People Watching at the Airport

So today's musing doesn't come while driving, but while I'm sitting at the airport waiting for my flight to depart.

Most people I know like to arrive at the airport at late as possible. On the other hand, I love to get to the airport as early as I can. For example, I arrived at my departure gate 90 minutes prior to pushback time, and I love it! This has given me time to eat a snack, check and see if I need additional snacks, check the latest magazine covers to see if there's anything interesting, and write this post.

Another reason I really like getting to my gate early is that I get to do some people-watching. This is one of my favorite activities, it always has been. I don't want to meet anyone, I just want to watch them and imagine stories about where they are going, what their relationships to their apparent companions are, and just observe human nature when people don't really think they're being watched.

For example: here are three businessmen ending their trip and heading home, trying to avoid talking shop but eventually falling into that familiar topic; there is a group of teenagers, mostly girls, who look like they're just starting their journey when they suddenly get up and depart en masse because they're apparently at the wrong gate; there's a single businesswoman checking her emails on her smartphone and now finishing her dinner here in the gate area; here comes a tired airline employee straightening her uniform while looking out the window before getting ready to take care of my flight--can't really be that bad today because there aren't any flight delays.

All of this is made even more enjoyable because I have a beautiful view of the active runway and can see planes landing and taking off in the background. regardless of what most people think, air travel is still romantic for those of us who love airplanes and airports (which are really cities within cities).

So today's musing is: be careful what you do and say in public, you never who is watching you.