Food Memoir

Food Memoir (Rough Draft)

Tonight I find myself walking in a scattered line on tar mat walking towards a Boeing 747. Under the cover of darkness the soldiers make their way to this fat and sluggish looking plane. The cloudless night, cool breeze, the bright stars, and the serenity this perfect night would like to share with us is stolen. The relaxed feeling was stolen from us by the loud engines of the plane which were also acting like super sized blow dryers funneling its hot exhaust onto our weary faces making it I little harder to breath. The heat from the engines added to the misery of carrying a rucksack that weighs one hundred twenty plus pounds. The rucksack packed to the brim of the equipment we might need to use when we land in a country riddled with chaos, pain, and agony. Finally the first guy in line makes it to the bottom of the plane and tosses his bag to the side of the stairs to be loaded in the belly of the plane. Tossing our bags to the baggage crew slowed the progress of getting on the plane. Waiting on the tar mat was making it that much more frustrating, because now we have to endure the hot engines blasting us in the face a little longer. Finally it's my turn to drop my pack and get on the plane. I take one glance at those stairs and it seemed like I was about to climb and Egyptian pyramid.

My mind is telling my body," move faster we are almost to the seats," and my body is saying, "You haven't been on your feet and carrying that heavy pack for the last fourteen hours." My body struggled to make it to the top of the stairs, but I was able to push forward. I am greeted by a happy go lucky flight attendant. She had in my mind the biggest fake smile I have ever seen on anyone. I knew that smile was a permanent fixture of her face only because it's here job to make you feel welcome and relaxed. Her perfectly groomed hair, pressed uniform, French manicure and her overwhelming perfume just infuriated me and I had no idea why. Perhaps the long day of waiting and leaving my friends and family behind had taken its toll on me both mentally and physically.

The flight attendant greeted me with her big smile, red lipstick and pearl white teeth and said," Thank you for flying with us and we hope you enjoy your flight." In my mind I had already blown up on here three times over yelling," Take that damn greeting and fake smile and shove it up your pointy nose. I'm not on this flight by choice!" I was able to keep myself together and simply gave a weary and tired smile. The attendant had no idea that the soldiers and I were on our way to meet interesting and stimulating people of an old culture and possibly kill them. Giving her a tired look and forced smile she then knew that we weren't in the mood for even the simplest of greetings. Finally reach my seat stow away my carry on and flop on my seat like