Thursday, January 4, 2007

Christmas by the Numbers

5: number of days on which one of us traveled by road or air (out of 6 days of Christmas vacation)

5: number of cancelled flights between Watoosa and me

8: number of airports visited between the two of us

9464: air miles (counted twice when we were traveling together)

1141: road miles (counted twice when we were traveling together)

5: number of seconds after my niece wiped her runny nose on my cheek that I was able to set her down and wash away the trail of slimy mucous

10: approximate number of years I must wait for her to enter the inevitable “awkward phase” and enact my revenge by telling her little boyfriend that story (plus others, some of which I might even make up)

4: number of bathrooms in the St. Louis airport I entered, only to find they were full

0: number of bathrooms in the St. Louis airport that were not an unholy affront to civilization and human dignity

1: number of times my friend Ryan violated Swiss neutrality by sticking his foot through the gate of their embassy as we passed by

3 to 1: approximate ratio of the size of the Swiss ambassador’s house to the actual embassy building

4: number of guests who had smelled smoke and fled to the downstairs lobby of my D. C. hotel as I waited there for my airport shuttle

0: number of hotel employees who seemed to have realized that the place was on fire.

2: number of fire trucks unloading their gear as I boarded the shuttle

10: approximate number of minutes after I left for the airport that the hotel was evacuated

2: number of hours guests waited to go back to their rooms

4: number of time-saving, selfservice check-in kiosks at Dulles

100: percentage of said kiosks placed right at the ticket counter, where they were covered up by people doing business with the ticket agents, making them pretty much useless

35: approximate number of minutes I pointlessly waited in line because of kiosk placement

0.5: number of minutes after opening that I arrived at the airport’s Dunkin’ Donuts

1: number of brutal tyrants whose execution was being covered on the TV as I ate my purchases from said donut shop

2.5: hours of sleep I got the night before leaving D. C. to come home.

4: degrees off the perpendicular that my emergency row seat would “recline” (when I pushed real hard)

Infinity: number of times I was unpleasantly jostled by fellow passengers as they headed toward the lavatory on my homeward flight from DC to LA.

Infinity + 1: the number of obscenities elicited from me by said jostling.

40: approximate number of minutes I wasted on the inflight movie (“Neverwas”) before realizing it was complete cinematic crap.

1: sigh of relief let out when I got home

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

17: number of times Al and I laughed outloud while reading your numbers.

Ickenham said...

Only 17? My comedic powers are weakening.

Watoosa said...

This was so funny.
It felt like twice as many airports as that.
Number of times I rode between Huntsville and Birmingham: 3
Number of interstates we were trapped on when they were completely shut down: 1
Number of times you drove to LA and back within 48 hours: 2
Number of airline agents who I worked directly with on my flights just on the way home: 12
Number of above listed agents who were competent: 3
Number of airlines who refused to honor my ticket because they are idiotic harpies: 1
Number of times I went through security (for the full check) on December 30: 3
Number of times a borrowed a stranger's phone: 6
Number of times I hid from the big bad wolf with our niece: about 50