Flying

Last night I arrived for a conference in California. I’m super stoked. Every time I fly I’m reminded of how much I love to people watch. Man, people are fascinating. I’ve only been me, so I don’t know if people talk as much to everyone, or if people talk a lot to me. 

I rode in a shuttle with a lady who lives in Bogart. She has three kids: 8 months, 3, and 5. I know their names and where they go to school, and how many houses are for sale in their neighborhood. I even know where her kids go on field trips and what method of transportation they use to get there. I know where she works, where her husband works, and where she used to work and live. I know where she’s traveling and why. I know her mother’s profession. I know that she likes to go to the zoo and the aquarium, and that she finds it hard to balance working full time with what her kids need.

--------------------------------------------------

My favorite guy on my first flight was a tattooed guy with one (presumably new) tattoo wrapped in saran wrap and athletic tape. He was carrying a large wooden, empty, eye glass display. He was on the phone saying this plane was so old that it had ashtrays (it did not), and that he was going to have to ride with his luggage in between his effin legs (he did not).

--------------------------------------------------

On my connecting flight I was seated beside a super nice M.D. who was attending a conference, and would be speaking to internists about skin cancer. He'd left a thriving private practice in Santa Barbara to go back in to research, something that is unheard of in the medical community. But he is passionate about what he's doing now: research on genomes "that's garnering a lot of interest". Dr. Genome was on his 22nd consecutive day of conference speaking. He and his wife, Anita, moved to Phoenix so he could work at the Mayo clinic there. They have 2 kids, ages 1 and 3. I saw pictures. Dad was Asian. One of the kids looked like him, the other was a red-head. 

-------------------------------------------------

The last time I went to this conference was two years ago, and on the way there I sat beside a man and a woman. The man was a bounty hunter in LA and was fighting with a man he was taking into custody when the LAPD opened fire on him. He was shot multiple times and had to undergo surgery and a lengthy hospital stay. After he recovered he sued the LAPD for shooting him without reason. A jury awarded him over a million dollars. He had a foster child and a bobcat at home, and was flying to Costa Rica to look at some property he might purchase.

Here's an LA Times story about him.

--------------------------------------------------

The lady beside him was the wife of a Pentecostal pastor. She had a long skirt and her long hair pulled into a bun. She was traveling to her godson’s wedding. He was marrying her daughter. They’d grown up together, and he’d proposed on a boat on the fourth of July in front of the entire family.

-------------------------------------------------

On my return flight I was seated beside a nationally acclaimed food blogger, who was flying into Atlanta to speak at a panel at a huge produce convention.  

____________________________________________

I do not have a tattoo, or an eyeglass display, or a bobcat, or a foster child, or a godson, or a food blog…. Yet. (I will not rule any of those out. Especially the tattoo and the foster child. And the bobcat.) I am struck by how much of a regular person I am, and intrigued at how much they each seem to think the same. Ain’t that the way of the world?