do do do do you have it?

GUTS...

i am back from a great vacation away spending much needed time with my cousins and family. i feel refreshed and happy and whole. i got to soak up some sun, which around these parts is still a rarity. there is always something about coming home, and i missed my husband very much. i will tell more about my trip later... sadly with no pictures, because my camera is b-r-o-k-e-n. boo...


there is some cosmic catastrophic event that happens on airplanes. people, complete strangers, who have never seen each other, and who will never see each other again, spill their guts. i mean tell their whole life stories. when people are on an airplane they tell complete strangers, things they may not tell friends in normal life. i heard all sorts of information about people i don't know, and don't necessarily care about, last night on the airplane. we sat at the gate for over an hour, waiting for stragglers from connecting flights. i will never take the last flight of the day again. and in that extra hour on the plane, people really let it all hang out. the lady in front of me has a 3 year old, she and her husband have been trying for baby number 2 for over a year. she had a doctor appointment on friday, and the doctor isn't sure what is wrong; her uterus, ovaries, eggs, and her husbands sperm seem just fine. so they will just keep trying. the girl sitting next to me is engaged to the produce manager at the grocery store we shop at. she doesn't want to be a stay at home mom, but her fiance wouldn't mind being a stay at home dad. she makes $42,000 a year. the people behind me were visiting their son and his new wife. it is his second wife, and they don't understand how he could marry her. these people were telling this information to complete strangers. people they knew nothing about. people who may go home and blog about it. or tell all their friends. people who they will never see again, and with whom they just shared intimate details of their lives. i was trying to not listen, i was trying to sleep. but i heard it all...

and i am wondering what in the world posses people to tell these things to complete strangers. i am the kind of girl who likes to board the plane, put on my headphones, read a book, and maybe fall asleep. and not talk to people unless i have to. i am certainly not going to tell you things about my life. i don't even tell my friends that much about my life. when asked, "oh, are you listening to anything good?" my reply will be something along the line of; "yah, i think so, just some music to make me fall asleep." and hope that they understand that means i don't want to hear your life story, and i am not going to tell you mine.

is it the nervous energy on a plane? the fear of free falling out of the sky and plummeting to your death? or is it something about the need to be accepted and make friends? or do they find solace in knowing they can tell these people anything, because they are disconnected from their own lives in reality. like the plane is a safety net for thoughts and fears and secrets to fall. i don't know what it is... and i don't understand it. but it is true. people on airplanes share their lives with complete strangers, share things they would normally not tell, with people they would other wise never know... and today i am recovering from stranger information overload.

i am so glad to be sleeping in my own bed, with my husband, home safe and secure. surrounded by people i love and that love me in return.