Today I had my first actual “in-flight” conversation

This morning I flew from Boston to Laguardia (New York) for business.

I got to the airport early, no lines, no waiting. The terminal was quiet. The average early morning travelers I would guess. Nothing too exciting.

They call my plane at 9 a.m. and we all stand in line and get on the plane. I’m totally engulfed in the book I’m reading (High Fidelity by Nick Hornby) and I barely even look up at the guy taking the tickets and I proceed down the jetway to the plane.

The plane is a DC-8, 9 or 10. I don’t know, it’s a DC-something. It has three seats on one side and two seats on the other. No, TV’s no seat-back monitors, just your run of the mill plane.

It’s the Delta Shuttle. No frills.

So, I choose a window seat on the left, the two-seat-side. Which, is actually the right-side of the plane once I turn around and sit down.

The customary ritual of choosing a seat on shuttle planes is akin to choosing a seat on the school bus when you were a kid, except in reverse. The seats are not assigned. So, everyone wants to sit as close to the front as possible as opposed to the back of the bus when you were a kid.

I guess it’s because people want to make that immediate getaway once they land. I could care less, I’m usually right in the middle of the plane, row 20-something and 99% of the time, I take a window seat.

The seat jockeying begins for everyone else as usual. People walk by and go to the seats behind me or they choose seats in front of me or opposite me. Very seldom do people sit next to me.

I don’t know why this is? I don’t know if I look up and give them an evil stare, or if I have an overly welcoming look about me that weirds them out, but they often pass by and I sit alone, which doesn't bother me at all.

I sometimes get the old ladies that sit next to me or the oversized business man in the suit that just plops down next to me with the triple folded, twice read newspaper.

My face is still pressed into my book reading intently. On occasion I look up to see who is passing by and of course to check out the attractive fellow female fliers who never sit next to me.

But today was a little different.

After hearing a couple of female voices laugh, I looked up from my book to see who will pass by next and there are four attractive women chatting away with each other. All seem to be in their mid 30’s, done up pretty well, smiling and trying to decide where to sit.

Much to my surprise, two of them sit across the aisle from me, one of them sits in the seat behind them and another one sits in the seat next to me on the aisle.

Lucky Day!

However, at first I’m a little annoyed because they are being very chatty and all I can think of is “fuck, I’m not going to be able to read my book with all this ca-caw-ing going on!”

But, it doesn’t seem to bother me as much as I thought it would and then I start to listen in and pay attention to what they are talking about, which actually becomes a fun distraction from what I am reading.

The plane takes off from Boston at 9:39 a.m.

The four of them are on their way to New York City for a “Girl’s weekend.” A bachelorette party of sorts. And they are talking about getting their nails done, where they will go to eat tonight, who they are meeting up with and at what time… blah blah blah…

As I listen in on their conversation, I hear how excited the girl to be married is, (sitting in the row behind me in the opposite aisle wearing a blue shirt) and two of the women talking about their kids and that this is the first time they’ve left their kids overnight in a "long time" and on and on.

Hearing them talk makes me think of how far removed I am from the excitement of marriage and planning a wedding and kids and everything that goes along with it and I start to feel a little bitter about it.

After recently getting divorced, it really made me think about how “superficial” marriage is. How “not-real” the entire union of marriage actually is. And the sad truth is, these days, it’s only a piece of paper that can be disregarded three years later in a 15-minute court appearance.

My bitterness about marriage I think has more to do with the fact that I’m starting over and I feel that I should be further along in “life”. I feel like should be talking to people about my kids, I should be talking about how my “wife” and how "we" haven’t been away together in ages because of the kids. And now I don’t have any of that. We didn’t have kids. We went away to Vienna, Austria last November, but the relationship was pretty much gone by then anyway. And that part is a little tough to take.

I mean, the relationship itself had no more spark to it, mainly I think because she moved on mentally and emotionally and I was just hoping she’d remember why she married me, but that didn’t happen… and so it went…

But, to get back to the plane for a second... I’m sitting there and the woman sitting next to me, Melissa, is her name, I come to find out (The irony! I know), turns and looks at me after I put my book down and says…

“Are you going to New York to go home or are you going for business.”

She asks ME the Ice breaker! Nice!

I respond by saying “I’m actually going for business. Going to be there until Monday.”

“We’re doing a girls ‘last-hurrah’ weekend for my sister-in-law (blue shirt) who’s getting married in a few weeks.” She says smiling and raising her eyebrows. “So, it should be a fun weekend.”

“That’s great. Should be fun!” I respond with a little smile and mock-enthusiasm.

Surprisingly, out of all of the times I’ve traveled this is the first time I’ve actually carried on any sort of conversation with the person sitting next to me aside from the cordials of excuse me and hi and sorry. Intersting, huh?

“What do you do for work?” Melissa asks me.

“I work at an advertising company in Boston.”

“You doing a trade-show or something in New York?”

“No, I’m a system administrator moving files and stuff over the weekend” I respond sounding like a total geek, not knowing how to spice up the conversation.

“That’s nice. Well, it’s going to be a beautiful weekend, I hope you’re not stuck inside all weekend?”

“I’m going out at least Saturday night with a friend from New York.”

“Well that’s good!” She smiles and turns back to her friend's conversation.

Now, there are about Five-Hundred “you shoulda’s” that I know I will hear from my friends when I tell this story. “you shoulda asked where they were staying”, “you shoulda asked where they were going out”, “you shoulda found out if they needed to be shown around the city”… and blah blah blah… and half of them, I would probably agree that I “shoulda” said… but, unfortunately I’m in a weird place right now, mentally and emotionally... I think.

This is the first time in my life, or at least as long as I can remember, that I haven’t gone from one relationship to the next. I have always been in the process of leaving a relationship, found a potential prospect which has made it much easier to leave that previous relationship and then picked up the new relationship and went with that one.

So, right now, my marriage is over, my relationship is done and I don’t really have a prospect on the horizon. And I’m ok with that. I think. It would help a little if I could get laid to take the edge off, which seems to be a mental "cure-all" for guys. To know I can still actually "perform" but I’m sure that will come in due time as well.

It’s just a weird feeling at the moment.

Anyway… back to the plane…

We land at Laguardia around 10:40 a.m.

The girls finish, or at least suspend their conversation as the plane gets to the gate and everyone starts to get out of their seat.

Melissa turns to me and says “Enjoy yourself and have a safe trip!”

I respond in kind and say “You too, have fun. And I hope you all brought your extra liver!”

“ha ha ha ha ha!” all four of them laugh. And Melissa turns to walk off the plan and gives me a wave and says “thanks, bye!” and she’s gone.

However trivial and meaningless that conversation was… it was comforting. Just a random person chatting with another random person. I enjoyed it.

I take a cab to my hotel, check-in, and start the walk to my office which is five blocks away.

I take out my iPod and put the buds in my ears and press shuffle. Now, this one meaningless thing, could make or break the weekend. A bad song, could just put me in a pissy mood, mostly because it’s a Saturday and I’m working all weekend long in New York.

However, the song that comes on is “Brick” by Ben Folds Five. As I listen to the song lyrics I begin to reflect a little bit and it hits me “…she’s a brick and I’m drowning slowly…”

That was my relationship. I was drowning in the nothingness of my relationship. No affection, no emotion, come to find out, no love… and I was “… tired…” as the song continues on…

It makes me smile for whatever reason to know htat I'm not "drowning" anymore!

And I look up to the sky, with the sun hitting the buildings and windows and the shadows cast on the other buildings across the street on a bright, clear, 50 degree day at the end of September… It’s time to start over… and I’m ok with that.

I really think I’m ok with that!

And what confirms my thoughts and feelings... the next song that plays on my iPod. “Welcome to wherever you are” off of Bon Jovi’s “Have a Nice Day” CD.

“Welcome to wherever you are / this is your life you’ve made it this far”

I think I’m good. I’m happy. And I know things will just get better. I can feel it.

Thanks for asking! :o)

iShuffled!

I have an iPod nano, but I'm not obsessed with listening to my music, however, on the train to and from work, on an airplane traveling and walking to work while I'm in New York gives me a good amount of opportunities to catch up on some tuneage.

Now, you have to know that I'm a child of the 80s, so, I'm used to my mix tapes and therefore, I listen to my own play lists that I created myself more than anything. Or, I just listen to CDs that I have loaded onto my iPod, and I never really use the Shuffle function.

This week I have been in New York City for work and I have to walk 12 blocks to my office in Mid-town from my hotel. It takes around 20 minutes and it's been rainy and miserable out all week. Fortunately, listening to my music on the way to work drowns out the noise and brightens my otherwise dismal commute to work. Not to mention every other person that I pass by in the city has some type of headphones on. So, each person is off in their own little world as well.

The other day, when I was leaving my hotel, I didn't know what I was going to listen to. So, I figured "What the hell, I'm going to SHUFFLE!"

So, I hit the shuffle button and the first song that started to play was "Word Up" by Korn. A remake of the Cameo song (from the 80s) and the first thing that came to my mind is "Where the hell did that song come from?"
I didn't even know that song was on my iPod. So, I continued to listen more intently thinking "hmmm, what's next?"

I heard a few other songs that day and in the following days that I never realized I even had on my iPod.

Every Little Thing She Does - The Police
Lunatic Fringe - Red Rider
Trippin' on a Hole in A Paper Heart - Stone Temple Pilots

Some other songs that I forgot were there that made me laugh like:

Do you really want to hurt me - Culture Club (The Wedding Singer Soundtrack)
You Sexy Thing - Hot Chocolate (Full Monty Soundtrack)

And then some favorites of mine that I havent heard in a while:

By the way - Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Fly Away - Lenny Kravitz
American Girl - Tom Petty & The Heart Breakers
God Gave me Everything - Mick Jagger
This Time of Year - Better Than Ezra

As well as some newer songs that I forgot I downloaded as well:
S.O.S - Rihanna
Somebody Told Me - The Killers
Afterglow - INXS
Crazy Bitch - Buckcherry

What I've come to realize is this Shuffle feature is pretty friggin' cool!

It's like listening to your favorite radio station without the jackass DJs.

I've used shuffle all week and it's been great. I just thought it was funny that I never used it before and now I feel like I've been missing out all these months that I've had my iPod.

All I can say is, "I've been Shuffled and I love it!!"

You should Shuffle too!

There is no place in the WORLD like New York City!

Where else can you get a Falafel, a Bagel, a Croissant and a decent cup of Coffee from some guy standing in a 2'x2' trailer on a street corner.

However, today was extra special... I'm walking down Madison Avenue from my hotel in the Murray Hill area. The morning is bright and clear, with the sun creeping in between the buildings and warming up the sidewalk. The air is still a bit chilly for this Spring morning when this "cute" girl walks in front of me, getting ready to cross the street. I slow down to let her pass in front of me and take her in with a head-to-toe glance. She has her iPod earphones in, a little jean jacket unbottoned, a pink t-shirt top and a flowy white skirt on. Shoulder-length brown hair showing blonde highlights in the morning sunlight. She was cute, you know, nothing amazing about her, just cute.

As she's standing on the corner waiting to cross, she turns her head to her right and leans over slightly and.... BLAWP!!!!

She vomits all over the place.

She takes a step toward the trash barrell on the corner and ever-so-delicately spits into it. The light changes, and she starts crossing the street and about three-quarters of the way across the street...BLAWP!!!! She vomits again. This time, in-stride, not even slowing, she continues to walk toward the other side of the street she gives her mouth a quick wipe and continues to the sidewalk.

Once she reaches the sidewalk on the other side of the street... BLAWP!!!! One more time for the road. This time she reaches up and tucks her hair behind her ear, fixes her headphones in her ear, gives her mouth another little wipe and keeps walking like nothing ever happened.

The best part about this entire episode is not many people even batted an eyelash. The guy driving the Taxi just looked at her as she crossed the street. All of the other people walking alongside her or walking in the opposite direction didn't even notice anything out of the ordinary, they just continued on their way.

This must be an every day occurrance to the "average" New Yorker.

For me, it made me seriously think, what the hell did this girl do last night? Where was the party? Was she with her family getting loaded on Easter Sunday? Or did she recently get knocked up?

More importantly, it also made me question where the hell I was going to get my bagel and coffee this lovely morning.

Other than that little episode, all and all it was a nice morning. Low 60's, sunny, a little breeze and a 99% chance of seeing Projectile Vomiting.

Have a lovely day New York City... just watch out for the vomit slicks on Madison Avenue!!!
There really is No Place In The World Like New York City!