And Then Sometimes Good Stuff Happens

So I'm laying in bed Thursday morning and it's about 4:30 AM. I knew I would be waking up early and thought I would maybe do a quick half load of laundry and maybe go out to breakfast or otherwise make a slow morning of it. The plane didn't leave until 9:30 so I had a few hours. Then I realized that I never checked my seats and didn't know if I had the aisle or not. So I quick fast jumped out of bed and called up my itinerary. Gasp! I didn't even have a confirmed seat. This is what happens when Admin waits 'til the last minute to book our flights. I also didn't have a direct route, stopping in Tokyo for a six hour layover. In the world of international travel, I was in a bad situation.

I quick fast got ready and ran to the airport only to check my bags and be told that the gate crew would assign my seat. This is also not good,; it means the plane is full. Time was ticking away and I could feel the chance of sitting in the middle approaching 100%. (Did I mention before this was an 8 hour flight?) So I wait and I wait and the gate crew finally shows up and starts messing with the seating arrangements. When it's my turn to ask for a seat, they hand me a boarding pass for 78B. I didn't know there were 78 rows on a 747. With a great deal of dread and more than a little bit of impatient grumbling I step on board and the steward points me upstairs.

Wait, I think. I've never even seen what it's like upstairs. How can it be that I'm actually sitting up there? But I was. Wanna know what it's like?

First Class Nirvana.