Thing I saw at the airport today

A guy is in his car at the Passenger Drop-Off lane at the airport.  He is blocking a lot of through-traffic because of where he decided to stop his car.

The parking enforcer lady is not happy.  After ordering him to move a few times, she writes him a parking ticket and tries to stick it under his windshield wiper...but the guy turns on his windshield wipers so she can't put the ticket in!!


Parking enforcer lady was NOT happy.

(There wasn't really an end to this story.  I think the guy finally drove off and everything at the airport went back to normal.)

In the airport

7:30 am, Thursday morning, Buffalo Niagara airport
So I'm sitting in the airport earlier this morning, waiting for my flight. There were a lot of people sitting in my designated gate, so I was sitting in one of the empty gates that wasn't being used. So there are only 1-2 people anywhere near me. It's early morning, and it's very quiet, very peaceful. There is gentle music playing over the speaker system overhead.
All of a sudden....

CHWWAAAAA kyooo!!  CCHHHAAAA kyooo!!

Breaking the silence is some guy hawking a lugee nearby. Really REALLY loudly.  He's really going to town.

CHHHHWWAAATT {spit} AACCHHHAHHHWHW!! {spit}

I turn around to see where this guy is, but surprisingly I don't see anyone nearby.

CHHHHWWAAATT {spit} AACCHHHAHHHWHW!! {spit} {cough, HACK, cough}

Then I realize that the guy is in the men's bathroom. He was that loud!  It literally sounded like he was right behind me, coughing up a lung, even though he was inside the bathroom.



Now, normally, you can't hear what's going on inside a bathroom. But this airport's restrooms have short tiled corridors that lead into the restroom (so that people with luggage can get in and out easily.) So this guy must be at the sink in the bathroom, coughing his brains out, and the curved corridor leading into the restroom IS AMPLIFYING THE SOUND TOWARDS THE SEATING AREA.


Seriously, it was REALLY loud.

CHHHHWWAAAAA!!!   CCHHHAHHHWHW!!

He must have been coughing, hacking, spitting for a good 60 seconds. (Probably some sort of small animal stuck in his throat.)



Of course, during this time, I'm trying to picture what this guy must look like. Based on the sound alone, I had pictured some overweight, unshaven construction worker, with a dirty workshirt, toolbelt, untied boots, and (of course) butt crack showing. (If you had been there and heard the same coughing that I heard, you would have come to the same conclusion.)



But then the guy walks out of the bathroom, and he's a skinny, 5-foot-tall Asian dude in a suit! I was dumbfounded! I have no idea how he possibly could cough that hard without killing himself. Such big sounds coming from such a small man. Miracle of miracles.


Anyway, that was my morning in the airport. Pretty typical I guess.

Conference Call Catch 22

A few Thursdays ago, I was flying home to Detroit for the July 4 weekend.  My flight landed at 5 pm Detroit time, and my dad was picking me up from the airport.

I got some work done on the plane, but inevitably I fell asleep mid-flight (obviously).  I was asleep all the way until the wheels hit the ground, which woke me up.  (What a great nap!)

Anyway, as we're taxi-ing to the gate, I decide to check my phone for any updates from work or emails from my team.

Bing!  A meeting reminder pops up telling me that there is a work conference call going on that started 20 minutes earlier.  I had thought I would miss that meeting entirely because of my flight.  But I guess my flight landed earlier than scheduled.  Thinking that the meeting was just an informal check-in between a few people from my team, I decide they won't mind me joining the call a few minutes late.

So I dial in, and the conference call system asks me to state my name.  Still a bit groggy from my nap, I say:

"Umm.....David"

The system broadcasts to everyone:

"Beep! -Ummm....David-...has joined the meeting."

But then I hear a bunch of people talking on the line.  And not just any "people".  I hear the VP of the client company talking to a few other significant client reprepesntatives, as well as my manager and a few others.

I had called 20 minutes late to a full client work meeting, not a small informal discussion with my team.  And the conference call system had loudly announced my groggy tardy arrival over speakerphone to everyone in the room!

Since I was still on the plane where it was a bit loud with everyone around, I quickly put my phone on mute.  (Good thinking!)

But now my real problem had started.  I was on mute on this conference call (which was good), but I couldn't hang up now because then the system would announce my departure!

"Beep!  Umm....David....has left the meeting."  (Grrr...Stupid automated systems!)

I was stuck!

But it gets better....because I needed to call my dad to tell him to swing the car around to the airport terminal to pick me up.  He was waiting for me to call, but I had (stupidly) called the conference line first.  How was I supposed to reach him now?

I was tempted to try putting the conference call on hold, so I could call my dad on the other line.  But then I realized that with my luck, I would probably end up 3-way calling my dad into the conference call, where all the clients in the meeting would hear me talking to him about where to pick me up!  (Now that would be a blog post!)

So instead, I try texting my sister, asking her to call my dad, but I don't get any response from her.

In the meantime, I've gotten off the plane, and I'm wandering around the airport terminal, with my phone in my pocket, on mute and on speakerphone.  I'm waiting for the meeting to end so I can call my dad.  In a nutshell, I'm an idiot.  Once again, I find myself in a situation that only I can get into.

Finally, after 20 minutes, I decide to walk outside to see if maybe my dad had driven up to the terminal anyway.  No such luck.  He is still waiting for my call.

So I go up to some random business-y looking guy on the bench outside, and I ask him if I can use his phone because "my phone ran out of batteries."  I'm not sure if he noticed my phone clearly making noises in my shirt pocket, but regardless, he lets me use his phone.  I call my dad; he picks me up, and finally the meeting ends about 5 minutes before we get home.