Thoughts on Travel
Jan
6
Written by:
1/6/2012
As President of ASSE, I am taking lots of flights in addition to those required by my paying job. Most of my flights are domestic, which means I fly economy. But on occasion, I get bumped up to first class. I used to dream of getting to travel in the first class section – now, not so much when it’s a domestic flight (within the geographic US). Yes, in first class they give you these great big seats. The seats in first class are wider, deeper and recline more than those in economy. This is terrific if you are 6 foot 6 inches tall – which I am not. So for me this means that my feet don’t touch the floor and my knees don’t bend when I sit all the way back in the seat. It feels like I’m Lilly Tomplin’s character “Little Edith Ann” who is only 5 years old and sits in a giant rocking chair.
In first class, they also ply you with alcohol and food. The trouble is when you are on a domestic flight you can’t get the alcohol out of your system before you land, so skip the alcohol. Some travelers don’t, but definitely should. And the food, ah the food. On a domestic flight you don’t always get choices – you just get what they serve. On the upside, they serve it on a tray with a linen liner, with a real linen napkin, and you get real ceramic dishes and metal flat wear. The food can actually be quite tasty, but talk about the calories! Combine the high calories with the lack of movement for hours on end, and what do you get? Fat. Yes, fat. It is the dark side of high volume travel whether you are the President of ASSE or not. I think I’ve come up with a solution, I try to only eat half of anything I’m served. I used the term “try” because I don’t always succeed. Right now I’m holding steady. We’ll see at the end of June 2012 when my term ends how strong my self-control was and/or how well my plan worked.