“This is your captain speaking. Nothing to worry about, we just came a little too close to another plane.”

So Tim tells me I should feel free to use this blog space to promote whatever I want. I hate to be self-promotional on someone else’s dime, so I’ll at least tell you a good story in the process…

I was on my cross-country flight out to the MacGathering this morning and things were going rather smoothly. iProng (formerly iPod Garage) will be making a big splash at the show this year, so I’ve headed out here to Los Angeles early to get a jump on things. Anyway, about halfway through what had been an uneventful flight, we suddenly dropped. Not descended, dropped. Think about that feeling you get on a two hundred foot rollercoaster, and you get the idea.

Immediately after the drop, the plane goes into extreme turbulence, and one flight attendant turns to the other flight attendant and says something along the lines of “what was that?”. Maybe it’s just me, but when I’m on a plane, and someone who spends five days on a week on a plane doesn’t know what just happened, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. The seat belt sign comes on, the flight attendants start pushing their cart to the back of the plane as fast as they can, and I’m starting to wonder if I’ve unknowingly been cast in the pilot episode for a Lost spinoff.

Just as fast as it all began, the turbulence disappears and suddenly it’s right back to being a smooth flight. I’ve been through turbulence before, but this was different. Everyone on the plane is looking around at each other, wondering what the heck just happened, trying figure out if something is actually wrong or what. “This is your captain speaking,” comes the voice of reason over the intercom. “Nothing to worry about, we just came a little too close to another plane.”

Yeah, that’s a good way to keep us from worrying. No sweat guys, it was nothing, we almost hit another plane is all. Move along, nothing to see here. The person in the window seat sitting next to me opens the window shade and sure enough there’s another airliner flying away from us. Better than flying toward us, I suppose. Best I can figure, we didn’t actually almost hit the plane; instead we merely crossed through its wake and the resulting air pocket. Maybe someone with experience in such things can use the comments section to explain what might have really happened.

Once the shock wore off of “hey, there’s another plane next to us in the sky,” the whole thing became a plane-wide joke that just kept feeding itself, and as a result the rest of the flight went by in a snap. Nothing like a little harmless diversion, I suppose.

Shortly after I got off the plane, I learned that the new MacBook had been released while I was in the air. I sure hope the plane that almost hit us was rush delivering inventory to the local Apple Store. The question isn’t whether I’ll be buying one or when; the only question is whether to go with the black or white one.

With rumors that MacBooks are in fact hitting retail stores already, I think the bigger question will be just how many MacBooks will be in use at the MacGathering by the time this weekend rolls around. For that matter, there might even be one at our booth. In any case, if you live anywhere near Southern California, you need to get your butt over here this Friday and Saturday. Come hang out at our booth or sit in on any number of other booths, Mac seminars, celebrity mixers, and all kinds of stuff that’s way cooler than I am. Getting into the Exhibit Hall will cost you less than ten dollars. If you live in the neighborhood, you have no excuse not to be there.

Hell, I almost got hit by another airplane getting here, so showing up is the least you can do.