waste of time.

I took a day trip to Houston today for work, courtesy of Southwest Airlines. So that means two times today I watched as the flight attendant performed one of the biggest time wasters still being done today. The bit where she shows you how to fasten your seatbelt, criss-crosses her arms while pointing out the six emergency doors, directs your attention to the floor so that you see where the lights will flash if the plane is trouble, demonstrates the gas mask falling from the space above you and shows you how to pull the straps to tighten. And to top it off of course, she must pull out and put on the big yellow life vest that you can only inflate (by pulling the red handle) once you have jumped outside of the airplane.

I cannot believe that flight attendants are still forced to perform this charade, when people clearly stopped listening a decade ago. What a mockery. On both flights today I sat near the front. And during both sessions, I turned my body around 180 degrees to see if there was anyone listening. Not a single person!! Everyone was either talking, sleeping, reading the newspaper, listening to the IPOD or otherwise just tuning out. And yes, i was also one of the ones not paying attention. I felt embarrased for the poor lady standing up there reminding us to put the mask on ourselves before putting it on a small child. There weren't even any small children on my 7am flight.