If the shoe fits, wear it!

Is there a DNA gene between comedic experiences in life being hereditary? This is the kind of thing that happens to my amazing Mumma all the time. No, Seriously! All the time. Are you ready?

So I woke up at abot 5 a.m. the morning I started my trip to Jakarta. Sadly my flight from Vancouver was not until 2 a.m. the next morning...I had the worst head cold , oh man! I missed my last sunday at church for awhile, spent the whole day snoozing, drinking 14 gallons of various fluids, psyching myself into some kind of travel minded state for my 8:30 p.m. flight from Comox.

I arrived in Vancouver, happy to have free wireless in the airport. Helps pass the time for sure.

Feeling pretty crummy, decongestants popping like smarties, stretched out (as much as one can!) in the 2 seat gap between armrests in the international holding area. Would really pay any amount of money for sleep and a cleared head...

When I checked in online I thought I was being pretty smart choosing a window seat, well, I now recommend the aisle! The seats are so closely placed behind one another that you can't just slide out , without appearing extremely familiar with your neighbour. I was seated next to a lovely couple, "Mr." & "Mrs."who appeared to be in their early 60's, originally from China but have lived in Edmonton for the past 30 years. I was very cogniscant of the fact that they slept for most of the first 10 hours on the flight, although at breif moments I did help sort out the challenge of the little tv for "Mr."

By the 10 hr point I really need to visit the loo, I noticed that "Mrs." was awake and seemed ready to head to the loo also, so I touched "Mr." lightly on the shoulder and asked if he would mind if I skooched out to use the ladies room. "Of course, certainly certainly, just let me get my shoes on." he says most happily.

Well, he hands me a couple of empty glasses and starts fishing around for his shoes...I am thinking ,"Mr." I am the one going to the loo YOU don't need your shoes on..... anyway...he fishes and fishes. Then he starts to get serious, he is crouching in the aisle and crawling partway under the seats reaching as far as he can looking for his shoe. I am, as you can imagine, getting a little concerned, did I mention not having been to the ladies for over 10 hours???? so I reach down and start fishing around also. I am pulling out newpapers and a spare blanket, he almost trips someone as they are headed to the loo also, but it is dark, most people are sleeping , I am thinking that noone was expecting to find a body crouched in the aisle "fishing" under the seats! Yes time is passing, yes my bladder is beckoning to me gently (!!!)

Finally he says, "Aha!" and victoriously holds up a black slip on shoe! yeay........uh, that is my shoe? I turn the overhead light on and look down...OH mY GOsH! I am WEARING HIS SHOE!!

I was so shocked! I could not beleive it! How the heck, what , huh! Oh my gosh! I was so emberassed and bewildered! He starts to laugh, but oh the look on his face! If it was anything like mine...Oh we laughed so hard, it was almost hysterical! "Mrs." came back from the ladies and when she saw us she looked so puzzled, what on earth was so funny. Well I still had his shoe on, we were laughing so hard, people around us were very curious, craning their necks, standing up and looking over the seats. He is on his hands and knees with my shoe in his hand, chuckling away, I am sitting pointing to his shoe on my foot, just about dying with laughter.

Very quickly it was apparent what had happened. We had both taken our shoes off, he was stretched at an angle and one of his shoes must have fell into my section of floor. When I realized I was going to visit the loo, I felt around in the dark , with my foot, for my shoes. As I slipped my left foot into my shoe, it didn't feel right and instantly I slid it over to put my right foot into the "right" shoe! The rest is history!

For the next 4 1/2 hrs, periodically one of us would make a quip about shoes, my shoe, nice shoes, would you like a pair like this, would you like to borrow my shoe, where can I get a pair like that, what size are your shoes? It was pretty funny.

I told "Mr." that the good thing is we now have story to tell and we would never forget each other.

What a great flight!