window seats

Soon we will begin our decent and start the landing procedures. I look up from my book and out of my little window and suddenly realize I haven't sat in a window seat in quite a while-I now go for those isle seats for that that extra leg room. When I sit in a window seat and get a little bored or depressed or start to get a little fed up with the goings on inside the cabin, I stare out at the clouds. Sometimes there are clear skys where I can make out greens and browns below-maybe some rivers and lakes, mountains or cities. Other times the clouds are just patchy with puffs of white here and there. And then there are days like today where the sky below the plane is covered in thick, rolling white clouds as far as I can see out my little window in every direction.

I guess I'll get a few laughs and some rolled eyes from my readers, but I always expect to find life up here. Maybe a couple of colorful Care Bears sitting there, a Superman flying by or a whole city built up here on the clouds. A Cloud City like the one in Empire Strikes Back or maybe even a medieval castle with knights riding out across the white . Along with my visual search, when the whole plane experience gets to me, I imagine myself phasing through the side of the plane and walking out onto the wing. It's probably cold out there but it looks pretty comfortable from here. I see myself jumping from the wing and falling steadily through the cottony-white layer below, rushing downward toward the mountains and lakes below. Pulling up, I come roaring back through the cloud floor soaring with the plane itself. . .the flight attendant's voice crackles on over my flying theme music playing on my iPod, yanking me back into the cabin.

I take another look back out my window only to see the plane engulfed in white and then slowly, the city below breaks into view. Already people are scrambling to gather their stuff around them so they can hop out of their seats the moment we touch down and fight their way off of the plane. Me, I wish for a few more moments back up there, outside this unpleasant transport, searching for my kingdom in the sky or those 80's cartoon bears.