sam's internet house

me in the airport (delayed) (again)

My flight got delayed and I have nothing but a Microsoft Word document and a dream so here’s a blog post.

I decided many years ago that when travel delays happen, that I’d just decide to be happy about it. I got a cider at the airport bar so it’s time to write.

A few thoughts:

The ads in this airport are always so bizarre because they mainly cater to politicians, usually oil and gas companies, investment firms, and one time I swear I saw a Lockheed Martin ad. This time around though, I’ve seen three ads for Heated Rivalry/Rivalité Passionée which is perhaps Canada’s premiere export at this moment in time. I’m glad that all the bureaucrats who make this city their home will be tuning in to the taxpayer funded gay hockey romance if they haven’t already. The show is so loveably Canadian and I am glad it exists. I look forward to seeing the tourism board of this city losing their minds when they find out that half of the next season of the show will take place here. The fact that this is what might ultimately put our capital city on the map is genuinely so funny to me and as a hometown gal, I am thrilled.

Sometimes I’m very grateful to be a young woman with whatever the opposite of resting bitch face is, because it often means that small children will strike up a conversation with me. Just had a four year old boy ask me if I was having a good time despite the fact that our shared flight has been delayed by two hours. Of course I said yes and asked him if he was too, to which he replied “YEAH! I get to go to the playground!” (there is a playground for children about 2 gates over from ours). Trying to embody the spirit of that child and maintain a sense of whimsy joy in my life as I wait for this plane to (hopefully) start boarding soon. It’s about to start storming massively so we’ll see what goes down in the next hour. I am begging and pleading to the weather gods to let me get on this flight because it will save me about 5 different headaches. Lowkey I could start brainstorming solutions for everything right now but I’m trying to have a chill personality for once and not start thinking about things until they’ve absolutely definitely 100% become problems. Otherwise, am I not just punishing myself for things that haven’t happened yet? (I don’t think this mentality is going to last because I am a worrier at my core. Is this because I spend too much time with my mother?)

I overheard a family talking about how they moved from [REDACTED FOR PRIVACY] to [REDACTED FOR PRIVACY] a few years ago, and noted that I’m doing the reverse this evening. As I write this, I have 3 large suitcases stashed in the underbelly of a plane and my carry-on luggage is overflowing with odd objects. A few things in the bags I have beside me right now:

I suppose that this collection of objects might tell you something about me, but more importantly I think they make it very obvious why airport security decided to stop and search my bags thoroughly. What else to tell you… there are a bunch of very interesting looking people who are about to board this flight with me. Lots of great outerwear. I see a lady with huge headphones and a yellow and red puffer jacket with blue sleeves, it looks very quirky and awesome. There’s a little girl in a pink sweater playing with her toys very quietly as her mom reads a book called “No Drama Discipline.” There’s a person sitting across from me who has some of the coolest arm tattoos I’ve ever seen, with these harsh black lines like look like swipes of ink, with watercolours all behind them. I’m doing a bad job of explaining it but the movement that it captures is so cool. I’ll have to tell them when they stand up that they are very cool.

Every flight around mine is turning red on the screen as they get cancelled. So far it seems like they’re only canceling the people going East from here so big fingers crossed that I’m going to make it out of here this evening. They’ve got a bunch of airport announcements going on and I’m realizing quite sentimentally that I’m going to miss hearing the obligatory French here all the time. With French being my third language I am so endeared to the very anglo-accented ways of speaking around here, it hits my ear in just the right way and reminds me of how much I love multilingual cities. Vive le français toujours………..

This has been my evening words from my hometown airport… may your winter travel adventures go a bit smoother than mine.