baltimore - episode one

i'm being sent to baltimore, maryland by my funder/employer as the evaluator and representative of the south dakota grant-equivalent of what i work on for wisconsin. got that? in real life, i evaluate a federally-funded grant for wisconsin. for the conference, i'm representing the south dakota evaluator on the same grant (minus a few thousand details that are even more boring than this introduction). all that being said, these are the adventures of my trip to baltimore.

first flight, 7am, haven't had a full cup of coffee yet: sat in the wrong seat; apparently, 22e looks very similar to 22a that early and caffeine-deprived in the morning. then, as the plane was taking off, i was looking out the window, watching the flappy things on the wing and i thought, i could die in a fiery plane crash. and then i thought, why does it have to be fiery? it could be just a plain ol' plane crash. or some other kind of plane incident. an explosion perhaps? but then we were back to the fiery. maybe a hit and run? but when would i be walking along a tarmac? i guess i wouldn't have to be the hit-tee, i could be in the plane that does the hit-ting, but then, how would i die in that scenario? i guess, maybe, if we hit something really big and solid. but that would just result in a crash, probably fiery, and the plane wouldn't really be able to 'run' away from it. the plane could lose power mid-air and free fall to the ground...ending in a fiery crash. the plane could lose power mid-air and fall in to a body of water, the impact killing everyone on board. but then, why would our seats serve as flotation devices if that scenario were likely? that just doesn't make sense. the flight attendants could be serving beverages and teeny-tiny bags of peanuts and i could choke on a peanut and suffocate. but i'm cpr-certified, i know how to save myself.

we started our descent into detroit as i came to the conclusion that if i am going to die in a plane-related incident, it's just going to have to be a fiery crash.