Kya

Here Today, Gone Yesterday

I missed my flight. I don’t mean “frantically running through the terminal only to get to the gate as the plane closed its doors” missed my flight. I mean “showed up at the airport a full 20 hours after the plane departed and feel your heart sink into your stomach” missed my flight. “Well we could re-book you tomorrow afternoon for $952.80,” said Ronald, the very friendly but seen-it-all-before customer service man. Umm, no thanks, I would rather buy 20 pairs of shoes.

What kills me is that as my flight was arriving at its destination, I was leisurely picking raspberries with my sister. I wish I had been saving someone’s life or something way more important to make me feel better. “Good thing she missed her flight otherwise this man would have died!” Most women I know love the idea of “everything happens for a reason.” I personally thrive on it. I am in a constant state of waiting for reason. So I royally goofed the date of my flight but maybe that’s because the plane was going to crash. Let’s see, google.com…no plane crashes, okay well that’s good because I probably would have fallen into a psychological black hole of life/meaning theories then ultimately found myself in a state of deep depression and really, who has time for that? Maybe tomorrow my sister’s home will catch on fire from some random butterfly effect-like occurrences and I will luckily be there to stop it before it devours the house...I wonder where the fire extinguisher is. For now though, because I clinch to the philosophy of reason, I’m going to believe that the cats desperately needed outside and it was a good thing I was there to open the door.

Well, I hope my entire family has fun together climbing and hiking at Mt. Magazine in Arkansas. I wish I could see my cute little Korean mom and make her laugh by doing chest shimmies. I wish I could have a beer with my dad and I wish I could try out the crag climbing that Arkansas has to offer. I wish I could be there for all the fun and most of all, to help eat. I was really looking forward to the incredibly detailed menu of food my aunts planned out. Hmm maybe, had I gone, I would have puncture or broke something climbing sans insurance…

D.Riggs

Small Thing: Famous last words. Not of the mortal kind, but the funny kind like, “I hope it doesn’t rain” as it starts raining. Or “I hope I don’t have bad luck flying today” as I walked into the airport.

Oh, and I also want to make a note about how my sister and I both have a tendency to laugh in bad situations. When I told my sister that my flight had left the day before she looked like she wanted to laugh but was holding it in. I too wanted to laugh but didn’t want her to think that I thought it was funny. Because I didn’t, the laugh was by no means a product of the emotion I felt inside. What should have been coming out was cursing or crying (which showed up eventually) but initially it was an out-of-breath laugh. I recognize that a lot of people do this when Murphy’s Law has exhausted every brain cell in their head but we do it at the most inappropriate times. Times when a “What the hell are you laughing at?” response is elicited. I guess all I want to say is that I apologize if I ever do this to you.