Yesterday, on my hotel van ride to Chicago O'Hare, I was notified that we had a VIP who would be riding on our flight to Springfield, Illinois. My captain, who is from Texas, and lacks a certain amount of couth, exclaimed, "I don't know what the big deal is. What difference does it make who is on the flight? It's like they expect me to try extra hard not to crash or something." He raised a good point, but I still wanted to know who it was. "Oh I don't know. Some singer or something from the seventies."

I prodded him a little bit more and he made a phone call. "I guess her name is Marie Osmond." He said with the phone still to his face. My face lit up immediately . "Marie Osmond!? Like Donny and Marie? Dancing with the Stars Marie? That Marie Osmond?!?" He shrugged his shoulders, "Yeah, I guess."

We got into the plane and got everything ready just like we normally do. I watched as everyone boarded in the pouring rain. 'Is that her?' I'd say to myself every time someone would walk through the gate. 'Sigh. Nope.' Finally, everyone was on board, but still no Marie. Bummer. Wait. The doors opened and out came a group of about six people. 'An entourage! That's her!'

We were running late, and we needed to get Ms. Osmond to her show, so there wasn't any time for pleasantries. We pushed back and blasted out of Chi-town (that's what the cool kids call Chicago it these days).

When we were in-range, I made a call back to the flight attendant. "Would you please tell Ms. Osmond, that the First Officer and the Captain would very much like to have their photo's taken with her?" The flight attendant obliged me and made the arrangements.

Marie Osmond was so incredibly kind, that she waited in the boarding area for us to come out and stand for photos. She was already late for her concert. I put on my jacket and headed down to talk to her. When I approached, I said, "Hello Ms. Osmond, my name is Jack. My wife liked you on the dancing show. Would you mind a picture."

"You are so cute," she said, "But I'm waiting for the pilots though."

"Ma'am, I am the pilot. The Captain is on his way down also."

"Oh. Well then, of course we can take a picture! I have that exact same camera!" Her smile was very pretty.

Mine, not so much.