5 feet 2 inches

This blog is for all of you tall people who like to tease me about my lack of “tallness” – yeah, you guys know who you are! Did you know that when you are 5’2” you can pretty much sit anywhere on a plane and be quite comfortable? Really, there is no need to request an aisle seat or much worse an emergency exit just so you can have leg room! Did you also know that the window seats are probably the most comfortable seats on really long flights? Yep, they are! You can put your pillow up by the window so you can lean up against it and rest more peacefully without having to worry about your head leaning on the stranger sitting next to you (the one who happens to enjoying the window seat) or having your head drop towards the aisle and having someone bump you as they walk past you. You also get to look out the window – which is fun when you are going some place you’ve never been – and you don’t have to be disturbed every time the person next to you wants to go to the bathroom. Did you also know that when you are 5’2” you can easily cross and uncross your legs while sitting on a plane? Yeah, easily! In fact, when you are 5’2” you can even sit cross legged on the seat or put your feet on the cushion and pull your legs up next to your chest. When you are 5’2” there are hundreds of ways to adjust in your seat which makes long flights much more pleasant. Best of all, when you are 5’2” you can stand up and I mean fully extended stand up not only in the aisle but while standing by your seat underneath the overhead compartment! So, when you guys mock me about my height or tease me about not being able to reach items that are stored up high, or when you guys hold things up high over your head so you can watch in amusement as I jump to try to reach whatever it is you are holding, just remember that traveling in cramped planes is much more comfortable for me than it is for any of you!

Anyway, I am currently at a “Guest House” (a.k.a. “Bed and Breakfast”) in Johannesburg. It is now 6:30 pm in Johannesburg and 10:30 am in Utah. My flights over here went smoothly – thanks to my height and some Benadryl which knocked me out during the 15 ½ hour flight from Washington D.C. to Johannesburg. Tomorrow (Thursday) morning we are going flying into Beira, Mozambique. Love you guys and miss you - Quel