January 11, 2008

Ma’am?

Posted in Identification at 10:49 pm by Michael

Getting “Sir’ed” has been a pretty regular occurrence for me, especially when I’m wearing my normal North Face fleece jacket. I had *never* yet been ma’am’ed.

That day has now come.

We were in Logan Airport, at gate C29, waiting for our JetBlue flight back to Seattle. Anh had just gone to the restroom, and I was there with Samwich. The gate agent (male, mid to late 20’s) came over (I was holding Samwich at the time) and said:

“Ma’am, is that carseat going on the flight or do you need to check it?”

Basically, he was asking if I needed a gate check ticket or not, or if we were bringing it on the plane.

I said: “We have a seat for him so we are bringing it on the plane, thanks”

Now, what he said next was up for debate. He may have said:

“Thanks Man, Have a Good Flight!”

He could also have said:

“Thanks Ma’am, Have a Good Flight!”

I think he said the first. Here’s why. My voice is a huge tell. By the look on his face it was clear that he was surprised and more than a little confused.  Anyway, I’ll take the first “ma’am” as progress.

Later on the flight, Anh was holding Samwich in the middle, and I was on the aisle. Samwich is now pretty active, and it’s not exactly good times for him because more than anything, he just wants to crawl, walk, play, explore, chew, etc. I can imagine buying the Samwich action figure, and reading the back of the box:

“Samwich Action Figure: Now With Real Flailing Action!”

Anyway, as happens a lot, he flailed, and whacked me with a left cross to the chin. Now, generally my chin doesn’t hurt much, but when whacked, it does hurt. I recoiled back toward the aisle, just as the flight attendant was coming by with a tray of bottled water. You guessed it “Wack!” Corner of the tray, meet noggin. Then to add insult to injury, the bottles of water on the tray then fall on my newly throbbin’ noggin. Sweet.

Now the relevant part. The flight attendant was a little mortified, and said “What happened?” and asked if I was ok or needed ice or anything. I said no, that I was ok, and just wanted this whole unfortunate incident to end. Just then, another flight attendant came by and asked what happened…. The first flight attendant says:

“Well, the baby hit her in the head, and she moved to the aisle and I hit her in the head with the tray.”

I guess passing was worth the whack on the head!

Wow – twice in one day!

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