Obedient little me

As we’ve established, I like doing the right thing. So it will come as no surprise to anyone that I am a big follower of rules. While some people might say rules were meant to be broken, I would say rules are meant to be followed and then I would eagerly raise my hand, and when I was called upon, ask for another helping of rules, please.

My adoration of, and adherence to, rules became apparent to me when I was boarding the plane to New York earlier this week. I could not believe how many people boarded the plane with more than one carry-on item and one personal item such as a purse, briefcase, or backpack. I mean, they state the rules very clearly and more than once. You are allowed one carry-on item and one personal item such as a purse, briefcase or backpack. Guess what I had, Internets? If you answered one carry-on item and one personal item such as a purse, briefcase, or backpack, YOU WIN. The biggest baggage offender I saw today had one carry-on item, two personal items (a very full man purse and a briefcase), and a garment bag. And they let him on the plane. Well the gate agent kept telling him that he needed to combine his bags and he’d just look at her with scorn. After three or four warnings, he simply moved his man purse to the same side of his body as the briefcase and went along his merry way. Meanwhile, other passengers were forced to check their carry-ons because his full man purse (and several other over-packers) had hogged all the space in the overhead bins.

Now, I’m as cheap as the next guy and I’ll try to save myself the $25 of checking a bag by either wearing everything I’m bringing with me or jamming everything I can into my carry-on item and one personal item such as a purse, briefcase, or backpack. But a rule is a rule; at least I thought it was. And I suppose I get to sleep easy at night knowing that my righteousness didn’t cause anyone personal strife or require unwanted back checkage, but something tells me that the biggest baggage offender isn’t losing any sleep over what he did—although he should lose some over his poor taste in man purses.