The middle seat.

After eight years traveling for work I guess I can call myself a seasoned traveler. It took me less than five minutes to check in and get through security. Afterwards I headed to the lounge and got myself a snack and a drink as well as a magazine for the five plus hour flight from Montreal to Vancouver. For this particular flight I had requested an upgrade through the airline's website. More often than not these requests go through when they're for class seats are not sold out. Alas, I was not upgraded. No big deal I'm used to traveling economy. When I got to the gate I noticed my seat was 20E or a middle seat. If you travel a lot then you know that this is the worst possible seat you can have. Specially for a flight as long as mine. I mean really, this seat has not one benefit. The window seat has the window and you can lean on the wall for what I consider the best place to nap. The isle has the leg room, the convince of being able to just get up when ever for whatever and come back to your seat just as easy. This in my humble opinion is the best seat if you like to get up often. Now here I am in the middle seat. No arm rest to really call my own. Nothing to lean on for a nap and if I want to get up I hope the guy in the isle seat is not sleeping. So here I am, after three hours and 30 minutes, squeezed together writing this. Looking at my watch to see how much longer I got before landing. Trying to keep my head straight so that I don't fall asleep on either of my flight neighbor's shoulder. On this particular flight I'm lucky, neither one is too big for his seat. I myself I'm 5'6 and 190lbs so my size is pretty handy in this one situation. The mistake is mine for not checking my seat when booking or at least asking for a change at check-in. If someone can find a single positive to the middle seat I'm all ears. It's like the never ending flight. I have three more trips coming up and you better believe I'm not going to be making the same mistake. It's been five hours in what feels like ten. Here's the kicker, my entertainment center is not working I hear the sound from another movie out of my headphones. The only thing really keeping me sane is that sushi I will get as soon as I land. I've read the magazine, watched a movie, played a game on my phone and tried to sleep with no success. We just passed Spokane and I don't feel any closer. I should have had a double whisky maybe that would have helped. Take it from me, if you travel by yourself do not take a middle seat and if you have no choice make sure you have something to make time go by a little faster. Like writing a blog or something.