One of my (top 5) favorite things to do is make Top 5 lists. I make them for pretty much everything. (For instance- Top 5 best names of US presidents- that kind of thing.) I don't know why I do it, but I guess it beats biting my nails or collecting stamps. So anyway. I compiled one this week as I made my way from one side of the world to the other because, ironically, I didn't have much else to do.
(In chronological order)
1. The late-50's bear-of-a-man next to me on my overnight flight falling asleep on my shoulder. Multiple times. (Ok, disclaimer: sometimes I employ sarcasm in the Top 5 as a coping mechanism, but all the rest are serious.)
2. Reading Wendell Berry's Window Poems in the Amsterdam airport at 6 am- wrapped in the awesome blanket I stole from my KLM flight, with a Dutch coffee, as it poured the rain outside, planes shuttled in and out of bays, and people were everywhere, scurrying around. Here's an excerpt from "Window Poem #5":
Look in
and see him looking out.
He is not always
quiet, but there have been times
when happiness has come
to him, unasked,
like the stillness on the water
that holds the evening clear
while it subsides
- and he let go
what he was not.
3. Learning in SkyMiles magazine that jousting has made a comeback as a recreational sport in recent years! I was pretty excited about that. I also learned there are all kinds of jousting now, along with the traditional medieval kind- including (get ready!)...bicycle jousting. I would love to see this. Or participate.
4. On my flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, the "inflight entertainment" was a little mischievous. Every time you selected a movie to watch, some other movie you hadn't selected started playing, usually in Chinese or Spanish. It became a game to me, trying to find the movie I actually wanted to watch, and instead being surprised by a lot of hilarious, strange things. At one point though, someone in First Class "happened across an adult film" (as the stewardess explained over the intercom), and because it somehow then began playing on everyone's personal screens, the entire system was immediately shut down. It was mayhem for awhile, as I'm sure you can imagine. Small children crying, their parents furious and fuming, old women scandalized. The poor stewardesses.
5. Flying through a terrifying lightning-and-rain storm from Detroit to Canton and seriously wondering whether I was actually going to make it home- only to arrive safely and find my parents waiting for me, at the end of (what I'm convinced is) the longest hallway ever constructed, with a bouquet of roses.
That's a great list. I especially love #2.
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