Boeing Boeing
Keith stayed with me over Sunday night and travelled with me to the airport on Monday morning. We both of us had a restless night. I snored a lot apparently. So, neither of us looked our best.
He did all the reassuring things only an ex-partner can do. Like, rather than telling me to shut up, he let me prattle on about airplane disasters and horrors knowing that I just had to talk it out of my system.
Otherwise, the journey was without incident and we joined the check-in line. Why are some people so disorganised about everything they do? It's the same at supermarket checkouts. Most people go through just fine but there's always one person that's all over the place. And they're always just in front of me. Well, we had a few of these organisationally challenged people in airport queue.
The attendant must have been glad of a cheerful, organised faggot by the time I got to the desk. Or at least I'm assuming that that was the scenario because, even though I said I didn't mind where I sat, she replied by saying that since, she couldn't place me in my preferred seat, she'd put me on standby and that I was to go to customer services half an hour before take-off.
And then, it was time for me to go through the barriers and there were tears from Keith. He was so happy for me and also so sad and lonely. It's strange. In some areas of his life he's so tenacious and so focussed. And yet when it comes to his own personal happiness, he's a mess. I love him dearly and yet I know that the worst thing that I can do is to step in and sort things out for him. He left me in order to grow as a person, which he's done. Now, I need to support him through the next stage of growth by standing back and being a safety net if needed.
The next hour passed quickly enough looking through duty free and so on and then I went to the customer services. I handed my slip over and was given a different seat number. When I asked if it was on an aisle or what, I was told that I'd been upgraded to Club Class so this little queen was very happy.
I was even happier when I began to realise what a difference it would make. Well extra leg room, yes, I'd expected that. Posh menu to chose your food and wine from (beef was off), yes, I'd expected that too. What I'd not expected was the individual LCD screen attached to the seat from which I had a choice of 8 movie channels as well as the 8 audio channels. So, over the course of the next few hours, I was not only sumptuously wined and dined but I also got to watch Goldeneye, an episode of Inspector Morse, enough of Cutthroat Island to know that I'd never go see it at the movies and Fair Game with William Baldwin and Cindy Crawford, wherein young Billy drops his drawers yet again and allows a grateful world another opportunity to gaze on his tush.
By this time, we were homing in on Seattle so I packed everything away and switched to my Walkman and came into Sea-Tac Airport to the Pet Shop Boys, so I was feeling no pain.
Dale met me at the airport and we drove from the south side of the city over various bridges and passed Seattle's waterfront through to the north side where he lives. First impressions are that Seattle is in fact a forest with interspersed houses. It is very hilly so there are always interesting vistas just round the corners. Dale said it's even better when the cloud cover lifts and you can see the mountains.
We arrived home and Rod arrived soon after. We talked, Dale prepared food and then I crashed. I'd had about five hours sleep in the last 48 and it had been a long day.