Halfway Home - Strange People in ATL

By Chris

Atlant and Charlotte - Monday and Tuesday - are the only travel for the week. Sitting in Atlanta waiting to make my way to Charlotte now.

Cha-ching . . . scored the complementary 1st class upgrade this morning, and had the strangest lady beside me. She was an intense kind of high-maintenence type. She had stuff spread out everywhere when we were boarding. It looked like she had unpacked right there in the first class cabin. Bags open, stuff strewn about. She eventually settled on keeping these things out for the flight: a furry mask that covered her eyes; a neck contraption that she blew up with her mouth and some toiletry things. She made two trips to the airplane bathroom, BEFORE we even left the gate. At 5:45 in the morning all that activity was a bit much . . . as the rest of the first class cabin was completely subdued. In first class, one of the benefits is that you get on first and are served drinks. You get to sip them and watch the poor souls heading back to the small seats (my usual destination). Well, high maint. woman spilled hers all over herself. The flight attendant gave her a look like, "Good lord woman . . . if you would sit still that probably wouldn't happen." Trip #3 to the lav followed. Once airborn, she got up, walked around a bit, making another bathroom trip, then stood in her seat to retrieve some MORE stuff from her bag in the overhead compartment, then retreated to the empty seat in front of us which allowed her to spread out over two seats and put her feet up on the wall in front. It was all just way too much drama and prep for a 1.5 hour flight. She was absolutely stir crazy. She said she was headed to LA. Yikes.

While waiting for the train from the airport in morning, there was a woman holding a bunch of newspapers talking to herself. She was a little off . . . but she was happy, making herself laugh with her stories. I made the mistake of sitting on the other end of the bench from her. As soon as my butt hit the seat, the self-talking and laughing stopped, and she snapped her head towards me, saying "Go on, my bench, my bench, go on, my bench." I got up, and she continued her conversation with herself.

The only other exciting news of the day came when the MARTA train lost power. Stalled, lights out, in a tunnel. Didn't last long though.