Airplanes 'R Us

When I moved out to Small-bany two years ago, I faced the daunting task of using all the stuff in my bedroom to decorate one whole apartment. Needless to say, it took some creativity to take a bedroom's worth of furniture and transform it into an apartment's worth of stuff.

When I was preparing for the move in Colorado, I packed my (clearing throat) toy airplanes with the intention of using them in Albany as just that: toys. However, when I got to Albany and saw the decoration deficit I was facing, these valuable toys became valuable decorative artifacts.

Now, when you walk into my sky-rise condo, you are immediately hit with my aviation motif, complete with my toy airplanes AND my old art class airplane paintings, which will be featured in another blog post. In this post, I will be showing off the toys. (By the way, I admit that it feels strange to be 26 years old and still be talking about my toys.)

These were the first ones I got. In all fairness, the BA 737 was mine and the Alitalia MD was my sister's. But, alas, she never played with hers so over time I adopted it. They remain among my favorites for a couple of reasons: (1) the BA has the old color-scheme, which I personally like much more than the new one; and (2) they have retractable wheels.
Then, on the way back from a month-long backpacking trip in Europe, I was strolling around Frankfurt am Main International Airport with my travel buddies when we stumbled across a shop with a basket full of toy airplanes. I only bought four of them (because that's all I could afford at the time after having spent a month in Europe) but look out if I ever fly through there again.

After very difficult deliberations, I ended up getting a 1998 World Cup special edition Aerolineas Argentinas B747. The livery has soccer players painted over the blue stripes on the fuselage and the words "Aerolineas mas Argentinas que nunca en el 1998" which translates roughly to "Airlines more Argentinian than ever in 1998." Check out the real thing here.The other three Frankfurt-based purchases were a hometown Lufthansa A340 and Singapore Airlines and Aeroflot B777's.
Then, following perhaps the only real temper tantrum that I have thrown, I convinced my sister to buy me this model Aer Lingus B737 at an airport on our way home to Colorado from a family vacation. She very graciously bought it for me (again, because I had already spent my trip money). I think she realized the flight home would have been miserable if she did not get it for me because I probably would not have shut up about it. If that was the case, then we both won. She got a pleasant flight home, and I got this:
I cannot help but wonder what the gf thought when she first walked into my apartment and saw all my toy airplanes. But, I was prepared with this strategy: I immediately bombarded her with tales of days on the Poudre (pronounced "pooter") High School debate team. All of a sudden, the toy airplanes did not seem all that bad.