My mom used to tease me, well I thought it was teasing, but she may have been serious but that's another story, that I could anyone to death, and when no one was left, I would start talking to the walls. Over the years, that theory has time and again validated itself, says the blogger - now I don't even need a real wall - a virtual one suites me just fine.
There is of course one exception to this rule, and if you know me well, you are keyed into my one anti-social zone; one that literally
tracends space and time - that is my flying time. It is the one space I shut down completely and am usually chapters deep in the story of slumber before the plane as finished boarding, let alone take-off. Whether its the idol chit-chat, the much needed sleep time, or the fact that you are cemented in your seat, and your seatmates for that matter, for a min. of 5 hours for my typical transcontinental flights, I go into
cacoon mode.
So when my seatmate
solicited polite
conversation on my last flight from San Diego to DC, I entertained the a brief exchange as I dug through my
extremely oversized tote to find the headphones that mysteriously (and yet consistently) are amputated from my beloved
Lilly (
ipod). Once those two were reunited, the conversation would be curbed. Well in this particular instance I was
again informed that my petite
duffel I was slightly
overweight, and rather than
cough up $25 for my prized
possessions I found room in my carry on! (I'll show you united!)
Needless to say my coveted sleep time was inching away as I grappled for my
ipod - I clear flag marking my path to isolation! Well my aforementioned seatmate was actually quite
pleasant as we chatted about his interest in science and his admiration for his wife and grandchildren. The
convo continued to a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet when a
gentleman on his way to the mile high
Porto-potty
interrupted.
He jumped into gush about a speech my seatmate had given a few years back and how much it changed the path of his career. Sold. I was
immediately interested - how could this sweet older man have impacted so greatly another passenger. Keep in mind we're in coach.
Relieved from my dialogue duties I started to hear some buzz in the cabin about my seatmate. Well the starstruck
Porto-pottier took the
vacant seat in our row - soon to take up
permanent residency. They went back and forth as I
eavesdropped.
Unfortunately the specifics of their identity were never reveled except for their names.
Being the obnoxiously
curious Google freak that I am I looked them up and sure-as-you're-born the
sky-way celeb was none other than the
Nobel prize winning physicist who developed the big bang theory! Whoa! Needless to say - I did not sleep on that flight a wink!
As a desk assistant for a morning news program, my job basically is to do as much of the leg work for a story as possible so the anchor can cover a story for the morning drive. That includes getting tape of news makers, writing, pitching etc. Well because the morning drive time runs from 5 am to 9 am, getting tape for the morning often involves waking up a few people, and if they are consistently making news.....then I am consistently waking them up.
