Single Serving Friends

I recently rewatched Fight Club and became reacquainted with the concept of single serving friends.  It was appropriate as I headed out this morning and met many of these SS friends.  People in airports/airplanes are interesting to me, I thought I would share some of my interactions today.

My first flight was uneventful and had me seated next to a non English speaking passenger who struggled to understand when the flight attendant wanted him to fasten his seatbelt.  Needless to say, I slept most of that segment.

The second segment of my flight, I was piggy in the middle between two entirely different characters.  On my right, was an older gentleman, in tailored jeans, a suit jacket.  He was very polite, didn't really have much to say until he found out I was Canadian and liked red wine.  We chatted, but to be honest, it was on the descent...and well, I couldn't hear him much as it felt like my ears may have been bleeding with the pressure changes.

My neighbour to the left was the last person onto the plane, and we were in the second to last row.  I knew immediately that he was going to be an interesting SS friend, as the flight attendant handed him 'stick on wings' which he applied to either sides of his backwards cap.  His excitement was contagious.  A self labeled idealist living outside Seattle, but originally from Chicago.  He looked like he was travelling with all he owned, had two tattered books he was reading with childhood pictures and a 'thinking of you' card as bookmarks, was travelling on a one way ticket and was one of the most delightful people I have ever met on a plane.  He shared with me one of his ideas to heal the world, it was a mandatory sleep night...his thought was that the world would be so much better if people slept more and were less stressed.  He mentioned that in this idealism of his, we could even go so far as to change the year....instead of it being 2011 AD, we could start all over as year 1 PS (post sleep).   I didn't catch his name, I don't think that it is important to know the names of all your SS friends.  I would rather just learn and laugh with (or at) the ones I meet.

This isn't quite the clip I was looking for but it will do:

Other gems that I overheard through my travels today included:

• "Go! Go! Go! Gooooooooooo!!!!!" - the 3 year old who enjoyed the landing and didn't want it to stop,
• "Can we do tea at 12,000 feet this morning?  I could sure use some high tea!",
• "Baby....where are all the trees? Why don't they have trees" - whiny girl behind me who complained about the trip they were taking the whole way,

Last but not least, my personal favorite....

• "I like travelling by boat better than flying, I find the air pressure bothers me less because you are mostly at sea level."

Hopefully, I will have some more fun single serving encounters this trip....I can hardly wait!