In December of 2001 I was flying around the country teaching sales reps how to use territory management software. Like the guy in "Up in the Air" I got good a managing air travel. On December 23rd I was scheduled to leave Atlanta airport at about 2:00PM.
The Atlanta airport is an impressive facility. I am told it is the busiest airport in the world. I believe it. From my hotel window I could see the eight active airport runways, four arriving, four taking off. I figured out there was a plane touching down or taking off every two minutes. That's a lot of people to move around to make that happen.
The Atlanta airport was very efficient at getting these thousands of passengers to and from their planes. It was quite impressive. The Atlanta airport was a hub for Delta Airlines where hundreds of connections for cites around the world took place. However, if there was bad weather on the east coast delaying flights in or out of Atlanta, it became a little version of hell right there in the state of Georgia.
December 23, 2001 was such a rainy day. Much like today, there was rain and snow causing delays in a large part of the country. Immediately on arriving at the Atlanta airport I could feel the vibe. It was awful. Thousands of disgruntled folks, wanting to get home for Christmas, were unhappily venting their anger at anybody they could complain to. The general feel of the place was not good.
Along with about 15 co-workers I arrived at my departure gate for a flight from Atlanta to NYC, La Guardia airport. We arrived at gate 12 with about 200 others in time to hear the airline person at the check in desk announce that our flight was cancelled.
An audible groan rose up from the multitude.
"There is a flight to NYC Kennedy airport at gate 46" said the sly airline check-in guy pointing in the direction of said gate. "I leaves in twelve minutes" said he.
Like a pack of rabid lemmings the 200 or so groaning passengers of the canceled flight took flight, so to speak, toward the promise of wings to New York.
To me it looked like the airline guy, wanting to avoid dealing with 200 grumpy passengers had this brainstorm, that promised him relief. Also, my car was parked at La Guardia, I did not want to go to Kennedy airport. After the crowd left, I went to the now relaxed airline guy and asked if there was another flight to La Guardia later.
"I have some seats on an 8:00PM flight" said he.
I booked myself on the eight o-clock flight.
The Atlanta airport has a subway. I found it and took it as far as the first big shopping mall I could locate. The mall was about a twenty minute ride away from Beelzebub's cauldrun that was once the Atlanta airport. I went looking for a place to get a massage. I could not find a place to get a massage. But recently a lady friend had been talking to me about how luxuious it felt to get a manicure. I had never had a manicure. And the mall had a nail salon where several very friendly Asian ladies were sitting around with no customers.
I got a manicure; it was nice. When the lady finished with the manicure she asked: "pedicure"?
Now I imagine there a plenty of guys who get pedicures. I was not among them. But, the manicure was a pleasant experience. So why not?
I learned something about why ladies go have this stuff done. Sure they get their nails painted (I didn't). So there is an astetic quality to the whole thing. But guys, did you know that with a pedicure comes a foot massage too?
Aahhhh!
After pampering myself in the nail salon, I went and had a steak dinner. Then I did some last minute shopping and headed back to the airport. When I arrived back at the gate my co-workers were still there. They never got on the flight to Kennedy (I was not surprised). And, they had spent the day drinking in an airport bar. So now they were aggravated, pissed off and drunk.
I felt pretty good.
