When you board an airplane, you really don’t know what’s going to happen next. Will you arrive at your destination on time? Will you be delayed because of bad weather at the other end? Will someone have forgotten to order a pushback crew to guide the plane out of the gate area? All of those things happened to me in Duluth, Minnesota last month. My flight left at 5:15 a.m. — or rather, it was supposed to leave at 5:15 a.m. I was up by 3:30 a.m. and my hostess with the mostest best friend was kind enough to get up early and grind some coffee beans by hand (her specialty) and make me a cup of her great coffee. I took it “to go” and we headed to the airport.
It was pouring down rain. The sky was full of lightening. Thunder was crackling all around us. As we arrived at the terminal I thanked Patricia for the last cup of Minnesota coffee on my trip and maybe the last cup of coffee I’d ever have if we were actually going to travel in that weather!
It was a short flight to Minneapolis where I’d make my connection to San Francisco. We were all buckled in and the pilot said we were set to take off. It would just be another five minutes for the pushback crew to come and get us out of the gate area. I had nothing but patience at that hour.
A few minutes passed and the pilot got on the intercom again and said, “Well, there was no pushback crew scheduled for this flight so we have to wait for someone to get here. The nearest qualified crew member lives thirty miles away. You can all get off the plane and go get some breakfast inside the terminal and we’ll let you know when we’re ready to board again.”
The person seated in front of me said to anyone who was listening, “What if they just got an unqualified person to push us out of the gate?” Chuckle chuckle.
The pilot joined us in line at the concession stand. He stood right behind me. We had a little chit chat. Gray-haired, I believed him when he said he’d done a whole lot of flying and never once had run into this situation.
On one hand, I didn’t mind the wait. If the weather got better, I’d feel a lot safer about flying.
Within the hour we got the announcement to get back on board. Having lost some of my earlier patience, I found myself fretting about the fact that I had now officially missed my connecting flight. But impatience soon gave way to fear on our short flight. I heard the landing gear coming out of the plane. You probably recognize that whirring sound, right? The plane seems to linger in the air a little heavier just before it starts the descent. There was nothing to see out the window yet because we were still in rain and heavy cloud coverage.
Suddenly, we weren’t going down anymore. The plane lurched upward and made a sharp righthand turn. That couldn’t be good. The landing gear pulled back into the plane and we were somewhere, but not at the airport! The gray-haired pilot got on the intercom again. He said the weather wasn’t cooperating and we missed a runway and he’d try coming in on the west side. Good to know, good to know.
Now I started wondering about the pilot. I think we’re in good hands I said to myself. He seemed like a nice enough guy when we talked–as if “Minnesota nice” would make the difference between landing where we were supposed to land or landing somewhere we weren’t intended to land. I began to wonder what his original thinking was when he chose this career. Did he have that moment when he woke up and thought, gee, I want to get into a huge flying machine, pack it full of people, and be the sole person they all trust to get them safely from one place to another, far, far, faraway place.
There was nothing in me that had could have dreamed up such a high stakes career like that. I was perfectly happy with the career path I’d chosen twenty-nine years ago. I get to make people feel great every day. Now I just wanted to wake up on Monday morning and go to Sara’s closet and help her pack her trip and erase that worry from her mind and then “wow” her with all the fresh outfit combos I’d create with her existing wardrobe pieces and then help her decide if shopping the Nordstrom sale was a good idea or not. Not much stress. Just a super fun job with a super great client. No one’s life would be in danger.
In another thirty minutes or so, the scare was over. The landing gear came out again. I still couldn’t see anything out the window but then I felt the happiest bump and bounce of the day–the wheels hitting the runway. We got off the plane and I found out that I’d been rebooked on a flight that would take off in two hours. All good!
When you have no idea of just how comfortable a flight will be, wouldn’t it be a good idea to make sure your bra isn’t pinching or feeling tight? Who needs more constriction, right? Right! That’s why one of my favorite inflight must-haves is a bra extender. Even if you don’t feel a real need for one in everyday life, when you’re on an airplane for hours, having that bra just a little looser can make everything more comfortable. I’m never going braless but I am going to put my bra into “relax” mode. On some trips, those little things can feel like a real blessing … that and finding the runway in a rainstorm.
Want to check out some bra extenders? Just click below!
