Running Late

According to my husband, we were running late.  He'd planned to leave our house at 3:45 a.m. and it was now 3:55.  I had wanted to blow dry my hair.  Was that really so wrong?

I was surprised at how many people were on the road this early in the morning.  Surprised, largely, because I never am.  Jerry travels more than I do so he was unfazed.  ("Unglazed," according to Autocorrect.)

Jerry parked our car and we rushed to the shuttle bus.  I could feel the tension.  "What time is our flight?" I asked even though I had zero idea what the current time was anyway.  "Six." was the curt reply.

The line for security was massive and there was a huge group of people wearing teal ("real" according to Autocorrect) tee-shirts in it.  I wondered what their story was but Jerry grabbed me by the hand and steered me out of the line just as I was opening my mouth to ask.  

We walked the length of the airport to Checkpoint B where there was no line at all.  Not one person was in front of us.  None.  Zilch.  It was eerie.  I wasn't even sure this security point was open but, in fact, it was.  As we walked through what appeared to be our own personal security line, Jerry's tension dissipated.  We looked at the monitor to locate our gate.  When we got there, imagine my surprise to see this:

Just in case you don't understand what you're seeing here, don't feel like the Lone Ranger.  I didn't get it at first either.  Later became obvious.  It's not what you are seeing that's important, it's what you aren't seeing.  You aren't seeing a scrolling display that says "Detroit" with the flight number on it.  Instead you're seeing an advertisement for Delta Airlines.  Why?  Why is a valid question and I do know that answer.  There is no flight information being displayed because they haven't opened for the morning yet.  

And now I look up and I see I'm surrounded by people wearing teal tee-shirts.  I guess I have time to hear that story after all.

* * * * *

P.S.  It turns out that I had even more time than I thought.  When Delta finally opened for business, our flight was delayed.  After the delay, the flight was canceled.  (Apparently our assigned aircraft had been struck by lightning and damaged as it landed in Charlotte the night before.  Why this was not discovered until fifteen minutes prior to our boarding is beyond me.)

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For the curious ~ the story of the folks in teal:

The wearers of the teal tee-shirts are a friendly bunch of seventeen volunteers (varying in age from teens to grandparents) from Morning Star Lutheran Church in Matthews, N.C.  These happy people are affiliated with Pray America and their destination is Chichicastenego, Guatemala where the group will be building shelter for widows and their children.

A few of the Lutheran volunteers headed for Guatemala

This is not their first rodeo.  Morning Star Lutherans have made similar trips for six years now and one of those years they even went twice.  (They can build a dwelling in two-and-a-half hours.  Seems to me their crew would make great Habitat for Humanity volunteers, too...)

This group, and countless others like them, is just another in a long list of reasons to be ("robe" according to Autocorrect) proud to be an American.
And I am.  (Grateful, too.)  I've gotta say though, I'm not that crazy about Autocorrect.