I flew to Las Vegas this past Monday for a pair of conventions (yawn) and also to see the new Cirque show Love (more later). I was standing in line to board, and I thought to myself “the back of this guy’s head looks awfully familiar.” He turned briefly to hand his boarding card to the gate agent, and it was Dave Barry. After I cleared through, I caught up and said “hi” — he didn’t remember me right away, but he did after a few moments. I then left him alone, because I don’t want to be a pest. Imagine my surprise when I find out my seatmate is, of all people, Dave.
We chat* a bit prior to take-off — we both find the woman behind us insanely irritating because she and her seatmate are doing the crossword puzzle from the inflight magazine. Only they’re doing it at a volume that is more conducive to watching a sporting event. We roll eyes at each other, and he finally says something along the lines of “If you strangle her, I won’t see anything.” A tempting offer, but I decide against it and show him my Bose Quiet Comfort headphones — but even they can’t drown her out totally.
He’s working on a new book — I ask him what it’s about, and he tells me*. I had a few other questions but mostly he wrote, and I read. Neither of us ate the plane food. We both ate the hot nuts. We both had beverages. And that is the generic description.
I fired off an e-mail to Rob because I thought it was cool that I should run into his dad on a plane. Slim odds. And I’m looking forward to the new book.
*The nature of our discussions shall not concern you except as noted 🙂
** Another Peter book