Life Happening at the Airport

I'm kind of an airport geek. When I was a broke college kid, I used to go to the airport just to watch people. Parking was the only expense and parking was pretty cheap back at Stapleton. On September 12, 2001, Randy and I rode the blue line to O'Hare to see how airport life had changed overnight...

This is where I have been spending a lot of my time lately. Meeting and greeting people -- just to the right of that fountain at the top of the escalator by where the train lets people out at Denver International Airport. This kind of work suits me just fine.

Greeting people changed a lot (probably forever) in those 24 hours following 9/11. Suddenly no one got to meet their sweetheart at the gate with roses. Since that day, all the greetings (from domestic flights anyway) happen in one place at DIA--right there by the fountain. This means I don't have to roll the dice to see where I think something interesting might happen. I'm right there. Here's just one day:

-met Doris, a tour director with a British company who may be the only person I know who moved from Wheaton, Illinois to Colorado Springs, Colorado in the mid-1990's without being relocated by a Christian organization!

-greeted Eric, whose wife is back in Houston waiting for the power to come back on after hurricane Ike swept through town more than a week ago.

-saw a Colombian exchange student meeting his host parents from Kansas for the first time.

-learned that the French onion soup at Pour le France pretty much rules!

-asked my local police lieutenant to stop by and let my dog out and he agreed! (It helps that he is married to my college roommate).

-met Sheila & her husband who moved to Glenwood Springs 35 years ago to build ther dream home. They said I could stop by anytime.

-talked to a man who had been in Moscow in 1981 with the federal government...Hmmmm.

-watch a grandparent and three young siblings give the sweetest welcome home to parents and the new addition to their family from China.

-saw a lot of Saints fans coming to cheer against the Broncos.

-talked to people from Brazil, Spain, Japan, USA, India, Indonesia, Kazhakstan, Tajikistan, and Viet Nam.

And I used to sit at a desk all day.