Anyone want to go Flying??

January 28, 2010  Part II

I am not big on flying for several reasons, but the main one being . . . that I have a tendency to "hurl" when the "ground" underneath me moves too much.  I once flew in a little plane when I was 5 as a reward for learning the most verses in VBS, and then, didn't get into a plane again until I was a freshman in college. 

I went to college in California, so it was usually a little bumpy flight from Greenville airport to Atlanta, then a very long 5 hour flight to Los Angeles.  Dramamine was my friend, unless my flight got canceled, (which it did several times), and then I would have to place myself in as safe a cubby as I could find, drape my legs over my luggage, prop my head up on whatever else I had, sleep off the effects of the Dramamine and pray that I woke up in time for the next flight. 

And, by the way, have you seen those upchuck bags they so kindly tuck behind the seats?  WHAT are those for - - mini breadsticks??  My advice, if you start to sweat on a flight - - start gathering those breadstick bags from everyone around you - 'cause they're not gonna hold much. 

Memorable flights (ie flights I'd rather forget):  Getting off the "little puddle jumper" from Atlanta to Greenville and greeting my mom who said, "You look a little green."  And I felt green. 

Another time (flying in a small plane) from Greenville to Atlanta, I did okay until I got off the plane and went by a store that had a small plane on a string flying in small circles at the front of a store - what were they thinking?? 

And of course, the lovely time when I was a young college student flying alone with my Elle magazine (I only bought them when I flew), I was surrounded by several men - a young dude, a business dude and some other dude.  We didn't talk or anything, but gave some glances to each other as the plane did a few bounces, then a drop, a lift, "The Captain has turned on the seatbelt sign", a few glances  - - (I'm okay!), a few more bounces (ugh), a lift, up, down, bounce, bounce (feeling green), drop, (please let this stop - where is that BAG?) - they looked nervous too - but more about me then about them, and they handed me their bags. . . enough said.  One even asked the stewardess to pick up the bags for me.  Mortified!!  So much for Elle.

January 28th already felt like a dramamine induced crazy dream (see previous blog), but a bit of this story actually happened the night before -
At 5pm (the night before), Dale had sent me a text asking if I wanted to go up in a plane to take an arial shot of the office and the other office sites that are still for sale in Cardinal Park. 

I am a mom of three school age boys.  My days are usually full of rushing kids out the door, dropping off kids, exercise, picking up kids, doing homework, more picking up kids, what's for dinner and more homework.  So the idea of hopping on a plane in the middle of the day didn't quite compute.  My initial answer was, "No, thank you."             And, did you read the intro?  That was a big factor too.

But, I was meeting my dear friend, Elizabeth for dinner at the neighborhood Mexican spot up the street.  Her husband had been out of town for two weeks, and since Dale had a meeting that night, I thought we could take the kids out and have a little bit of chit chat ourselves.  Well, when Elizabeth heard about the plane ride, she said, "Of course you are going!"  in a very chipper, excited voice.       (She hadn't read the intro. yet)

To which I replied, "Well, I'll go if you go." 

And she promptly retorted, "Well, then, I guess we are going on a plane ride tomorrow." 

[Insert previous blog about office break-in here]

And then I woke up. . . very wonky from all the wierdness that had happened the night before, plus, the strangest dreams that continued the drama into my dream world, and a little nervous anxiety that maybe I really was going to go flying this morning too.  I decided against "drama"-mine since even the "less drowsy" type that is now out can still make me a bit groggy and I had had enough drama from the night's events to last all month.

I was secretly hoping it would all fall through . . . but it didn't, so, I dressed warmly and at the last minute grabbed 3 plastic grocery bags . . . and then a gallon ziplock for good measure.

My flying friend didn't let me down, I picked her up  -  -  - and then our plane got delayed.

So we stopped by the office, got a YUMMY rasberry chocolate truffle coffee and heard Bethany's version of the break-in which helped me dismiss some of my anxiety with some good hard tear-producing laughter.

We drove across town, and as we were walking into the tee-niny terminal of Anderson Airport, Elizabeth confessed that she wished she had called Bebe to tell her it was OK if Ann Catherine (who is 6) got her ears pierced before she was twelve. . . and it didn't matter if John (8) didn't smile if he was on the front page of the newspaper. . .   OK, so I wasn't the only one who was nervous.

It was a six-seater.  Two seats facing forward with all the controls.  Two seats facing backwards behind the front two and then two seats facing forwards again.  I got the one in the far back - so I could take pictures - great for pictures, (but not for hurling.)

I wish I didn't have such a weak stomach.  I think I could really enjoy flying - and I did most of the trip. 

We were up and over the city within about 3 minutes!  We circled Dale's office and circled and circled and went up and then down and circled some more.  I was fine.  I clicked and clicked and clicked getting a whole bunch of great arial shots. 


Then we went on a little hunt for Elizabeth's house, we found our church, the hospital, the grounds for the new school, a swamp we didn't know existed right next to Elizabeth's neighborhood . . .  We went around her neighborhood looking down into the trees, trying to find our bearings, and then, trying to give our patient pilot directions.  Now she is sitting across from me and looking out the opposite window, so our directions were all confused. 

Needless to say,  I started to get hot.  I unbuckled, took off my cozy sweater and Elizabeth saw my face and realized what was happening.  She asked Tom (our patient pilot) if we could get some air.  Tom was trying to direct us to some air vents (we never found them) and by then it didn't matter anyways.  I sure am glad I grabbed those grocery bags - and the ziplock.  Remember that YUMMY raspberry chocolate truffle coffee?  Yeah. 

Well, after that I was fine, but Tom wasn't risking it - he was landing his beautiful plane (with its nice clean interior) as quickly as possible. 

Elizabeth was so sweet.  She grabbed the bag from me and told me she she had "never seen anyone throw up so lady-like!"  What a good friend.  And now we have another memory we will get to laugh about for years to come. 

(*Thanks to Kristin for the breadstick bag comment.)

(**Please no checking of grammar on this one - too many compound subjects, verbs, sentences and more.  Think Paul from the New Testament - he wrote some very loooong sentences!)