I'm always a couple hours early for a flight. I do this for a few reasons but mainly because the security line can be a cold bitch. Once I get past her, I like to get settled in a chair at my gate and just people watch. I was half awake, looking at my phone at 6am when I saw actor Wilson Cruz scope out a chair and plop his butt down 20 feet across from me. I figured cool, he's on my flight. And about 10 minutes later, I saw a camera crew and more celebrities. I'm extremely bad with names and faces. Beyonce could be sitting next to me and I would be oblivious. I had to imdb Wilson Cruz.
All I knew was that I'd seen some of them on my tv over the years. There was excitement and confusion. Excitement with them. Confusion between us. I asked the guy next to me what was going on - he said he didn't know. The man with two kids across us asked what was going on - we told him we didn't know. All these 90s tv stars. Was I on an episode of Punk'd? What was going down? I tweeted and a friend replied that I must be on the #ATXPartyPlane. The what? All of a sudden I was excited. I was excited to be heading to Austin for BlogHer Food but now was extra special - like hitting the content lottery. What could possibly happen on this flight!?!
When it was time to board, if you know how Southwest works - when you check-in online or at the airport, you are put in groups A-C and numerically 1-60. I was group B so when group A was called, I just went to hang out in front. Lacey Chabert was next to me and I dorked out and asked her, "Hey you were in Mean Girls" and we had an awkward conversation but she was super nice. She totally could've boarded earlier but a lot of the celebrities waited till their group and number boarded. I walked on and was handed a Southwest Live at 35 water bottle. When I found a seat, I found a sleeping mask and Kind bar inside the water bottle. One of my row mates was a writer and the other a musician. The writer was going to the ATX Television Festival and had no idea she would get on our special plane either. She was loving the whole experience. When we were in the air and situated at cruising altitude, someone from Southwest announced 75% of the plane was en-route to ATX Television Festival and the rest of us just got lucky. She promised there would be a Live at 35 performance by Teddy Geiger. We were served nuts by actresses Arielle Kebbel from Vampire Diaries and Lacey Chabert of Party of Five. And then the actor in front of us decided to turn around and have a full on conversation with my row. Lucas Neff from Raising Hope. And then he spilled ginger ale on my foot, my bag and the writer beside me's foot. It was funny and awkward, he offered to wipe us down, I said no but I think Abby (the writer) might have wanted it. So yeah...
And then this filming happened. You can see me at :14 and :34 trying hard not to be in the shot. Ha!
I wish I was better with names and faces because Quinn and James Novak from Scandal were on the flight! FAIL! Because I felt weird by taking pictures of celebrities I didn't know - I found these fun links to show you what went down on the ATX Party Plane!
Season 2: ATX & Southwest Party Plane
Welcome Aboard the Party Plane!Labels: #ATXPartyPlane, Arielle Kebbel, ATX Television Festival, Austin, BlogHer Food, Lacey Chabert, Lucas Neff, Southwest Air