Taking a Step Back

Life has been going so fast lately that I haven't had time to take a step back and enjoy some of its little adventures.

Example #1: I missed my plane back to SLC after my interview in Seattle last weekend.  I thought my flight left at 10:33 am on Saturday morning.  Turns out my mind was pulling :33 from my flight leaving SLC at 7:33 pm two days earlier and my flight actually left at 10:05 am on Saturday morning. I realized this at 9:15 as Lindsay and I were walking out the door for the airport.  I couldn't check-in online because I had no way of printing my boarding pass...so Lindsay put me on police look-out duty and we just went for it.  

We failed. 

I got to the airport at 9:40 am, which was 5 minutes too late to check in for my flight.  This was the first time I had ever missed a flight and after the stressful week I had been through my emotions were running high.  I may or may not have cried at the ticketing desk.  Even though the rest of the flights to SLC were over-booked for the rest of the day, the woman at the counter was kind enough to put me on stand-by for the flight leaving three hours later.

I cried my way through security and made my way to the gate.  I really wanted to make it home that night so I wouldn't miss what would be our last family get-together before my move, but all I could do was wait.  Luckily I had my laptop and Arrested Development to pass the time.  Miraculously I was able to get on the flight and made it home for some family fun.

Example #2: The crazy woman sitting next to me on this very flight.  She was probably in her mid-to-late fifties and was very concerned about nutrition.  As the flight attendants were passing out drinks and snacks she asked for extra napkins.  The flight attendant gave her one extra and she said she was going to need a lot more.  I was pretending to watch Arrested Development but was very intrigued by this.  What was she going to do that would require "a lot more" napkins?

She proceeded to fully unfold one napkin on her tray, open a bag of Fritos and pour half of the bag out onto the unfolded napkin.  She then folded the napkin around the Frito pile to try to soak up the grease.  That didn't work very well so she began to wipe off each Frito individually.  Wiped them individually!  I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  

She continued to declare her crazy status by telling me how she was going to miss her connecting flight and she didn't know why she was sitting so far back in the plane anyway because she had booked this trip so long ago and had requested to a seat closer to the front.  You see, you get off faster when you're closer to the front...

I'm sure there are many other little adventures that have come and gone undocumented and there will be many more to come.  It's nice to slow down every once in a while and appreciate them for what they are.