My New BFF

I have not had the best travel luck so far this year, but no flights missed at least! I am just having the most bizarre things happen to me. Today I traveled from Knoxville, TN to Missoula, MT, with a connecting fight in Denver. My first flight came in 20 minutes early and there were no gates available, so we literally parked on the tarmac. It wasn't so bad to wait the 20 minutes, but then we waited some more, until we had been sitting there for nearly 40 minutes.

As the plane finally moved into a gate, I was antsy to get off the plane and get to my next gate. Denver is a big airport and last week I had to switch concourses and walk FOREVER. As luck would have it, I was sitting in the 3rd to last row. By the time I got off, I ran to check the board, noticed my gate wasn't too far away, and I had 5 minutes before boarding started. Luckily, I was able to go to the bathroom, grab lunch to go, and board the plane in about 10 minutes. I felt like a pro.

On my second flight, I was seated next to a 14 year old boy who had the ability to talk to a wall. Immediately upon sitting down, his life saga began. I was (and still am) SO tired from this past week and from getting up early this morning. Last night was preference round (the last night of recruitment before bids are extended), and we were up late! Then I woke up at 5:30 AM to get ready for my flight. All I wanted to do was sleep, but all my friend wanted to do was talk.

I swear to God the kid was flirting with me. He started telling me about how he moved to Montana 5 years ago when he was 9 years old, then he asked why I was going to Montana. I did my best to explain my job to him, and you could see how surprised he was to learn I had graduated from college and had a job. Come on now, I don't look that young.

But then he kept talking. And talking. And talking. And 45 minutes later after I have not said more than five words, he turns to me and says, "Well this is awkward. You know everything about me, and I don't know anything about you--you've been so quiet. Tell me about yourself."

"Duh," I thought, "I'm being quiet because I don't care about your life story, and I just want to get in a good nap before my next recruitment visit!" But to humor him/be polite, I started to tell him a little about myself. I got about 60 seconds into a summary of my life, when he interrupts me to tell me more stories about him.

Then my new bff looks at me and says, "You look like you need a RedBull." My response, "Yea, I think I'm going to take a nap. I've been doing a lot of sorority recruitments and I'm pretty tired." He has no idea what sorority recruitment is, so I try to explain, then he interrupts me again, so I laid my head against the window and fell asleep.

My eyes had been getting heavy, and as soon as I leaned up against that wall I was out. I know it was rude, but so is talking to someone incessantly. I woke up when we hit some turbulence, but I just laid there, pretending to sleep. He obviously did not fall for this, as he immediately asked if I had a nice nap. Then he proceeded to lean really close to me and point out things as we got closer to Montana. I was leaning as far away from him as possible, but seeing as I was trapped between him and the window, this was not an easy feat.

As we were walking off the jet bridge, my new bff tried to give me a hug, so I instead awkwardly raise one of my hands to meet his and we did a handshake of sorts.

Welcome to Montana.