Story and Interactive Invitation

Earlier this week I heard an airline horror story, and was reminded of an airline story where things could have been very, very bad. Here goes:

This summer I had to travel to Iowa alone, sans husband, to a family wedding. All that was fine, didn't mind (at least too much). What was too much to take was the return trip from Omaha to Atlanta. You're smart, you probably remember a serious heat snap in the Midwest this summer, where your face melted off and it was above 100 degrees everyday? Yup, you remember that. I flew then. My flight was delayed out of Omaha for "mechanical reasons" enough to sit in the airport for a few extra hours. When I stepped onto the hot, steaming plane the flight attendant told me why --- no air con. 106 degrees outside, and no air coniditoning in the plane. No cool, manufactured air until we would reach thousands of feet in the air, somewhere between Omaha and Atlanta.

It took forever to get the passengers on the plane; the usual assortment of old people, screaming infants and screaming others. The last empty seat on the plane was next to me. Nine times out of ten this kind of scenario does not end well, and I suspected I would be with the group where the odds were not in my favor. Imagine how I felt about things when I watched the final passenger board the plane, arm tattoos as far as the eye can see and long (unwashed?) hair haphazardly held back in a ponytail. Sweat everywhere, on everyone on the plane.

So the guy sits down next to me and immediately launches into a story about how wasted he was at the wedding he was a part of the previous day. I am sweating my ass off, sweating through my cute little Joe's Jeans that I have worn with big sunglasses in an attempt to disguise myself as a sophisticated traveller. Literally stuck to the seat from my sweat. So things really turned around when Mr. Ponytail opened his backpack and asked me if I WOULD LIKE A NICE COLD BEER FROM THE SIX PACK HE SOMEHOW MANAGED TO CARRY ON THE PLANE.

Yes, yes, yes, indeed I wanted a nice cold beer. What would be better at a moment like that? How about lisening to good music? Turns out Mr. Ponytail is a sound engineer for the likes of Phish and Citizen Cope (a new love of mine). Also turns out for our trouble Delta gave all the passengers all the free booze they wanted in the sky between Omaha and Atlanta. The moral of my story is the old "don't judge a book by its cover" kind of deal. You never know when the book might have six nice cold beers.

And now for my interactive invite, if you have a crazy airline story, share it. Post it up, yo. I want to hear about it. I am preparing myself for no comments, but I want to see reads this little gem I write. So share away y'all.