In my history of traveling, I think I have sat next to an interesting person twice. The odds are really low.

I'm sure I've sat next to plenty, but I'll never know.

Trains seem much more conducive to conversation -- at least while I was in England, but even the Amtrak that I took a lot back in college had some good conversations.

Of course, my hearing was better then. At least then I can claim (perhaps with a wee bit exaggeration) that my hearing loss makes it hard to understand without shouting.

I'm still not quite used to living in a town this small -- one of the top headlines in the local paper is that a plane had to make an emergency landing at the local airport last night. Nobody injured, doesn't seem like anything all that remarkable, just that a plane flying from Cleveland to NY had some kind of mechanical problem and had to land somewhere, and this was the closest somewhere. The only headlines above it are Sandusky news and an ongoing case where a bunch of people are charged with supplying alcohol to a minor after an undergrad got drunk and fell out a window and was pretty badly injured a few months ago.

Damn kids always ruining it for the other kids....

I'm sure I've sat next to plenty, but I'll never know.

That one. I'm pretty sure my mother has told me that she'll start talking to her seatmate when they are landing -- so there's some time, but not too much.

I have cousins who seem to always strike up business relationships with the people they sit next to--they do filter by first class, for one, but what they don't seem to realise is that, at least with the ones I was eventually exposed to, they were smooth talkers with no product. And that includes my cousins--it was like finding like, and no actual work was done or goods exchanged as a result--just a bunch of blowhards.

I'm sure this will end well - someone has started a thread on one of the local parenting listservs with the subject line "Expierence with enrolling non-vaccinated children in Public schools" and starts off their email with "Not looking to start a debate or a discussion about vaccinations." Cue giant vaccine flame war in three...two...

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::hands Jessica a score sheet::

Or maybe there should be a drinking game?

If I get to pick my rhubarb (does everyone use that as a "blah blah blah" word? Like, if you're hired to be the group muttering in a scene, you just say "rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb" over and over again? I wouldn't be surprised if the person who intro-ed me to that had gotten it from her butt)

Nope, that's a real thing, from old-tyme radio plays. (Actually, wiktionary says it's primarily a UK thing: [link] t /Cliff Claven

I am a huge introvert, and always grateful for people who won't shut the fuck up, because then I can sit there and they can yammer at me, and I can nod and make occasional listening noises. It's actually very soothing. Tim always thinks he should rescue me from those people, but I'm actually happy sitting there not having to do any conversational heavy lifting.

Unless they're racist or something. Then that shit has got to stop.

And the weird thing about my introversion is that sometimes, everything clicks just right, and I can zip around a gathering and yammer away to everyone. I don't get it.

(Some of my favorite friends here in Cincy are as awkward as me, if not more so. We've referred to ourselves as the Voltron of Awkwardness.)

Totally unrelatedly, GIVE ME ALL THE COFFEE NOW.