as i pen this note to you, i'm eating cheesy potato soup in the memphis airport, jazzed up on two benadryl and awaiting my rescheduled 3:05 flight. all this to say, i'm delirious from only 1.5 hours of sleep thus far, one hour caught crammed between my sister and an armrail on a delayed 737 and the other half on a bench in the airport while my sister went outside to get her nicotine fix and stop her fit.
can i just take a moment to say i dislike strenuous travel? no, more specifically, strenuous travel with an extremely angry, tired and feening 18 year old.
i love my sister. i really do. but it is in these moments that everything bubbles to the surface, both in you and the people around you. on my first flight, leaving seattle at 10 pm, we had the pleasure of a stuffed plane, a chatty cathy and a coked out crazy man who made me more nervous than anyone should be on an aircraft. he kept getting up and down, talking loudly and touching strangers' faces. threats of arrest could not calm him down and he proceeded to ask me, could i believe those stewardesses? what, were they just going to shove him out of the airplane? gosh, they were getting mad at him for just sitting in his seat! imagine!
finally, i said well, it's midnight and you keep bothering people. they just want you to calm down. damn my forward and confrontational ways!
to this he replied, oh, well you can just shut up. what, is this your first time flying? can't deal with being around people? how about you fly to the midwest or something? to which i just laughed and said, umm, that's where i'm going. i live there?...
in the midst of all of this is my firecracker sister calling him every name in the book from two rows back and all of us are getting uncomfortable. a few more "discussions" with the flight attendants, and he finally shut up. all of this in the 2 hours in, with 2 hours left. sleep did not come to me on that flight.
arrive in blizzard-y detroit at 5:04 am their time, 2:04 my time, 4:04 wichita time. got on the connection...only to sit on it for TWO HOURS, because no one came to work because of the snow, so no one could load our bags or push us away from the terminal. and then there was the de-icer.
at 8:23 detroit time, 7:23 wichita time, 5:23 my time, i took two benadryl in hopes of sleeping once airborne. success! for at least an hour until we began to descend and i had to put myself into an upright and locked position.
arrive in memphis at 9:39 detroit time, missing our 9:20 flight home and waiting in line to be told that the next flight would be at 3:05 pm. i will arrive in wichita at 4:45 pm their time, 5:45 detroit time and 2:45 my body's time. and here i am.
there is something ridiculous about airplane travel. it never fails to make you feel out of joint and uncomfortable. maybe its the odd bonds you make with complete strangers as you watch them sleep or discuss their lives during the awkward taxiing stage. or maybe you are just very aware of the emotional and mental states of those around you, which can be rather draining at such close proximities.
and bless you if you even read that far. hey, at least this 8 dollar bowl of soup is free because NWA is "sincerely apologetic" for the inconveniences i have experienced today and thus gave me a $10 voucher. to be used one time only, with no change. life is good.
ps: please forgive this gruffer and more sarcastic version of myself...sleep and a shower will wash away this crust soon, i promise.
pps: this story is only made more entertaining if you know my airplane story last december with NWA. here's a hint....my ticket this time was free because of last year. here's to road trippin'.
love love
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