Connecting with people is one of my favorite activities as you all know. On the flight from Newark to Edinburgh the window seat was occupied when I made my way down the row. I had the aisle and the middle seat was empty. I said hello to the man by the window and remarked that maybe we’d be lucky and have a vacant seat between us. He agreed which started off a conversation about the cramped conditions. By the time we took off no one had taken the spot so we continued to other subjects. He is from West Orange, New Jersey, where I worked at a famous pancake house when I was 20 years old. We continued on for most of the flight with topics ranging from country music (very popular in Glasgow where he was heading, hoping to see Nanci Griffith), to Oregon wine (he loves pinot from Oregon), to the 9/11 attack (he watched the towers burn from his house on a hillside facing the city) to social justice issues like immigration and education. At one point he told me what his job is but the cabin was noisy and I couldn’t quite hear. Then he told me during the G8 world conference north of Edinburgh he’d signed up to do the security in downtown Edinburgh where all the protesters were gathered. Uh-oh, I thought, maybe I’ve just made friends with a CIA agent. So I said what do you do again, I didn’t quite hear you. Turns out he was with DEA (busting drug smugglers in Florida) for 17 years but after 9/11 he joined Homeland Security as an Air Marshall. Yikes!! Usually he sits up front with his gun ready for any threat to the pilots but now he’s on vacation meeting his wife who is visiting her parents in Glasgow. We ended up getting on the bus to downtown together as he was late to catch a train so I watched his luggage while he figured out how to get a ticket and find the train. We exchanged e-mail addresses and he plans to ask his sister to take a photo of the house where my mother grew up, a few blocks from where she lives in Glen Ridge. And I was worried about making friends!
This morning I woke up at 4:30 when the sun rose. I’m adjusting to the time change and slept well last night despite a long afternoon nap. Today I’m walking downtown and then on to the castle, about 2 miles from here to do some sightseeing before the weekend. I’ll be calling my cousin Nancy soon and hope to see her tomorrow. I’m very glad to be here and feeling confident about everything. Thanks for all your very sweet comments and emails. I have free internet at the B&B so will try to respond to some of your notes when no one else is using it. Most of the folks staying here are older than me so there’s not much competition to use the computer. Much love to you all from Scotland. Ellie
