Have you ever noticed that the armrest between seats on the plane is like prime real estate? Something about it makes us become savages and want to stab others in the eyes just so we can have the whole arm rest instead of, I don’t know, sharing it?

Saturday night, I caught a red-eye out of Seattle and I was already fairly miserable before I even got on the flight. For one, after I got through security, I called Mack and was juggling all my stuff as I bought crackers and water for the flight. In my distraction what did I loose? Yeah, my boarding pass. Then someone’s perfume caused me to have a pretty bad allergic reaction while waiting at the gate. 

Ladies, as a favor to us all, can we please refrain from using copious amounts of perfume when we’re all going to be in an enclosed space? If we unite in this sisterhood pact I’ll promise not have a runny, snotty nose in retaliation to your perfume setting off my allergies.

Anyway, this year I have taken a fair amount of flights. While I am by no means a business traveler and jet-setter, within a normal year I typically do only a handful of flights. In February of this year Mack had an internship out here in Florida which means by the end of the month I had taken eight flights between Phoenix and Florida since, well, no airlines likes direct flights between the two places and I had many a layover. 

Don’t get me started on the three cross-country drives we did in the first six months of this year.

But, as I rack up the frequent flyer miles in my travels, there are two types of people I’ve found who travel: those who are too timid to use the armrest and those who think it is their right to rest their arm on the whole rest. I know that people might be angry with this assessment, but typically (in my experience) the armrest hogs tend to be men between the ages of twenty and sixty.

Now, I am perfectly willing and happy to share the armrest. You can have the front part or even the back, whichever you choose! But to take the whole thing is annoying and rude. I, unfortunately, fall into the “too timid to use the arm-rest” category unless I am in a really foul mood (then Mack gets punched and told to move his arm). 

Have any of you noticed this epic battle of the armrest? Are you the aggressive or passive party in this epic battle? And will there ever be a resolution to this or shall we always fight over this issue?

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