strange seat fellows

As I mention in my very short “about me” section, my husband and I travel a lot. We flew to San Jose at nine this morning. We’re also very big fans of Southwest. This means that we sometimes get a row to ourselves, but more often than not, we have an opportunity to make a new friend. Let me re-phrase that, I have an opportunity to make a new friend. Pete always sits in the aisle. It’s just the way it is. As a dutiful wife (he would tell you I’m very dutiful, uh-huh, yep, I bet that’s the first word he thinks of to describe me,) I sit in the middle. Now, if we have a row to ourselves, obviously, I take the window seat, but as soon as the attendant announces that it will be a full flight, I take the middle seat and start to pick out my next new friend. This means trying to look friendly, but not so much so that they feel entitled to chat to me the whole way to my destination (today’s flight was nearly five hours, I really don’t ever feel like getting to know someone that well.) I’m friendly, really, and nice too (if I must say so myself) and as I’ve mentioned, dutiful and all. Today people quit boarding and it looked like my window seat was going to be empty (I was just commenting – crowing actually – that we weren’t going to have anyone sitting there after all,) when a guy roughly our age got on and asked if the seat was taken. He was nice enough, not too chatty, he laughed at some of the comments I was directing at Pete (I always appreciate an appreciative audience) and we got on our way. After about an hour in the air (so it’s now 10:00 for anyone not doing the math) the new guy announces (to me, cause Pete ignores the neighbors, really he does,) that he’s going to have a drink. And I’m not talking pop here. Huh. As my daughter would say, “Dude, give the day a chance!” But no, Dude orders a glass of merlot, which he drinks with his ginger ale (really, not kidding) then falls asleep and starts snoring. Which makes me giggle. Yeah I’m a little kid. Could be worse I guess, when my sister and I flew back from the Bahamas a few years ago I sat next to a guy who had slept on the beach the night before. And he liked me. I can still remember Sue burying her face in the book, shoulders shaking with laughter as she denies for the third or fourth time my whispered plea to trade seats. Yep. Merlot fumes and snoring are totally acceptable behavior, even at ten in the morning.