Well, as you ALL know by now, I was majorly stressed about taking this trip out to Phoenix! My husband and daughter had left a week ago (Saturday morning), and had managed to push through to Phoenix in three days, rather than four. Our daughter is all excited about her first apartment, and I must say that it's beautiful. She's a real "nester", and wanted everthing to be absolutely perfect before classes started -- which is today.
ANYWAY, you all hung in there with me as I debated whether to take the train, drive out by myself, or fly. I eliminated the drive fairly quickly, but thought seriously about taking the train. Well, it seems that I miscalculated the cost of the ticket the first time around, and it turned out to be a RIDICULOUS price! As I recall now, it was hovering somewhere around $1,600.00, one way, and would take four days from here to Tucson, and then I'd still have to rent a car the following morning (further costs would also include a night in a Tucson hotel) to drive up to Tempe.
Forget it...!!!
My husband finally offered a compromise: He told me it would actually be far cheaper than the darned train just to upgrade my airplane ticket OUT to Phoenix to a first class. That way, I would have a more comfortable seat, and I wouldn't feel like a sardine, packed into a flying tin can! I could also have more one-on-one assistance from the first-class flight attendant, and make my flying issues known to her at the very beginning. Then, he and I would fly back together on Sunday (yesterday). Coach!
Of course, I was still dreading the flight, but this idea made it a little less traumatic, by a notch or two. I still worried that I would be seated next to some humorless, moron man who would be completely unsympathetic to my stress, but decided to go for it. I mean, it was that or not go at all, and there was NO way that I wasn't going to go be with my daughter as she set up her apartment!!!
Naturally, I had no sleep the night before, but I was all packed, and ready to go. Our son was going to stay here at the house, and I had left him plenty of home-cooked food, as well as cash for carry-out, if that turned out to be his preference.
Everything went smoothly. My flight was at 10:30 a.m., so even with being at the airport early, I had missed most of rush-hour traffic. I had some parking issues, but not too terrible. I went through security, and made it to the gate in plenty of time. TERRIFIED, but hanging in there!
About thirty minutes before the flight, I ate a pill...
It began to rain.
Lord, have mercy...
Well, we boarded, and the very FIRST thing I did was to accost every visible flight attendant to plead my case, and they were all very nice about it, and tried to reassure me. Then, I sat. As the plane began to load, all of the first class seats filled, but the one next to me. I thought to myself, "There's NO way you can be this lucky, and end up having an empty seat next to you, but PLEASE Lord, give me a nice travelling companion!!!"
He did.
A lovely young woman who I'm guessing may have been somewhere in her early thirties, and who apparently travels frequently, sat next to me. Bless her heart! We chatted, and as we waited to take off, and as my pill began to soothe my anxiety somewhat (I had actually only taken half a pill because I wasn't yet ready to render myself unconscious), I decided that I could get through the next five hours.
Then, came the pilot's announcement...
"Ladies and gentlemen, the change in weather has affected our ability to take off with the amount of weight we have onboard, and while our numbers show that we could PROBABLY take off without any difficulties, we want to be safe. ["Oh yes indeedy, we definitely want to be safe", she thinks to herself as she begins to clutch her armrests!] We're in the process of recalculating our numbers."
I whipped out my needlepoint, and began to stitch! (focus, focus, focus...)
A few minutes later, a representative from U.S. Air boarded the aircraft.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it appears that this flight is too heavy to guarantee a safe takeoff with the change in atmospheric conditions. [Well, shit!] We'd like to ask for volunteers to disembark, for which you will be given a free roundtrip ticket to be used anywhere within the United States."
My first fear was that NO ONE would volunteer to get off the freakin' airplane, and that we'd take off anyway! My SECOND thought was that God was telling ME to get off that plane! But since I was already ensconced in my seat, and was all drugged up, I sat on my hands instead, to prevent myself from inadvertently becoming one of the volunteers!
Only love for my daughter kept me from taking advantage of that serendipitous opportunity to flee the plane! However, three people DID decide to take up U.S. Air on their kind offer, and got off the flight.
As the flight attendants sealed us up for takeoff, I wondered if those three passengers, and their luggage, had been enough to lighten our load sufficiently. Now a good twenty minutes late, we were clearly about to take off, one way or the other. I had one last opportunity to call my husband before cell phones had to be turned off, so I decided to tell him about the delay, and about my missed opportunity. He, of course, already knew about the delay, but cracked up laughing over my Sophie's Choice. He said that I should have taken the free ticket, and booked a later flight! (NOW, he tells me...!!!)
No matter. I'm drugged, and ready to go.
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
I'm not sure that I have ever been as terrified during a takeoff as I was during this one. Not only did the engines sound a bit strange to me (maybe my forward position in the plane made a difference in the sound), but when we were BARELY in the air, the plane banked sharply to the left (no, I mean SHARPLY -- not like a normal turn), and I swear to GOD that the nose was pointed DOWN. As I prepared myself for the inevitable, I decided that those three passengers clearly were NOT sufficent to lighten our load, and that I should have been among that small band of volunteers after all. Of course, the rain clouds also caused the plane to shake; I sat back, and closed my eyes as we trembled and shook, left wing down, during our ascent to altitude...
At some point, we lifted above the clouds, and became level.
By the end of our five-hour flight, I had watched a bad movie (Lucky You), although I do love Drew Barrymore, eaten more chicken parmesan with pasta, salad, and pecan pie than I thought I would be able to, napped briefly, stitched my needlepoint canvas until my poor fingers were nearly raw, and had taken the other half of my pill...
But, I made it!
My husband and daughter met me at the airport, and although my daughter wanted to take me directly to her apartment, I told her that I really wanted to drop off my luggage at the hotel, and put my feet up for a few minutes. Maybe fifteen minutes, or so.
I slept for two hours.
Then, we went to her place, and she fixed her dad and me a delicious dinner, and I drank some wine as I admired her new home. We ate, and went back to the hotel pretty early, although it wasnt quite so early for me since it was three hours later according to my East Coast clock that hadn't made the time switch yet.
I then proceeded to sleep for THIRTEEN HOURS! Yep... I feel asleep at 8:00 p.m., Arizona time, and my husband finally woke me the next morning at 9:00 a.m. I honestly could have slept another hour or two.
Terror can do that to a person.
And, I can't tell you how glad I am to be alive to make this post!
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Aw, Moore, we all knew you'd make it, and thank goodness you had your little pills with you. Sleep really is the great healer, non?
And now that you're back and shaking off the effects of the trauma, will you send your daughter plane tickets home for visits rather than making that trip again? I hope so!!!
I don't know what I'd do without emails, ichats and videos of my kids when they're far away, so make sure those things are handy for you - it really does help.
Well we are all glad that you made it back safely. I had the pleasure of riding first class once and absolutely loved it. Of course I had my daughter then and had to share the bigger seats with her but it was still nice.
So your daughter is going to ASU, is her apartment in Tempe or is it in Mesa? Thats a good part of the city, I like Tempe. And the best part is that its smoke free.
Very glad to hear that things worked out for you, now hopefully you wont need to fly again for awhile.
I'm glad to have the flying back and forth over with, but miss my daughter terribly! A very large part of me wanted to stay out there (despite the 113 degrees), but she doesn't want mom hovering...
Shelly, her apartment is in Tempe, and it's lovely. It's in a gated complex, and all apartments are wired for alarm systems, which makes us feel much better about her security, and she's only about a mile and a half from campus. It turns out that she may have to take a lab at the Phoenix campus, so it's good that she has her car out there (the whole point of the father/daughter drive). In the meantime, she'll probably take public transporation over to the Tempe campus because student parking is really expensive, and some of the lots are almost as far away as her apartment, so what's the point? If it weren't for the heat, she could really walk, or bike over. My husband thinks that he saw a transit stop right at her gate, and I think that buses run frequently -- and she'll have the student discount -- so I think that it may be her easiest, and least expensive solution.
I went exploring at a new Bed, Bath, and Beyond in Tempe (looking for a vacuum, and a few other little things) which is in a HUGE new shopping complex. You go out University Drive, hang a left on Dobson (just past the 101), and go about half a mile. It looks like they're also building a multiplex theater across the road. The next time you're in the area, you ought to go look at this place. It's just crazy-huge!
And, speaking of huge -- Saturday night we ate at Kona Grill which is in Scottsdale Fashion Square. WOW! That's a gorgeous shopping plaza... I'm sorry that I didn't have time to shop!
Apparently, her boyfriend got in very late last night (about 10:30 p.m.), and since classes start today, I'm not sure he's ready! Even though this is their second year, it's still confusing those first couple of weeks when you're trying to make adjustments to class schedules, etc. PLUS, they have to get jobs! Well...HE already has a job lined up, but SHE doesn't. So...
But, it was tough to leave her behind. If she weren't so crazy-happy ("Mom, this is the happiest I have ever been in my entire life..."), I would have had a much harder time! She's a psychology major, so she's going to have a very busy schedule this semester because she also has a math requirement to fulfill. However, her dad and I are counting on the fact that she has a quieter environment this year since she's in her own place, and NOT in a co-ed dorm where one can find random people passed out on the floor of one's room on any given morning, or where one can be distracted by raucus parties all night long! NOT what we're paying tuition for...!!!
She did very well last year (despite spending a great deal of time tutoring her boyfriend in English because he's weak in writing, and she's very strong in that department), and she's committed to pursuing psychology, so I think that this will be a great year for her.
Okay -- I have laundry to do! I'll catch up with you guys again later...
__________________
"It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"
(Dumbledore to Harry Potter)
Yeah there is a mall in Tempe..called Arizona Mills and I think its 3 miles around. I have a friend who used to walk it at the end of her pregnancy because her baby didnt want to come out.
I dont venture into Tempe often because my mom lives almost right next to the Phoenix campus...really far Northwest....but like I said its smoke free so whenever we went dancing it was nice to not go home smelling like an ashtray.
OH Moore, you poor thing. All I can say is you are not alone. I flew to Boston and back and everything was fine but I should have takena big tranquilizer. I had a migraine headache before the flight back so I took an Exedrin, well that apparently has caffeine, which had me more jittery than necessary. I nearly stood up half way through the flight and said "let me off" but I ordered a beer the minute the steward came around with the drink order, Not quick enough IMO)
next flight I'm getting a hold of something like zanex (sp?) or I'm going to finally buy the herbal remedy Karen told me about a while back.
My trip was awesome though. I guess we just have to pretend to be brave for the fun of the trip!
Hey, Tina!! Glad you could take a break from pre-school madness and marching band duties. Don't forget, it's Bach's Rescue Remedy. If it works for you, you'll never be without some in your purse. I think I told you that they upped the price to about $15/bottle, but it lasts about 6 months, depending how crazy life gets.
Moore, if you ever do try some, please let us know how it worked for you. I wish I could have shipped some down to you before the big flight, but customs has gotten kind of weird about that kind of thing.
I echo kae's rescue remedy recommendation. It works GREAT! I'm still on one bottle! I love it!
Moore, I'm so glad you made it through the whole experience rather well. I was pretty nervous about my first ever flight last month, but made it through nicely!
