denver airport

This is part 2 of my travel adventures from a few days ago as I was heading home.

Airports are full to the brim with people behaving amazingly well given the circumstances.

It’s amazing that so many people got here on time and will get to their destination on time with all their luggage on the first try. It’s incredible given all the moving parts and all the people whose jobs depend on each other and the weather cooperating.

There are so many people doing their jobs incredibly well who deal with consequences beyond their control. They deal with frustrated people who want to get home or to their destinations and want answers that are impossible to provide. People who think that things should be different than they are. I get it. I want answers even when it’s unreasonable to expect them.

It takes so much patience. It all can feel like such a hassle. So many check points, so much verifying who you are, proving that you aren’t a danger to anyone or carrying anything dangerous. Taking off your shoes, putting your hands up, getting patted down and felt up by a security lady! She’s just doing her job…

Airports are amazing places to people watch. I find that I feel much better if I have my headphones in and am listening to mellow music as I watch all the people.

I took 2 Calm gummies with magnesium before getting to the airport. During my 5-hour tour of Terminal A, I slowly walked through every store looking at every single thing. I was happy to not want to buy anything at all. I then did a circle tour of all 80 gates. I enjoy walking on the people mover so much.

Eventually I found 1 large white table with cool swivel seats and electrical plugs embedded in the table. It was in an open area with excellent air conditioning. I even had to get a long sleeve shirt out of my bag because I got cold.

I charged my phone, got out my laptop and decided to do some work. The free airport WiFi stopped working after about 15-min, so I started writing instead.

A man whose energy felt volatile came to the table. There were only 4 seats. He was being verbally abusive to someone on the other end of his phone. I have no patience for that vibe or desire to concern myself with whatever his deal is, so I got up and left heading towards my gate.

So many humans were lining the hallways plugged into the electrical sockets charging their phones while many were sleeping on the floor clutching their belongings.

The airport was temporarily closed due to lightning. No one could say when it would reopen. So many people have visibly had it and are in a post meltdown coma. The departures board flashed yellow “delayed” notices on more than half the flights. I heard flights that were canceled over the loudspeaker. “Make your way to customer service.” Ugh. I feel bad for everyone.

Everyone is doing their very best. There are way too many people up in here.

The Denver Airport employs more than 40,000 people making it the largest employer in Colorado. It supports more than 260,000 other jobs in the area.

An average of 1600 flights come in and go out in a day.

On average 213,000 people come through the airport per day! Denver Airport was designed to serve 50 million annually, last year 77.8 million came through.

So many people were at risk for losing it when the airport shut down due to lightning. All the workers outside came in and had somewhere to go to. No one knew anything about when it would open back up or when flights could start boarding again.

No one controls the weather. People would like to believe that the airport employees can predict the weather or “give their best guess.” Guess what? They don’t want to guess. They want you to know that the weather is not in their control.

Everyone has somewhere to be, an important timeline, someone or something to meet in another city, and no one’s plans are more important than the safety of every single person.

Flight attendants are mostly excellent examples of people with great boundaries. They will also school you on how to behave and what to do if you don’t know. And don’t make them tell you twice.

I absolutely loved being schooled by kids the past weekend. 7-year-old Everly let me know that you say ColoRADo, not ColoRODo. And it’s Bison, not Buffalo.

I don’t love being schooled by flight attendants in their special “don’t fuck with me” tone. They had just announced to ask a flight attendant for help with roller bags if the overhead bins are full, but then she tells me, “You’re just going to have to figure it out, sweetie.”

Finally boarded on the plane and in my seat, it dawns on me that things could have been way worse. I am very lucky.

Flying west, chasing the sunset. There is visible lighting striking through the clouds next to my window. I try to take a video of it, but keep missing it.

My mask is making me feel overwhelmed and chlosterphobic. I keep fogging up my glasses. How have I not figured out the mask & glasses thing?

As we approach SFO, they turn on the cabin lights. It turns out that the pilot has a pitch for us about applying for a Frontier credit card. It goes on for quite awhile. A full on in-flight infomercial. It’s so annoying, we are a captive audience. As the flight attendant walks the aisle with the application forms, no one wants one. There’s a second pitch about a free balance transfer…still no one cares. It’s been a shift show of a day. Who wants to think about booking another flight right now as we are 5 hours late getting home.

The third to last straw was that we waited on the plane for 27 minutes for a ramp to let us get off and go into the airport. I don’t know how we all kept it together.

The second to last straw was the Joe Biden looking bus driver of the Airporter back to Marin. He took so much time doing every single thing and drove so slowly that I almost had to pay for an additional day of parking at the Airporter lot. I got there with 2 minutes to spare. I’m very lucky! It could have been worse.

The last and final straw as I arrived home was a major ant infestation. I’ve never been so mad at ants in my life. It was a multi pronged attack targeting the left over cat food, the pantry, and my shoes.

Still…it could have been worse. I am very lucky and happy to be home. Days later, I have won the ant war and possibly killed the queen (I think) with ant traps. My apologies to the ant nation, I cannot live with ants.