Sitting in the airport terminal
My husband and I rarely ever travel by plane anymore.
I used to love to fly. It was always an adventure to get on a plane and travel somewhere. The flight attendants (used to be called stewardesses) would go up and down the aisles, making sure the passengers were doing all right, and they would offer something to drink and a snack, even for short flights. Longer flights would mean lunch or dinner, depending on the time of flight.
People used to dress up when they flew on an airplane. Passengers rarely wore casual attire, such as flip flops or shorts with a T-shirt. Taking a flight was special. Now, no one dresses up. A passenger could just about wear pajamas to fly these days. And with all the hassles involved in traveling by plane, it makes good sense to wear something comfortable.
I wish today I had worn pajamas to get on the flight to Atlanta to see my folks. As I write this article, I am sitting in an airport terminal. In fact, I am at Fresno Air Terminal, or Fresno Yosemite International Airport, or whatever it is called now. The code letters are FAT, and now I totally understand, because you may have to sit your F-A-T rear in one of their chairs for a very long time. And, by the way, their Free WiFi is called “FAT FREE WIFI.” That’s the absolute truth.
Our flight was suddenly canceled for no apparent reason, and so our wait time grew from an hour and a half, to seven and a half hours. So, I am making a few observations about the airport terminal. It reminds me of the movie with Tom Hanks called “Terminal,” where he lived in an airport.
It’s always fun to watch people when they do not know they are being watched. That’s just about everybody here. The ones who are not sitting in the doctor’s office-type chairs, are walking around dragging one piece of luggage on wheels, oblivious that someone may be watching them.
It amazes me what people choose to wear, in a place where literally hundreds of people will see them from all angles. There is a type of pants worn by many young women, which seems to be very popular, although not flattering at all. I don’t know what they are called, but I have seen many pairs of those pants walk by me today. They are made of spandex or something like that, and every posterior jiggles as they walk by. Why would a person subject themselves to the silent ridicule of people who happen to see? I mean, you cannot “unsee” this. These pants seem to come in all colors. Today, I’ve seen olive green ones, and brown, and coral, and black. Most of them are black ones. I saw lots of these before I started counting, but I would estimate that I have seen around 35 pairs of these unflattering pants. Apparently, they are comfortable. I can think of no other reason for wearing them. I thought about taking pictures of some of them, but I decided that may cause me some trouble.
Enough about the people. As I look at the very large room with many people waiting for their flights, sitting in the not-so-comfortable seats, I wonder about the décor of this great room. There is nothing beautiful about it. It is drab gray, angular, almost hospital-like. There has been no effort to make it look like a home. There must be something psychological about that. They are not planning for you to have a long stay here. It just happens to work out that way. There’s really no need to beautify the place, because watching the people is entertaining enough.
I will say one thing about our stay here in the FAT terminal. We were able to avoid the heat of Madera, as the terminal does have good air conditioning. But just in case I have encouraged you to be like Tom Hanks and take up residence in the Terminal, it’s expensive to stay here, within the first two hours here; I bought three cups of coffee, a banana muffin, a bag of almonds, and a package of emery boards, and I spent a total of $32.57. Ouch!
Take good care of yourselves.
— My love to all,
Nancy
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“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”
— Colossians 3:23
