Random vent about tight (airplane, etc) seating

[treedimensional]

I've been observing this behavior for years and most of the time my complaint is with men. Like why the hell can't they sit with their legs together? I understand that sometimes, if you have exceptionally long legs, it's difficult or impossible. But women almost never sit with their legs spread wide, and men do it SO. OFTEN. even if they are puny men. In fact, maybe more so if they are puny.

Armrests are dividers. Most women know this and don't touch them. Men, once again, spread out and use the armrest to such an extent that their hairy, boney elbows hang over my side.

Men and women seem to recline their seats at equal rates on planes.

On trains and buses, men and women try to defend the seat next to them as their own space at about the same rate.

I have classes twice a week, and the class is packed. There's one guy who has a bad phlegm problem and makes these wet grunting/sucking noises for two and a half hours straight. Sitting anywhere near him is DISGUSTING.

The only time I was so grossed out by a woman in a close-quarters situation was on a recent flight. I sat beside a woman who chewed her nails noisily and unceasingly. It was so bad I thought she was gnawing off her own hand. I couldn't read because I could still SEE her from one side. I couldn't close my eyes or sleep because of the disgusting sounds. I literally made a shield with both hands to block my peripheral view and BOUGHT A HEADSET to drown out the sucking/chewing noises.

This was me on the whole flight.

[mrs.jacinthe]

People are disgusting in public, just in general. I will never understand this.

I hate airplane seating in general and it seems like there's always someone disgusting nearby. Last time it was a lovely-looking woman who spent the entire (5.5 hour!) flight with her bose headphones on. Which made it seem (initially) like she was going to be a great seatmate. But apparently having the headphones on made her forget that *other people could hear her* and she LITERALLY hork-sniffle-coughed every 3-4 minutes. I was like "OMG, I'm TRAPPED HERE and I'm going to catch pneumonia and die. HELP ME." The flight attendants kept giving me sympathetic looks, but it was a full flight and there wasn't anything they could do.

[treedimensional]

Oct 17, 2014 10:59:19 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

People are disgusting in public, just in general. I will never understand this.

I hate airplane seating in general and it seems like there's always someone disgusting nearby. Last time it was a lovely-looking woman who spent the entire (5.5 hour!) flight with her bose headphones on. Which made it seem (initially) like she was going to be a great seatmate. But apparently having the headphones on made her forget that *other people could hear her* and she LITERALLY hork-sniffle-coughed every 3-4 minutes. I was like "OMG, I'm TRAPPED HERE and I'm going to catch pneumonia and die. HELP ME." The flight attendants kept giving me sympathetic looks, but it was a full flight and there wasn't anything they could do.

Ugh. Gross. That was an old man sitting across the aisle from the nail biter. He had a persistent, wet, rattling, hacking cough. Plus his skin was covered with huge scabby lesions. It was a l-o-n-g flight.

[pitterwoo]

lol, omg that sounds absolutely miserable. yet another reason I do not particularly enjoy travel.

[pumpkin]

Oh yuck! That's awful!
Airplane travel has gotten so awful. I have travel plans for later this month and could only get a window seat and I'm NOT looking forward to the plane

[Deleted]

I don't get those leg spreaders either. Why is it necessary? It isn't my problem if your junk needs to breathe or something. I was at a concert years ago and sat next to a leg spreader. He kept spreading his legs way apart to the point that I was squished in half trying to keep this guy's leg off mine. Finally I'd had enough, so I moved my leg to where it was even with the edge of my seat and planted my heel into the ground, claiming my space. The next time he invaded my space he met my rock hard knee that wouldn't budge. He looked at me as if to question me but I kept staring straight ahead and kept my knee barrier in place. He eventually figured it out.

[bunnymendelbaum]

This used to really annoy me before I had kids. Now I spend the whole flight trying to make sure my kids aren't annoying anyone.

We are flying next week and I'm already dreading trying to wrangle DD2. She's a maniac.

Funny story: So, at 5:30am I heard Minazilla (her nickname) awake and it sounded weird. Her room was dark so I couldn't see her. All the sudden, she crawls out from UNDER her bed like its nbd. WTH? She is the weirdest, most exhausting, entertaining child.

[Deleted]

Because men way too highly prize their genitals and think the rest of us need to worship their pair as well.
mentakingup2muchspaceonthetrain.tumblr.com/

One thing I'm not looking forward to in my next class is that it will probably have the same assistant. In the level one course, I spent the second half of one class period trying to figure out what the weird sound was. I kept twisting my head around because it was driving me NUTS. Finally figured out it was HER, obsessively doing this quick SNIFF*SNIFF*SNIFF thing every other minute. By the end of the 5 session course, I was ready to chuck a box of kleenex at her head.

[wawa]

Oct 18, 2014 6:01:22 GMT -5 downtonali said:

I don't get those leg spreaders either. Why is it necessary? It isn't my problem if your junk needs to breathe or something. I was at a concert years ago and sat next to a leg spreader. He kept spreading his legs way apart to the point that I was squished in half trying to keep this guy's leg off mine. Finally I'd had enough, so I moved my leg to where it was even with the edge of my seat and planted my heel into the ground, claiming my space. The next time he invaded my space he met my rock hard knee that wouldn't budge. He looked at me as if to question me but I kept staring straight ahead and kept my knee barrier in place. He eventually figured it out.

I have PROMISED myself that the next time I end up next to a leg spreader/armrest stealer this is what I'm going to do. 
No more will I accommodate those who can't be bothered to stay out of my space. 

NO MORE.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Oct 20, 2014 14:14:16 GMT -5 wawa said:

Oct 18, 2014 6:01:22 GMT -5 downtonali said:

I don't get those leg spreaders either. Why is it necessary? It isn't my problem if your junk needs to breathe or something. I was at a concert years ago and sat next to a leg spreader. He kept spreading his legs way apart to the point that I was squished in half trying to keep this guy's leg off mine. Finally I'd had enough, so I moved my leg to where it was even with the edge of my seat and planted my heel into the ground, claiming my space. The next time he invaded my space he met my rock hard knee that wouldn't budge. He looked at me as if to question me but I kept staring straight ahead and kept my knee barrier in place. He eventually figured it out.

I have PROMISED myself that the next time I end up next to a leg spreader/armrest stealer this is what I'm going to do. 
No more will I accommodate those who can't be bothered to stay out of my space. 

NO MORE.

I did this once on an airplane and ended up knee-snuggling with some random dude for almost the entire flight.  Like, he just left his leg up against mine.  BLECH.  But I did NOT want to be the first to blink in that scenario.  YOU DO NOT WIN, even though I am mightily uncomfortable/weirded out.

[wawa]

Oct 20, 2014 14:19:51 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

Oct 20, 2014 14:14:16 GMT -5 wawa said:

I have PROMISED myself that the next time I end up next to a leg spreader/armrest stealer this is what I'm going to do. 
No more will I accommodate those who can't be bothered to stay out of my space. 

NO MORE.

I did this once on an airplane and ended up knee-snuggling with some random dude for almost the entire flight.  Like, he just left his leg up against mine.  BLECH.  But I did NOT want to be the first to blink in that scenario.  YOU DO NOT WIN, even though I am mightily uncomfortable/weirded out.

Seeeeeeee, I would say something.  Because dude, STOP TOUCHING ME. 

but MH also has asked me to please stop yelling at strangers in public, so I apparently don't know when to shut my pie hole.

[kaylie]

I hate most people on airplanes. I'm that person who puts my arm rest up and defends it from the hairy elbows. I will absolutely bring my arm down hard on that shit if you get it in my personal space. Yuck. I also hate when people take their shoes off on planes. Feet are gross.

[Deleted]

Oct 20, 2014 14:33:12 GMT -5 wawa said:

Oct 20, 2014 14:19:51 GMT -5 mrs.jacinthe said:

I did this once on an airplane and ended up knee-snuggling with some random dude for almost the entire flight.  Like, he just left his leg up against mine.  BLECH.  But I did NOT want to be the first to blink in that scenario.  YOU DO NOT WIN, even though I am mightily uncomfortable/weirded out.

Seeeeeeee, I would say something.  Because dude, STOP TOUCHING ME. 

but MH also has asked me to please stop yelling at strangers in public, so I apparently don't know when to shut my pie hole.

I'm nice up to a point and then I lose it. If Leg Spreader hadn't stopped I'd have looked at him and said "touch me one more time and I call security." There's just no excuse for a random stranger to be all up in your grill making physical contact. Yuck.

[pitterwoo]

Oct 20, 2014 14:14:16 GMT -5 wawa said:

Oct 18, 2014 6:01:22 GMT -5 downtonali said:

I don't get those leg spreaders either. Why is it necessary? It isn't my problem if your junk needs to breathe or something. I was at a concert years ago and sat next to a leg spreader. He kept spreading his legs way apart to the point that I was squished in half trying to keep this guy's leg off mine. Finally I'd had enough, so I moved my leg to where it was even with the edge of my seat and planted my heel into the ground, claiming my space. The next time he invaded my space he met my rock hard knee that wouldn't budge. He looked at me as if to question me but I kept staring straight ahead and kept my knee barrier in place. He eventually figured it out.

I have PROMISED myself that the next time I end up next to a leg spreader/armrest stealer this is what I'm going to do. 
No more will I accommodate those who can't be bothered to stay out of my space. 

NO MORE.

How's your RBF?  DH always says how I'm a natural  I pretty much repel people with all my aloof body language cues.  ::sigh:: I'm afraid it's a skill that can't be taught.  I couldn't even tell you what I do, I just know that the person next to me will NOT attempt to speak to me or encroach on my space.  I do try to be a friendly person, but I guess it works out well for me in situations like this.

[wawa]

Oct 20, 2014 21:40:14 GMT -5 pitterwoo said:

Oct 20, 2014 14:14:16 GMT -5 wawa said:

I have PROMISED myself that the next time I end up next to a leg spreader/armrest stealer this is what I'm going to do. 
No more will I accommodate those who can't be bothered to stay out of my space. 

NO MORE.

How's your RBF?  DH always says how I'm a natural  I pretty much repel people with all my aloof body language cues.  ::sigh:: I'm afraid it's a skill that can't be taught.  I couldn't even tell you what I do, I just know that the person next to me will NOT attempt to speak to me or encroach on my space.  I do try to be a friendly person, but I guess it works out well for me in situations like this.

Ive actually got a pretty good rbf ("good"), my problem is that I do actually prefer to curl up kinda small to get comfy in a seat like that, but then my neighbor expands into my space and I cant shift positions the rest of the ride without touching them. Not gonna do it. This tiny bitof space allotted to me is mine dammit and I will reclaim it.

[Deleted]

Am I alone on this? I feel like if you're the person stuck in the middle seat, then you should get BOTH armrests. I always accord the inner armrest to the middle person if I'm on an outside or window seat. And yet, I always get some rude guy who not only spreads his legs into my space but leans into the extra space he gets by the window AND uses the armrest of my side.

(Funny aside, last plane ride I took, the woman next to me was writing HARD CORE EROTICA on my laptop the whole time! AND elbowed me significantly because she was too busy typing and needed ALL THE SPACE)

[dr.girlfriend]

Oct 21, 2014 13:48:42 GMT -5 @ksta said:

Am I alone on this? I feel like if you're the person stuck in the middle seat, then you should get BOTH armrests. I always accord the inner armrest to the middle person if I'm on an outside or window seat. And yet, I always get some rude guy who not only spreads his legs into my space but leans into the extra space he gets by the window AND uses the armrest of my side.

(Funny aside, last plane ride I took, the woman next to me was writing HARD CORE EROTICA on my laptop the whole time! AND elbowed me significantly because she was too busy typing and needed ALL THE SPACE)

I'm sure this was a typo, but I'm just imagining someone being like, "Excuse me, I'm just going to reach over to your laptop and write ALL THE PORN!"

[Deleted]

BAHAHAHAHA, yes, HER laptop.
It was a threesome (1 woman, 2 men) and semi dom-sub, in case you were interested. (And yes, of COURSE I kept sneaking reads!)

[treedimensional]

Oct 21, 2014 13:48:42 GMT -5 @ksta said:

Am I alone on this? I feel like if you're the person stuck in the middle seat, then you should get BOTH armrests. I always accord the inner armrest to the middle person if I'm on an outside or window seat. And yet, I always get some rude guy who not only spreads his legs into my space but leans into the extra space he gets by the window AND uses the armrest of my side.

(Funny aside, last plane ride I took, the woman next to me was writing HARD CORE EROTICA on my laptop the whole time! AND elbowed me significantly because she was too busy typing and needed ALL THE SPACE)

I agree. If anyone deserves the armrests, it is the person in the center.

But the crotch exposing leg spreaders have GOT TO STOP.

Those train images were over the top. Like, wtf dude. Buy some talcum powder. Don't air it out here.