Eavesdropping, with regrets

So, last night, my 6:55 PM plane was delayed until 7:40 PM.  Which would have been fine, if 1) the Love Field airport hadn't been 80 fucking degrees with 99% humidity and 2) I hadn't been stuck at the gate with 3 incredibly snotty groups of St. Louis county high schoolers--and their enabling/encouraging parents.  They all took great pleasure in what they called "People Watching."  This consisted of the mothers pointing out people walking through the terminal, and the girls around them finding something to make fun of:  a limp, being overweight, non-name-brand clothes, etc.  The girls proceeded to consume two bags of Twizzlers (tm) Pull-n-Peel candy, all the while saying, "God, I'm so fat--I have to run forever tomorrow!" and rolling down their short-shorts' waistbands to show their ass cracks.  Lovely.

As we're boarding... which threw into stark relief my own issues with the Southwest "open seating" concept, but that is for another time... I overhear the 5 girls behind me in line talking about various topics relevant when you're a sheltered, privileged, uneducated person under the age of Mature Adult.  Of course, there was the matter of whose house was hosting the party this coming weekend, whose "crush" would be there, how much life sucks because their in high school...the usual.  But, then the conversation turned to THE cardinal sin of high school friendships.

"Oh. My. God!  I, like, don't have ANY new facebook comments!"
"Seriously, none?!?!"
"Yeah, I'm, like, so pissed!  I've been gone for, like, FOUR DAYS!!!"
"Wow, that really sucks."
"Yeah, like, I was expecting at least, like, TEN!  My friends suck!!"

At that point, I'm pretty sure an intelligence vacuum formed and sucked my brain out of my skull--I don't remember getting on the plane, or anything about the flight home until we hit 10,000 feet and I was able to listen to some Regina Spektor and Ingrid Michaelson.

Seriously?  facebook comments = self esteem?  Sad day.