Travel Doom!

[firstfrost]

harrock and I have managed to return from the Frozen Northlands, after many attempts by the weather to keep us there forever. Our flight out of Madison on Friday was cancelled due to fog, and we were rebooked onto another flight very early Saturday morning, which was also cancelled due to fog. (As it turns out, that flight would have been out of Minneapolis, so it's good that it was cancelled, because they seem to have neglected to clarify that.). At that point, Northwest said "well, we can probably get you to Boston Monday night or so", which was a little later than the original plan. In the end, we ended up driving to Chicago and getting a plane from there to Detroit to Providence, where chenoameg rescued us (yay!), though for a while it looked like we would be trapped in Detroit instead, when the plane broke and had to be replaced with a new plane.

Also a new sort of travel irritation - most airlines will either force you to choose seats when you make the reservation (JetBlue), or will assign you vaguely sensible seats. Northwest seems to have chosen a third option, that being to give you random seats, such as splitting up two tickets travelling together. One gate agent was nice enough to move people around to reseat us; another said that the flight was full so there were no empty seats (well, we weren't asking for *empty* seats, we were asking to be switched with solo travellers... but anyway).

Um. Yes, Christmas was good, other than the travel. Was there Christmas? I mostly remember the travel, at this point. :) But here are some nice pictures of Fog.

Something that I have noticed: at home, there is my side of the bed, and there is harrock's side. When travelling, there is also an obvious My Side and His Side, such that we both know who has what side - but it isn't that left and right match the bed at home, it's that I have the side closer to the door and he has the side away from the door. I don't know whether this is because I'm lazy and cannot be bothered to walk all the way around the bed, or because he is worried that ninja will attack in the middle of the night and they can get me first. It isn't something we think about, it's just obvious. I'm wondering how it works out for other couples - do you sort by left and right? Door and not door? Near the light? Something else? Or do you have to figure out who gets what side as you go?

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

It seems to me that we end up with random sides of the bed when we sleep in a strange place. Probably there is a rule of thumb, but I'm not sure what it is... We never verbally negotiate, and we never swap once it's been set. It's probably largely my doing, as I tend to be the first person putting stuff down when we arrive or getting into bed at bedtime.

Hm, I think we do have a tendency to keep the left/right ordering from home, but it's a tendency, not a rule.

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

I haven't been able to come up with a rule of thumb that actually has any explanatory power in these situations. Just that it gets sorted out and then it's done...

[desireearmfeldt]

I want to say we may have occasionally explicitly sorted by bathroom position, but often that's not an issue. I think we've explicitly decided to have me sleep by the wall if the bed is against the wall, but I can't actually think of a specific time the bed has been against the wall at not-home.

[mathhobbit.livejournal.com]

I like the way you say "Fog". It makes me think "there's a game mechanic in here somewhere."

As for sides of the bed, R and I did have a tendency. I think it was "I sleep on the right" but it could have been related to window or alarm clock position. (It was definitely not related to door location.)

[arcanology.livejournal.com]

Yes, the northwest seating method is best described as stupid crossed with irritating.

Sides

[davehenry.livejournal.com]

Hmm. We have sides of the bed. Mine is always Closest to the Door. In the event that those ninja ever do attack in the middle of the night, I feel I'm better equipped/prepared to be the one who meets them first.

[dcltdw]

I'm on left, alyse on right (as you lie on your back on the bed), except this gets trumped if the bed is up against the wall, in which case, alyse gets open side, I get closed side, because she tends to get up in the middle of the night more than I do.

This also gets trumped if one side has light shining on it due to curtain weirdnesses -- I get dark side, she gets light side.

So I think it's a default case that gets trumped by our own frailties. :)

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

We don't have sides of the bed that are consistent at home, nor when traveling.

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

We don't have sides of the bed that are consistent at home

Wow, weird! :) I tried once to sleep on Jerry's side of the bed, and it just didn't work. It was like wearing my shoes on the wrong feet.

[psychohist.livejournal.com]

I love moving over to greyautumnrain's side, because it often has extra warmth and leftover fuzz ... this is after she gets up, of course.

I think we normally keep the same sides when on the road.

[twe.livejournal.com]

Random switching, arbitrary intervals, though only *very* rarely in the middle of the night. Actually, I think that happened more before he was fully convinced that he can say "please move over" to me while I'm sleeping and I will. Before that I would occasionally wake up in the morning on the opposite side from the one I went to sleep on. (This was, I might add, far less confusing than the time he closed the bedroom door after I had gone to sleep, causing me to walk smack into it in the middle of the night.)

[kelkyag]

The person who needs to wake up sleeps on the side with the alarm clock. Failing that, the owner of the alarm clock sleeps on the side with the alarm clock, whether or not it's set. Beyond that, I don't know; I think whichever side someone drop their stuff on first is fine.

[bakedweasels.livejournal.com]

We are "owner of alarm clock on the side of the bed w/alarm clock" people. Which works out because the clock has 2 "stations", and the "slave station" can go next to me so I can turn it off at 4:30 when my alarm goes off.

[twe.livejournal.com]

An alarm clock that you can reach from the bed is a dangerous thing!

[bakedweasels.livejournal.com]

Given that I now get up when I used to go to bed, you'd think so. I think for me it's a real interest in my work that gets me up in the morning, which is a nice thing to be able to say.

[twe.livejournal.com]

That is a really nice thing to be able to say, so congratulations on that too!

I mostly just don't get up enough sleep. Upon being woken up Christmas morning, I'm pretty sure my response was "but it's still dark out."

[treiza.livejournal.com]

hm, I feel like ninjas would come in the window...

[twe.livejournal.com]

I really have to agree with you on that point.

[merastra.livejournal.com]

Those are lovely fog pictures. :-) Sorry you had travel woes.

Ninjas! What if harrock IS a ninja? ;-)