The people you meet on a plane...

 Someday I may be caught up on my blog, but for now things are just kinda out of order and all over the place depending on the pictures I fond on my phone.

On my plane ride back to Utah from Christmas break I met a 9 year old girl named Mia. She was on my flight from Pittsburgh to Denver. At first I was standing in the line to get on the plane and this man behind me started talking to me. Someone accidently hit him with their bag and he kind of mumbled..."this is why I work with dead people." He said it loud enough to make sure I heard it and I immediately without thinking turned around and just kind of stared at him. That was enough to get him talking for the next 10 minutes about how he fixes cremation devices all over the world. He travels to New Zealand, Australia, Morocco, and somewhere in Africa. He said Africa is the worst because the police there are just killin people in the streets. I was horrified listening to him but there was no where else for me to go.

He stared asking about me and I wanted to tell him very little and luckily it was while we were walking to the plane so I ran out of time. I also knew that I had a very short connection in Denver to get to Salt lake so I wanted to sit close to the front of the plane so I could get off fast. Luckily as I boarded the plane there was a middle seat open between a nice looking lady and a little girl. I immediately told the man goodbye and sat down quickly so he couldn't sit near me.

It turned out to be one of the best plane rides ever sitting next to sweet Mia. As soon as I sat down she started talking to me and was very bubbly. I found out that her parents are divorced and her mom lives in Pittsburgh and her dad in Denver. She got to spend Christmas with her and she loved it! She doesn't get to see her mom much and her mom told her to keep being good so she can come back again. She hates having her parents divorced but she has accepted it and will live on. She is so strong for just being 9 years old! She talked to me about being in 3rd grade and I told her I was a first grade teacher. The lady on the other side of me said I was probably the best person on the plane for her to sit by!

We ended getting stuck on the tarmax for an extra hour and a half before taking off. This girl was getting antsy so I got out my phone and put on some of my first grade music I had. She loved listening to these songs! There was one on particular called the Peanut Butter song. When I teach it to my students I teach them sign language to go along with it. So I taught her the words to the song and the signs to go with it. I think people around me were either excited I was keeping her entertained or hated me for teaching her this song because she ended up singing it a lot on that plane ride :) At one point she fell asleep on my lap and so i felt like I could sleep a little bit. She woke up before me and shook me a little bit and asked if she could listen to the song again. Not really being awake yet I just said yes and fell back asleep. Later when I woke up she was still listening to it and the Bear Hunt song. The nice lady beside me started talking to me and she laughed and said it was very nice of you to let her use your phone and give her your password for it. When I was sleeping I hadn't realized she was going to need my password but apparently she had been watching close enough that she knew the 4-digit password to unlock my phone. We just laughed about it though and let her do her thing. 

When we finally landed Mia asked again if I was going to stay in Denver with her and I had to sadly tell her no. She said no one has ever been so nice to her on an airplane before and asked me if I would walk out with her. Unfortunately the airline people would not allow it, because you never know who you can trust these days. I had to say good bye, but I was very grateful to meet such a strong little girl who made me have the most enjoyable flight to date.

Ill see you again someday Mia, thanks for being a part of my life for a few hours!