"...on a plane, sippin' champagne."

It didn't take much effort on Monday to pack for my trip to Oklahoma. Most of my smaller, tedious items that I normally forget, (shampoo, conditioner, socks, etc...), were still packed from traveling to the show at The Trees in Dallas, and STXE in San Antonio. When I woke up that Monday morning, my body was still trying to thaw out from the eerie, out-of-season temperatures we experienced at the STXE event. I was still wearing three layers of clothing.

I forced myself out of bed and darted toward the bathroom to get started on my day. In a rush, I tripped over my luggage that was sitting, open and unzipped, on the bedroom floor. "Shit! That hurt!", I said to myself, and immediately began rubbing my toes. "That's gonna leave a mark", and I slowly picked myself up and sauntered over to the foot of the bed and sat down. I stared at the half-full, half-empty, black suitcase that remained stoic and unmoved on the hardwood floor. I wanted to blame the suitcase for causing my latest injury but I couldn't. Instead, I decided to shrug it off, and add the incident to my list: "Things I've done on accident which resulted in physical injury."

The thought of going to Oklahoma to see Adam, my mother, and my friends, was enough to motivate me to move on with the day. I stood up and declared, "Let's try this one more time." Wobbly with the weight of my added clothing, I balanced myself, and walked to the bathroom. The morning sunlight was subtle and soft, like carefully plotted stage light, that only could have been created by an anal-retentive light designer. It was different watching the sunrise this way. Entering through the frosted glass, the light was evenly distributed throughout my entire bathroom.

I began looking for my toothbrush and noticed a peculiar shadow on the bathroom wall. I tried to designate a reasonable shape to it, but came to the conclusion that the shadow had to belong to a hybrid T-Rex/Stegosaurus. When I turned around to open the towel cabinet, I giggled because I realized the shadow was cast by the over sized hoodie and mounds of clothes I still had on. I took a few steps backward, into the spotlight of the sunlight. I tilted my head up slowly, then mimicked a dinosaur RAWRR, in slow motion. 

I find something in everything.

~

After I took a shower, and everything was packed, I headed downtown to board the Amtrak. I was surprised at the amount of people on the train that Monday. I'd never been on the train with more than ten other strangers in my cab. The announcer came on with an order; 

Everyone needs to take their bags out of all empty seats because we still have passengers boarding. 

I immediately looked over the seats in front of me and saw a line of people walking up the small staircase to board. I glanced at the row across from me and saw a young girl wearing marked up Chuck Taylor's. I started to lean across the aisle to ask if I could sit in the empty seat next to her. I feared staying in my own seat because I thought I may end up having to share my space with an annoying old lady, or some douche bag guy that wouldn't stop talking the entire trip. As I gathered my things to move, I realized my motivation for seat hopping was based from a negative energy:

Fear.

On this new, pursuit of happiness, campaign I've been on, I didn't want to start falling into old, unproductive habits. I thought to myself, "Let's see what happens if you stay here", and I sat back down. I put my backpack on the floor and leaned over in my seat to look down the aisle. 

That's when I saw her.

She was wearing a red and black plaid, winter coat. I didn't understand why because it was hot that afternoon. Her short, semi-spiky blonde-do was framed by two, slightly longer pieces, of hot-pink strips of hair that hung forward on her face. She was wearing standard issue, black rimmed, emo glasses. Coincidentally, I was too. She looked like she didn't care where she sat because she was engaged with her cell phone. The closer she got, I noticed she was wearing a Texas Longhorns t-shirt underneath her coat. But what stood out to me, most of all; She didn't have any carry-on luggage.

Finally, she reached my row. 

"You can sit here", I said, and I moved to the empty seat in my row and offered her my aisle seat. She looked away from her phone in my general direction; "Cool, thanks", and she plopped down in the seat. Maneuvering the leg rests, she reclined the seat and made herself at home with ease, like she'd done this a million times. She continued on and off with her phone, calling someone she knew to let them know she was on the train. I looked out the window as the train began to depart. 

"So...do you live in Ft.Worth?" I asked her. "No, I live in OKC. That's where I go to school. I go to beauty school up there. I'm originally from Texas though", she replied. I nodded my head, "Cool, cool", and I tried to lean my own seat back, but was unsuccessful. So instead, I slumped down and leaned against the cushioned back, and propped my feet on the tiny foot rest on the floor.

She looked down at my feet and asked, "How do you wear those all day?"

She was referring to the pair of black, Stiletto boots I was wearing. I wore them as part of my work attire and forgot they weren't considered an everyday, causal shoe. I told her it was just force of habit to wear them, and explained to her about the world of promo modeling, marketing, and event work. She had tons of questions because she was interested in these occupations. Once we started talking, we hit it off. Her spunky style, free-spirited ideals, and air of confidence reminded me of my BFF, Brandi. 

"When is your birthday?" I asked this new girl, about an hour into our gab session. I wanted to know because, though I already guessed her to be an Aquarius, I wanted to know for sure. She confirmed my intuitive feeling because her birthday was January 30th.

Yep, she was an Aquarius. 

The lengthy ride on the train flew by as we continued to share pieces of our life. We flipped through the April 2010 issue of Cosmo together, looked at pictures of her family and friends, and gushed about our dreams.. We found some common ground on our artistic career goals and I offered her some advice on how to get into the promo industry and into technical theatre. She was now slumped down in her seat too and mimicked holding a champagne glass. She said;

Just think, one day we'll be sittin' on a plane, sippin' champagne. We'll be super famous by that time and we'll talk about this ride and how we met.

She was so full of life and hope. I admired her. 

"How old are you?" I asked my BFF from another dimension. 

"17", she confessed. 

I was floored. This girl had already graduated HS and was continuing her education. Because she CHOSE to, not because anyone forced her into it. Her conversation skills were at par for a twenty-something and she was educated in everything we talked about; from politics, to dating, and music. "That's so rad!" I told her, "You're not even 18 and you have plans for your life. I wish I could have had a mind-set like that at 17! That's so cool that you're young and you know what you want. You're taking the steps to get there, consciously.You'll get everything you want out of life, I promise. I want you to know you seriously made my day." 

She smiled. "I was so nervous I was going to have to sit by some creepy guy or some annoying old lady..." 

"Me too! I'm so glad I didn't move to another seat and I got to meet you! What is your name by the way?" I asked her.

"Ashley", she replied.

"Well Ms. Ashley, I'm Liz. " 

When we arrived at my stop; Norman, OK, Ashley and I exchanged information. We hugged it out to seal the deal on our new found bond. It was sad parting ways with this kindred spirit, but I know our paths will cross again someday;

...on a plane, sippin' champagne.  
We'll be super famous by that time and we'll talk about this ride and how we met.