I’m back on a plane today headed down to Fort Lauderdale for a client meeting, and I was lucky enough to get upgraded again on both legs to first class. As I sat down in my aisle seat on my first leg, the man sitting next to me in the window seat takes out a bunch of antibacterial wipes and begins wiping down the arm rests, the fold out cup holders, and tables. Then, he neatly wraps the wipes into a tiny little square and sets it on his arm rest. Just a little bit of a germaphobe, hm? When he got his two bags of apple chips during snack service, he ate each bag and folded both bags into the teeniest, tiniest little squares. It was like he was doing origami with them.

In three of the last four flights I’ve been on, I’ve sat next to a drunkard or soda addict. During my leg from JFK to DFW en route to Salt Lake City in first class, the man sitting next to me drank at least seven diet Cokes during a 4.5-hour-long flight (I really don’t think they’d give you that many sodas in economy). After the fourth one, he kept insisting each time that “this will really be the last one!” to the flight attendant, who simply smiled and said, “No problem!” each time. Another man showed his enjoyment of whiskey cokes by ordering four in a short flight. And today during a two-hour-long flight from Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale, the woman next to me drank four vodka sodas. They either use alcohol to cope with flying, or they are just drunkards.

What are the strange things I do on flights? I always wrap my leg up in blankets, even if I am wearing pants. Chris thinks this is really weird. I just always like to be warmer, especially when most airplanes will blast the air. If I am on a flight where I know I am getting back to my destination late, I will take my face wash, floss, and toothbrush and toothpaste into the airplane bathroom and wash my face, floss, and brush my teeth. Or if I have lounge access when Chris is with me, I will take care of all those things there before boarding the flight. This way when I get home, I can just drop all my stuff (well, more realistically, empty out all my bags because I am anal like that), sleep, and not worry about cleaning myself up for bed.