Red-eye Etiquette

Julie Wimmer

So my husband took the red-eye flight recently from San Francisco to Philadelphia. He flies a lot for work, and probably three times a year, he takes a red-eye flight. But this last time he went, he came in the house at 7am, looked at me for a thoughtful second and then said, "Maybe your next article should be on red-eye etiquette."

"Red-eye etiquette ? What happened? Someone snore all night? The person next to you frequented the bathroom?"

"Frequented the bathroom? What are you, Web MD?" my husband went into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

"Well what happened? The person next to you left their light on?" I was struggling here, what else could there possibly be.

"No," he whined, "they did not shut the lights off in the plane until an hour and half into flight, which was annoying, but fine, I could deal with that. It was the other people. They were talking. All night. Having conversations."

"Okay," I felt sympathetic, but even though I know it was a red-eye, I also know not everyone sleeps, "were the people in you row talking?"

"No, just people around me," he motioned a circle with his arms,"talking as if it were the middle of the day."

I shook my head, showing him my sympathetic "yea that stinks" look, but inside all I could think was, "Really?"

Then it hit me. Wow. We have now been married long enough that he was like me. That was something I would complain about. Before we had kids and all of that, he could fall asleep upside down during a bombing, but now I had rubbed off on him. He had developed my keen sense of hearing everybody say everything. He had taken on my annoyance with others when, really, there was no need to be annoyed. He had become me.

All of a sudden I was proud.

Published by Julie Wimmer

Julie worked in tv/film for years. She now works part time instructing preschool gym and fitness classes at a local YMCA. She also has traveled around the US and has a good sense and knowlege of different st...  View profile

12 Comments

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  • Kristen Warning9/6/2011

    Ha ha! Too funny!

  • Theresa L.9/2/2011

    LOL. Isn't that amazing how much husband and wives see to end up like each other? I noticed that in my own marriage - my husband and I have picked up a lot of each traits.

  • Cindy Lynn9/1/2011

    Very cute. I loved your sense of humor ... and I side with your husband. Nothing's worse than being on a red-eye, trying to sleep, and having people carry on loud conversations all around you!

  • Michele Starkey8/30/2011

    LOL - my husband and I become more alike everyday. cheers ;)

  • Martha Fry8/29/2011

    Great story.

  • Mary Oberg8/29/2011

    I can usually tune people out and not hear the conversations around me!

  • Laura Cone8/29/2011

    super thanks

  • Don Rothra8/29/2011

    It's funny how that happens to married people over a period of time. Cute article.

  • Oscar Crawford8/29/2011

    Nice job Julie. With your green light I will pass on your link. My daughter and her three children just arrived to live in Arizona yesterday. They took a red eye from the east coast.

  • Annette Robbins8/29/2011

    I can understand your husband's frustration~I would not fare well on a red-eye flight with the light on either~

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