"I left the contents of my stomach in San Francisco"

Okay so I forgot to write down my crazy flight happenings into San Francisco!

Well as we were coming in over some massive lake-type thing to land on the runway, I noticed that the runway literally started at the edge of the water with absolutely no land or fence between water and where the pilot expected to land the plane...

I was literally waiting for the always-fun bump when hitting the ground, seeing that we were merely FEET from the ground...no more than 10 feet...when the strangest thing happened.

All of a sudden the pilot, like, BLARES the jets and the plane starts taking back off into the air!!!

We all sat around looking slightly uncomfortable as the pilot sharply turned the plane around and started back towards where we just flew in from. Once we were safely in the air going in the OPPOSITE direction of the airport, the captain FINALLY came on (seems like it took forever) the speakerphone and said "Sorry about that, ladies and gentleman. We just had to take a misapproach because we encountered a pretty severe windshear just before landing and will now attempt to land one more time. Should only be about 3 or 4 more minutes before we get you on the ground."

Okay so there are a few things that stood out to me in that little schpeel...

1. The completely nonchalant way he said "Sorry 'bout that, ladies and gentlemen" as though what just happened was no big deal. I mean seriously, most people were probably jumping out of their skin having no idea what happened! At least he could have added a little humour to lighten it up if it really wasn't so bad...something like "Whew! That was close! I just about landed you in Tokyo!" I mean, I supposed pilots are supposed to remain calm but when he sounds so serious, it makes us all think that he NEEDS to sound calm and collected.

2. "We encountered a pretty severe windshear just before landing..."
here were my thoughts in return:
"Well didn't you know about it BEFORE?!"
"Will it happen AGAIN?"
"Is this a common thing? Not being able to land in San Fran because of windshear?"
"What the hang is windshear?!?!"
"What would have happened had they landed anyways - was I just 10 feet away from my certain death?!"
...of course I wasn't thinking these things "seriously", as in I was really panicking. Apparently I don't have much of a trust issue when it comes to putting my life in the hands of "experts". At least if landing in windshear was a bad idea, he knew how to get us out of it!

3. "Should be only about 3 or 4 more minutes before we get you on the ground"
Okay so THIS is the LEAST of my worries at this point. Whoever felt that little jolt and burst of jet engine thought "Ugh! Gosh! When is this stupid pilot ever going to land this plane? I have a manicure in 30 minutes!" IS FREAKIN INSANE! I mean, I've flown quite a bit in the past 4 years, and I've never encountered something like this. Because of my own personal experience, it leads me to believe that this is NOT a common thing that happens! And of course, since I am in my own little world and the only statistics that matter are the ones in my head, I am right in that belief. If anyone has actually experienced that enough to be able to be worried about the timing (besides the pilot himself), I suggest they get a new job where they spend more time at home with their families.

So that is my San Francisco story. I maybe could have come 10 feet away from my own death while reading "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time". Not exactly my ideal form of literature to head out of this world while reading...which is probably why we were saved from almost a certain untimely (sort of) end.

This is pretty random, ain't it? Ha.

This whole thing makes me sound like I was actually worried during the little "misapproach", when really I was mostly thinking "Well this is interesting"...it wasn't until I got off the plane and started processing what the pilot actually said that I started wondering what in the world had happened. I was too distracted by the fun feeling coming back in my tummy like on a rollercoaster to even think about the fact that it could have been more serious than I thought.

And then the sarcasm starts. And there you have it.