Please let me introduce you to the new girlfriend of our stock-broker-ducky. The hooter-ducky from St. Thomas, BVI!
Time to pick up Mr. Incredible at the airport last night, after his yearly one-week macro-economic-update-business-trip to China. I guess it would be much more efficient for him to take the airport train, but I have missed him so much. I even have trouble sleeping when he is away. It is just too quiet without this (adorable) snoring "sawmill" next to me. Funny how you get so used to habits that are - in reality - truly annoying - that you actually end up kind-of loving them. Weird.
Anyway. I always arrive early when picking someone up at the airport. As this is one of THE BEST places for people-watching. It is like going to the movies. There is romance. There is comedy. There is drama. And - sometimes - there is tragedy. Here you get to see it all. All mixed together in what starts off as a thriller.... The sliding doors between the customs area and the arrivals area opens and.... (drumwhirls)... What do we have? This is SO exciting! It is like that game show where you select a door - you never know what is behind it. Oh, the suspense! The thrill!
What we do know, though, is that - in general - there are two main categories of arriving passengers. Each of them are very easy to identify once the sliding doors after customs open:
1) The ones that do not expect anyone to meet and greet them. These people stare directly into the floor (as if they are concentrating on something very important), and hurry straight for the train (left), or the parking lot (either direction).
2) The ones that expect someone to be there - waiting. For them. When the sliding doors open, these people stand there like a deer in the headlights. Totally vulnerable. Glued to the spot, with eyes flickering, as they scan the waiting crowd outside customs to find a familar face.
The first group of people is not so interesting. Except for the fact that their strong urge to AVOID EYE CONTACT AT ANY COST, sometimes may result in chaos. By focusing SO hard on the floor, they sometimes end up crashing their luggage carts into parts of the waiting crowd. Then you will hear some quiet cursing, before the lonely looser keeps on walking straight towards his or her preferred means of onward transportation.
The other group, however, gets to me every time. I tend to get quite depressed by watching the news, as I think that there is far too much evil and hatred in this world. But seeing people meet up with their loved ones at the airport almost makes me believe in the world again. When I see all these people hug, kiss, cry (happy tears!) and laugh together, it gives me a trace of hope. Maybe this world is not so f***ed up after all? I actually get all warm and fuzzy looking at all the family re-unions, and lovers meeting up after time apart.
Hm. Well. I guess I have to admit that there is an evil side to me, too. You need to look at some of these constellations with a sense of humor. Because - there really are some odd couples around. Oh yeah. You might think you have seen it all, but really, you haven't. But - they love each other, and that is all that matters, really.
Then, there are the families. There are some pretty funny family resemblances around, too. When you have been staring at that truly STRANGE guy with the funny head for a while - and suddenly FIVE more equally strange guys with the same funny head turn up? I try to behave and not laugh out loud, though. But sometimes I just cannot help myself. I apologize. It is just me taking out my insecurities on other people, I know. But. Oh. So. Funny.
Like in the movies, not all arrivals have a purely happy ending. Fortunately, these do not occur as frequently.
One of these are the "guilt-trippers". Very often carrying huge expensive presents for their loved ones. Because they have either simply been away too long. Or maybe they have a guilty conscience. For some reason. These people look really worried, sometime straight out TERRIFIED when the sliding doors open.
The final group of people is the one that my heart goes out to. These are the passengers that do BELIEVE someone is there to meet them. But then - nobody turns up. I sometimes feel like walking up to these people to give them a hug. They look so lost and confused, bravely gripping their luggage cart - knuckles whitening - as if that cart is all they have left in this world. All the while with this look of abandon on their faces. Fortunately, with the excellent mobile devices available on the market today, these incidents do not happen that often. And if they do, the abandoned passenger has a way to quickly regain his/her composure. As they can now immediately call up the "no-show" sucker that was supposed to pick them up, and yell at him/her. Sweet.
I wonder why people still pay to go to the cinema. The airport is just so much better.
No comments:
Post a Comment