Lucky or unlucky??????

I came home last night from a weekend trip to Baltimore. I did quite a bit of babysitting as Mrs. Lime and Blondie had a few things to do. Thankfully, Kali 0.2 cooperated for the most part and even slept on occasion. It was good bonding time for Kali and I. She's a really good baby for the most part. As long as she's got food in her belly and good entertainment, she's a pretty happy kid.

In the Baltimore airport, they've got some construction going on. It's a mess that alters the path of the security check line. The problem is that instead of having a queue to hold the line, the line extends a long way through the terminal. It's not that the line is any longer than usual, but it makes people think that it's out of control. As a result, complaints circulate through the line.

I had a lady and her mother standing behind me. Immediately, the way they talked gave away that they were Jewish women. The lady was helping her mom through the line until they got to the checkpoint. The conversation is enhanced below to read much like it sounded......

Lady: OK, Mom. I think you have everything you need to get home. Here's your boarding pass. I'm going to put it in your purse pocket so you don't forget.

Mom: Oh my gawd! I'll surely forget it there. Put it in my hand because I surely won't forget where it is then.

Lady: OK, Mom. Here's the boarding pass. Now, don't forget to have your ID ready to check as well.

Mom: Do they check it right now or at the end of the line?

Lady: They check it at the checkpoint. But you should probably get it out right now and have it ready.

Mom: OK

Lady: Thanks for coming to the bah mitzvah. We were so happy to have you come out to visit us.

Mom: (crying) Oh my gawd, it was beautiful. Will you all be able to come see me soon?

Lady: Hard to tell. If we can, we'll come out.

Mom: Well, I don't want to put any pressure on you, but if you would come out, it would mean the world to me!

Lady: OK, Mom. Have a safe flight.

Mom: Gawd willing! Hope you come to see me soon!

Lady: (waving and walking away) OK, Mom. Bye!

I'm happy to report that the lady did make it through the security line just fine.

Once we were in the queue within the ropes, I noticed a couple that obviously needed a hotel room if their actions were to proceed much further. They were all over each other. Kissing and hugging galore with occasional heaving petting thrown in. I was a bit sickened by the whole site. I don't mind a little public display of affection, but these kids (who were easily 40+) were really going at it.

As we neared the security checkpoint, the man laid one last monster kiss on his girlfriend. He then wished her well on her flight and then headed back out of the queue to evidently catch a different flight. The lady turned back into the line and had a smile on her face. After a few seconds, her smile quickly turned to tears. It was pretty obvious that they weren't going to be seeing each other for awhile. I felt a bit guilty for judging their actions once she cried. She was pretty upset. While I don't endorse heavy petting in public, I guess I'll have to be a little more lenient in my judgment of affection at airports in the future.

Once inside the airport, I goofed around on my portable video game for awhile while waiting for the flight. They eventually had us board. As I was waiting for my turn, an older lady handed her boarding pass to the check-in lady. The computer read the boarding pass and emitted a horrible sounding buzzer. Evidently, this lady had got in the line for the wrong flight and nearly headed off for Kansas City instead of Phoenix. Good to see that the computer system catches those things. I'm guessing that lady would have been pretty surprised to land in a rainy Kansas City airport.

We had a wild ride into the airport as there was a thunderstorm going on as we landed. The plane was wiggling back and forth. The guy sitting next to me was from Baltimore and we had been discussing tornadoes. East coast people are petrified of tornadoes. Most of it just comes from not knowing that it's easy to avoid problems as long as you know what to do if a tornado is coming your way.

Me: You know. I'd be alright with all these bumps if I had paid $70 for a white-water rafting trip.

Guy: So, do you have to land in storms pretty often in Kansas City?

Me: Sometimes. It's just part of living in the midwest. Storms come and go pretty quickly.

Guy: I'm not sure I've ever landed in a plane while lightning was flashing all over the place.

Me: I wouldn't worry about it. Think about it. How many times over the last few years have you seen a story about a plane crash. Out of the hundreds of thousands of flights, only a couple at the most have crashed.

Guy: (laughing) Yeah, I guess that's true.

Me: Look at it this way. If your plane ends up crashing, you ended up a loser on a bet that you win 99.99% of the time. It was just your time and there's not much you can do about it. You're just awful unlucky.

Guy: I suppose so.

We thankfully landed without issue and I razzed the guy about the whole ordeal. I told him, "See, I told you we were going to make it all along!".

He just laughed and elbowed me. I was never worried about it. I'm a lucky guy.