Adventures of a traveling mom...

As we started our decent into the city, I was exhilarated to look out the windows of the airplane.  It's a sight to see, descending into a large city at night, the lights on the buildings in all colors of the rainbow.  The lights of the suburbs and roadways stretching out as far as the eye can see.  There is really not a sight like it, and it made me miss my kids, again.  I was thinking about how I wished they were there with me to see this incredible sight.  Would they love it as much as I would?  Would they want to take pictures like I wanted to?  Would they just look quickly, take it in, and go back to their other activities?

Who wouldn't miss this face?

As we were getting closer to those lights I started to think about how I could make sure that I was off the plane before my seatmates across the aisle.  While I was sitting at the airport in Cleveland, waiting for the departure time, and then waiting again as the plane was delayed, I noticed the foursome that was now across the aisle from and behind me.  They showed up with no luggage, two men and two women.  One of the women, clearly leading the way came up to the attendant at the desk and was able to purchase tickets on the plane, on my flight.  They seemed in somewhat good spirits, for travelers. I wondered about them, and where they had come from, why they were going to Chicago. We seemed to have a large number of last minute passengers and I wondered if other flights had been cancelled, where those flights had been destined to go. Seeing the demeanor of this foursome, I had somewhat hoped that they would not be seated near me, virtually ensuring that they would be.

When we got on the plane, they were impressed with how small this commuter plane was, 1 seat, an aisle and then 2 more seats that made up a row.  The one brother in law that was behind the other felt the need to take a picture of the brother in law in front, as his head pretty much touched the overhead bins.  They were laughing and happy, acting as if they were much younger than they looked, texting, Facebook-ing, laughing at each other.

...and this smile?

As the plane came to the gate, all I could think about was getting off of that plane.  I had left the house before my kids were awake, kissing their sleeping heads goodbye.  It was now past their bed time, and I wasn't even off of this annoyingly delayed flight.  And on top of it all, my phone picked today to no longer recognize a charger which meant that I was not able to call my kids since I was trying to save a small amount of battery time in case of an emergency.

Trying to get off the plane as fast as I could, I stood up as soon as we made it to the gate, hoping, willing that the flight crew would open quickly and let us out.  They did not, and I ended up sitting down again.  I felt awkward and self-conscious and sure that the sudden silence from the other side of the rows meant that they were exchanging knowing looks about me and looking down on me for how much I wanted to hurry, how obvious it was that I was trying to trump the niceties of the "you go, no you go" part of deplaning.

As awkward as I was, and as silly as it was to try to will the flight crews to move faster, I wouldn't have changed my actions.  I got off that plane before the party of four did.  I made it out of the airport before they did.  I got in my car and sped home, making it there in record time to once again kiss sleeping children and have a quick conversation with one sleepy husband.