HappyUP....SmileItUP!!!

So, I pull into the Sacramento International Airport - (I think it has one flight to Canada to earn that "international" status). I am there the required two hours early. As I stand in the first line to check my bags, the guy next to me is radiating bad juju. It appears that he is some kind of coach. From the way that he is looking around, he may be in charge of getting a bunch of the females from the team that he is coaching on different flights early in the morning.....

First....that sounds like a bad job - rousting a bunch of young gals early in the morning to get on flights. To make matters worse, it's a Monday morning so he is battling the commuters as well. The airport is jammed.

I'm feeling pretty good - which I always should because I am me (though I forget that once in awhile). In this case, I had the added benefit of being darn glad that I wasn't him. Even if the team took first place, it is a distant memory as I visibly saw this guy adding miles to his tires right there in the airport.

I proceed to through the line - and I get to the counter. There appears to be more counters open than counter people because, though open, no one is at my counter. All of the counters that were open had prospective passengers standing in front of them. Have you got the picture?

Now, because I just arrived at the counter - I have to think that all of the people that were in front of their counters were there before me. I thought that this would be a good time to do a little experiment. I think that experiencing the bad juju guy put me on to this. I decided to actually be a HappyUP Traveller. As one of the counter people was walking by, I looked at her and I smiled.

That's it! That's all I did!!! - and guess what? She stopped and waited on me first. For about half a second, I felt a little guilty for taking cuts but, somehow, I recovered immediately and got over that. I don't like guilt much so I try to get rid of it in those very rare times when I do something regrettable.

Hmmmmm.....a smile.....in the midst of chaos - is that all it takes? I think I'll start trying it more often.