I'll fly away oh glory...

It's been a little bit since I updated my blog. Partly since I spent a bunch of time up in the air and the other part has been just spent hanging with the fam. More about that later, now I tell you about the time in the air.

I left Thursday night around 9:30. I found that I like taking the night flight out. You don't feel that you lost the whole day that way. A friend took me to the airport and dropped me off. I was able to get one of those nice curbside guys to take my luggage, which is great because when I travel home I don't pack light. For those of you interested 38 manapuas and 20 sticks of Portuguese sausage weighs 40 lbs. It was suppose to be 40 manapuas but 2 of them got soggy from the ice pack in the cooler when I first got them. So what's a girl to do. I ate them and they were good.

After I got my boarding pass and went through security I headed to my gate for about a hour and and a half wait. I've gotten to be quite proficient at going through security, first I have to grab 2 bins for all the stuff I have to pull out of my bags. Computer, check. Wallet and cell phone, check. One quart bag of all liquids including lip gloss, gel pens and extra spit, check. Ok ok maybe I'm being a little facetious, they let you take gel pens on the plane. Cameras (yes I said cameras, I got my new one the day I left YEA!!!! And I'm bringing the old one home for dad to play with), check. Slippers off feet and in bin, check. I think I'm ready to go. There is always that little nervous feeling when I go through since I've been stopped before. I think they can sense fear. I had no problems this time so I was happy.

Like I said I had a hour and half wait so I got settled in and comfortable...or at least as comfortable as you can get in a airport waiting area. I decided to check my cell phone and found that I missed a call from grandma. I checked the voice mall and could barely understand her. She was near hysterical. I could make something about cool whip and flowers. That's when I realized. I forgot the Puakenikeni flowers for my mom. In the rush to get the cold things packed I neglected to check the cool whip container to see if it was the right one. Hence mom gets two scoops of extra creamy cool whip. Grandma was laughing so hard she could barely breath when she told me. Oh well! I usually forget something, I suppose it could have been worse.

The first flight was pretty good. A nice older man from Philadelphia was my seatmate. We talked for about a hour and a half hour then I started to get sleepy and since I can never sleep on the plane I thought I better strike while the iron is hot. I tried to get as comfortable as I could, it helped that I had the window seat. I always try to get the window seat if I can since I travel by myself. It's nice to have something to lean you head on. Most people don't enjoy having strangers drool on their shoulders. But like the majority of the flights I've taken, I wasn't able to sleep. Basically I wiggled around trying to get comfortable for 3 hours. I felt bad for Ted next to me. Sorry Ted.

My one and only layover this time was in Salt Lake City. I don't mind having a longer layover because then I don't have the stress of trying make it to my next gate in time for the next flight. I've done some running through terminals and it's not fun. This time it was a two and a half hour layover. It was a good thing to because I was at the end of D terminal and had to go to the end of C terminal. Essentially I made a big u-turn. As I waited to board I talked to the fam and let them know the progress so far. I would have called people in Hawaii but it was like 3:30 in the morning and I didn't think that would be appreciated.


You know the plane you are about to board is small when the ladies in front of you say how cute it is when they see it. I was a little worried about the seating conditions in a plane that size but I actually think there was more room then in the bigger plane I just rode. And I know there was more room for me since I didn't have a seat mate. I was able to stretch out a little bit. I don't know if it was because it was a smaller plane or if we just hit some bad air pockets but we had alot more turbulence then the first flight. I've been through worse but it was still pretty bad. I do want to know though, why it is that a otherwise calm flight will suddenly get turbulent as soon as I get into the bathroom? It always seems to happen that way.

About 30 minutes to landing the pilot came onto the intercom and apologized for all bumps we'd been having, as if he had something to do with them...maybe he did, who knows. Then he told us we were in for "severe turbulence". That's a pleasant thought isn't it. I thought, should we be worried? Should I take out my floatation device? And that's another thing, why do they always tell you about the floatation devices? I can understand when you are flying over the ocean but this was Ohio we were flying over. Do you really think the floatation device will help!?! Personally I would rather have a parachute. So I decided that in the spirit of David Letterman's top ten list I would give you the top ten things you don't want to hear on the intercom from the cockpit:

1. Whoops! My bad. I hope that wasn't important.
   
2. Cool! When I pull on this stick thingy it makes that dial thingy move.
   
3. If any of you ever wondered if there really is a God we'll soon find out.
4. This is your captain speaking and we just wanted to let you know that we don't quite know were we are but we're sure we'll be able to figure it out any minute now.
5. Does anyone out there know how to fly a plane?
6. This is your captain and we want to thank you for flying with us today now if you want to land we are going to need an extra $400
7. We're going to die! WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!
8. There seems to be a problem with the engines. All but one aren't working. Hopefully we can just float down.
9. I hope no one out there gets motion sickness.
10. This is alot harder to fly then I thought it would be.