Today's rambling: She's landed!
Written on Tuesday, May. 14, 2002 at 11:45 p.m.
while feeling a bit

Every time I go through airport security, I make the machine beep when I walk through. Today, I thought, this would not occur unless I really DO have a metal plate in my head. As I walked through the metal detector, there was not a beep to be heard. I glanced back at Mom, who couldn't come with me that far, and she gave me an enthusiastic thumbs-up.

That was when one of the security folks informed me that the smaller of my two carry-ons had to be searched because they'd found something unidentifiable inside.

Under normal circumstances, I would've wished for the floor to swallow me. Nobody else had had to have their bags searched; I just KNEW it would happen to me! But today I didn't care at all. There was nothing inside that wasn't supposed to be there, so I had nothing to worry about. And I was actually very glad that both the X-ray operators were being so attentive! I watched as they both stopped the conveyor belts for nearly every bag, zooming in and checking every little inch. It was very reassuring. But back to my bag search.

"Hello, how are you today?" the woman asked me.

"Fine," I replied, staring at my carry-on. Then, realizing I was rude, I continued in a cheery tone, "How are you?"

We discovered that it was my Game Boy Advance that had been suspicious-looking. Thankfully, the woman was really nice--99% of Philly airport workers are brusque and unfriendly. Was that redundant? Anyway...After she put the Game Boy and my purse back in the carry-on, she told me to have a good flight.

"Thank you," I said, "Have a nice day!"

I have to imagine that she was probably relieved I wasn't all cranky and mean about this inconvenience. I wanted to tell her "Thank you for searching!" just because it made me feel a little safer! *giggles*

When I get off planes, I always have this urge to rush up to the pilot and give him a handshake and a "Thank you for landing us safely", hehe...I'm such a geek.

The flight had some really turbulent moments. One of the milder moments happened while I was in the bathroom. That was interesting. It's only the second time I've ever been in an airplane bathroom...they're like closets! Smaller than that! Like a telephone booth! And it scares me when it flushes, hehe...

Right, let's move on. Thankfully, I got my window seat, and there was no one next to me! In the aisle seat was a young-ish guy who was kinda nice, but odd. He didn't really talk to me (there was another guy--his dad?--who was sitting in the aisle seat diagonally behind him), but he made a couple of comments. The first thing he said to me was right as he was sitting down: "You're probably going to sleep the whole time, huh?" (I'd just laid my head against the window and shut my eyes.)

Later on, he had put his rented headphones on ($5 just to get a pair of headphones to listen to the audio for movies!), and I guess he was listening to a music channel or something? Whatever he was listening to, his dad(?) was standing there, and so he started to groove. He caught me watching him and looked at me with a completely serious expression, so I finally laughed and looked away. Toward the end of the flight, he looked over just as I was turning from the TV back to the window, and he hissed, "Shhh!"

"I'm sorry, I know I talk too much," I joked lamely.

"You're so loud!" he accused. And that was the end of it.

I was SOOO happy to finally start descending! It's funny, because the flight really didn't take much longer than it takes Mom and I to drive down to Virginia. But it felt like it took FOREVER! Maybe because I didn't have anyone to talk to...and even though I'm typically very quiet in the car, I like to have someone there just in case I do feel like talking!

My butt was numb by the time I disembarked. As soon as I left the safety of the air-conditioned cabin, I felt Arizona's heat attack me. It had 'cooled down', the captain informed us earlier, to 94 degrees. I think my body started melting just hearing him say that. I parked my carry-ons at the side of the tunnel thingy leading off the plane, took off my white sweater ("It'll be cold when you get there!" Mom had told me), and attached my small carry-on to the larger one (I just love my new Samsonite luggage!). Then I tromped on out.

The waiting area was empty but for a few people. One girl had glasses on, but her hair was WAY too short, so I gave one more quick glance and continued on my way. I was afraid I'd get lost, but thankfully there were big signs directing me to the baggage claim.

As I neared the last exit thinger, I caught a glimpse of brown hair and glasses, and multi-colored balloons. I had to restrain my excited grin, lest everyone else think I was going nuts.

Now, for the entirety of the plane ride, I'd been imagining myself to squeal "Lola!!!" and then run over to hug her. But I forgot to take into account that we're both the quiet type, and while I can imagine myself doing outgoing-ish things such as bear-hugging folks, when it comes right down to it I'm much too restrained.

So the end result was a "Hi!" and a quick hug, and then woosh! We were off to the baggage claim! ;) I had to call my mom just to assure her that I'd landed and Lola wasn't "a big hairy guy". *giggles*

And now I'm here. I might as well have had my face pressed, little-kid style, against the car window on the way home. It was like being in a new country! Granted, it was dark out, so I only saw what the street lamps illuminated, but it was still cool! Just wait 'til tomorrow, when I can see everything in daylight.

And Star Wars tickets for the MIDNIGHT SHOWING!!! This is going to rock the casbah. :oP

Anyway, I'm ending this entry now. I have some stuff that I wrote while on the plane, which I'll probably post later. But this entry has gone on long enough, hehe...