Spring Break (in Tennessee) Part 1

Here I am in the glorious state of Tennessee, soaking up the sweet sun's rays as a gentle breeze tickles my neck from the west. Traveling across the country with my best friend has probably been one of the most spontaneous, and best ideas we have ever had.

Leaving from the Spokane Airport on Monday, the weather was looking pretty sour, as there was a slight hail/rain storm the day before. The following hour after we were dropped off (by a lovely and WONDERFUL friend of ours) was spent naming various strangers also waiting for their flights. Those names ranged from Jim to Tammy and progressively got more creative/generic as more people started to fill the terminal. There was only a select few whose name we actually found out. We named a man Jim, because well, he looked like a Jim. But his parents had the audacity to ruin that little charade with the fact that his name was Marty... clearly we needed to step up our game. There was one woman who we named Sarah who had a baby affectionately named Katie... we never found out those real names. And a few other men we named Smith, Larry, and Quintin had names that were extremely ethnic so we were really wrong on those. A few staffers were dubbed William and Richard, but their names were too small on their tags so sadly we will never know theirs either. Although the best person, and most entertaining we met was one of the flight attendants on the flight down to good 'ol Salt Lake City.

On our first flight, we flew Delta (a first for me with the mega air company) and we had some nice, albeit extremely friendly flight attendants. One in particular. For the sake of privacy I will call him... John. Cause there seems to be a lot of Johns in the world. Anyways, when we got on, we were in zone 3, so we had the pleasure of smiling at everyone we walked past (Alex had the right side, i had the left) and it just so happened that i broke my job and looked to the right and John the flight attendant was standing right there. Like a normal person I made eye contact and smiled. Little did I know that normal people do not do this... and it proved to be my downfall in the end. Alex and I made our way to our seats and sat next to a nice young fellow who was from WSU and made wonderful small talk about the pleasures of Greek life and such (he was going to see his girlfriend, and Alex and I are suckers for love stories, so we were greatly pleased). About halfway through the flight, the attendants were doing their normal duties of handing out the 'complimentary' drinks and snacks, and John was of course one of the three whose job it was. On both flights, Alex and I sat practically in the middle of the plane so the cart would always stop by us. This forced John to hang around and chat with us. I can't remember the first thing he said, because I was in the middle and honestly not worried or paying specific attention to the head-shaven man passing out ginger-ale and Coca-Cola to the mother in front of us, but he was making some kind of small talk with us about a music festival somewhere and southern food and being with his bachelor buddies, and like a normal person I was nodding and smiling even though I couldn't really hear him over the crying baby in the seat in front of us. I must have either looked genuinely interested or concerned because after he moved the cart farther down the aisle, he specifically came back to tell me, and i quote: "I've got a crush on you," points to me, "you're really cute". And proceeded to go back down the aisle to finish his flight-attendant duties. This left me looking with my eyebrows raised at Alex and saying "Did that really just happen? Is this real life?" and we both chuckled a little bit and shook our heads in disbelief.

Maybe its because i'm in college and fraternity guys are never anywhere near as bold as that, because most of them like to think they're players, but I was genuinely knocked off my rocker that a man would ever do that. I know i'm only 19 and very new to the ways of the world, but I really doubt guys act like this all the time..

Tragically, our courtship only lasted a few more drive-bys before the flight was over. He asked me if I was seeing someone, and quickly informed me that he would fly 'wherever' for our date (this is all over Alex, as I am sitting in the middle seat) and after that he remembered to ask me my name, and I told him.... Smooth Flight Attendant, smooth. He also asked if I was seeing anyone, and I wanted to ask him how old he thought I was, because I swear he had to have been in his thirties. I told him 'sort of?' And that was all he needed and he quickly ran away, but not before saying "just take it as a compliment". Alex and I did not see him for the rest of the flight, or when we got off the plane. I think it would have been substantially awkward, and that is an understatement.

That was probably the most exciting thing that happened during the day. The next flight was spent asleep until the snack cart came by us again, this time with two female stewardesses. They were both very sweet, and we became friends instantly. Well, at least with one, the other one didn't really buy into our 'sweet' routines. If only we had more time... oh well, can't win them all.

The wait for the plane to descend was excruciating. We were both SO very ready to be done and off the plane that the last half hour (or whatever amount of time it was) dragged on for an eternity. When we landed and could grab our carry-ons, we were the first ones up and ready, only to be told to wait, and when we got off the plane we were out of there faster than you could say 'fried ocra' and off to the baggage claim to see our probably favorite family other than our own.

And our reunion was glorious! Super surreal, and again like something out of a movie. I feel like that has been a theme in my life recently, and I kind of hope it doesn't go away. Anyway, Alex and I came down the escalator towards them and I pushed her aside and greeted them both with a big hug and joy was seriously overflowing inside of me. Then she pushed me aside and did the same thing, and then we all had a beautiful group hug signifying our reunion. I think people were definitely jealous. No big deal ;) joke!

We then drove to their humble abode and talked a while with their daughter and son until it was time for us to go to sleep. Boy is it hard to get used to the time difference, let me tell you. I started this in the afternoon, came back to it, and now it's practically three in the morning. I think the cup of coffee at 10:00 didn't really help either.
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Some cool passages to check out are Proverbs 5-8. They talk about Lady Folly and Lady Wisdom. Lady Wisdom is the bomb, FYI and I wanna be just like her when I grow up. She's kind of a no-nonsense lady if you know what I mean. I think more people should pay attention to her.

Cool music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otXGqU4LBEI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeujRRzbHqo&ob=av3n

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C8e7nNLZNs&ob=av2e

...those are a few of the songs on our playlist for this extravagant adventure. I hope you like them, and as always if you have any questions about life or Jesus there's a perfectly good comment box and I would love to tell to you about a man who has completed me body and soul in the most beautiful and wonderful way. I hope this post was encouraging to you, and if it was, tell other people about it! I think in a future post i'll be sharing my testimony, so that'll be looking for that!

God Bless, and thanks so much for reading,
~Alyse :)