How Did it Go, Maverick?

Flying to Oregon over the Holidays, I got to sit in the empty seat in the adjacent row on the flight out.

Meaning, John sat in the row with Macy and Trey and I sat in the aisle seat across from them with whatever random passengers chose to sit with me.

Heaven! John entertained the fidgety kids for the 3-hour flight from Tampa to Kansas City while I read all about Tiger and Elin in People. And US. (Yes of course I bought both.)

Abby, my new best friend, sat next to me. Also heading to Portland, we quickly made a deal to sit together on the KC-Portland leg, exchanged email addresses, swapped magazines and friended each other on Facebook.

Fast forward to the second leg of the flight, where I also luxuriously got to sit child-less, with my new friend Abby.

Settling into our seats, trying to ignore the noisy kids in the row across from us, Abby and I hoped the middle seat would stay empty, so we could enjoy our small bottles of Sutter Home Chardonnay with a little extra leg room. But, as it were, the flight was full and a Texas cowboy named Maverick slid into the window seat with a, "Ladies, mind if I sit with ya'll?"

Maverick was a 68-year-old Texan (and fellow blogger, I might add) with a big accent and an even bigger cowboy hat.

After a couple of glasses wine we learned, as it turns out, that Maverick was flying out to Portland on a whim to visit his on-line lady!

Yep, Maverick met her teaching a 2-step class in Galveston back in September and they've kept up relations via email all these months. Things started heating up, and he up and booked a ticket to visit her in her home-town of Portland, Oregon.

Oh, and I almost forgot this. He was surprising her. As in, HE DID NOT TELL HER HE WAS COMING IN ADVANCE. And get this. He sent her 200 yellow roses earlier that day. Just because. That Maverick has the moves.

Just goes to show you, wonderful people are dressed up in all kinds of ways and can be found in all kinds of places.

Abby and Maverick, I hope you are reading this. Abby, congratulations on your engagement and Maverick, I hope your lady friend realizes how lucky she is!

I Have Obsessive-Compulsive Facebook Disorder

Isn't Facebook funny? As in funny-strange, not laugh-out-loud funny.

I can't stop, but I want to. But I can't. I tell myself I don't care to know so many details about people I haven't seen in years or barely know, but evidently I do.

Like a voyeur, I pore through peoples' photo albums. The best is when a friend gets "tagged" in a stranger's photo and I end up leafing through an album of 75 random pictures from "Alan's Surprise Party" (and I don't know Alan, or anyone else at the party). That's when I have to push myself away from my computer and start a load of laundry.

Or how about that friend you broke up with a few years back so no WAY are you going to friend him. But you have mutual friends, so you can kind of stalk him indirectly.

Oh, and I also read people's status updates religiously. Even people I don't really know.

The people who brag ("Off to the beach house for a week for fun in the sun! Will post pics when we return!") Of course you will.

And those who take a stand ("Maine, I am so mad at you!"). I like the people who use their status field to communicate with just one person ("Kathy, thanks for your note!! Yes, come by on Wednesday, can't wait!").

And new friends keep showing up. From the strangest places, out of the woodwork.

The girl on the treadmill next to me at the gym learned my name and "friended" me! Now I know all about her! Cool!

My brother's ex-wife whom I've not seen in 20+ years ... yep, she's my new friend and I enjoyed all the pictures she posted of her recent wedding.

My neighbor down the street with whom I've never actually spoken in person. A friend from high school's Mom. My daughter's pre-school teacher, from 3 years ago.

I've heard many people say things like, "I wasn't their friend in high school, why would I want to be now?" when describing those random friend requests we all receive from the faces from our past. But, I disagree.

It's like a big anthropological experiment to me, a real-life reality television show, to see how all of us have morphed over 20 years. We'll all probably eventually get bored of Facebook (or they'll start charging us to use it) and we'll collectively move onto something else, but for now I'm having fun. And I admit it.