The Difference of 42 Minutes

I want to point out that I am writing this in seat 9E. It’s a middle seat. And in between a young woman who did the hood over eyes strategy on my left and a man on my right. 

The man is wide and decided my seat was half his seat before the flight took off. 

I usually take the 6am flight on Mondays. It’s a 4:38 alarm and it’s dark outside and feels darker. I slowly yet swiftly exit the stairwell, chuckling when the doorman is mouth open, legs spread eagle on the couch when he’s supposed to be manning the door. 

This morning, 30 minutes later felt like 2 hours later. The doorman’s nap was over and he was neither manning the door or napping on the couch. 

There was commotion in the airport rather than tiredness. The sun was rising and through the full pane 20 feet windows, people were taking pictures. The song “New York New York” played in the terminal waiting area, speakers somehow voluming through the waterfall exhibit that rushes down every 15 minutes. 

Once I knew that I would have no room to operate in my seat, I had to change the game plan. 15 minutes of Suits, ten minutes of Grisham and 75 minutes of sleep wasn’t going to work this morning. The person in the row ahead went window open straight away which welcomed light in the cabin. It was early, but clearly not early enough. The day had already started. 

Quick in flight update. The flight attendant just had me raise the table and close the latch for the tray of the gentlemen on my right. He hasn’t moved for 110 minutes. I doubt he’ll thank me for doing that when he wakes. 

I’ve grown up and learned to appreciate a quiet morning. When streets get their alone time on an early Sunday morning stroll. When you can taste the air instead of hearing the pedestrian and automobile traffic. 

And I learned a valuable lesson this morning. A 6:00am flight is an early morning flight. You arrive to your destination and it’s still early. But you need to apply a mathematical exponential equation for every minute that passes between 6:00 and 6:42. Because all of the sudden, an early morning flight transforms into the beginning of the day. And it’s beginning too early.