Yesterday I spent the entire day in the airport. I know, nothing too foreign to any of us. We got on the 6:00 a.m. flight out of Washington and made it into Chicago without a hitch. The first flight into Salt Lake took Jodi and Jaime Lynne with it, but left me wandering the airport looking for outlets (now that was poor planning, I mean, how would Helmut Jahn had known 23 years ago that everyone and their dog would need an outlet to plug in their gadgets). The next two flights left me the same, each going out without even considering taking a standby passenger. I was way down on the list, too. But faithful to my ways as a longtime standby traveler, I waited it out, hoping against all odds that I would somehow get on the last flight of the day, which of course was oversold and had me listed as the eleventh in priority. Luckily for me I got to grab some dinner right before the 9:00 p.m. flight, and play with some adorable little girls that were at wits end late in the day. It made me happy and ready to willfully accept defeat for the day.
But sometimes great things happen, like last time I flew from Chicago to Salt Lake. I swear the only way to get out of there is to get my boarding pass out of seniority order. Yeah, happened again last night (lat time it was because a customer service rep had no clue). This time, though, it was because most other standby passengers must not have been as seasoned as I (You always stay for the last flight if you have already been waiting all day. Always!).
Well, the story behind the video: Have you ever seen a lightning storm from 30,000 feet in the air? I can't recall that I had, and I was completely in awe. I just couldn't believe that they hadn't turned off the seatbelt sign yet. Given that I was sitting in a bulk head seat, my camera was not with me. Luckily I was able to grab it before we passed the storm completely. Please, enjoy a little display of God's awesome power with me. It is just a reminder of how much he is in control, and how completely insignificant and powerless I am. God is great. Therefore we are great. Yeah, all from a lightning storm.
