I’m baaaack!
by sam on 12/5/2006Woohoo! working internet access. it only took 2 and a half months!
Flew back to Milan Sunday night. I was really sad to be leaving NY again, but when I got into the city yesterday morning, it felt pretty comfortable – like I recognized things and knew where we were going. So that was a nice feeling. The flight back was, of course, immensely annoying, most likely because I needed to go to work yesterday. The guy sitting next to me (he was in the window seat) spent most of the flight trying to elbow my arm off of the armrest in some pathetic attempt at dominance (given that he was really skinny, it’s not like he needed the room. Plus, given that all of the controls for my seat were contained on that armrest, I definitely considered it “mine”). The best part though, was in the middle of the night, after I had managed to fall asleep, he starts poking me so that he can get up to use the restroom. This is normally fine to me – it’s the price I pay for sitting in the aisle seat. But then, after I had finally managed to fall asleep again, his FRIEND, from somewhere else on the plane, comes over to have a conversation, and does this by LEANING ON THE BACK OF MY SEAT. It’s 3 o’clock in the friggin’ morning, I’m clearly attempting to sleep, and this asshole is basically rocking my seat back and forth while speaking in normal voice (read: not whispering) right over my head. I actually, after reorienting myself and realizing why I had been woken up, grabbed his arm and pushed him away from my seat. I think he got the hint.
Oh, I should also point out that the guy sitting next to me was the very last person on the plane before they closed the doors. I hate those people even when they’re not sitting near me. And then, he starts moving shit around in the overhead bins because his bag won’t fit. And instead of looking for an empty bin, or asking for help, he just starts literally crushing my bag. with my computer in it. It was so over-the-top that the guy sitting in front of me, who is watching this as well, pointedly said to me “I certainly hope you didn’t have anything breakable in there,” as a relatively polite attempt to point out to window guy that he was maybe not doing the right thing. Nevermind that he completely blocked my ability to actually reach my bag by doing this (the only reason why I didn’t get up as soon as the seatbelt light was off to make a big show out of needing something from my bag, like my computer, was that I was actually trying to SLEEP!).
The better part was that I actually made a friend – the guy sitting across the aisle from me and I had intermittent conversations through out the flight, where we discovered that (i) we were both americans from the NYC area, (ii) we were both lawyers working in Milan, and (iii) we were both named Sam. which was actually the funniest part. We had this whole conversation about our lives and had never introduced ourselves, but when I gave him my business card he did a double-take, and asked if I went by the name “sam”, when I said yes, he stuck out his hand and said, “hi, I’m Sam.” So that was funny.
Oh, but the best part was when I went to the grocery store last night after work (completely zonked out from the no-sleep flight), yet again, I’m buying, like, six things to tide me over until the weekend, and the person behind me (this time in Italian) asks to cut in line! This time I just played dumb, even though I knew what she was asking (it’s a lot easier to do when you don’t speak the language well). Is there something about me that makes me look like a pushover?
I think I’ve written about this before, but I think there’s something about my appearance that gives people a certain impression of me. I am constantly stopped on the street, both in NY and Milan, and asked for directions (I’m obviously a lot less useful in Milan). But I think it’s because I’m somehow non-threatening looking. So then, when I snap, or refuse to give in (in the case of supermarket checkout lines), people somehow become even more offended than they would from someone else. I’m apparently a bitch in sheep’s clothing.
So. I’m back in Milan, I’ll be here until March. I’ll (seriously now) try to get out this weekend and take some pictures, and I’m hoping to go somewhere interesting for the four-day Christmas weekend we get here. Ciao!