(This was written yesterday, so the timing might be a bit off)

I’ve noticed more things while travelling today; airports have become increasingly pale, luck can be found aboard flights, and Delta’s tray tables still suck.

After suffering from a bad case of insomnia, I woke up around 3 this morning to go back to Wabash. I got my boarding passes nice and early, listened to “Everything is Awesome!”, checked my emails and other notifications, and then was driven to the airport by my dad. After passing through security and grabbing a bite to eat at the nearby Rose’s Deli, I got on the plane to LA. Once again, it was a little plane, and my bags are very big, so they had to store it for the flight (wish they’d be more careful about it- I have some delicate things and paints in my bag).

I don’t remember a lot from the flight, mainly because I felt like catching up on my sleep instead of watching the Spanish or Portuguese guy next to me catch up on his sleep. We landed in LAX about an hour or so later, and with good fortune I was able to get my bag and get to my gate with little issue. I had to go from gate 54 to gate 57, a light stroll compared to my cross-airport trek at Minneapolis. So yeah, luck was on my side, and I spent my time waiting for the plane to load reading TvTropes and working on Kyoshi Rising, my Avatar fic.

Delta is still run by neat freaks, and our loading was delayed due in part to the plane we were flying having just arrived from Guadalajara. This is a bit more excusable than the “Oh, first class needs to be cleaned better” because you want to make sure that nothing bad or icky comes from a foreign country… and I mean things like drugs and invasive plants. I’m no racist.

Is there an –ist for plane paint, because I have noticed that airports are becoming increasingly pale. When I was younger, there used to be loads of different colors of planes, and a lot more brands to go around. Nowadays, it seems like every plane is either United, Delta or American Airlines. Northwest, TWA, and Continental are all gone, and aside from Southwest all the planes are now painted in white, if they are painted at all (and Southwest used to be this weird peach color instead of blue… well, some changes aren’t all that bad). Why? Are the airlines trying to look like each other to confuse the consumer? Is it to save speed? This is actually a thing; an unpainted P-51 fighter plane flies 15 MPH faster than one that is painted, so it makes sense that an airline would not paint their planes too much to save weight. But still, the airline industry has lost some of its uniqueness; the only reds and greens and blacks that you see on airline paint are usually on planes from other countries or are regulated to tail art only, and for someone like me that was fascinated with all the different airlines and such it’s rather disappointing.

But then, I’m nitpicking. DELTA’S TRAY TABLES SUCK!

Again, I’ve had to deal with a tray table that is too small for my laptop. The thing doesn’t pull forward so I have to deal with the idiot in front of me if/when he decides to recline, and I can’t push the screen back far enough to get the image I want without having part of my computer dangling over the edge. The small commuter I was on during the first leg of my journey got it right, but the A320 I’m writing this from? The 757 I wrote my last travel blog from?

Nope. Chuck Testa Small tray tables.

Is it like this on all of their planes larger than a commuter? International flights must be brutal for nitpickers like me. That’s it, when I go to Germany again someday I’m flying AMERICAN! I don’t know if their tray tables are any better, but right now they hold the advantage of not being Delta.

Oh well, at least I got tea, pretzels and cinnamon cookies out of the deal (the tea was black and I prefer green, but what can you do?). I shouldn’t complain and should enjoy the miracle of human aeronautics, and leave my nitpicking to rest for a little.

…

If I was an Airbender, I wouldn’t have this problem. I’d have a glider and a Sky Bison to fly around on, and I wouldn’t have to worry about turbulence. And Sky Bison are big, so I’d be able to type without many space issues… or guys who lean back and cause my computer to slide… or guys who take up the arm rests so you’re pressed up against the window.

Although I would have to shave my head and get tattoos, but hey, I’d be able to fly without many issues.