POLL – Did I Overreact? Or Underreact?

There is a first time for everything.  In terms of travel, I’ve been doing it so long (and so frequently) that those first time incidents are becoming increasingly more bizarre.  I had not one, but TWO of them yesterday.  And I’m curious to hear your thoughts on one of them – did I overreact?

In the first (and more bothersome) encounter, my flight to Seattle was delayed out of DFW airport.  The delay was a rolling one where I was uncomfortable leaving the very crowded gate area and going to the Admirals Club, so I found a comfortable place on the floor near a large concrete support pillar and started working.

Out of the blue, I got hit in the head with something.  I looked down and realized that a takeout container had been thrown at me.

I looked up.  A man sitting in a seat about six feet away laughed and said “Oops… I missed the trash can.  Can you throw that away for me?”

I look behind me… on another side of the support pillar (about two feet away) is a large trash can with about a 6″ opening.  The takeout container is about 4″.  To me, that’s a carnival midway sucker bet only for those with no gauge of depth perception.

Still – the  guy is a lousy shot that it missed by that much.  I don’t think it even bounced – he missed he mark entirely and hit me in the head.

I gave him THE LOOK.

He laughed again… “I said I’m sorry”.

But he wasn’t moving.  He actually expected me to put down my laptop, get up and put his food waste in the trash can.

He got THE LOOK again.

So finally he got up (slowly) and shuffled over and picked up the trash, muttering under his breath “I SAID I was SORRY”.

To me, it was the principle.  You don’t go for hoop shots with trashcans when people are sitting/standing near them unless you are Lebron James.  It was not my place to throw his trash away.  And I didn’t feel like offering reassurances that it was “okay” or “no big deal” because you just do NOT hit people in the head with trash.

My second bizarre incident happened when I checked into my hotel last night.  A man was wandering around the lobby talking to people in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts.  And lets just say he was not Mark Wahlberg in that I’m pretty sure that no one in that lobby wanted to see what was on display.  The front desk clerk seemed nonplussed by the whole thing.  My mouth was literally hanging open and I was having trouble speaking.

I’ve done this enough years to be used to a few weird things while traveling (and increasingly rude behavior from others).  I know that chivalry is (almost) dead.

I’m starting to rethink my whole position on passenger shaming now.  But in the meantime, I’m curious to see your replies on the poll and any comments you have about my strange travel day!