I do the same thing on trains, in waiting rooms and, as best as I can recall, high school cafeteriaslowering my eyes, avoiding any contact, trying to discourage anyone from sitting next to me.
Of course I realize everyone on the airplane has an assigned seat. I like seat assignments — the implicit control it gives me over this one tiny facet of an experience otherwise defined by trusting that mechanical jets and aerodynamics and other things I don’t understand at all will somehow get me where I’m going safely.
18 most annoying things people do in airports
I accept that I usually have to give up on my hope of no one sitting next to me. I just don’t want to give up my precious, optimally chosen, designated seat.
And so on one recent flight, I didn’t. I declined to switch. Was I a total jerk?
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I keep my head down. Suddenly, someone else appears, spooning at my head for attention. I look up.
It’s my new seatmate, the smelly man who passed me before. Of course it is.
Karma doesn’t seem to care that I have frequent flier status. Whatever points I managed to accrue in the past I just promptly lost.
I toss the rest of my Tic Tacs in my mouth, which somehow now taste more sour than before, and I sit back for what is the bumpiest flight I’ve ever taken. Of course it is.
50 states, 50 natural wonders
