SO, I MET THIS GUY ON THE PLANE....

Story 1

So I met this guy on the plane ... on my way home from Seattle – a 6 hour journey. He was in seat A and he was in seat C with an empty seat in between. The first hour, we didn’t speak, and then when I got up to use the bathroom, he asked – so, do you work for __? I couldn’t deny it because I was wearing a company sweatshirt. (Ladies – if you don’t want to cause unnecessary conversation starters, do NOT wear company gear on the plane). He was probably 40-45, friendly-looking but I wouldn’t call him cute or anything.

When I got back from the bathroom and he started getting chatty, I entertained it for a bit. He was an orthopedic surgeon, lived in Hawaii, reading some book that he thought was good, grew up in New York City, blah blah blah. When I found out he was an orthopedic surgeon, I admit, I wanted to ask him about the pain that I was having in my hip that I self-diagnosed as “hip-bursitis.” He confirmed my self-diagnosis. I was like, great! One less trip to the doctor. Now stop talking to me. He was really a sweet person and given that fact, I probably was a little too honest with my answers in the beginning thinking that he was just a friendly, chatty person. But the guy wouldn’t stop talking! Put my headphones in my ear. He kept talking and asking me questions. I couldn’t hear, so after a while I pulled one of the earphones out. I couldn’t bear being so rude. He was very nice, but then midflight, I also learned he was single. Bad news.

He talked about his ex girlfriend, golf, his friends who got married later in life, how he covers for some of his doctor friends which allows him to travel, but that his day job is actually to write reports for insurance companies, how he gave up his rent controlled apartment in the city and totally regrets it --- TOO MUCH. He gave me the number to his uncle’s fishing boat company, etc. When the flight was over, I was glad to be running out until he caught me at the terminal and fumbled around looking for a pen and paper because he wanted my number. I really felt bad for him. Gave him my “other number” – the one I never pick up.

Lessons learned. Never disclose too much information to a stranger no matter how nice he seems. Don’t wear company t-shirts/sweatshirts on the plane.

Story 2

I rush onto my Virgin flight off to London! Woo hoo! I was not feeling 100% because I felt like I had a sore throat. I had just gotten off a redeye from San Francisco earlier that morning, repacked my bags, checked email, and was getting on to another redeye from New York to London. I was in my airplane gear: jeans, sneakers, cardigan, glasses, no make-up, and the pink neck thing that my sister bought me.

Sat next to this skinny guy with baggy-ish dark designer jeans, a white tshirt, Yankee baseball cap, diamond stud in his left ear, short blond hair, blackberry (checking Yankee scores), black backpack, and a gray Polo sweatshirt he wasn’t wearing. I could also tell he was a smoker. He asks me, “Anything I need to know before we get started here, like that you go to the bathroom every 10 minutes?” I laugh, but I’ll be honest, I was going to be careful about starting a conversation with a stranger on a 7-hour plane ride, which turned out to be a 10-hour plane ride with our delays. I was determined to sleep. I had also made a few unfair assumptions about the guy. I didn’t think that we would have ANYTHING in common other than the fact that we were both Yankee fans.

He asks me one question, which leads to the next, and the next. I don’t even look at him when I answer and I keep it short. When he asked me if I worked at a big company, I kind of lie and I’m like – not really. He tries to ask how old I am and I give a vague, “not yet thirty.” I just did not want to talk. But we get grounded in New York for 3 hours before we fly out. He does most of the talking. I learn he grew up in the Bronx and still lives in the house that he grew up in with his younger brother. He is a Yankees/Jets fan, his brother is a Mets/Giants fan. His parents are in London, and his mother asked him to come out to London to see them. He is very much blonde but 100% Italian and so on. He went to college in Jersey, worked at a hedge fund (would never have guessed), went to law school and is now an assistant DA. So, he wears suits every day (would never have guessed that either). He even shows me the badge that is permanently embedded in his wallet. So, the stuff on SVU real?, I ask? I think this might be the first real question I ask him - I watch a ton of Law and Order and CSI on my business trips., and I was genuinely curious. He says, actually, VERY real, and the cases sometimes stress him out. He tells me about a few of the cases, that it gets emotional at times, and what nutcases he comes across on the job. But he loves the work that he does. I loosen up – especially after we make fun of the strict steward and stewardesses on this plane who don’t crack a smile and won’t even let you keep your blanket over your lap during take-off.

After telling me all this stuff and more, he goes on to ask me about what I do, where I went to school, tries to ask what I do, who I work for(then I finally give in and then he knows that I was kinda holding back info in the beginning). When he pulls out his passport, we figure out that I am only a week older than he is.

He doesn’t annoy me after a while. I knew he wanted to get a drink drink but when I order just a diet coke, he orders a coke. He sweet-talks the stewardess into giving us 2 of each plus a water. He asks me how I dress when I go out. (Strangest question I’ve ever been asked by a stranger). But I answer it. No glasses, I say. He said that I look good in my glasses.
The Virgin flight had a crappy old entertainment system, but I start flipping through since I wasn’t tired yet. My body was still on Pacific time. We scroll through the movies. Notebook is one of the choices – and he’s watched it. I say I love Rachel McAdams, but he’s not a big fan. The only reason why anyone likes her is because of “The Notebook,” he says. He admits to watching it. He and I agree that Ashley Judd is gorgeous.. I forget what movie we end up watching, but we sync up our screens. It was an entertaining movie – that I remember. I eat some of his gummy bears. After the movie is over, we discover that you can do seat to seat text messaging through the system. We exchange a few texts and laughs because I am so slow at using the video game like controller to send my messages. I feel like a kid.

After a while, we both catch about 2 hours of shut-eye. All in all, a pretty okay flight in my book, and I was proud of myself for not disclosing TOO much information, though I learned a lot about this stranger. Totally not my type, but interesting enough that I thought we could be friends.

The story ends there, my friends. He left the plane ahead of me because I got stuck in the back with my luggage. I stopped by the restroom when we landed thinking I could say bye later on during passport control or baggage claim, but never saw him again. When I told him I wrote a blog, he asked whether I was going to write about the cute guy I met on the plane, and I told him – just maybe.

Lessons learned: Don’t judge a book by its cover. Sometimes chatty can be interesting.