Between trips to Maine and trips home to Virginia for Wedding Activities, I’ve had ample time to absorb the “peaks and pits” (thanks Kardashians!) of killing time during air travel. Below, I will highlight some of my favorite forms of In Flight Entertainment. 

Comediennes
Are ya’ll watching Mindy Kaling’s new show? It took me a few episodes to get on board and really get her style of humor but now I honestly laugh out loud when I watch it. I hoped her book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, would be at least giggle out loud funny but honestly, it was very tame. It is clearly written in Mindy’s trademark style and she stays true to her voice throughout – but I just didn’t love it. It’s very G-rated which lead to a feeling that it might have been written for a younger audience (and considering I still, to this day, love Twilight, that’s saying something) 
Sweet grainy iPhone shot!
Ya’ll, you HAVE to read this book! My Matron of Honor let me borrow Jenny Lawson’s Let’s Pretend This Never Happened while we were in South Beach for my Bach Weekend. Sadly, I wasn’t up to reading it on the flight home (I was too busy vomming, gross) but I tossed it in my carry on for my most recent flight to Maine. I looked like that crazy person who was cackling to herself the entire flight but it was SO worth it. I love Jenny’s style and her tales of childhood are just too good not to share.

Disclaimer: this book is not G-rated…if you don’t like swearing or general craziness, this book isn’t for you. I think that might be what I loved most about it, but no judgement. 


People Watching


And by “people watching”, I mean “fiancé watching”. Justin is an engineer and flying with him can be amusing. Every.single.time we fly he says something along the lines of “flight is SO cool….I mean, I get how this plane flies, but I mean, HOW does it get in the air?!” I typically try to hide behind the latest In Style during this little scientific a-ha moment but on our last flight I couldn’t help but laugh at him. We were sitting in different rows and he had still managed to get a window seat – the kid always gets a window seat so he can watch the plane take off and marvel at the sciencey-ness of the whole thing. From my aisle seat a few rows back I could see him perfectly and for the first time I noticed what a little kid he is when he flies. He literally leans as far into the window as possible and blocks the entire window from view – he grins and shakes his head as if to say “this is SO neat!”

(He’s really not a science nerd in real life, like at all, only when he flies, which is why I think it’s so amusing. Guesses on how long it takes before he calls me from work and tells me to edit this post??)

Eavesdropping

This is my most tried and true method of tolerating a long boring flight. Other people talking on planes can sometimes feel like an ice pick to the ear so I say embrace it and listen in. If they choose to yell and share their story with the entire plane, who are you to deny them an audience?

On our flight out of Bangor we were again separated and I shared a row with three 20 something girls who were flying to a work conference together. As one of them was across the aisle sitting with me, they needed to yell across the plan to chat. Fun huh?

Here are the highlights from their conversation:

Girl 1: I don’t follow labels at all (holding an In Style in her lap).
What’s Lilly?

Girl 2: Oh you know, they make the matching mother daughter stuff…

Me: eye roll so hard my contact fell out

At this point I put my headphones in and turned up the soundtrack to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (featuring Donny Osmond – that’s the best version) as loud as it would go. If Broadway can’t drown a bitch out, nothing can.

45 minutes later, my iPad dies…

Girl 2: I was telling someone that I used to be conversational in French…you know, when I was in high school. And then I realized that high school was 15 years ago…FIFTEEN YEARS AGO! I graduated FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!!!!!
Hand gesturing and panic ensues.

Me: (in my mind) Why the eff isn’t my iPad working?!
Glare across isle in the hopes that she’ll self soothe.
I mean, come on, it’s nothing to be upset about. Grandfather time robs us all…and honestly, no one speaks French. Like, no one.

Time to let go of the glory days. 


If you stuck it out through this whole post, you are now armed with at least one new book you can read on your next flight and probably a few questions about my taste in music.

You.Are.Welcome!