surprises...

so today . . . diandra is in oregon for a few days. that girl has been flying a lot lately, but today it was a little different.

i was at school when the first text arrived. she just wanted me to know she had made it to the airport and was through security. she had about an hour before she left. then i got this text:

"oprah is about to get off a plane at my gate. there are news cameras everywhere."

i responded by telling her to get out her camera and take pictures! i thought she could just blend right in with all the media people...

living in the los angeles metropolitan area means we have a fair chance at celebrity sightings whenever we go out. but clearly we don't go out to the right places at the right times, considering we have lived here ten years and my only sighting was tara lipinski (who still makes me mad!! michele kwan soooo deserved that gold medal!!!) so, while i had a hard time picturing oprah flying in on a regular airliner, i figured it was possible...

then entertainment tonight showed up. clearly something out of the ordinary and ET-worthy was about to happen...

when the airplane arrived at the gate, it said "oprah's farewell season" on it.
and the people started to get off. but there was no oprah.

there was, however, one really happy guy who had just won a trip around the world--compliments of oprah--1.2 million miles!

when diandra realized she was going to be flying out on that plane, we got excited. all i could think was prizes, prizes, prizes! because while i don't really watch oprah, i don't live in a cave! i know that she is very generous, and she loves to give stuff away. so surely if you fly on her airplane, you are going to get off with more stuff than you got on with...

i told everyone at school, "diandra is on oprah's plane, and they are giving away prizes!" i called my mom in portland, "diandra is on oprah's plane, and they are giving away prizes! make sure you watch entertainment tonight--you might see her in the background!" the truth is, i didn't know anything about this plane. i was just putting together bits and pieces of information until i had concocted quite a scenario...

my brain went into overdrive. maybe diandra would win a trip around the world! that would be exciting--although she would probably take javi instead of me... maybe it would be a trip around the world for four people, and we would all get to go! because, after all, surely oprah would want the winner to get to share the experience with the people they loved!

that was a pretty big prize--maybe she wouldn't win that one. but surely she would win something. surely oprah wouldn't just give away one prize per flight. she would want happy people getting off her plane. and prizes make for happy people...

ok, so maybe she would win an ipad. ipads are kind of the big electronic thing right now. and oprah gives away cool electronics all the time. so maybe she would get an ipad. or maybe they wouldn't be giving away the actual ipads. maybe they would just give away gift certificates for one. but she was going to be in southern oregon for the next few days--would she be able to find an apple store? or would she have to wait until she came home... maybe she could use it online...

or maybe everyone wouldn't get ipads. they aren't terribly expensive, but i suppose if you are giving them to everyone who flies on your plane, the cost would add up. so maybe only a few people would get ipads. but then what would everyone else get? because really, if only some people get prizes, other people are not going to get off oprah's plan feeling happy!

and on and on and on it went in my head. i kept watching my phone for updates. i knew diandra would text me as soon as she hit the ground--that is part of our flying code. it got later and later. she finally texted me and said they had just landed in san francisco, and she had to change planes for the next part of her trip. she had to get off the oprah plane, and there had been no prizes :(

i couldn't believe it! how could oprah not give out prizes on her plane?!?! there should at least have been some commemorative souvenier! i mean, how many people are going to get the opportunity to ride on oprah's plane?!?! it would be nice to have a little something as a reminder... like an ipad... or a travel mug...

and then i thought, "why do i think oprah has to hand out prizes?" no one who bought a ticket for that flight today expected anything out of the ordinary when they booked their flight. it was just supposed to be an airplane full of people on their way somewhere. and yet, as soon as oprah's name was attached to it, i expected more. i expected prizes and surprises. i expected extravagance. i expected the unexpected.

she has sort of trained us to think that way...

so, diandra didn't see oprah. she didn't win a prize. she did, however, experience the unexpected--while waiting to board her flight from san francisco to medford, she saw one of her elementary school friends who was going to be on the same flight! how they recognized each other after all this time, i do not know, but they did.

and really, that was probably much more exciting than seeing oprah today anyway.

(although, if an ipad had been thrown into the mix...)