Not so Lucky

“I hope that you get to sit next to a really good looking girl on your flight” my father said to me as we sat at MSP international airport delaying my pending departure. I thought my chances of it actually happening were pretty good considering Rosemount High School choir was going to be on board with me. Now before you all throw a fuss and make comments about me robbing-the-cradle in regards to getting lucky sitting next to some high school girl and to properly represent the RHS choir in this blog – there were a number of really good looking girls. But holding true to my fortunate nature, I am blessed with 60 something year old woman who probably should have booked my seat in addition to the one that she attempted to cram herself into.

This said lady was going on Safari in Kenya with 15 others that joined her from her hometown of Idaho Springs. All of them worked at the zoo there in various ways. She loved to rave about the exotic animals that they had at their zoo – the penguins, yak, and red pandas especially.
She did give me some advice, though, as chatted about what brought me to sitting next to her on this airplane before I dozed off to make the some 23 hours of traveling go faster: Make sure you look them children straight in the eyes and say their first name back to them. You’ll show them that they are still people. I told her that was definitely some valuable advice and I’ll make it a point to remember to do so. Then I fell asleep.

I am writing this now as I sit for one more hour in the Amsterdam international airport eagerly waiting to finish the trip and finally set foot on African soil.

Just a quick shout-out: Rachel Ruegemer and Mary Fox: I’m lost without my watch. It was one of the things I was going to grab in the morning before I left for the flight and didn’t remember it until turning into the airport. Sadly I don’t even have my cell phone to fall back on.

More to come. Stay tuned.