Snow to Rain
Yesterday I made a daring escape from the Colorado winter! I flew off amidst a snow storm and headed west to sunny CA! That sounds nice, doesn't it?
Well, I did leave a snow storm behind, but it was actually quite beautiful. From my window seat on the airplane, I watched the snow fall peacefully down to coat the ground in a fluffy white blanket. It was the serene kind of snow storm that would be perfect to watch while curled up by a window with your hot chocolate. Unfortunately, I dragged one of my dearest friends up at the crack of dawn to drive me to the airport on icy roads. Then I held back my intense annoyance at all the pushy passengers at the airport who all believed that their flights were the most important and that everyone else should let them cut in front of them at security. I finally snapped at one fellow who was so anxious about missing his flight that he had convinced the nice woman behind me in the security line to let him pass. He started to plead his case to me, but made the mistake of mentioning his flight time, which was the same as my own - that made me so mad that I really let him have it! Okay, I actually just felt like I let him have it when in reality I probably sounded very polite and calm. That's what happens when you are a soft spoken individual who abhors conflict.
Anyhow, despite all the whiny self-righteous people trying to get in front of me, I made it to the front of the security line only to be forced to walk through the metal detector multiple times because it kept beeping. I had to remove my belt and hair clips. I still set it off after that, but the nice security man advised me that I was moving too quickly through the detector and bumping the sides. "Move slowly, ma'am" So I took a deep cleansing breath and walk through the gate as calmly and composed as possible. You know, those detector gates seem so much skinnier when someone tells you not to touch the sides! At last, with my pants falling off and my hair completely disheveled, I picked up all my stuff and made my way to the gate.
Getting on the plane went very smoothly and we were all in our seats for a timely take-off. The flight attendant closed the door, went through the safety speech, strapped herself in, and then we sat there at the gate for twenty minutes! The snow continued to fall steadily outside while we all waited. When we finally moved it was only to get in line for the de-icing for another twenty minutes. Have you seen planes being de-iced? Men in cherry-pickers (those crane-like contraptions that city employees use to work on power lines and to trim trees) spray some sort of antifreeze all over the planes. If they didn't do it, the frost and ice may build-up on a plane bring it crashing down. The boys sitting in front of me were very impressed by this process. Melise didn't seem to care, but she loved the window shade as I opened and closed it for her about a hundred times!
After sitting on the tarmac for about an hour, we finally took off. We broke through the top of the clouds after about ten minutes, but I didn't see anything except clouds below us until we descended back down through them above San Jose, CA. It's just my luck that the clouds from CO are connected all the way back to the clouds over the coast of CA! And what do you think those clouds are doing? Raining, of course. For those who don't know, winter in most of CA involves lots of grey, rainy days.
The upside of all this rain is that everything is green! I can't help but feel my energy recharged upon exiting the plane and seeing green hills rising above the city and disappearing into the clouds above. It is beautiful. I'm very glad to be here for a little while and hopefully I'll find something to blog about, too.
Well, I did leave a snow storm behind, but it was actually quite beautiful. From my window seat on the airplane, I watched the snow fall peacefully down to coat the ground in a fluffy white blanket. It was the serene kind of snow storm that would be perfect to watch while curled up by a window with your hot chocolate. Unfortunately, I dragged one of my dearest friends up at the crack of dawn to drive me to the airport on icy roads. Then I held back my intense annoyance at all the pushy passengers at the airport who all believed that their flights were the most important and that everyone else should let them cut in front of them at security. I finally snapped at one fellow who was so anxious about missing his flight that he had convinced the nice woman behind me in the security line to let him pass. He started to plead his case to me, but made the mistake of mentioning his flight time, which was the same as my own - that made me so mad that I really let him have it! Okay, I actually just felt like I let him have it when in reality I probably sounded very polite and calm. That's what happens when you are a soft spoken individual who abhors conflict.
Anyhow, despite all the whiny self-righteous people trying to get in front of me, I made it to the front of the security line only to be forced to walk through the metal detector multiple times because it kept beeping. I had to remove my belt and hair clips. I still set it off after that, but the nice security man advised me that I was moving too quickly through the detector and bumping the sides. "Move slowly, ma'am" So I took a deep cleansing breath and walk through the gate as calmly and composed as possible. You know, those detector gates seem so much skinnier when someone tells you not to touch the sides! At last, with my pants falling off and my hair completely disheveled, I picked up all my stuff and made my way to the gate.
Getting on the plane went very smoothly and we were all in our seats for a timely take-off. The flight attendant closed the door, went through the safety speech, strapped herself in, and then we sat there at the gate for twenty minutes! The snow continued to fall steadily outside while we all waited. When we finally moved it was only to get in line for the de-icing for another twenty minutes. Have you seen planes being de-iced? Men in cherry-pickers (those crane-like contraptions that city employees use to work on power lines and to trim trees) spray some sort of antifreeze all over the planes. If they didn't do it, the frost and ice may build-up on a plane bring it crashing down. The boys sitting in front of me were very impressed by this process. Melise didn't seem to care, but she loved the window shade as I opened and closed it for her about a hundred times!
After sitting on the tarmac for about an hour, we finally took off. We broke through the top of the clouds after about ten minutes, but I didn't see anything except clouds below us until we descended back down through them above San Jose, CA. It's just my luck that the clouds from CO are connected all the way back to the clouds over the coast of CA! And what do you think those clouds are doing? Raining, of course. For those who don't know, winter in most of CA involves lots of grey, rainy days.
The upside of all this rain is that everything is green! I can't help but feel my energy recharged upon exiting the plane and seeing green hills rising above the city and disappearing into the clouds above. It is beautiful. I'm very glad to be here for a little while and hopefully I'll find something to blog about, too.
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