Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strangeland

Dec 13th--flying home sans Tim. (Guess some of us have to work.)

As I was situating myself on the plane…you know cramming my carry-on luggage overhead (which incidentally was WAY too big to be carry-on luggage, but I’d already checked two other pieces crammed full of gifts (and shoes) so it had to be) and stuffing my ipod and journal into the seat pocket in front of me, nestled along side of the safety manual and barf bag…when what to my wondering eyes did I appear, but a small Asian man coming down the aisle with what looked to be a lamp shade on his head.

With further notice, it wasn’t a lamp shade at all, but some sort of a hat. Huh. If memory serves, I believe it either was coated in fur, or feathers, or maybe pomped (for those of you Mizzou grads.) Or maybe it was a piñata. Unsure. Anyway, I cannot describe it any better than a lampshade with a fat band of hot pink on the top, mustard yellow in the middle, and kelly green rounding out the bottom. So naturally, I was intrigued.

For those of you who don’t know me all that well, I have a knack for drawing in strange characters. Well, this particular day (although I was exceptionally tired) my tractor beam was functioning quite well and this poor gentlemen didn’t stand a chance. Of course, he was pulled in and destined to be my seatmate. He placed his satchel down on the seat next to me and we exchanged a kind “hello” and a quick smile. Then I tried not to stare as he took off his grey and black pinstripe blazer and placed his, err, headdress next to my overstuffed suitcase in the overhead compartment.

I was able in this brief moment to catch a quick glimpse of his entire attire. It was as follows: Black pants (nothing crazy there.) Black button up shirt that had geometric shapes with the same colors echoed in his, um, cone-shaped fedora. Then overtop of this, was a green fur vest. Nope…not doing it justice. Not just green, bright green. And by ‘fur’ I mean whatever that stuff is that covers teddy bears. Is it possible it was from a green polar bear? And actually, come to think of it, this vest didn’t have buttons and came up all the way to his tiny Adam’s Apple. So I did what any normal person would do, and took a quick moment to thank God for creative people.

Turns out, this man was fascinating. He was Chinese, but was going to visit his family in Manhattan. He worked in Munich in the fashion industry (go figure) and had lived in Germany, Milan, Paris, London and New York. After he told me this, I looked down and realized I was donned in classic ‘Dance Teacher’ attire (mostly black and the focus being on comfy, not cute.) Could tell he was contemplating turning me in to “What Not To Wear.” Anyway, through the rest of our conversation I learned he was fluent in Chinese, English, Italian, French and German, all the while applying at least six different creams to his face throughout the flight. (Highly recommend getting whatever it was he was applying because he head to be nearly 40 but looked not a day over 21.) My flight ended up being delightful. Had interesting conversation and my nose was filled with the light scent of Lancome.