And some of you thought I was crazy...

So I got to the Lindbergh Terminal at MSP International a few minutes before 4 a.m. Sunday via the 55 on the Light Rail (that shit is slick; I love Mpls' light rail) and thanks to Megan's wonderful job, I had priority over most other standby passengers as long as a seat was available on the 6:30 flight to Denver -- and all the flights were booked.

So I get my gate ticket and go through security, get to the gate and play the waiting game. I finally get a ticket and of course it's in the exit aisle, but it's by far one of the two best seats in the house -- on some Frontier planes, the 10th row is missing seats at A and F so there's nothing but leg room in Row 11. Lucky me.

Then this guy who seriously looks like he's been smoking meth all night walks on (It turns out he was just on an extreme caffeine high, more than likely). He's all sweaty and messed up looking and acting aloof and I'm like, "Great." Turns out he was just on that Five-hour energy crap that in addition to making you "alert" also makes yous skin hot, makes you sweat and hyper as hell.

The flight-attendant/wannabe stand-up comedian does his schpiel about where the exit row is, how the bottom of our seats can be used as flotation devices in the event of a water landing between Mpls and Denver (I would presume the event of a water-landing would be in the North Platte... and would make a lot of cutthroat trout shit themselves silly), and of course the oxygen masks and now I'm practically asleep.

We take off, get up in the air and I'm out ... until descent.

Then the guy and I start talking and he tells me how he hasn't slept since Friday. He drove from 2 a.m. Friday from Bozeman, Mont. to Eau Claire, Wis. to be a pallbearer in his grandmother's funeral. He got into Eau Claire around 4 p.m. Saturday and then gets this call from his girlfriend who is pregnant with twins, is due in November and started hemorrhaging. He's been downing five hour energy drinks and Red Bulls to stay awake and is doing anything to get back to Bozeman on Sunday. (That explains the hyper, aloof appearance while boarding the plane since he's so hopped up on caffeine.)

And suddenly my worries of getting home to a pregnant wife don't seem that bad...