Spontaneity

So as you know, my husband is an airline pilot. One of the benefits to him being gone 4 days a week is that we fly free - well sort of. We fly free if we go standby, which can be quite an adventure in itself. We are able to check out passenger loads and that sort of thing before we book our flight, but it never really seems all that accurate and its kind of a crap shoot when we get to the airport. For those in the business, we are called "non-revs" which is short for non-revenue, because the company does not make anything off us flying. I happen to be quite lucky with my non-rev flying. I have gotten on flights that seemed impossible when the boarding process started, but I tend to stick it out by the gate agents and when other non-revers or standby-ers give up, I'm right there to hop on and fill the flight up!

So, onto why I called this post spontaneity. Jordan had a long layover in NYC this weekend. When he usually has long layovers I'm usually working, or his in some random city that would be pointless for me to come visit. Saturday morning I wasn't even sure I was going to NYC, the flights were all scary and almost full! But all cards were falling into place, and I decided to go for it!t My parents just needed to be available to watch my dog and cats and then I could go! I was so excited. And then a big storm front. My flight to Laguardia was cancelled. So sad. We were all re-booked on another later flight, but since I don't buy a ticket I'm not guaranteed getting a seat on the next flight. I have to say, flying standby and getting on a flight for free is lucky enough -every time I am so grateful, and then when the flight is cancelled its like the stars have unaligned and backfired on you. This was the first time that has happened, so I am very lucky for that. After a 4 hour delay and a tornado in Queens (NYC), our flight was on its way.


I was seriously like a kid in a candy store flying into the city. I had my face plastered on the window looking out to see what I could see. It was dark, so its not like I could pick out every building or anything, but I mean with all the lights, it was almost like mid-afternoon. I didn't get back to Jordan's hotel until about 9 and then we headed out to Times square! Eeekk! I was so excited. What a crazy place to be in. Its just like what you see on TV, but so surreal at the same time. I can't believe I was actually there! We did some other looking around and I am confident that I could go back to NYC and conquer the subway again, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but definitely way different than I thought too. What a great little 36 hour trip to NYC I had!

Before I even headed out I hesitated on going, seems crazy right, why pass up on an almost free trip to NYC? Being this spontaneous can only happen for a short time in my life, and I imagine once kids come along, this will rarely (if ever!) happen this spontaneously. I guess this is a great benefit to Jordan's career choice. Its just too bad it comes at the expense of him being gone at least 3 days a week on average. It is wonderful to be able to have days of spontaneity.

While we were walking through NYC taking in the sights and sounds I made Jordan promise me we'll never stop being spontaneous. Whether that be taking trips halfway across the country on a moments notice, or trying new things in our hometown, I hope we always stay this spontaneous and carefree about how we spend our time together.