Have you ever had a great vacation abroad but upon taking the flight home, you are suddenly stressed? On August 22, my trip back to the U.S., I had a 75-minute massage to relax me for this 17 hour flight to Los Angeles (LAX).
My flight took off at 17:25 from Hanoi to Taipei. Once I arrived, I proceeded to look for food that did not include rice or noodles. Unfortunately, I was not successful.
However, during my brief stay in Taipei airport, I felt I was being chased by Pokemon. 
It was a twelve and half hour flight that went by quickly. Towards the end of the flight, I started to worry about making my connection. My flight from Taipei was expected to land at 19:20 and my connection to Atlanta was expected to depart at 23:15. Custom was a breeze! Make sure to get Global Entry! However, it took about 45 minutes to get my bags. I then had to hustle from the Tom Bradley Terminal to Terminal 5 (Delta). I just felt my stress level was getting higher and higher because I knew that the airline had a cut off for check bags. Furthermore, what about even with TSA pre-check? You just never know! I was able to check my back and go through security in less than 5 minutes. I arrived at my gate to see that we are delayed by an hour.
You should have seen the look on my face! Delta notifies me about everything else, but they did not notify me about this this delay. Well, my heart rate stabilized and I started looking for food that did not include rice or noodles. Yes, I am repeating myself. I enjoyed Vietnam tremendously but if I ever see rice (any kind of rice), I will scream! As I was scouring for a salad, I noticed this gentleman. He looked familiar but my priorities were on food and I kept on walking.
After purchasing a $22 salad at the airport, I proceeded back to my gate to find out that I was upgraded to First Class (complimentary). Finally, my luck was changing. As I was approaching my seat, I noticed that the Jermaine Dupri (the rapper) was on my flight. I was like “Wow!” As I found my seat, I waited a bit before settling myself as I had the aisle. As I turned around, the guy I noticed earlier was approaching me. I had this smile and said yes, he will be sitting next to me.
As we both got comfortable, he introduced himself as Montell. All I said “I figured”. This is Montell Jordan. One of his iconic song is “This is How We Do it” which was a big hit in the 1990s. We converse until we took off. During our interaction, I had to text my friends to tell them that I was sitting next to MONTELL JORDAN.
Now, one of the things I don’t like to do is be a celebrity groupie. I respect their privacy. As I writing my text, I mentioned to him what I was doing. Mr. Jordan offered to take a picture with me and even suggested that I do it as a selfie and he will photobomb it. I thought it was so cool and I loved his approached.
A rough beginning ended with a very pleasant interaction.