Airplane Buddy

Normally, by now, you would think I’d be used to the annoyance it is to ride economy on an international flight. I prefer coming back to Germany just b/c the trip is quicker and I at least get in a little nap. Not so on this flight! I sat down in my window seat and there wasn’t anyone in the aisle seat. I thought “woohoo maybe it’s my lucky day and no one will be there!” Well, of course the man who ended up being my seat partner came right before the flight closed. I knew he was going to be chatty when he said “Well, looks like I’ll be your flight buddy tonight!” I don’t mind chatting w/the person next to me on a flight so please don’t get the impression that I’m a plane buddy snob, but I was already tired, had a lot on my mind, and really just wanted to listen to my iPod and try to sleep.

Wouldn’t you think it would be obvious that someone DOESN’T want to continue a conversation when they put their headphones in their ears? Apparently, this guy thought I was able to talk to him and relax at the same time. I finally figured I wasn’t going to get ANY relaxation in until I talked to him. Ok, honestly, it wasn’t really THAT bad at first, but once we got settled in the air I really was ready for a break. I got through dinner and decided to pull out my laptop and watch an episode of The Office. The guy thought it would be a good idea for him to watch something, too, because then he started rooting around underneath the seat in front of him and that’s when I discovered my foot had been resting on top of his laptop...oops!!! He was quite rude about that and said “Please try not to step on my laptop. It’s very expensive!” I wanted to tell him that if he got a laptop case, that might not have happened but I just nodded and said “Oh, sorry” as politely as I could.

When it was time for sleep, this dude got out two pillows and proceeded to put one of the pillows up against my arm. This would have been fine if, say, I KNEW the guy!! Not only that, he very rudely kicked his feet underneath my space so that I was forced to curl into a semi-ball in my already too confined seat. Needless to say, I did not sleep a wink. During breakfast this morning I opened the window because we were flying over England and the sun was up so I thought it might wake me up some. This caused Talky Man to tell me to move my head because he wanted to see if he could see the English Channel. “Nope, too many clouds” he says after literally crawling over me to peek out. At this point I still had my iPod on but he continued to talk and talk and talk to me that I finally gave up and turned it off. I almost died laughing when he said “So I need to know...do I snore in my sleep?” “Um, I don’t know. I had my music on the whole time,” I responded as nice as I knew how.

By now we were hovering over Frankfurt and I knew I wasn’t going to doze off anytime soon so I carried on a conversation with him for the next few minutes. Nothing too monumental. I told him what I did and he told me he didn’t agree with small school settings because kids need more experience with other children. I really didn’t feel like coming back with anything so I just said something like “Yes, well I think different people like different things” or something.

When we landed he was one of the first ones off the plane and that was the last I saw of him. I’m sure he meant well....and I really hope this didn’t come off rude. I was hoping it would be a humorous account of airplane adventures.

My luggage made it safely to Frankfurt (Delta now has points back with me again since they didn’t lose it going over or coming back) but sadly somewhere in the Frankfurt airport my RIA jacket is laying on the ground. It fell off of my luggage as I was trying to make it to the bus terminal. Sad. I will get another one soon.

So yes, this has been the longest entry EVER made by one human being, but I wanted to get it all out while it was fresh in my brain. I’m off to the grocery store and then coming home to VEG!