And so our trip begins. Asheville to Greenville, Chicago, Newark, New York City, Dublin, Gort, Cliffs of Moher, and back to Gort What a long and exhausting two days of travel. Sitting in airports for so many hours brings much opportunity for people watching. People watching always makes me ask questions. I wonder about the people. Where they are going. What their lives are like.

Why are there so many women in stilettos? Can you imagine running around an airport, dragging luggage in stilettos? Why is that child screaming? Why can some men wear pink shirts and some clearly can not? Why are there so many people here today? Why isn’t there any good food? Why does almost everyone have those weird neck pillows? Seriously? That’s now a necessity for travel?

Also why do people watch tv or football games or movies without their headphones in? How rude is this? I don’t want to sit next to you and hear your football game over the music I am listening to WITH MY HEADPHONES. RUDE. Why do people go to the bathroom so many times? You never in real life go to the bathroom every hour do you? No

I thought I had an empty row but I ended up with one other woman who was obviously not having a great day. She went to the bathroom probably 7 times during our one hour flight and kept putting all her stuff on the tray table of the middle seat and then moving it back to her tray table. Back and forth. She also kept trying to send text messages. Which clearly you’re not supposed to do and DOESNT work from 30,000 feet. Sorry lady.

No one looks happy in airports. Everyone is tired, or late, or frustrated, or too busy to give you the time of day. A lady walked right into me because she was texting, and I said I was sorry when clearly it was her fault. She didn’t even acknowledge the collision. How do people travel with babies? I don’t understand that. I don’t think I ever could. Car seat, stroller, diaper bag, baby, baby’s toys, your own carry on…

Dazed and confused people wandering the ever-changing hallways of the busy airport. A guy practices his golf swing as he walks past me. Another man is wearing a t-shirt with minions on it and he’s clearly too old for that. A woman with one shoe hobbles past. What happened to her other shoe? How do you lose your shoe? Kids with bags that are as big as they are. Another child is crying. Traveling is exhausting. I can’t imagine doing it as a child. A man carrying a strange triangular case passes. I wonder what’s inside. A tall man. A woman with tall hair. Long dreads. Short pixie cut.

I guess you can see every type of person if you sit in an airport long enough. By tomorrow I’ll be in Ireland. And these questions won’t matter. But today, I’m writing them down as questions that need to be asked.