my face back in the hood, and rode the bus most of the way back like that. I removed it when a seemingly-tired woman came and wanted the seat beside me, which was kinda-blocked by my hoodie. A few minutes later, I dozed off my resting my head on my large backpack. But I dozed off long enough that I missed my stop, so I ended up walking from CMU back to my apartment. Which wasn't so far anyway.
No comments:
Post a Comment