Come Fly the Friendly Skies

Ok. So I'm not a member of the million miler club yet or anything but I have seen my fair share of the friendly skies lately and it's gotten me to reminiscing. I've decided to share some of my favorite airport adventures.

My first memory of the airport is when I got lost in one when I was 5. I should have known then. It was back in the day when we could see off and welcome back loved ones at the gate (those were the days). We were sending my brother Karl on his mission and most of the kids got bored with the wait so we decided to play on the escalators. When it was time to go I pulled a Home Alone and chased the wrong person down the hall, thinking it was my sister. When I realized my mistake, my family was no where to be found. I found my way out to our big red van (aptly named "Big Red"), thinking they would find me there. After waiting for hours (probably only 15 minutes) I gave up and went back in to find my family coming down the stairs. That day I learned what an information desk was and I was forced to practice reciting my parents' first names the rest of the day.

For years, the airport was a rather unceremonious event. Then came my own mission. The flight home was an eleven hour trip that finally landed myself and 2 Elders on US soil in Denver where we then had to go through customs. For those not familiar with the process, you have to pick up your luggage at the baggage claim, take a form through a line where you have to somehow remember how much you paid for all of the stuff crammed in your suitcase, and promise that none of it is produce or drugs. Then you have to recheck your luggage, go through security and run to your gate. Some genius decided we could do all of this and still make a connecting flight that left 45 minutes later. Needless to say, we didn't make it. But we ran and caught a flight that left only an hour later. Our families, however, were told we wouldn't get on a flight for another 4 hours. When we arrived and came down the escalators looking around for the balloons and posters that would be there to welcome us, we saw nothing. We decided to check the bathrooms (I took the girls, they took the guys) to see if our families had decided to all use the restroom all at the exact same time. Guess not. A nice lady took pity on us and fed us red vines and bottled water while we waited. So, a couple of hours later they came running through the doors with wilted flowers, drooping balloons and wrinkled posters. It was the welcome I had always dreamed of.

Now that I travel with work every few weeks, I'm getting pretty comfortable with the airport routine. I have this thing down to a science from parking, to security, to boarding and back. Problem with routine is you can get overly confident. Enter drama. A couple of months back I arrived home on a late flight. I collected my luggage and caught a shuttle out to the parking lot. I got off on my usual stop (confident in my routine) and discovered my car was not in its usual row. I wouldn't normally panic but it was midnight and I was a girl all by herself in the middle of a dark parking lot. I'm a sitting duck. After wandering around for 30 minutes, a security truck that had passed me at least 5 times finally stopped and asked if I was ok. I explained my dilemma and he asked for my license plate number. He radioed it in and they spat back my car's location within 30 seconds. Cheers for airport security!

And my most recent adventure... I came back this week from an unusually stressful business trip very relieved to be home. I collected my luggage, caught the shuttle and jumped off my usual stop where I quickly found my car. I paid for parking and headed home (once again confident in my routine). When I got home I hopped out of my car and opened the back door of my car only to find my luggage missing. I quickly traced back my steps in my head until I realized that I didn't grab my luggage when I got off the shuttle bus in the parking lot. My bag was still riding around (hopefully) in circles in the economy parking lot. I walked in the door both hysterically laughing and sobbing. I finally calmed down and went searching for the phone book. After finding the airport number and getting transferred about 26 times, I got someone to call the buses asking if anyone had seen an abandoned black suitcase (I need to buy some unique luggage, I've decided). But amazingly enough, they found it and sent it to the Lost & Found. Scott trekked back up to Salt Lake with me where I picked up the luggage and finally made it home.

But I have to say, after all of that, I still love airports! Some of my favorite things about traveling (besides the destinations themselves) are the coffee smells at the airport, empty flights, a window seat with clear skies, turbulence (weee!) and people watching. Ah, good memories!

Blogitis

Blogitis: Also called the Blog Bite, is a systemic disease caused by an individual's urgent need to divulge personal opinions, perspectives, and thoughts to the masses. The Blog Bite is generally transmitted via peer pressure. A previously content individual may be led to believe that it is healthier and more fulfilling to put one's thoughts in writing and express them in a public setting. As a result, we see that Blogitis, once confined to a minority of participants, is now a world-wide pandemic.

Early symptoms may include lack of sleep, strained eyes, and accelerated carpal tunnel. Infected persons often complain of increased attention deficit due to the individual's preoccupation and obsession with the topic and content of their next blog entry.

Symptoms generally appear within 1 to 3 weeks of infection, although some have shown progressive symptoms in as little as 24 hours after exposure. Untreated cases are eventually socially fatal. People who become ill with lack of sleep, obsessive tendencies, or other manifestations of Blogitis are advised to seek early social intervention. Blog Bite can usually be cured by an appropriate course of anti-anti-social therapy. Fresh air and direct sunlight are the drugs of choice to treat the early stages of this disease. Progressive stages require the disappearance or fatal death of the infected person's computer.

No vaccine is available to prevent this disease. Infected persons are attracted to new blog posts, breaking news, and interesting or annoying life events. Individuals are encouraged to avoid these dangerous areas to avoid the Blog Bite. Non-bloggers at risk of peer pressure from infected individuals are advised to avoid boredom, procrastination, and late unplanned evenings that may lead to blogging.

I've arrived

Blogging. It was going to take a long stretch of procrastinating boredom to get me started blogging. Don't get me wrong, i enjoy reading other people's blogs, I'm fortunate to have some witty and intelligent friends that keep me entertained. But I'm better at appreciating others' creations than actually creating something myself, even if it is just a blog. But eh, what the heck, why not join the throngs that spill their thoughts onto a digital page.

It was either this or Facebook. Not that I had to do either, come to think of it. Honestly, I'm only a paragraph into blogging and I can already see the draw to Facebook. All you do is post a few pictures, accept the occasional (or constant) request for "friendship" and update a short status, as needed. I definitely picked the more demanding route here, one that asks for insight, thought, poetry, or wit. But then maybe I'm giving blogging too much credit.

So, it is surprisingly quick & easy to setup a blog. The hardest part was picking a stupid background. Oh the pressure! Did I want to be cutesy? funny? serious? pretend like I hadn't thought about it at all? Well, we now know the latter isn't true. How about ambivalent? Neither too serious, nor too cutesy. I finally picked a background I could live with. After a minute I realized it reminds me of the Larry King Live set with a touch of Stampin' Up influence. I kinda like it.

And so goes my first blog...