On The Bus: The Airplane Edition

"In a car or a plane or a choo choo train"

Ahh, one of our favorite songs from English Camp, lots of fun in Italy last summer. We could work in 5 or 6 rounds of this song before the kids got bored. It was golden.

But I digress: Air Travel. I have flown quite a bit this past year. With coming home from Jerusalem, moving to DC and visiting Utah a few times, and the free ticket bonanza of Christmas 2010,  I've had my share of Bloody Mary Mix.  (Max is a ginger-ale guy, but nothing says fancy to me like spicy tomato juice with a lime.)  I was able to visit my sister in Wisconsin this past week and never before had I felt like airplane travel had so much in common with public transportation.  Of course there's always the underlying smell of body oder and the loudness of either engines or babies - or a combination of both - but this particular flight was really....well, ghetto.

When I got to my seat there were cracker crumbs from here 'till Sunday on the cushion.  No big deal, I wiped them off.  But then I noticed that the little pouch on the back of the chair in front of me was full of someone else's garbage already.  Half eaten lunchable anyone?  But the best was when I noticed the cushion on the chair next to me had been pulled about half way off revealing the metal hinges and gizmos below it.  I tried to pull the cushion back to its original position for my future neighbor, but it wouldn't budge.  She ended up just putting her jacket over the bare metal which was probably a  good thing because there were several empty water bottles in the pouch in front of her where she would have put it otherwise.

But don't think I'm complaining.  I actually love public transportation.  A few weeks ago I was talking to my sister on the phone about something sad and I burst into tears right on the bus.  No one around me even batted an eye.  There is no such thing as "normal" behavior on public transportation or public spaces for that matter and thus you get to be surrounded by people and potential conversations while still enjoying a high level of reclusiveness if you choose.  That's part of what I like about being in a foreign country, but that's a post for another day.

More than loving public transportation, flying amazes me.  I'm always glued to the window when we take off and I can't believe the modern marvel it is.  Not only how fast air travel is, but the sheer mechanics of moving a hundred people and their tiny pretzel bags from one place to another through the air.  So, I'll take my smelly cabin-mates and crumbed upped seats any day.   


PS - here is a picture of me with my adorable little niece.  And one of her with an angry face. It's my favorite face of hers.