My job shipped me off to Chicago for 24 hours to oversee a job; no problem, Chicago is a great place, should be a piece of cake right? Joke was on me.

My flight out of JFK to O’Hare was on-time (a mini miracle) and I thought this was the start of a great trip for sure. I sat down in my window seat and was soon greeted by a man in his mid-thirties that seemed “cool”. Just a quick hello and he was on his own for the most part; or soo I thought.

About 25-30 minutes into the flight, my “cool buddy” next to me decides that he was a bit chilly and pulled out a windbreaker jacket that smelled as if he had just run a triathlon in it and refused to take it off or shower for weeks thereafter. Long story short I almost passed out. In retrospect that probably would have been the best thing for me.

I was stuck. The flight was full, we were already half-way to Chicago, and I couldn’t even use the aisle to breath because he had me pinned to the window. Could I possibly go to the bathroom 19 times to displace the remaining hour of flight-time? But then I might actually touch the stinkster. Who keeps a stinky jacket in their carry-on??? I tried to convince myself that after a few minutes of suffering, I would adapt to the stench and not be bothered as much (you know, like when you go into someone’s house that has a unique scent and after a while you no longer smell it?); joke was on me yet again. I think it may have gotten worse as the flight went on because the plane got a bit warmer and I could have sworn I saw I “smell cloud”.

Well folks, I lived (yesss!) and I made sure to give my smell buddy and funny look when leaving the plane. I then proceeded to get my rental car and that brings me to my next blog post tomorrow. What an interesting experience that is!

Thanks for reading,

-Rob

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