I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
I was already worried about smelling... unpleasant before I knew that I had another day to wear the same clothes I put on in Barrow. The same clothes I've been wearing (and washing!) for ten weeks. I normally don't care about this, but in the close quarters of a 757, I had only the comfort of my fellow passengers in mind. So I bought a t-shirt at the airport gift shop. Now I'm a whole new Jenny.
My fellow passengers were slightly more removed from my company on today's flights since I was upgraded. It was nice. The rest of first class was filled with your usual busy business folk and one older Yacht-Club-esque couple. They held hands when we hit turbulence in Minnesota. They were very serious until Mr. Yacht Club had a beer and Mrs. Yacht Club finally got up the courage to use the airplane toilet. These people, the Yacht Clubs and the Business Folk, all looked at me with surprise and mild dislike when I showed up in their little first class village. I was disheveled as all heck and dragging along a muddy backpack covered with Atqasuk travel tags.
Not that any of that is news. Airports and airplanes are all the same. Under construction, busy, and filled with stock characters. In Minneapolis I encountered the typical American family and almost vomited at them with their four blond children and four monogrammed LL Bean rolling backpacks. Whatever. They were cute. I guess. The one kid was a snot, though. He wouldn't even eat his chicken strips! I'm pretty sure he took a picture of me with his dad's camera phone. I WAS eating a Berry Tie-dye Fruit by the Foot at the time. Clearly superior to his chicken strips. If I've learned anything this summer, it's that Berry Tie-Dye and Strawberry are the best Fruit by the Foot flavors. Avoid "Color by the Foot" if you can- I know the rainbow coloring is enticing, but trust me.
I did enjoy watching the people during my solo adventure. The other non-stock characters on the loooong flight from Anchorage to Minneapolis were an old Martin Crane type and a Very Important On-the-Phone-Every-Second-Until-They-Say-I-Can't-Be Gentlemen. He was a little shady. I would cast Tom Cruise in this role for Jenny Rides an Airplane: The Movie. These two fellows had a very important business deal to conduct, but unless they were talking in code, it sounded like Tom Cruise Guy was trying to lure Martin Crane Fellow into a cabin. With fish. I think the deal was about fish.
I was fortunate to have a pleasant seat partner for the long flight. She was pleasant in that we did not exchange words throughout the entire journey. I think she was disappointed that I wasn't a young handsome single doctor. Based on her choice of reading material, the careful and becoming travel outfit she'd planned, and her mousy demeanor, I invented a life for her that involved patient saving for long cross-country flights where she can meet eligible young men and fall in love over packs of roasted nuts. She's careful to wear something that shows off her figure but not her skin, partially because she is ever-so modest, but also because she is petite and easily catches a chill on planes. She's also careful to leave at home the romance novels and especially-oh, the horror, if a worldly man caught her reading something so old-fashioned- her well-loved Jane Austen books. Since she can't quite bring herself to read Cosmo without blushing, she settles for People magazine. It conveys youth, a sense of fun, an interest in pop culture, and is less stuffy than Time or Newsweek, but is by no means provocative or embarrassing. Her lonely flights take her to Alaska at least once a month, since she is playing the numbers game and everyone knows that Alaska is a virtual treasure trove of MEN.
On the next plane I sat next to a nice older man in a pink polo shirt who ordered a screwdriver and loves West Michigan! He helped me get my bag from the overhead compartment when Cranky Flight Attendant stashed it far away.
At the end of the day I was in Grand Rapids with my parents and my sister. They were okay with seeing me, I think. They thought that my feet should smell better and that I should stop telling them to reduce their carbon footprint, but they can deal.