USA women's water POLO #1 fan!!!

This past weekend I flew to Arizona to visit 6 of my best friends from college. Kelly lives in Phoenix so we had planned last year to make this trip. It was a wonderful trip in so many ways but I need to write about the first few hours of the trip before I begin.

My non stop flight was scheduled to leave at 4:55 pm on Thursday and I left the house at 3:15. I planned to park, check luggage and checked in online. LESSON LEARNED: I cut it way too close - my fault completely - and missed my flight. Thankfully, I was rerouted to LA on standby and then on another standby flight to Phoenix. It was a much longer flight than my original nonstop but I was sure that God had a reason for all this nonsense!

On my flight to LA, I was so surprised to see it is one of those flights that have 9 seats across. I got the window. I sat next to a lady from Santa Barbara, she was 71, and flying home from Paris. She struck up a conversation with the blonde next to her across the aisle because they were both from Santa Barbara. I heard bits and pieces and just began to get situated when she tapped on my shoulder and said, "She was in the Olympics!"

So I met superfun Kami Craig (Hi Kami!) nubmer 12 on the women's USA water polo team - she was so fun. We were laughing, she let me wear the gold medal, we took a bunch of photos, I tried to get people to notice her and of course some free food from the flight attendant (he wouldn't take the bait but he did try on the medal!) I told Kami I was now her number one fan and would watch her team faithfully with my kids. She was so fun, open, likeable, interesting, good at answering my questions about her diet, her family, Indonesia, her boyfriend, long term relationships, the sport, Olympics, you name it. What a treat - four hours (or so) of FUN!

Meanwhile the sweet 71 year old lady became my BFF too but she got nervous at me when we landed because I turned on my cell phone too soon and I didn't get her name and number when we got off the plane. She was reading a Francis Chan book so we had a fascinating conversation about God, my faith, my awesome Bible Study, her dental hygenist, and her "journey to find purpose".