I travelled for over 11 or 12 hours yesterday, leaving Jett’s home at 1:45 pm New Jersey time and not arriving back home in WeHo until after 10 pm Los Angeles time (1 am by Jett’s clock). I had a great seat with ample leg room, right next to the main exit door. But I also paid a certain price for being more visible to the stewardesses.

For the first time since the pandemic hit 21 months ago and after five or six LA-NY round-trip flights, I was constantly pestered about my mask behavior. Pestered, in fact, four or five times by a fickle, pain-in-the-ass stewardess for not keeping my mask above my nostrils.

We all know the rules, but I like to go mask–casual after sitting down in a plane, a restaurant, a bar or some other commercial enclosed space. We take our masks off once we’re seated in a restaurant, but in planes we keep them on. I for one like to let my mask droop a bit below the tip of the nose in order to avoid all that warm steam fogging up my glasses. 1/3 of an inch below my nostrils…big deal.

For this I was hassled relentlessly by a certain stewardess. This has never, ever happened to me before. Nearly two years of this shit and I’ve never had a single dispute with any steward or waiter or security guard or anyone else about mask-wearing. I might have dropped the mask three or four times while sipping a drink and munching pretzels and whatnot. I didn’t argue or get snippy or argumentative, but it was awful. I am not a rule-breaker in this regard. I have always followed correct Covid protocols. Life is too short not to.

As a general rule of the future I think I’ll be avoiding United if at all possible. A very unpleasant flight in this regard.