Wait! What is that smell accosting my nose? It’s so strong, yet familiar somehow. My brain scrambles momentarily trying to place the scent. It’s hard to place for a brief moment, because I don’t associate it here in this space- that of the inside of an airplane. Oh, I know what it is, it’s Vicks Vapor Rub. That goopey, whitish, and metholated cream that you use to help your nose breath whenever you get too congested.
Why is the man sitting in front of me rubbing Vicks down his chest here? On the airplane?
*Sigh*
Being a typical western-world thinker, I like to follow the flow of social rules; finding myself annoyed when people don’t follow them. (I am a product of my society.) And applying an aroma as strong as Vapor Rub in this small space where I can’t move away from you is definitely breaking a social rule.
Ahh well, at least it smells kind of minty. So I decide not to say anything to the man.
When I Speak Up About the Bare Foot
But I do speak up about this next item…
My seat mate, a petite woman with black hair in her 50’s, decides it’s a great time to remove her high heeled shoes. (I can’t disagree, why do women wear high heels on a flight that is nearly 4 hours long?)
Fortunately, her feet aren’t smellable from where I am sitting. Though she certainly could use a pedicure. Her heel is cracking from being dry, and her toes need some lint removal.
Crossing her right leg, she places her right foot over her left leg. Then begins doing what most of us do when we cross a foot over a leg, she starts bobbing her foot up and down.
A moment later, her foot lightly brushes my knee & lower/outer thigh area of my leg.
I say nothing that first time. Thinking she will correct her posture and stop having her cracked foot brush against me.
Nope.
She keeps bobbing her foot and it keeps rubbing against my jeans.
What is baffling to me is the dirty look she throws at me when I ask her to stop brushing her foot against my leg.
Even if her foot wasn’t dry and cracked, I doubt very much that I’d allow someone to put their feet on me during a flight.
People get so weird when traveling.
Anyone have a story from traveling? Share it with me.