Up in the Air Junior Birdman!!

Well, I took off like a big metal bird tonight winging its way, migrating you might say, mid-winter to warmer climes.  Thanks to 2 of my best-est friends, I have this opportunity to visit Florida in January! This is something I’ve never done.  I love winter, it has its purpose but for goodness sake sometimes it’s highly overrated.  I’ve spent all my life living in slush, sleet, cold rain, gray, cold and snow 6 months of the year.  In the deep of winter, which appears to be the end of March here in NE Ohio, I dream of sun, sand and warmth.  Who wouldn’t, that’s all I’m saying. 

So, it was 45 degrees and drizzly when I left Ohio.  Here in Chicago, it is 27 and snowing just a little.  The city was blanketed in clouds, the ones that look like quilt batting.  High up in the air looking out the plane’s window I could see that gusty winds had mounded them up here and there like snow drifts, big peaks of white, valleys of gray, slopes with mogel hills tall enough to ski down.  While floating above the clouds the only indication of modern life were circles of yellowish light, all that could get through the thick quilt of snow.  One loan star hung atop the clouds appearing to be a street light broken free from its earthly post.

 Intermittently, the clouds broke apart allowing me to clearly see the bedroom community’s lights below.  Dropping down through the clouds on final approach to Midway, the plane dove into the clouds.  Suddenly, clearing the bank, the lights of Chicago spread out before me in marvelous zig zags and circles, straight lines and dark spaces.  It was fabulous… like a giant cacophony of light…a dazzling array of colors almost too much for my eyes to take in. 

Landing was interesting as the ever present wind that makes the city so famous was present.  The plane dodged and weaved as it tried to finalize its connection to the earth.  It seemed like the pilots pulled up slightly just before we touched down to assure a flat, two tires on the ground at once landing.   Lovin’ it, I thought.

I did arrive safely at Tampa airport and the descent was much different than into Chicago.  No clouds, no wind, just the lights of the city suddenly spread before me.  Little curlicues of street lights denoting subdivisions and long double rows highlighting bridges spanning bays spread out across the landscape and ended abruptly in the black of the ocean.  The approach to Tampa Airport is over a bunch of small houses and I wondered as we dropped how much they enjoyed the hundreds of airplanes each day landing right over their houses and did they ever think about what would happen if at some point in time the laws of physics just failed……the plane floated down so softly, so gently, so feather-like, seemingly effortlessly…nothing like the rough and tumble landing in Chicago.  How easy these pilots have it, I thought.  No crosswinds, no ice, no crazy wind patterns…but then again they were landing a giant, jet plane so I was happy with their obvious skill. 

And thanks to the pilot’s skill, I landed safely like a butterfly on the ground 20 minutes early.  My lovely friend was waiting and as we chatted on the way to her home I looked into the sky.  There taking off was another metal bird with its belly full of people…all on their way to somewhere …where new experiences wait there for them, new opportunities and memories.  So to those who wish me well and have heard my news about the job….I am on my way to new opportunities, new places, new memories and I hope you will all be there with me.