Air Travel: The Good (Part 2 in a series of 2)
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
1. Patient airline employees. Because if I was one of them? I wouldn't be able to maintain an acceptable level of decorum, and I'm pretty sure what little sense of humor I have left would be gone after the first week.

2. People with well-behaved children. Bonus points for the families that travel in matching jogging suits - funny, but cute at the same time.

3. Groups of business travelers getting smashed in the airport bars. If that isn't prime people watching, I don't know what is.

4. Tourists who stop by the displays of curvy, neck support pillows outside the tchotchke stores, put on the pillows, then gather together and take photographs.

5. Woman (usually business travelers on a day trip, or so I imagine) struggling to walk in shoes that are CLEARLY uncomfortable. I feel you, ladies. I sure do. Need a band-aid?

6. Couples that travel together - the ones where the highly manicured woman is wandering around while her (usually) beefy companion struggles to follow while carrying all of their baggage.

7. Men and women of the Armed Forces. I always imagine they are headed home to their girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses, families, etc. Then when that visual image is completed, I wonder how they manage to travel with absolutely NOTHING on them. Have you ever noticed that the ONLY THING they're carrying is their boarding pass? Where is all their stuff, huh? No book? No magazine? No iPod? I'm almost in as much awe about this as I am about how they're serving our country on my behalf.

8. Children excited to be going on a first trip - I absolutely love all the little frog shaped backpacks, Dora The Explorer rolling cases, and "Going to Grandma's" suitcases. It makes me think about what I used to pack when we traveled -- you know the essentials...Lipsmackers, MadLibs, books, markers, my teddy bear, an ugly windjacket of some type and kind, 174 keychains, and a backup pair of jelly shoes. Everytime I see a child with a SpongeBob Squarepants roller case, I want to scoop them up and ask them where they are going.

Side note: that airline commercial where the little girl goes on a "business trip in Paris" with her world traveler father? Kills me every time - tears, the works. I can't help it - it's just so damn cute!