Ladies and Gentlemen

It's that warm sting of adrenaline. My mind goes blank for a full second as my senses refocus. Shit, this is really happening! His hands are empty, no weapon, no trigger. His loose shirt shows he's not wearing a bomb. He must not be the only one, someone else is protecting this pawn. All I can do is wait and see what happens next. My flight or fight response has kicked in and though I'm literally on a "flight" there's no where to run or hide on a 737. Thirty seconds ago a tall dark man stood up from seat 13C. Normally I wouldn't have thought anything of it, but this time was different. He didn't go for his bags or the bathroom, he just planted himself center aisle and scanned the rows behind him, making eye contact with each person letting them know something was about to happen. My headphones slid to my shoulders just in time. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, " he boomed, arms stretched out to the sides, "My name is Muhammed Sahir and I need your attention."

This is when the adrenaline hit. I waited.

"I'm a surgeon at the University of Minnesota"

What? Is there a medical emergency? I have EMS training. No, the steward would have made the announcement. I wait again.

"I've lived in Italy for 7 years and Syria for [didn't understand]"

Now I'm looking around, sizing things up. All I heard was "bla, bla, bla SYRIA"

"Now I'm looking for love. I'm looking for a wife. I'm looking for marriage."

What, what?! Huh? WTF! He starts pacing down the isle yelling something about wanting to find a wife. He yells at the stewardess with the drink cart, telling her people will have to be thirsty, this is important. My guard still isn't down... he seems pretty crazy. Eventually the steward tells him to sit down and thankfully he just stopped and sat down. An uncomfortable giggle washes over the rest of the plane as we realize he was just some lonely drunk spouting his mouth.

Lessons learned:
1) Don't drink too much in airports or on planes, the high altitude amplifies the effects.
2) I watch entirely too many movies.