that's interesting makeup...

Today I flew through Chicago to Washington, DC. The flights were really quite nice except this little episode.

I like to use the pens we have at work. They are microball-roller style, very fine point, very smooth feel. The only problem: Put them on an airplane, and one out of three times they'll spring a leak, right at the tip where your fingers are.

It was the red pen today. I realized before it got too out of hand, though very quickly my hands looked like I'd lost a fight with a kindergarten art project. The pen was tossed, and I switched to traditional ball-point.

About ten minutes later, the snack cart came by. The flight attendant gave me a nice smile and for some reason made sure to let me know that the drink cart was right behind her. Sure enough, a few minutes later the drink cart came by. They gave me what I asked for, then as an afterthought I figured I'd ask for some napkins to try to clean up my hands.

That's when she nodded and said, "I was going to ask." Odd; she couldn't possibly see the ink on my hands from the aisle. I was in the window seat. As she handed me a stack of napkins, she said, "I thought it was some sort of new thing, like an Indian red ink mark, only to the side." The Japanese guy in the aisle seat then nodded gravely and said something along the lines of, "It's pretty bad."

They coached me through wiping as much of the red smudges off my nose and chin as possible, but it wasn't until two hours later when I visited the restroom that I was able to wipe most of it off, at least to the point where it didn't look worse than a minor skin irritation.

Other than that, the flight was great.