The Flight

I went with my boss on a business trip to Utah last month. Our biggest accomplishment? Making it out of the airport.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 4:12. Shortly after arriving at the airport, the monitors said it was delayed until 5:40. Then it became 6:06. At 5:45 I looked at the monitor again and the new departure time had become 6:40.

It was about that time that my boss said, “They’re paging you. I just heard your name.” So we both went to the gate where the ticket taker said, “Are you on this flight? Hurry! We’re all waiting for you!” I pointed out that the monitor said the plane wasn’t supposed to leave for almost an hour and he said, “Oh you can’t believe those.”

???

So we rushed to board the plane. And once we were settled, they announced that the flight had been delayed and we wouldn’t be leaving the gate until 6:40.

The Quest

We landed in Utah at about 9:30 p.m. local time. Not only had we missed our dinner reservations, we had also passed the time that restaurants are open at all.  So we found ourselves in a local 7-11 stocking up. At one point my boss noticed that the 7-11 carried beer but no wine so she asked the lady at the counter where the wine was kept. The lady informed us that only liquor stores were allowed to sell wine. And then she added, “You must be from California.”

Because only Californians drink wine?

Only Californians try to buy wine from a 7-11 at 10 p.m. on a Thursday night?

Only Californians (apparently mistakenly) think that 7-11 is a liquor store?

None of the above it turns out. According to the lady it’s only in California that you can actually buy wine in a grocery store, and yes, that means that 7-11 is a grocery store.

Ironically, I later found that a Safeway in Arizona has a better wine selection than the Safeway I usually go to in California. Apparently those wine-savvy Arizonans know better than to look for wine in a Utah 7-11 though.