Oh! The Peope You'll Meet

Let's face it, traveling coach on an airplane these days is far from a comfortable, relaxing experience. You spend at least an hour in close quarters with perfect strangers, often times your legs touching and your germs all intermingling. The way I see it is you can either awkwardly sit all up on each other silently or at least get to know the person whose quirks may drive you up the wall. My philosophy is that it's harder to dislike a person whose story you know. And so I make an effort to chat it up, if only for a few minutes, before take off. You can certainly meet some characters, that's for sure. Here's some I met on my most recent trips. In case you don't want to read them all, scroll down to "my favorite":

To Atlanta:
On my first flight of the day, I saw a gentleman in the terminal wearing a U- hat with a U- portfolio in his hand. I was unbelievable excited. I wanted to say something to him, but he was rather far away. I was elated to find out that he was in the same row as me. I asked if he worked for U- and told him I worked for Admissions, with a huge smile on my face. His response? "Oh. Yeah I work there. I didn't do anything wrong." Did I say you did something wrong?! No. Glad to see you have some school pride, sir.

The U- grumper and I were larger people and to top it off the person in between us was no small woman. As if the seats aren't small enough already, three larger people smooshed in a row makes for an uncomfortable 2 hour flight. If our arms are essentially going to rest on each other, we might as well be friends. And so I struck up conversation with her. Turns out, she previously worked for a university in Ohio but vacations in my home state frequently. She and I discussed out favorite tourist spots in the state and even our previous vacations in Atlantic City. After telling her I was interested in Student Affairs, she said she worked for ResLife her self as a Hall Director. What a small world, the very job I want! Sadly, the company she worked for now was eliminating her job in 6 months and she wasn't going to have any income. I felt bad for the woman, she was so nice!!

To Tampa
My next flight put me right between a 16 year old who talked my ear off and a darling little kindergarten teacher. The three of us had great conversation the whole entire flight, granted it was only an hour. The teacher had been on the first flight with me and was coming home to Tampa after a family reunion. Her cousin was a quadriplegic and every year her whole family flies from all over the country to his house to see each other. How lovely and wholesome!

The chatterbox on the other side was a frequent flyer and had a slew of stories to tell. His grandfather, a trustee at Georgia State (I think) got him free tickets to every home football game. His other grandfather, a very famous airplane designer, got him free flights to the games every weekend. What a sweet set up! And since at age 13 he's been flying solo around the country seeing the world. He was also an aspiring writer and was working on a 150 page novel on military tactics or something (I wasn't very interested) and was writing during take off. He asked if U- had a creative writing program and so I gave him a little preview of U-, only for him to say that due to his grandfather's status he essentially had free admission into this other school. Then he threw his peanuts at me and made me hold his book and soda. I was somewhere between a big sister and baby sitter. Nice kid though.

To Atlanta (the next weekend) - My favorite story
On this flight I sat between an older woman who fell right asleep and this other woman who I renamed Bridget the Fidget in my head. Now, this woman was in her 40s and was quite nice, though a bit of a nut case. When I first boarded she was already sitting and she got my seatbelt ready for me. She extended the buckle for me and held it out when I was ready. I smiled. Then she got weird. Bridget the Fidget then started to... you guessed it, fidget. She crossed her legs, uncrossed them, sat on one leg, shoes off, shoes on, scratched her legs and arm and head, ran fingers through her hair, put hands on the back of her seat, uncrossed legs, hair again, opened window shade, lean down, ate three pieces of gum, some little valentine conversation hearts and a mint all before take off! Opened the magazine, grabbed magazine from my seat, ate a little more, fixed her skirt, itched some more, stood up, sat down, wiggle wiggle wiggle. All the while shaking her legs furiously. Bridget was making me nervous. Why couldn't she sit still? I came SO SO close to saying, "Ma'am are you okay?" but I decided it was more fun to play psychiatrist in my head. My first guess was she was afraid of flying. Maybe all this was nerves. I was going to offer her a Xanax. Then I thought maybe she had bugs, ants in her pants or something. How could you be so itchy? I sure hoped it wasn't catchy. Sitting 6 inches from someone was perfect distance to catch fleas. Then I remembered how we learned in school that people who do meth think they have bugs under their skin and itchy like crazy. Maybe this woman was coming off some sort of drug addiction. I conjectured cocaine. I dont know why. Deciding she was too calm for coke, I then speculated, and finally decided upon, Adult ADHD. No grown woman would act like this and make sure a ruckus if not for some disorder. Bridget ordered 2 packages of peanuts and a full Coke; normally you get 1 peanut and just 1/2 a Coke. Before I could finish my 1/2 cup, Bridget pounded the whole can and ate all her ice. She all but inhaled the peanuts too. As a fast eater/drinker, I was very impressed with this woman's speed. Maybe she should try competitive eating! Turns out Bridget was very nice. It's hard to despise someone who's nice, which certainly goes along with my theory. After some chatting, I learned she was on her way to her 25th high school reunion in Ohio and she thought it was strange that people ate poisonous blow fish. Random? YES!

To NC
My last trip sat me next to a 6ft 3in giant man who was traveling to NC for "the ball game." I had to ask who was playing. He said NC State. Never heard of it. Is that the same as UNC? (No.) At first I thought this ball game was baseball but quickly realized it was not the right season. Had to be football. I felt bad he was stuck in the middle seat, terribly uncomfortable. But he sat and read a book quietly next to a woman from New York City. She was happy to be sitting next to a fellow North East person. We discussed NY style pizza. Yum!

Every person, regardless of their height, size, race, age, or creed has a story. And sitting up in eachother's personal space is the perfect place to learn someone's story. It's crazy what some people will tell a perfect stranger who they will never meet again. I don't even know anyone's first name and I don't think they know mine. But it's possible someone went home that night and shared a story about a nice, young girl from U- they met on the plane!