What I learned from the woman sitting next to me on a flight this week:
1. She is 31 and her boyfriend is 53
2. Her boyfriend's almost-ex-wife is called The Gator (although not to her face, I presume).
3. Her boyfriend and his almost-ex-wife have been going through a divorce for 5 years.
4. She has a 19 year old sister and a 25 year old brother.
5. Her sister attends a large public university noted for its football program and is a member of nationally-ranked bowling team.
6. She has ADHD and took Ritalin for years.
7. Her parents are both "functional alcoholics" and abandoned her and her siblings when she was 18 years old and she's been caring for her brother and sister ever since.
8. She and her boyfriend went shopping for an end table and four hours later were still haggling over the payment plan for an entertainment center.
9. She likes flying on Jet Blue, but not on Southwest.
10. That I will chew off my own arm rather than talk to anyone on a plane again. Ever.

Dreams: I had been out shopping and was carrying a bunch of shopping bags from high-end stores - Armani, Versace, Prada, etc. I had to cross a busy street in order to get to the entrance of my hotel. A driver stopped to let me pass as I walked into the K-Mart Hotel. A man who spoke with an Italian accent and looked like Benicio del Toro was leaning languidly against a post and waving his cigarette expressively as he talked with a tall, dark-haired woman. He was complaining about his extreme world-weariness. As I was walking past the stopped cars I wondered if the people who saw me judged me by the shopping bags I carried or by the fact that I was staying in a K-Mart Hotel. Apparently I was so worried by Martha Stewart's extended electronic confinement and its effect on K-Mart that I wanted them to expand into the hospitality business.