Flying Without Limits

Nick and I had a movie night yesterday and were laughing as we remembered a very special trip we took together last July. It was for my cousin, Andrew's, high school graduation party in New York. I remember Nick being particularly excited to attend the party because it meant NO PARENTS. He lives and breathes to be his own "boss" and what a great opportunity to do so 1000 miles across the country.

My uncle very generously purchased our plane tickets and in return we were to drive his pickup truck from New York to a place in Minnesota where it would receive some custom work. This was a solid 4 days of Allie and Nick time. There was just so much room for something crazy to go down.

However, the funniest part of the trip for me took place on the initial flight out. The takeoff was pretty typical, Nick style. His eyes twinkled like a kid on Christmas as he reached his hands straight out and yelled "Superman". This was normal for me. I laughed my butt off as the people around us just stared. If those people thought Nick's take off procedures were strange, they were truly in for a surprise with his landing protocol.

Two and half hours later, the seat belt light came on and the flight attendants asked all customers to remain seated as we were descending for landing. This naturally was the opportune moment for Nick to decide he needed to go to the bathroom. He, of course, worked his charm and convinced the flight attendant to let him leave his seat as long as he agreed to be quick. I personally knew “quick" was not in Nick's vocabulary, but he seemed like he could NOT wait.

About 15 minutes went by and Nick was STILL in the bathroom. Seriously, by this point we were "coming in hot" and I could see roof tops and predict the speeds of the cars zooming down the highway.  I was slightly in panic mode imagining Nick getting crushed in the bathroom upon landing or even worse his fecal matter ejecting itself upon the walls. People were looking back in their seats saying "Oh my God! There's someone in the bathroom! Someone needs to do something!" Which was funny, because of all the terrible things that could go wrong on an airplane, this whole bathroom thing was really getting people in a tizzy. Perhaps they were all from Utah and had limited access to the news which would explain their lack of imagination as to "what could happen on an airplane" (the news does do a great job terrifying infrequent flyers with these scenarios). 

Suddenly, I realized we were maybe 1 minute from landing. The wheels were dropping and the runway was in sight. Then, when everyone least expected, Nick flung the bathroom door open, marched down the aisle, buckled his seat belt, just as the wheels touched the ground, never missing a beat. The tension in the air was silenced and our fellow flyers all took a deep breath. I burst out laughing because only in my world did these things happen. "Nick time" happened to be the perfect timing today. I couldn't have asked for a better travel partner.