Homecoming

“Welcome to Miami International Airport where the current time is now 1:19pm. It was our pleasure to serve you and we look forward to seeing you on a future flight. If Miami is your final destination, welcome home. “

I always have butterflies in my stomach the day I’m flying. This feeling like it’s the first day of school, nervous but really excited. Today was no exception. I enjoy the rush, the anticipation of getting to my final destination. The worrying if my luggage will make it. In recent years I have become accustomed to first class. For the most part thanks to my father’s excess miles from traveling for business so often. I’m a bit spoiled at this point; it truly is so much more enjoyable. Besides the extra leg room, leather seats, hot towels, warm just baked cookies, real china and food that I would actually order, there aren’t screaming children kicking me or people going to sleep with their seat in my lap. I’m reminded of the scene in Jerry Maguire where Renee Zellenger is eavesdropping in on a conversation between Tom Cruise and a woman and then leans over to her super adorable son with the extra large round glasses and says, “They use to just have better food, now they have better lives.” Perception is key.
What I didn’t figure in today was that I wasn’t departing from my normal city. On today’s flight I was sitting next to some big shot hotel owner who for the thirty minutes we were sitting on the runway was yelling at someone on the phone. Behind me I had two married men discussing their misadventures in flying and work for the entire three hours and twenty minutes we were in the air.
My favorite words are when the pilot says, “Flight attendants prepare for landing.” That’s when the real rush sets in. The butterflies come back and all I want to do is run off the plane regardless of if someone is waiting for me.
Growing up as an only child of two busy parents, I’ve become use to living on my own. Making my own rules and accustomed to traveling solo. In main ways I prefer it. I go where I want, when I want. It’s a fabulous solitary state for a few days. A perfect time to write read and just be me.
My recent routine when I visit Miami is to take a walk on the beach, sit by the pool for a couple hours, then go for a leisurely lunch at Green Street in the Grove, a cat nap and then out for dinner and drinks into the early morning hours.
I’m excited to see the new restaurant Lulu that opened across the street from Green Street. When I was there in the winter they had just began construction and the soft opening pictures of the interior and food look fab.
Today thou I’m off on a new adventure to a place I haven’t visited in almost thirteen years, a one-night excursion to a tropical paradise at the very southern tip of Florida. I’m not going by the books on this trip. This isn’t a typical trip. I’m not traveling alone. I’ve got company. The entourage, so to speak, has grown. So, now I’m tempting fate, changing up my routines, my haunts, and my locales and possibly encountering the cowardly lion and company. I’ve got the suits behind me this time and life sure is sweet.
Let the fun in the sun begin!
Kate