Time on the Tarmack

I was on the tarmack yesterday for hours. It could have been awful. It was late. I was tired. I was sitting in a middle seat between two men. But, somehow, this experience turned out to be really, really great!

At first we thought we only had a sense of humor in common.

Our careers: Military Medic, Creative Director, Broker for Bloomberg

At one point we thought we might die before we got off this plane. After having discussed our professions I declared Military Medic as the only one with any useful skills. We agreed that in the case of an emergency, Bloomberg would steal the vodka, I would get the peanuts and Military would floor anyone that got in our way.

Geographical background: Lifetime in Texas, Utah to Texas, Lifetime in New Jersey

I was teasing Bloomberg about being from New Jersey when a specific question required me to admit I am not really a true Austenite, but a Utahn transplant. After many polygamy jokes, they asked me what else Utah is really famous for. My response? Green Jello with carrots!

Even our political leanings were different.

They had a lot of fun teasing me about my environmental concern. I had fun teasing Military about his rigid gender role references and Bloomberg about his house on the Jersey shore washing away and needing to call me up for a place to crash.

Maybe it was the vodka tonics. Maybe it was that we had no other option. But three people who one might expect to be at each other's throats became the best of friends. As different as we seemed, we had much more in common than not. After we split up in Austin I was left wondering how the rest of the country could figure this out.