Tuesday, October 21, 2008

a perspective plane ride

Have you ever seen the movie Love Actually where it talks about airports being a great place to people watch, especially for people who love one another? and not just "in" love but all types of love.

Sunday i made it to my gate (20) at 10:30 with no problems, but since my flight did not board until after 11:30 that left me with plenty of people watching time over the top of my book (The Thorn Birds...which is pretty good by the way) now at 10:30 in the morning on a sunday there is not much going on at an airport, especially RDU. The most crowded gate was the one across from me that was heading to Toronto. which is in Canada! it was kind of cool to see what sort of people would want to take a trip to Canada. but they mostly looked like normal people. not that i was expecting that they had physical qualities that screamed i'm Canadian, or broadcast that they liked to visit Canadians.
(ok i digress)

mostly i watched the mom walking her baby around. holding her hands in the air helping her take step after step. picking her up when she got wobbling. swinging her in the air to make her laugh. and i decided that moms do that all of their lives. or at least mine has. yeah, eventually they let go. and you have to take steps without them holding you up, but they're always there just in time to help you when you need it the most. (like when you get cancer)
and then i broadened my internal thoughts (i had a lot of spare time remember) and thought about how that's basically what God does too. When i'm wobbly, he's there. When i am full of good news he's the reason why. I'm lucky to have a God that is so full of personality. He places incidences like a small vacation to visit some friends in my path for reasons.

When the plane took off within a matter of mintues i was looking at nothing but green. Trees, grass, other types of foliage...and thinking that God made ALL of that! and then we started passing over houses, farms, neighborhoods and i got to thinking about all of the people we were simply skimming over...i will never know them...but for some reason all i could think about was how many people down there have what i have? How many women living in the state of Virginia have Breast Cancer? and i'm betting that a few of them do. and i'm betting they're going through what i'm going through. which is sad. and depressing.
but then the plane passed over a large body of water that was so clear i could see the sand beneath the tiny lapping waves and there were several boats out enjoying what was surely a beautiful day. Out enjoying what God has given them.
then i wasn't nearly as depressed
(bc honestly the depressed part of the trip lasted about 5 seconds)
oh and yes i spent most of my plane ride with my nose pressed against the glass trying to see as much as i possibly could.

and that plane ride put somethings in perspective for me.

So walk towards baggage, call Alli bottoms who was also dropping off her man friend at the airport trying to find her location...turns out she was on the other side of the wall...
we hug. do the girl high pitched shrill at seeing a long lost friend. then proceed to drive to Falls Church...we stop for some lunch and to pick up some shampoo and stuff then take the rest of the night to be lazy bums on couches...(watch the movie Whatever Happens in Vegas...so funny)

Monday Morning i got up and Kristen and I walked to the metro station (which is very close to their house) rode it to Judiciary Square then walked to the Newseum where Sarah works (both of these girls are Alli's roomates) and then we took the bus to chinatown for lunch at Ruby Tuesday (alli met us) Then Kristen and I went back to the Newseum to get our tour...That place was heaven...it had everything i'm interested in packed into 7 convienent floors. The veiws fromt the top (especially of the capital building were AMAZING). Ryan (the guy showing us around) clearly loves his job bc he went above and beyond telling us about the stuff we were seeing...the best part was when he took us behind the scenes to where the control rooms were...BUTTONS ABOUND! i wanted to press every button on every switcher! it was heavenly.
ok i lied my favorite part was the pulitzer prize winning photographs. That exhibit was amazing.

Then i got lost trying to find the metro station (on my own) called alli and discovered i was on the opposite side of the building...took it to Farragut North to meet Alli and then the two of us went to Georgetown for Shopping and dinner...holy cow the number of stores...and i'm trying to decide if my mom would kill me if i bought a coach bag (i may see if we can go half on it and make it a sort of christmas present) regardless it was gorgeous. then dinner and ice cream and then back to the house where everyone went to bed.

4 comments:

Christine D said...

I'm glad you're having fun and that you can let your hair air dry again! We were both in DC at the same time on Sunday- how funny is that! I miss you!!!

Anonymous said...

Isn't DC the best?? I love to visit my dad up there!

Anonymous said...

Did you seriously write that at 5:30 in the morning? Was I sleeping? I wish I was still sleeping....tonight is going to be SO fun! and thanks for making me famous again!

I think ben & jerry's is probably in store tonight as well....

Anonymous said...

ah crap. my head is killing me.