Ten minutes after takeoff, I settled into my window seat: headphones in, book open, tray table up, the quiet rhythm of flight beginning to hum. Then something cold and gritty touched my arm. I turned\u2014and froze.A sock, once white and now bravely gray, was draped across my armrest like it had paid for the seat. \u201cHey!\u201d I said, astonished. \u201cWhat is this?\u201dThe teenager behind me didn\u2019t move his foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He didn\u2019t even look up from his magazine. \u201cRelax,\u201d he said lazily. \u201cIt\u2019s cramped.\u201d\u201cCramped isn\u2019t an excuse to put your foot on someone else\u2019s armrest,\u201d I replied, heat rising to my cheeks.He smirked. \u201cIf you want space, try business class.\u201dA couple of passengers glanced over. I swallowed the retort that wanted to fly out faster than the plane and took a slow breath.I wasn\u2019t going to make a scene. I was going to make a point. Boundary, Stated Once\u2014ClearlyI turned fully in my seat and met his eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHere\u2019s the deal: that is my armrest. I need you to move your foot off it. Now.\u201dHe finally looked annoyed.\u201cYou\u2019re being dramatic.\u201d\u201cMaybe,\u201d I said evenly, \u201cbut I\u2019m also right.\u201dI waited. He didn\u2019t move. Fine.Calling in a Calm ProfessionalI pressed the call button. A flight attendant\u2014a woman with kind eyes and the practiced calm of someone who has seen everything at altitude\u2014arrived within seconds. \u201cHi,\u201d I said, keeping my voice steady<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ten minutes after takeoff, I settled into my window seat: headphones in, book open, tray table up, the quiet rhythm of flight beginning to hum. Then something… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"views":295,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16527,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16525\/revisions\/16527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinbr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}