ON PERFECTION:

I flew from Providence to Chicago yesterday. The locations aren't really important to the story, except that the Providence airport now has a "Johnny Rocket's" in it, which may be the best airport restaurant news this country has ever seen.

My flight experience went surprisingly well. The airport long-term parking shuttle picked me up from my car. There wasn't really a wait at security. Despite the rain, the flight left on time. While boarding, I had just stepped on the plane (and made the flight attendant laugh) when the old couple in the front row decided they would rather sit elsewhere, opening the front row - and its extra legroom - to me. My order of Dr Pepper with no ice was brought promptly and correctly. In addition to all of that - we arrived thirty minutes early (and my ride was aware that we'd be arriving early). It was, in short, pretty much a perfect travel experience. Pretty much.

I have a second, sort-of-related story to illuminate the "pretty much" right up there. I was playing my new PSP game - Buzz Trivia - while on this flight. And I breezed through the first five challenges (of fifteen) and thought "Uh oh. I'm going to finish this game in one try. That doesn't seem that fun." I was worried there would be nothing to look forward to the next time I played the game. I then proceeded to bomb several quizzes in a row (the ridiculous standards for a gold medal in the "virus" game caused me to make several obscene gestures at the PSP screen). I was kind of glad this happened, as it gives me something to look forward to the next time I play.

Now, like an episode of "Scrubs," watch the "B" storyline impact the "A" storyline...

Had the flight been perfect, I wouldn't have anything to look forward to on future flights. I mean, seriously, after an actual perfect travel experience, how could it get better? "The pilot has just announced that we have free kittens to give out. These kittens are trained to bake chocolate chip cookies and give backrubs."

So I've decided that I'm okay with an almost-perfect flight. It gives me something to look forward to for future trips. I found an "author unknown" quote that illustrates my thoughts much more concisely - "The most difficult part of attaining perfection is finding something to do for an encore."

And what, you ask, made my travel experience less than perfect? When a gentleman was getting something out of the overhead bin directly above me, his jacket swung down and hit me in the face. Repeatedly.