This is something I meant to document about two months ago when I traveled to Las Vegas on the last Southwest flight out of San Diego on a Friday evening. My friend and I sat a seat apart since there was room. A guy asked if he could sit and I said sure (passenger courtesy). Rather than have him sit between my friend and I, I moved to the middle seat so he would have the aisle.
The guy was a bit odd. He had an iPod and was very into his music. His gyrations would have seemed impossible but I saw him moving around in his seat myself. He was also bobbing his head and tapping his foot in an un-rhythmic way. It was cool though. I understand digging your tunes. My friend and I laughed but didn't react so he could see and didn't look directly at him. I'm not always one to avoid conversation but in this case I made sure I wouldn't have to talk to him.
Suddenly I felt him leaning against me, shoulder to shoulder. I moved away from him slightly not wanting to be rude but also not wanting him to touch me.
Shortly after take-off, he leans against me again, having fallen slowly and seemingly unbeknownst to himself. I elbowed my friend so she would look. She laughed and said he was asleep. I then laughed too but tried not to move. Again, I did not want to be rude and for some reason I thought waking him up by reclaiming my personal space would be rude. My friend took a picture using her cell phone's camera. For those who are thinking, "Hey, your cell phone should be off when the plane is in the air?" calm down before you contact the FAA. There is an "airplane" mode on the RAZR phone. Anyway, I digress.
The guy then got more cozied up to me and I began to get more uncomfortable. My friend noticed his eyelids flicker open and then shut. Was he awake? I was suspicious. Finally, feeling overwhelmed by the closeness, I used my elbow to jar him awake. He wasn't jarred. He was more casual and tried to stay where he was until I bumped him again.
I was actually about to cry at this point. I felt I had been violated by someone who got a perverse thrill out of faking sleep while leaning against his neighbor on a plane. Do such persons exist? I had never heard of this fetish but I believe now that it is real.
He said, "Thanks for letting me lean on you...Comfortable."
Gross! "Yeah, well, I would suggest you don't do that to the next person you sit by. I pretty much feel like crap now and very uncomfortable."
He replied only with a sleepy smile and "It was just nice."
I could not believe this guy.
This story has no point other than illustrating a very strange thing that happened to me on a plane. I would handle it much differently if I could do it over again. I think it has actually made me more cynical about strangers where before I would be more kind. I do not understand the need of humans to make each other feel badly and cannot imagine that he did not want to do just that. It was no accident that he was leaning on me and shame on him if he ever tries it again.
Incidentally, the rest of the trip was cool and I won't (can't) tell you why...it's the rules, baby! :)
1 comment:
That's creepy! There's a creepy guy I see every morning when I walk the dog. He always intercepts me to start up conversation. He'll ask random questions, like "Are you ever going to run for office?" and "Coronado has a great 4th of July parade". WTF? I'm just walking my dog dude...unless you want to talk to me about how cute my dog is, don't ask me if I want to run for the local utility board. So I'm with you...strangers give good people a bad name! ;-)
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