flying the friendly skies

i thought i was being smart by taking the red-eye home from portland. the flight was scheduled to leave at 10:45pm monday, and with a short connection in philly i'd be at RDU by 9am. i could drive right to work and be there in time for the staff meeting.

no such luck.

the first flight was delayed by 45 minutes, which meant i missed my connection. i'm sitting in philly now (coffee in hand, feeling totally oogy about the red-eye experience) waiting for the next flight to RDU, which will arrive around 11am. i will have missed the staff meeting, plus an interview for my prospective replacement at work. i'm just blowing off the whole day now, and going home to sleep.

pretty dumb. i won't do that again.

though i sat next to a really amazing guy on the plane. i rarely like to talk to the people i sit next to (especially when i'm desperately wanting to sleep) but this guy --frank was his name-- was a young 42, dark & attractive, and radiated positive energy. he practices tibetan buddhism and we had a nice long conversation about the laws of attraction, getting what is "owed" you in life, and mindfulness. as i type it, these things sound like a pretty new-agey discussion, but it was quite down-to-earth and fun. (before your mind starts going down that road, he's got 3 children from a previous marriage and is now in a committed relationship with another woman. he's automatically not my type. :)

but as we deplaned he said, "maybe we'll see each other again" and i said, "that would be really great." no numbers exchanged, but he knows where i work, and i know generally where he lives. if it happens, it happens. at the very least it was the best thing about my US AIR experience.