Tuesday, my daughter dropped me off at the airport in Raleigh,NC.  I was pre-checked into Southwest with “service to Chicago Midway and connecting to Wichita,KS”.  All went according to plan in NC.  Thirty minutes prior to departure, we began boarding a full flight.  Flying Southwest has certain rules.  Unless you pay extra, it is open seating, so you essentially sign up for a position in line to get a seat.  There is group A, B and C.  Then there is this special group between A and B = families boarding with children or passengers who need assistance.  Usually, this is a small group…. not Tuesday!  Ton’s of little ones-strollers and diaper bags, pre-teens travelling alone, toddlers who wanted to run instead of sit. It is summer. It was a noisy flight – and extremely bumpy and filled with many children who didn’t understand that they had to stay in their seats since the seatbelt sign never went off.  Fast forward….

Landed safely in Chicago – terminal B.  The flight to Wichita is scheduled to leave at 8:30pm.  I had brought a couple of snacks with me, so I hunkered down at gate B16 to do some writing while I waited.  For the first few minutes, my thoughts were interrupted with cheers for the USA Women’s Soccer Team as they beat Germany.   Then as the dust from that victory settled, the travellers dreaded announcement came: “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am sorry to tell you that Flight 1506 to Wichita has been delayed.  Blah, blah blah… it looks like we will have a 9:40 departure”.  Ok – forget the snacks – going to get a sandwich.

So I head out of Terminal B to the little mall area that joins Terminals A,B and C together because the choices of food are a bit better.  I get a flat bread Italian and a table – eat and write and people watch.  There is a group of bagpipe players walking around as well as a group of white uniformed Navy men and women.  Suddenly the bagpipes are playing and everyone is taking a video ( me too), then the Navy begins to sing.  It was fun.  I check my Southwest app -it says flight is delayed until 9:55pm.  Keep people watching and checking facebook.  The Navy now is making two lines in the airport – for someone to pass through.  The bagpipe players, in their kilts, are lining up like the beginning of a parade. It’s 9pm.  Check the app – flight delayed until 10:10pm.  Good golly.  People are gathering around the Navy and the bagpipe players.  I think to myself – better check this out -what in the world is going on.

So I meander over to where the crowd is gathering and watch. There are cheers and clapping – I can’t see a thing.  This goes on for 15-20 minutes.  I finally overhear that this is an arrival of an honor flight, of WWII vets and that this happens on a regular basis. http://honorflightchicago.org/

Well, I said to myself, it is about 9:25, I need to be heading back to B16 so I am ready to board 30 minutes prior to 10:10.  As I am walking, I glance at the departure board and there is NO flight listed for Wichita.  What the what????? Where is my flight??? If the flight was cancelled, that would be reflected on the board, right?  Only thing this means is….. the flight has already taken off.  Great! Keep walking… a little faster now, but wondering why… and giving more thought to the best way to spend the night in this airport.  As I approach B16, the waiting area is essentially empty.  It isn’t even 9:30. The gangway door to the plane is open, and there is gentleman standing there… I say to him, “Is this flight ready to go?” He asks me “Are you going to Wichita?” to which I reply “yes” and he says “Are you Cathy Britton?” and now I die of embarrassment but tell him I am.  He says “We have been waiting for you!” OMGEEEEE!!! For real?  And you didn’t page me?  As my one daughter said to me “Oh you are THAT lady!”. Yup – that is me!

I apologized to this Southwest employee stating that I had been watching my Southwest App for updates and it said the flight was scheduled for 10:10 and he laughed and said “No worries” and then scoffed as if to say “you can’t count on that thing”.

So I board the plane and the captain is giving a detailed explanation as to why we had to have a delayed flight, of which I heard none, because I had to pass 74 other passengers ALL staring at me saying to themselves – “oh here is THAT lady”!  Then to add insult to injury, the pilot concluded his speech to say “for those of you just joining us….blah, blah,blah”.  Awesome! I felt like a million bucks right then!  Luckily for me… the next announcement from the captain was this: “Ladies and Gentleman, I am sure you are wondering why we are still here at the gate.  Apparently, your luggage was not loaded on this plane.  I have NO idea why. As soon as it is loaded we will depart.”

There are days that I want to be just a “regular” or “normal” person.  Days that I can smoothly pass through and not have any hitches.  But really, how boring would that be?  It really is so much more fun to be “out of the ordinary”.  To be able to look back on life and see so many stories, events and happenings in our life and to be able to laugh at ourselves and at the circumstances.  What we usually do is complain that these events interrupt our daily routine, our struggle to get it all done, to be the perfect rendition of ourselves.  Let’s not do that.  Let’s look for the “out of the ordinary” the story, the opportunity to see more than just the chain of events that drag us from day to day.  Life is so much more interesting this way.  There is so much more opportunity to grow this way.  And lots more chances to chuckle at ourselves and our desire to fit perfectly into our perfect little world.
So next time you go to Chik-Fil-A, see if there are a bunch of people who suddenly line up after you get there, check to be sure your light is on in Wal-mart so that the cashier can tell you something significant in his/her life, and for goodness sakes, only check the departure boards at the airport – the app may not be telling the whole truth… BTW – after the luggage loaded we finally departed for Wichita… at 10:10pm. Bahahahahahaha…