"Want to get away?"

Dear Southwest Airlines,

I really enjoy your ad campaign slogan of "Want to get away?" with the commercials of people caught in awkward and embarrassing situations followed by "Want to get away?" and then your current promotion. Hilarious.

I would like to share my own "Want to get away?" moment in the event you are looking to continue this campaign.

Story Set-up: There are 3 women who share a work office. It is nicknamed the hen house and no topic is off limits. Woman #1 has been trying to get pregnant for almost 3 years without any luck. Let's name her Brenda. Woman #2 (S.) and woman #3 (R.) both just recently started trying, but know of Brenda's struggles.

Scene #1: The women are sitting in the office. Brenda tells them both through tears that her IVF failed and she no longer wants to talk about her infertility struggles for awhile because it is just too hard.

Scene #2: S. and Brenda are at a birthday party with a few other co-workers. In a room full of about 10 people, S. and Brenda's boss's wife turns to Brenda and says, "So now that S. is pregnant, when are we going to get you pregnant?" Brenda can muster up the words to S., "You're pregnant? Congratulations." Then all of the women can follow up with comments like, "You share an office. Did you have any idea, Brenda?" and "Don't drink the water or sit on the toilet." and "I had a dream that Brenda was pregnant." For additional drama, they can all share which symptoms made them suspect they were pregnant before they ever took a pregnancy test, share how many pregnancy tests it took for them to believe it, how fast the 2 lines came up, and how they first reacted. All the while, Brenda stands there in horror avoiding all eye contact and swallowing back the lump in her throat. This is where you can add in the "Want to get away?" slogan.

Hilarious, right? I mean the infertile who has shared an office with S. for the last 5 years and sees her 5 days a week for 9 hours a day is the only one standing in that room who doesn't know that S. is pregnant. S. tried for like 1 or 2 cycles and Brenda can't even get knocked up with the help of modern medicine. Oh, and S.'s due date is 2 weeks after what Brenda's would have been if IVF#1 had worked. And we all know how an infertile loves to hear all about the pregnancy stories of everyone else there. And what about all the great pregnancy questions for the infertile while she just stands wanting to melt away into a pile of pond scum. This is some great material my friends and I'm offering it up for free.

I hope you will consider my moment for your campaign. I really did want to "get away" and who couldn't find the ironic humor in this? If you need more details, you can ask my therapist all about it sometime after this Friday.

Thanks for the laughs,
Brenda

p.s. Here are a couple follow up ideas for a whole infertility "Want to get away?" series:

• The uncomfortable conversation that follows for Brenda and S. in their office on Monday morning. "Want to get away?"
• Several co-workers can stop by during the following workweek to give their "Congratulations" to S. and follow with, "So which one of you are next?" or any other retarded comment they can come up with. After the first 5 of these, "Want to get away?"
• You could even fast-forward a month or 2 and let R. announce her pregnancy too since she just started trying in May. Brenda the infertile in an office with 2 pregnant women while going through infertility treatments. OMG, "Want to get away?"