flying

some friends of one of my roommates are in town right now, girls studying in edinburough. one of them is an amazing cook at one of my favorite restaurants (the main squeeze) in columbia, mo, where i went to college. so, as we enjoyed some amazing pizza and salad (which may sound fairly simple and normal, but when made by sarah was definitely not just the norm - it was incredible), we ended up talking about airplane flights and specifically the time where the stewardess (or steward) shares the escape plan in case of emergency.

now, i for one have never thought too much about it. i have heard the speech a million and one times so sometimes listen, sometimes read a book, sometimes sleep, read a magazine, talk to my neighbor,...

interestingly, most of the people at the table had a slight to moderate fear of flying. they either pay extremely close attention to the flight attendant or try to ignore her or him, so as to not think about the possibilities of calamity. and, in fact, they at times (when not trying to ignore the entire situation) get irritated at people like me who don't pay full attention.

the went on to say that have a million fears that arise with turbulence, flights over oceans,... they often check for the red tag under the seat, just in case their seat doesn't have a life vest, in case of emergency...

i, on the other hand, am pretty much the opposite. what i don't like about flying is that i sometimes feel a bit motion sick. but when there is turbulence, a not so uncommon thought is "i wonder if we'll get to try out the slides and those boats and floating cushions. that would be really fun." "they don't have parachutes on here, do they? that would be really fun. i wish." i think there was one or two flights that got kind of bad, which i did get a bit scared on, but that isn't the norm. now that i actually write this and said it out loud, it sounds a bit insane, but it is true that i've always had a fairly active imagination.

and really, wouldn't it be fun to be the one to slide out of a plane into the ocean. i don't know if you'd actually live to tell the story, but it would be pretty cool, no? right?

anyway, suffice to say, it was an interesting people study and i still like the overly optimistic, possibly a bit out of touch with reality, and imaginative option when flying on a plane. as i told my mom tonight on the phone, i think i inherited the medio-superhero gene. i may not have any superpowers, but it seems more often than not that both my dad and i seem to think we have them and can do the impossible. not all a bad thing.