You Can Pretend You're in a Spaceship!

There is nothing quite like an airplane ride to make me feel incredibly ridiculous. You sit next to someone you have never met before, make small talk about where they're from, where they're headed, what their dog is named and many other things that neither of you care about. Something about sitting next to an stranger makes you feel so much more comfortable about telling them whatever is on your mind.

Unless you're me. I was waiting in line to board my plane from Tampa to Denver in the traditional Southwest style, when I noticed that the girl in front of me was wearing a CTR ring. I asked her if she, like me, was on her way to BYU. She was, and we starting making awkward small talk about that. We talked as we walked onto the plane. The front of the plane was mostly full, but (for obvious reasons) the seats next to the woman with the chihuahua were empty. The girl went for the window seat and because the middle seat was still empty, the woman asked if we were together. I started to move into the middle seat, but then remembered that I hate sitting in the middle and feeling obligated to talk to people I don't know. While this debate was happening in my mind, my body was doing this weird shuffle between going to sit down and walking away. It probably looked very similar to convulsions. I finally decided to just walk away, mumbling something about finding a window seat in the back. I found one and was kicked in the back by a little girl the entire flight. Good choice, right?

For my final act, I boarded a flight to Salt Lake City. I grabbed a window seat halfway back, and an older man took the aisle. I was sitting there, longing to be in Provo already, when an extremely attractive, trendy young man walked up. I thought to myself, I wish I was the kind of person that had some kind of luck, then boys like that would sit next to me. "Can I sit there?", he asked. I was astounded. I don't even remember what I said but it was some combination of "Yes", "No problem", and "Sure" that probably sounded something like, "Yes prosurelem....uh....yeah."

We sat in silence for a while, then he mentioned how cold it always got on airplanes. I agreed. More silence. He showed me how he was going to hide his iPod in his jacket so that he could listen to music during takeoff. I laughed and said something about him being a genius or a rebel or some combination of the two. We made a little bit of small talk about school and hometowns, the usual stuff. I found out that he also went to BYU and was a senior. Then, we took off, and he put the hood of his jacket over his face, so I took that as a cue to stop talking.

The flight attendant came around taking drink orders. I had a dilemma. Do I nudge trendy boy and let him know that he could get a beverage. I decided to take the path of least resistance and not say anything. About ten minutes later, when they brought the drinks around, he finally decided to look up. It was a look of expectancy. I could see the though progression through his expressions. Oh sweet, we get drinks now! Wait....they don't have one for me. That thoughtless girl next to me! I'll never ask her out now! I was ashamed, but apparently not ashamed enough to do anything differently when they came around with snacks.

Right after we took off, we had talked about how cool it was to suddenly see the city lights out the window. It's my favorite part of flying at night. So, as we were descending into Salt Lake, he kept looking over to see if the lights were visible yet. The first time, in my ultimate nerdiness, I said, "You can't see the lights yet, but it's really cool because when you look out the window all you see is stars and you can pretend you're in a spaceship!" Immediate regretful silence followed.

After the flight, there was that awkward moment of what to do when walking next to the person you just spent an hour with, but don't really know. Do you continue talking to them? Do you pretend that you never met? I was literally walking 5 steps behind him before I hurried past him to escape the weirdness. I think it's funny how you make artificial friendships on airplanes. You act like you've made a new best friend in this stranger next to you, but then once the plane has landed it's as if you've never met. And I, who's never been one to handle social nuances, can not get a grasp on this one. Airplanes are awkward.

Comments

Popular Posts