"I'll fly away oh Lord, I'll fly away"

After living in France for 7 months without a trip back to the US, I booked my ticket home for May 4th and it got me to thinkin' that I should blog about my love of airports.

Many people will disagree with me on this sentiment, especially those recently forced to lodge in terminals due to the Icelandic volcanic ash, but I have always had a love of going to the airport because of the excitement, the butterflies I get in my tummy. I usually can't sleep the night before because I am so excited and packing my bags.

Of course, I do have my horrific experiences at the airport: Cut to the scene where I missed my flight from Paris to Munich and shamelessy balled my eyes out for everyone to see and woke up my parents at 5am central time venting my griefs.

 ...And I don't exactly enjoy being on the plane: the smells, the claustrophobia, the weird people sitting next to you.

...but I love everything leading up to getting on the plane.

 When I am at the airport, I feel so, well, cool? Forgive me for using such an anti-climactic, silly term, but the fact that I am even putting words to this confession is embarrassing.Walking through the airport,  I have so much excitement and imagine that other people are thinking, "Ooohhh, where's she off to?" Of course, people do not think this, but I continue to entertain this egocentric view.

My best experiences at airports thus far:

1. On our way home after a family trip in Sanibel Island, my parents come back after talking to the airlines at Ft. Lauderdale airport to tell us that we are re-routing and staying another week in Ft. Lauderdale! 
2. My first plane ride alone at 10 years old to visit my best friend Celeste in Ft. Myers 
3. Going on a father/daughter trip to Chicago, arriving at Nashville airport only to find our flight was delayed. Instead of waiting for the delayed flight, my father came back to tell us that we were going on the next flight to NYC instead (pre-911 restrictions).
4. Volunteering to be the next day-flyer at Charles de Gaulle airport due to an overbooked flight. As a gift from United Airlines, I was put in a 5 star hotel that night with free meals, and flew 1st class the next day. First class should be called "kick ass." 
5. When moving to France, I was worried about how to get on a train from Paris to my little town with all my baggage and lack of knowledge. On my flight over to Paris, I sat next to a lovely French old lady who was going the same place I was. She took care of everything for me!

The flim Love Actually knows what I am talking about:

 "Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere....If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around"

 And a character in one of my favorite novels Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close also discusses why he loves airports:

" I like to see people reunited, maybe that's a silly thing, but what can I say, I like to see people run to each other, I like the kissing and the crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can't tell fast enough, the ears that aren't big enough, the eyes that can't take in all of the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, the end of missing someone, I sit on the side with a coffee and write in my daybook, examine the flight schedules that I've already memorized, I observe, I write, I try not to remember the life that I didn't want to lose but lost and have to remember, being here fills my heart with so much joy, even if the joy isn't mine..."

  (above picture from a hilarious scene in Airplane, where the old lady talks jive.)

(I am assuming Lufthansa didn't hire an native English speaker to do this advertisement above).

See you in Nashville in a few weeks!! EEEEEK!!!!