"Me" Time

My sister-in-law, Coleen, and her husband have a rule when they go on a no-kids-allowed vacation. The first 5 hours or so, nobody talks. That's right - no talking between husband and wife. Just relaxing, doing your thing, and enjoying the peace and quiet.

So as Chris and I boarded the plane for our 2.5 hour flight to Florida, I decided I was going to try this out. I had 3 magazines and my ipod ready. Two and a half hours of me time. Just reading and listening to music that didn't start with "the wheels on the bus go..."

So I sit in my middle seat, Chris on my left, and a woman engrossed in her journal writing to my right. Perfect. The plane takes off, I turn on my ipod, open my first magazine - and it starts.

The woman next to me says (in her foreign accent that makes it hard to understand what she's saying without listening really closely) "Hi. It's nice to meet you." I smile, say hi and go back to my magazine.

A few articles in, she starts talking again. So I take out one earphone, listen to her comments. Smile - give a fake laugh, and quickly return to what I was doing.

This goes on for the next hour. She'll talk. I'll give a quick answer. I'll go back to reading and listening. Then she'll talk again.

I wanted to say to her "Check out all the signals! Earphones in ears, reading a magazine, giving short answers! I DON'T WANT TO CHIT CHAT!!!!"

Finally, after starting my favorite song over and over again I gave up and turned off the ipod. I actually decided that I may as well engage in a little conversation - since I had no choice - and then maybe she would leave me alone.

So we chatted for about 20 minutes and then it happened. She said "Well, it was nice talking to you. I'll let you go back to listening to your music now."

HALLELUJAH!!

I settled into an article and got halfway through when Chris got bored. "Hey babe, I wonder how many cameras are on this plane?"

"I don't know." I quickly reply. I start reading a sentence.

"Look, there's 3 right up there by the front."

"Mmmm Hmmm." I say. Read the same sentence again.

"Man, a lot has changed since 911." Chris responds.

So I say to him - "I don't want to be rude, but I really want to just read my magazine."

"Okay." I Read the same sentence for a 3rd time.

"I wonder if it will be warm when we get there?" Chris says.

Ughhhhh!!!! So after reading the exact same sentence LITERALLY 11 times (I counted) I gave up again.

Then, as soon as Chris stopped talking and I put my ipod back on, the lady next to me tapped my arm for the 27th time and started talking again!!!

So much for the peace and quiet!! Better luck next time!