Peanut butter for slippers: The story of my flight

It's been a week already since I made the 16-hour flight to Tokyo, and I never wrote about it. Because I feel like it's a story worth sharing, I'm going to share it....

I thought nothing of packing my jar of peanut butter into my carry-on. This wasn't just any kind of peanut butter, mind you, but my new favorite--white chocolate peanut butter. Delicious stuff. Although the peanut butter made it just fine through security in the Indy airport, I wasn't so lucky in Chicago. The somewhat sympathetic security lady threw it away, even though I told her that I might cry (I was just kidding) if she did. Since when did peanut butter become dangerous? That's what I want to know. And besides, it was sealed! Sigh.

Anyway, I had packed a peanut butter jelly sandwich to eat at some point during my jouney. So since I was getting hungry and since I was already missing my brand-new, unopened jar of peanut butter, I decided to mourn the loss over a PB&J sandwich. Oh, the irony.

Once on the airplane, I found my seat next to two non-English-speaking people. The man on my left was Japanese, and the woman on my right had to be Vietnamese because just about the only word I understood from her was "Vietnam," and the Japanese flight attendant didn't understand her either.

Despite our lack of conversation, the Vietnamese lady was very nice. She had a big smile the whole time, and she kept offering me some little fruits that must have been from Vietnam. (I want to know how she got those on the plane!) I had no idea what they were, so I tried asking her. She said what sounded like, "lo mein," which I'm pretty sure is a noodle, not a fruit, so okay whatever. :)

Meanwhile, the Japanese guy didn't even look at me. That changed when he accidentally spilled his wine on my sock!! I had just taken my shoes off, in an attempt to get comfortable--which is an almost impossible task on a 16-hour flight! He felt SO bad for spilling wine on me, and I tried telling him that it was really okay. I was just happy it was my sock and not my laptop or laptop bag, which was at my feet.

He had me take off my sock, and then he held it (!!) while he waited for the flight attendant to come over. Apparently he asked her if she could wash my sock for me because she came back with a plastic bag to put my sock in, as well as a pair of slippers for my feet! So that's how I got a pair of new, Japanese Airline slippers. But I had to give up a jar of peanut butter. (I'm really not bitter about it or mean to sound like I'm complaining, I promise. It's just kind of funny to me now.) I think of it as a peanut butter/slippers exchange.

The Japanese guy kept apologizing to me and was always more than happy to let me out of my seat. The Vietnamese lady continued to give me her "lo mein" fruits. I passed the time by watching the movies Iron Man and Kung Fu Panda and taking little naps. Overall, a long--but not a bad--flight!