I love airports and I love flying. In fact, I'm in an airport right now!
Everything about airports to me just seems magical. Maybe it's because I had never flown until I was 17 and had been dying to for years so I had already decided flying is awesome. Or, as my one of my dear friends puts it, I "see the beauty in everything even when said thing is certainly not beautiful...like airports". This friend also doesn't thing this gift is always a good thing. Or maybe it's because the airport is like a symbol of freedom for me... when I finally flew away to go to college.
But I digress. The point is I love everything about flying. It's exhilerating. Turbulence? Heck yes! Weird seat-mates who talk to you about their lives? My favorite! Seriously. I've had some pretty weird seat mates. Here's a list of some of my favorites:
--A pilot from Nigeria, flying to his next shift. We talked about the economy and how to make millions of dollars by manipulating stocks. I learned so much and was very curious as to how he knew such things... At any rate, he gave me his number and still texts me whenever he's in Salt Lake to see if I want to hook up. Like legitimately hook up, not just hang out. I think he has a girl in every city.
--A business major who convinced me to trade my chapstick for a pack of gum which he insists is the best "make-out gum" because of its fresh but sweet flavor. It's Orbit sweet mint in case you were wondering.
--An extremely unhappy child and her mother who literally was going to scream the whole plane ride until I took out my ukulele and played her to sleep. Not sure the other passengers appreciated it, but it made my experience a whole lot better.
--A guy approximately the age of my father who needed advice on his marriage... as if I could actually advice on such issues (this happens to me a lot though... I'll post something about it sometime). From there we proceeded to talk about art and music from the Romantic period as well as the influence of the television show Glee (I will definitely post my ideas about that too).
Aside from the people on planes, the view is always amazing. I remember my first time flying... It was a really rainy, cold morning, but as we went through the clouds, I literally started crying. I had never seen anything so beautiful... At that moment I could not understand why anyone would want to live on the ground. Sometimes I still don't. Yes, Auree, I still cry when I see really pretty clouds. Shut up.
The airport is fun too. You get to people watch, laugh at the ridiculously high prices in the weird little shops, consider buying one of those neck pillows but then decide against it, debate buying some overpriced food, run on the moving walkways and listen to the lady-voice that tells you to watch your step, avoid the Delta SkyMiles people, look at the art (like in the Detroit airport, there's this magical tunnel under ground that has all these colors and plays music... it really does exist! And it has an awesome fountain!), and sometimes you get to feed birds. Airporting is like a game to me where the universe is giving me mini quests to complete so I'll win coins or an extra life or something. For example...
This one time, I was walking around the airport when I was accosted by a SkyMiles guy! I was just going to ignore him but I realized I had nothing better to do than see what he had to say. And he was offering one of those neck pillows as some sort of reward. Goal: get the neck pillow at any cost. Challenge accepted. I proceeded to excessively flirt with SkyMiles guy in order to get the pillow without signing up for whatever he wanted me to sign up for. It became clear however, that no matter how many times I said "you have beautiful eyes" he would not relinquish the pillow until I signed up for his stupid SkyMiles card thing. I had no choice so I entered a bunch of crappy information into the computer and hoped for the best. And he gave me the neck pillow! I was overjoyed until I accidentally left it in the waiting area for my plane and the pillow was no more...
Or this other time when I fed a group of sparrows some of my trail mix. Goal: become friends with the birds so they'll sit on your finger. Challenge accepted. While I was tossing a trail of peanuts to move the birds closer to me, an airport employee came up behind me and asked what I was doing... It turns out, he'd been trying to get rid of the birds for some time and he did not appreciate me giving them food. At all. When he left, I put a stockpile of peanuts in the corner for them just in case they were being starved out of their homes. While I did not complete my mission, I feel I contributed to a cause.
These are only a few of my airport experiences, and I wish I had more time to write, but I have to board a plane. Go figure. I'm hoping I end up sitting next to the scholarly looking guy with funky hair, who's been staring at his phone very strangely for the last half hour. Or the lady who's been talking to her mom about how how she payed way too much for her manicure and it doesn't even look that good. Or the family where the dad is trying to convince his four-year-old that it's 2 in the morning so he would go to sleep. Or the guy who literally sprinted over here even though our plane doesn't leave for another half hour.
Oh airports how I love you.
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