If you’ve read more than one of my blogs over the years, you would know that I like to write in airports.

Something about traveling and the change of scenery and people watching gets my creative juices flowing and being alone allows me the time to put some words into my iPhone as I wait for my plane to depart. I don’t get a lot of alone time, so I try to make the best of it when I do.

Today, I am at the Moline/Quad Cities airport bar. I just dropped my niece back off with her mother after 3 weeks of fun filled Texas summer break fun!

I love my niece.

I hate this airport.

Worst food, nothing to do, warmest beer and they save tons of money with their lack of air conditioning. I am confident that it’s warmer inside than it is outside right now. Might be why the beer is warm? Not a huge deal for them, since the airport bar closes at 6pm.

There is seriously nothing to do at this airport! The bar has one TV and we are watching golf. Half the people in here are acting like they give a shit about golf because they have nothing to do but drink and look at something.

The benefit of this airport is that it takes roughly 3 minutes to go through the metal detector and get to your gate. Don’t worry about being here 90 minutes early because there are no lines to anything. It’s an easy in and out, small city, airport.

I only really hate this airport because 3 weeks ago I spent an extra day here. The reason? The toilet on the last flight out, my flight, was broken and that caused me to miss my connecting flight in Chicago. My flight, at 7:20pm was the last flight out of this small airport, so my 8 year old niece and I were forced to spend the night in the nastiest hotel I have ever stayed in. There may or may not have been an hourly charge for the rooms and maybe a homicide or two have happened here, but this was the 6th place I called and the first one that wasn’t sold out. Gee wonder why?

The bonus? American Airlines refused to pay for a room, even thought it was their fault I had to spend the night. Not even the big blue eyes on my beautiful 8 year old niece could convince them to do the right thing. The ladies working the desk for the airlines had a party to get to and my “little issue” wasn’t a priority for them as they were just trying to close up for the night. I know there was a party because I am the world’s greatest eavesdropper and I could read the “I am getting the hell out of here” body language pretty well.

I’m waiting till I get back from this leg of the trip to write my nasty worded email to them. I have a fear that if I write it before this leg of the trip or while I wait for my next flight, I might get grounded again. Instead, I’ll just blog about it for now. A prematurely written, strong worded, email might jinx things for me on the way back.

I always try to do the right thing. Do you? Honestly?

It sucks sometimes because it often causes us more stress down the road, but I think it’s important. Who knows if the karma from this behavior will ever pay off for me, and that’s not what it’s about, but I still think it’s important to take the time to do the right thing. To take the extra steps to bring comfort to another person or help when you can actually help. No false promises. No doing it in hopes of a later payback. No keeping score. Just doing the right thing for the right reason.

When I was a kid in high school I would stay late so that the last kid waiting on a ride after baseball or band practice wouldn’t have to wait alone. Often, I was the last kid, and knowing how that felt when everyone just left you there made me more sensitive to the situation.

I’ve spent more Saturdays than I can count moving people into their new house or apartment. I’ve never really cashed in on these favors myself, but I can’t not help people move. You know when they ask, it’s usually out of desperation. One day I’ll talk about the 5000 pound kitchen table I carried by myself up 3 flights of stairs and almost died. I’m still internally bleeding from lifting it! One day I will tell you. One day. One day.

I’ve paid bills and given money to friends and family with the knowledge that I will never see it again. I’ve reached out to comfort others that may not have done the same for me. It’s the right thing to do.

In business, I let people do their job and present their case. Even when they are trying to convince me to agree to do something that I might never do. They are not spinning their wheels because sometimes they actually do convince me to change my mind. Above all, it’s important that they are allowed to get their “at bat” and it’s important that I try my best to give them an audience. I am respectful of their time if they are respectful of mine. Again, it’s the right thing to do.

At the end of the day, showing respect is never a bad thing to do. It’s the right thing to do and none of us are too busy, all of the time, to take a minute to listen or help…

Unless you’re an airline ticket person for American Airlines that just needs to get to a party in an hour; then it’s ok to strand a man and a young child at a tiny airport between Iowa and Illinois without even attempting to make a phone call on their behalf.

#Tryharder