Airports, Desk Attendants, and Random Cowboys

So I was heading outta town this past weekend, and previously booked a flight with Jetblue. I knew I had to get there at least a good 30 minutes before departure. When I was on the train out to JFK though I soon realized that the train from Harlem all the way out to BK is alot longer than what it should be...smh...so I ended up getting a good 10 minutes before departure and would have made it to the gate in time, but I had to get the angry desk attendant talking about, "You're not gonna make it." Obviously I wasn't going to make it with her halting my progress. What options did I have...let's see...the flight I missed was the last one out of JFK, and the next one didn't leave until 6:45 AM and it was 11 PM! It took me 2hrs on the train to get out there...so I only have one option and that's to sit and wait at the airport :-(

She gives me some paper, and I try to get through the gate in order to sit at the bar and drink my sorrows away...lol...but she says I can't check in until 3:45 AM and I won't be able to go through security until 4 AM. Just great.

So I sit down and revert back to my happy-go-lucky normal self. I listen to some music on my BlackBerry Storm and relax while reading the latest edition of Gentleman Quartlery Magazine. After about a good hour I notice some cowboy-esque guy sitting a few seats from me. He was asking everyone questions. I think I have "nice guy" or "willing to talk to strangers" as a neon sign right above my head, and only other people can see it. Someone I got drawn into a conversation with this guy, which lasted all the way up until 4AM where we went our separate ways...that's 5 hours with only 2 power naps (i.e. 25-30 minutse of resting eyes) in between.

This guy had stories for days. I'll summarize it though:

He was dressed in all black...black cowboy hat, black trenchcoat, black boots with silver spurs, black jeans and a black shirt. He was a retired military veteran who was coming from ukraine where he met with this woman he has been in constant contact with over the internet. This guy was like late 50's, early 60's. The ukranian woman was in her late 30's, early 40's (note: he showed me a video of her on his camcorder). He was telling me stories of how much he's traveled while with the military, and afterwards. His descriptions of ukrane were as follows, "I have never been to a place where if I look out the window I could see more drop-dead-gorgeous woman than I will ever see in a lifetime in the US." The culture is definitely different out in ukrane and he's looking to take the ukranian woman away from a culture that marginalizes her. She divorced her husband who was an alcholic, which is the case for a lot of men out there, supposedly, and she later divorced him. Divorce is frowned upon, especially more so for the woman...To each his own right...and on another note this guy lives in South Florida, and has 3 kids that live in Minnesota. He couldn't take the cold weather any more, so he entered a better environment for himself, and now he's about to bring the ukranian woman back with him later on in the year. He proposed to her and she accepted...

...an interesting guy indeed. I might have a few more posts about some interesting stories he told me...that's all I have for my 7 hours at JFK airport...

...but what really sucked was after going through security I went straight to the bar to find out that they couldn't start serving any alcoholic beverages until 8 AM! I couldn't even get a Mimosa...smh