Flying Home

I sit here in the Denver airport listening to the soundtrack to Rent and wishing that 2 hours would fly by so I can take a nap on the red eye flight to Baltimore. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I guess I should say today as at home it is already 11:49. 10 minutes to tomorrow. Would you like to know what it looks like where I am? Airports are always alive. Be it night or day. There are people walking up and down. As I walked off the plane from SLC I ended up walking next to a couple, probably no more then 20 if that. They had apparently missed their plane by a few minutes. From the things in their hands it seems they were in a restaurant and came late for the departure time. Angry words were shouted down the hall as they walked with me away from the ramp. It is amazing how people react so differently to things. (This is the judgmental me here) I would have been blaming myself for being late to my flight; instead these kids were angrily berating the airlines, the flight attendant at the gate, and the airport in general for their tardiness. Seemingly placing the blame anywhere but on themselves. They walked along side of me all the way to my new gate where I pulled out of the walk way and they continued on. I could here them down the hall. Amazingly enough seconds later there was and overhead announcement asking 2 passengers to return to their gate immediately. I look up to see this young couple running down the hall for the gate. They were yelling at each other to hurry and for the people in front of them to move. Interesting how those that complain the loudest always end up getting their way. Where is the break for those of us that take the results that we are given? Oh well. The airport is quite like the bus terminal I sat in just last week. It is warmer here. There are people sprawled across the waiting area. I am between two gates. Mine heads to Baltimore and the other heads out to Philadelphia at the same time. Some try to nap while we wait, others have books or papers to read. Some are on phones. There is one man shouting into his cell phone. What I heard before I put on my headphones sounded like a Germanic language. The only reason I know he is still shouting is because he keeps waving his arms. Oddly enough he changes the phone from one ear to the next so he can wave the other arm. I wonder if his arms are getting tired. Maybe his is not angry; maybe I misunderstand because of the language barrier. Maybe he is professing his undying love to the woman of his dreams who refuses to join him in the states. Who knows? Lol!
Many have some sort of laptop and are either playing games, watching a movie, or typing. The few that don’t fit into those categories stare at the TV’s that are provided. It seems to be some sort of CNN program. It repeats and, if I am correct, playing the same news that I watched for an hour in SLC. Not something I want to watch again.

The passengers on these two flights range in age, gender, and familial status. It seems there is no specific group who fly red eye. There is a family for each gate area. Both have small children playing on the floor in front of them. I assume the parents hope the children will sleep on the flight. You can tell the parents by the way their heads bob every few minutes. Not in sleep but in a silent head count to make sure everyone is accounted for and acting appropriately. There are quite a few couples, sitting cuddled in the glow of the relationship. Old and young alike, it seems there were no fights for these couples. Most are interacting with those around them or each other. One couple is watching a movie together; one couple has two copies of the same book and keep pointing things out to each other, one couple is napping in each others arms. My personal favorite is the couple talking on the phone together. He says something and she leans over to add to the conversation in his ear, talking into the mouthpiece. There is a lot of laughter in that conversation. It seems……nice. There was a wistful sigh there, you just can’t hear it. But isn’t that what we all want? Something Nice? There are also quite a few solo passengers. There are fewer smiles among this group. Most have something that separates them from the rest of the passengers. Listening to some sort of head phone with glazed over eyes, reading a book and never looking up, furiously typing on a laptop, or even worse typing with headphones on(oops I fall into this category. Lol! :P). It seems that we are quite an unsocial crowd tonight. It is very unlike my flight last week where I had quite an interesting conversation with various people on my flights and in the airport. Tonight is seems a solemn crowd. Holidays are over and a new year to work through. Well I am about talked out and I am not in the mood to make any new friends. So I might as well pull out one of the fabulous games on this laptop and play. I still have another hour to wait. Hope all had a fabulous Holiday.