i have been thinking lately of chopra's incidents of flight encounters of the synchronicity kind and am reminded of a non-stop flight i took last year - i flew across country from delaware to san diego - my scheduled return date was for one week later - however, shortly after arriving in san diego, i decided i did not want to stay the week so i began trying to get a flight back for the next day - after hours on the phone and changing and re-changing the return trip, i finally had a reservation for the next afternoon - another non-stop flight - but i began to have really negative feelings about this changed flight - i even called my daughters and told them i was thinking of changing my flight still again because i was having those "odd" feelings about the new reservation - i was very leary of keeping it but did in the end - initial boarding went well but the flight was full - not an empty seat - i took my seat which was in the bulkhead and decided to watch a movie - when i turned it on, there was no picture and no sound - i played with all the little buttons and the earpieces - and still nothing - one of the flight attendants came over to help but to no avail - i was still distracted with this when i realized that it was really warm and the air didn't seem to be working - then i realized that we were still at the gate, not on the runway - and i knew something was wrong - i called the flight attendant over to ask and was told that we were just waiting to taxi out - they always say that, right? - more time goes by - like about 30 minutes and i keep asking if something is wrong but am told that all is ok - finally we taxi to the runway but we stop - the plane doesn't move - there are no other planes visible waiting for take-off - we continue to sit there - and several passengers are asking questions - babies are crying, etc - so i called the flight attendant over again and said that i wanted to be let off the plane - another passenger with a family came up and told the attendant that they wanted off also - and then several more - and more - the attendants assured us that there was just a "small mechanical problem" and that we were waiting for the mechanics to come and make the repairs - then we taxi back to the gate where we still are not allowed off the plane - corporate airline people come aboard and we are told that under no circumstances will this flight be cancelled - that the plane is still going to take off once repaired - by then most of us passengers have the lynch mob mentality going and insist on being let off the plane - and i don't mean nicely insisting by that point - finally, the crew tells us that those of us wishing to get off may do so - every single passenger gets up and leaves the plane - then we are all back in the san diego airport terminal and it's nearly 10:00 pm - hours later - we are then told that we may board another plane that will have several changes enroute - i insisted however on waiting for the next non-stop flight which was another two hour wait - so about 2:00 am i board the new plane - we had been told in the interim that the plane to be repaired had finally been totally grounded - anyway, i take my bulkhead seat - and notice that we now have an additional two flight attendants - one of them offers me a blanket and asks where i'm from - and i told him delaware - then he said he thought he'd detected a southern accent and that he's from the south - so i asked him from where and he said "louisiana" - i asked where in louisiana and he answered shreveport - i couldn't believe it! shreveport is my real home - i just happen to be living in delaware right now - then the other new flight attendant heard us both exclaiming our surprise and came over and asked if we were both from louisiana cause he was from new orleans!!! neither of them had been scheduled for this flight - they were both called in when the other flight had been cancelled - and there we all were - having a louisiana moss and magnolia reunion!!! loved it!!!
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