Hey Flat Stanley! How's it going Flat Stanley? What's up Flat Stanley? Looking good Flat Stanley! High five Flat Stanley!
Back in the 60s I used to say, "I'm just crushed you don't know my full name," but not everyone knew I was kidding. I'm happy to be called Flat Stanley.
But YOU know my full name. And you probably also know about the bulletin board that flattened me when I was sleeping. Normally that kind of thing doesn't work out. But for me it opened up the entire world.
The. Entire. World.
Anyway, I'm Mozi's Flat Stanley. Hi!
And this is my story...
I was mailed to Mozi's uncle Steve in Chicago. It was very cold in the mail truck. I had to cozy up between a box of cat food and a stack of bills for most of the trip. And when they sent me out to Uncle Steve's work last week, brrrrr....
So. Cold.
But now I'm quite warm. Of course, I've been sitting in Uncle Steve's office all week. In fact, I think he totally forgot about me until this morning. I heard him say, "Uh oh." And then the next thing I knew I was being pulled out of the envelope and staring right up at him.
"Hi," he said. "I'm Mozi's uncle. You can call me Steve. I'm so sorry I forgot about you. I've been busy and well, I just forgot. My bad."
"No problem," I said.
(Although between you and me, I was starting to get a little claustrophobic.)
"I know we're supposed to be going on adventures together. I was wondering if you'd like to fly with me on an airplane to Palm Springs. I'm going to visit my parents."
"That sounds awesome. Do I get my own seat?"
"Um, I'm not sure. I think it might be a full flight. I'm sure I can get you in the Skymall."
"Skymall?"
"You'll be fine. Let's go home and get ready for tomorrow."
The morning came. I got up and did some tubes. What are tubes? They're sort of like sit ups I guess. I just roll up and down a few times - nothing too strenuous. Then I had a quick breakfast with Nola. (Nola is Mozi's cousin.)
After breakfast I helped Steve finish packing. It wasn't so much packing as it was just shoving everything into the corners and then smushing the middle down.
Finally Steve called for the cab. It was raining, but looked like it might turn into sleet. Steve was wearing shorts.
"Shorts," I asked. "Really?"
"Well, it's warm in the cab, it's warm in the airport, it will be warm in Palm Springs. No big."
"Alright."
I got buckled in and we headed to the airport.
The cab driver's name was Marcus. It looked like his the front seat was his mobile office. He had three phones. And I think one of those things is a fax machine, which always makes me think of a nice massage. Like I always say, a fax gets the kinks out.
We got to the airport with plenty of time. There was hardly a line. Of course, when we got around the corner - THERE was the line. We had to wait. Everyone was taking off belts, slipping out of shoes, removing laptops...
I didn't hardly have to do anything.
Oh, they're telling me I need to lay down flat. No prob.
;-)
Whoa, this airport has everything, even dinosaurs! I LOVE dinosaurs!
Because the airport is soooo big, they have people movers. It's like an escalator without steps - it's VERY Flat Stanley!
Whoo, people mover!
(And here's a vine as well: CLICK I guess it's like a video tweet.)
As I was lying on the people mover, there were people walking by. They looked down and said, "Oh, hey Flat Stanley!" I'm always amazed how many people know me.
At the end the mover, there was a chair to get your shoes shined. The shoe shine man said, "Hey little dude, I don't think I can shine those shoes. I might get you all smudged. You can sit down and take a load off."
Then we went up the escalator to our gate. Steve put me right on the escalator stairs. He was just playing around, but it almost scared the pulp out of me.
Here we are at our gate. C26 to Palm Springs. Whoo hoo!
Hmmm, I hope we get out of here today. It's sleeting now, which is like snow AND rain!
We sat down and waited at the gate. Lots of people. All kinds of people. Some flat, some not so flat.
They say the waiting is the hardest part. Generally that's true, but today I had my very own seat. Sweet!
Finally we boarded the plane. I think we were one of the last planes to get out of Chicago because of the weather. They had to de-ice the plane, which means there was all this orange water running down our windows. Yuck.
There was a seat open in our row, but Steve put me in the Skymall. He said it would be rude to take up the whole seat by myself.
"Rude to who?" I asked.
"Good point. But you're just going to have to trust me on this. Plus I have to pull the seat belt tight across your lap, which means it's going to leave a mark."
"Fine."
But then he put me in the seat back compartment, which I wasn't too thrilled about. But it was actually kind of cozy. I felt very safe and secure.
I did get out of my seat a few times. I got to look out the window. I think that's the Grand Canyon down there.
Here's my flight from snow to sun... It's a timelapse. It's when the camera takes one picture every few seconds. And then when you put it all together, it makes the whole trip look really fast. The flight is 4 hours, but the video is only a minute. It's pretty cool actually.
ORD to PSP from Steve Stein on Vimeo.
It turns out the lady next to us knew all about me.
"My granddaughter does Flat Stanley," she said. And then held me up for her friend.
"Remember when we were in Pennsylvania?" she said. And then she laughed.
After we landed Steve and I waited patiently for all the other passengers to exit so we could look in the cockpit. There were a lot of buttons and gauges and levers and switches. It seemed quite the opposite of riding a bike.
:-)
The pilot's name was Gary. He said he had never heard of me, but would be happy to take his picture with me anyway. So he held me up for the camera. Cheeeeese!
Just hours ago it was raining and sleeting and snowing; which is AMAZING if you think about it.
Anyway, here I am in the warm sun.
See you soon, Mozi!
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