So I may have mentioned this before, but I can fall asleep on any airplane, 9 times out of 10, before takeoff.
This is a good thing. In fact, if this were a superpower, I would be the superhero of falling asleep on airplanes. (This is what you get in a 1am blog entry.)
I wasn’t looking forward to flying back and forth from San Francisco. It’s between 3 and 4 hours and that’s a long time to be in the air on a domestic flight. And you know, Sunday evening at the poorly-marked terminal C baggage claim is a nightmare, complete with cellphone-talking brainless drivers looking around (not at the road) cluelessly for their loved-ones while TSA employees blow their whisltes at people to keep moving (GRR!!). Not to mention the baggage claim. I think that EVERYONE in baggage claim thinks that their luggage has been lost and assumes the worst. That reminds me: I’ll have to tell you guys sometime about my visit to the Baggage Resolution Center. You know, that place where all things lost end up. No one wants to steal your cell phone/black rolley bag/umbrella because if they did, there wouldn’t be SHELVES AND ROOMS FULL OF THEM. But I digress.
IAH is probably the worst-marked airport in the world. Terminals E and C are associated, but not connected, so if you get dropped off at Terminal E from a domestic flight, you gotta go to Terminal C to get your bag. WHO WOULD KNOW THAT?! And it’s about 3 miles away. But probably the worst position to be in when going to IAH is trying to pick someone up or drop someone off. God help you. There are arrows pointing in the wrong directions (and they switch). And I swear, I just got back from a conference on usability, so maybe I’ve just got it on the brain, but “Arrivals” and “Departures” are TERRIBLE words to describe where to pick someone up or drop someone off. Why? BECAUSE THEY MAKE YOU THINK. My husband is ARRIVING at the airport to pick me up after he DEPARTED from his job, and I am ARRIVING from San Francisco (after DEPARTING San Francisco), but I DEPARTED from the Baggage Claim to go outside to find that he was forced to DEPART and circle.
Okay, so better words for “Departures” and “Arrivals.” Maybe “Taking Off” or “Landing?” “Going” and “Coming.” Or what if it were cusomized for everyone, so then it could be “Home” and “Away.” That could get messy. I’m going to DEPART now for bed. Or maybe I’m ARRIVING in bed? Gah!
Somewhat related, on the topic of usability, check out About Face 3. It’s a book on design, and similar. You may like :)
Landing and Taking Off. I like that.
I’m not sure much in America is really meant to be usable?
Stores: Designed for consumers to spend as much time as possible without giving up in frustration. The idea being, the more time is spent there, the more they will buy.
Software and electronics: features, features, features. Build the feature, someone will buy it.
One of the reasons I am glad to be out of web design is I’m glad I no longer feel guilty for failing to convince others usability is a good thing.
how about “get outta here” and “goin’ back home”? i think that’s got some character to that. but to be that guy… i’ve never had trouble with the “arrival” & “departure” signs. but then again – at ATL Hartsfield-Jackson… they’re on the same level. it’s absurd. you know how at every other airport in the world there’’s two separate levels of traffic for these two things? here, first you drive by departures, then arrivals. so you have one massive traffic blockade of people on the same strip of pavement trying to both drop people off and pick them up. another bit of civic planning… done ATL style. which is badly.
You are so lucky to be that relaxed that you can fall asleep on a plane. Wish I could do that.
I’m with you on falling asleep on a plane, but I think that this super power in particular takes practice and experience (more of a batman than a superman sort of thing). I’m lucky enough to have been flying since infancy, so I don’t have the anxiety surrounding air travel that a lot of people do (like my partner who turns into an anxious rock of nerves when on a plane).
I have a little trick to deal with turbulance (the more turbulant the easier this is to do): pretend that someone is rocking you to sleep. It totally works, well, that is if you can ignore the severe turbulance. A blow up neck pillow comes in handy too and is fairly easy to travel with. It’ll at least prevent neck aches and you from drooling on your neighbor.
Ah Kristy, you have tapped into one of the keys of falling asleep on airplanes: neck support. I have a blow-up neck pillow myself but have yet to use it–lately I’ve just been using a pashmina scarf kind of bunched up in the nook between my head and back. Not as good as a travel pillow, but it doubles as a blanket (but not at the same time).
I’ll remember the thing about being rocked to sleep. That’s clever!
If you guys are nervous before flying, just do things that are comforting for you before you leave…have a nice warm latte, read Harry Potter, try on makeup at the duty-free…something that will make you more relaxed before getting on a plane. Or you can take a whole Dramamine (half if you don’t want to fall asleep) and that should do the trick. Though that will probably make you a zombie when you get wherever you’re going, just a warning.
I’m glad I checked back because those are some good suggestions. Will try some of them next time we fly.
I definitely agree it’s more a Batman power. Before med school I could never sleep on planes. Now it’s easy. I believe if you’re sleep deprived enough, you can fall asleep anywhere in any position. My friend fell asleep while holding a retractor that was holding open a person’s abdomen. Almost fell face forward into the patient, but the OR nurse noticed and woke her up just in time.
Good God!
Lacey….. May I absorb your superpower please???
Can I just say that you suck? I can NEVER fall asleep on a plane, even in first class.
Wow. It’s absolutely impossible for me to fall asleep on a plane till we hit cruise altitude. But once we’re there, I have to fight to stay awake.
I love your point about departure/arrivals. Do seaports use the same terminology? Where did these terms come from? Is it too late to change them up?