Andrea - Stanger on a Plane

Picture it: LaGuardia Airport, a Sunday night, boarding 45 minutes AFTER the plane was scheduled to take off. Billy Joel whistling The Stranger in the background

I get to my window seat with hardly a problem, okay so maybe we are running an hour late but no problems boarding. The plane starts to fill up and the middle seat has not been occupied yet, okay this could be good, an open middle seat. Then I see the obvious look of the person coming towards my row, in my head I am silently pleading "please be the aisle seat, please be the aisle seat" Yes! my pleading worked, the stranger is the aisle seat occupant. Next I hear the intercom turn on "Ladies and Gentleman, please take your seats quickly, we are closing the aircraft door and getting ready to take off" YES! Open middle seat. Now I can spread out a bit, not have to share my arm rest and prepare for take off and flight. I reach into my backpack - the one I never board a plane without in the last 10 years - and search for my pack of gum. Again I start conversing with myself - do I offer the stranger on the aisle seat a piece of gum and open up the possibility of having to have a conversation or do I just stick to my little window corner and pretend like I am the only one on the plane. Well my manners won out and I offered him a piece of gum.

He made a funny joke, politely declined my offer as he already had gum and went back to his book. As we take off, we both look out the window to see the beautiful NY City skyline grow smaller and smaller as we climb higher and higher. And then the inevitable happens, he starts chatting with me. Okay manners win again and I politely chat back. It actually turned out to be a nice conversation, where are you from, what do you do, etc. and we chat amicably and easily for a few minutes. Then he asks for my card, maybe we can keep in touch, grab a drink sometime. A slight moment of panic comes over me, do I give him my card, if not how do I get out of this, and while this inner dilemma is going on, without realizing what I am doing and much to my own surprise as well as it is way out of my character, I give him my card. Wait how did that happen? I never do that and I just did. Then the kind stranger says, "well your book is not going to read itself, I will let you get back to it."

All in all it turned out pretty good - an enjoyable conversation, a stranger on a plane that knows when to you let you read your book and a smooth flight that made up for delayed time in the air. Not bad for a Sunday night travelling the friendly skies.