I never caught her name. But she talked to me as if we had travelled the world together.
As we returned from a business video shoot, she noticed my idiotic confusion over where to stand before boarding a Southwest Airlines flight. She assumed I didn’t frequently travel, and before I conjured up a complete answer, she provided me her recent itinerary. She spoke with such peppy enthusiasm, some passengers waiting behind awkwardly smiled or casually turned away to avoid the conversation from somehow drawing them in. The mother of four recently spent five days in Orlando followed by a trip to New York. She loves to travel (and being single) and her resume includes trips to 40 states and two continents (Asia and Europe) other than her own. Her eyes lit up when explaining she was contemplating options for her next adventure. I wanted to share with her my own love of travel, but her words never made room for me to interject. I sensed others wondered why I continued to engage, but I didn’t need to do much. She just finished visiting her daughter and looked forward to an upcoming singles swim party. I asked, do you all swim together? No, she responded. They drink together. As we stepped aboard the plane, she asked a flight attendant to zip up her backpack. The flight attendant then asked me if I needed anything zipped. Best question ever from an airline.
While she struggled to fit her bag in an overhead compartment and a woman sitting below covered her head for protection, I considered sitting in one of the two empty seats beside my new talkative travel friend. But this, according to the crowd, appeared to be socially unacceptable and likely would have compelled others to shake their heads not only at her but also at me.