Laughter in the Skies
Over the past couple of weeks, no doubt, many of you have traveled from where you live to be with family and friends for the holidays. I know there are some that just wish they would have stayed home, but it's important to spend time with family.

In the month of December I flew to visit my older brother and his wife two times. Once for her graduation, and then once again to meet the rest of our family for our vacation. The important part of this story is that I flew on Southwest Airlines. There are some Southwest haters out there, and they do have their moments, but I didn't realize how fun one of their flights would be.
If you are not familiar with Southwest let me give you a little refresher. There is no assigned seating. When you get to the gate your ticket will have an 'A, B, or C' with a number beside it. That is your place in line. When it is your turn to scan your ticket then you board the plane and sit wherever you like, or wherever there is a seat. There are ways that you can be in the 'A' group but that is not the point here. Once on the plane the flight attendants will then go through the long and boring announcements that are the same every plane you will ever get on. There isn't a lot of things that will make you feel dumber than someone telling you how to put a seat belt on. Surely everyone rode to the airport in a vehicle of sorts. Unless they have only ridden on a city bus their entire life they can probably figure it out.

Well on Southwest, this is my favorite part of the flight because you never know what they are going to say when they pick up the intercom. On one of my four flights this past month during the spill about the oxygen masks, the flight attendant started talking crazy..."We do not anticipate a loss in cabin pressure but should one occur a mask will drop from above you...after you stop screaming pull the mask over your head...if you traveled with children, it's time to pick a favorite or the one that you think stands the best chance and help them out."

It was one of those things that I heard, but then I really heard it, and well if you know me...I started giggling. Something that would normally stop by time the plane takes off, but not for me. There are plenty of other one liners that happened throughout my flights from Tulsa to Lubbock, but I won't be writing them down. I think it would be better if next time you flew, you flew Southwest and just heard it for yourself.

It's my birthday today. I don't bring this up to get a happy birthday Ben from you readers. I bring it up more for the fact that I am starting a new year of life. For some reason every time there is a new start to a new year people look back and think on the things that they want to improve on. Well, for me its simple. I've always talked about blogging. I've even experienced things that I think...hey you should blog about this.

For example there are things that you go through that just leave you thinking, I have got to tell people about this. Like the time knew my thread count in college. Just because I KNEW what my thread count was doesn't make me gay. Of the fact that from time to time things come out of my mouth that can be misinterpreted. Also as a side note a pink cake for my birthday does not equate me with liking all things pink, thus making me less of a man. Needless to say that there are things worthy of being blogged about in a person's life, however, I have yet to dive into this whole blogging thing. Like I said, I'm going to try and embrace the calling of the blog.

To my two faithful readers I'm hoping this new chapter of my life will keep you well informed of what is happening in the mind and life of balla ben.