28 December 2011

My Second Plane-Ride Adventure

 

So, if you haven’t read my first adventure on an airplane yet, it might make a little more sense if you read that one first, so if you haven’t, go here.  If you already have read it though, then good for you! You’re ahead of the game!

So, my last plane-ride sucked majorly, if you couldn’t gather that from the previous blog.

This time, things were a lot different because my dad wasn’t there to guide me through the process.  So, you could say I was pretty nervous flying on a plane by myself for the first time.

My friend Chelsie drove me to the airport with Nathan in the back seat, and it was pretty quiet during the whole time.  I mean, it wasn’t dead silent or anything; there was music playing and we did talk occasionally, but there wasn’t a party going down or anything.  And as we got closer to the airport, I got more and more nervous about the whole process, and sad.

Why was I sad? This was going to be the first substantial amount of time that I would be away from Nathan since we first met.  We were apart for 4 days for Thanksgiving, but this was going to be over three weeks apart (which doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but two a couple that is pretty much inseparable it seems like a lot).
Anyways, I was sad that I’d have to leave him, but extremely happy that I was going home.

So we got to the airport, and I was looking for the place where you can drop off your luggage outside the airport, but I couldn’t find it. So we ended up driving through the airport drop off twice.  Which wasn’t so bad, but it was a lot of confusion.
We loop around back to the beginning place, and Nathan gets out to help me take my bags to the dropoff place.  I was getting more and more sad and when we got to the place, I ended up crying.  And I kept crying after Nathan hugged and kissed me.  I could tell it broke his heart to see me like that, but it was the way it was.  After that I didn’t cry and I got through handling the checked bags.

The guy was really nice and after he checked the bags, he told me where to go and asked if I needed anything else.  I didn’t, so I went into the airport. 

When I got inside, I was very confused.  I didn’t know exactly where I was going, and my mind was blank as to what I did when I went to the airport with my dad.  Then it hit me that I needed to go through security, and so I headed the direction of the security checkpoint.  They were nice, until I was going to go through the detector and they told me I had to go back and take off my flip flops.
…my flip flops? Seriously, what could be hidden in there?  I dealt with it though, took off them, and went through the detector.

I grabbed my stuff on the other side, put my shoes back on, and then began the search for my terminal. 

…it turned out that my terminal was all the way down to the end of one of the places.  So needless to say it was a very, very long walk to get there.  Once I got there though, I felt a little better than I had felt before.  Except for the fact that there was another place to take off at that place before mine, so the area was packed with people.  Once they all got on though I was fine.

I was there like two hours early though and had to sit and wait, getting more and more anxious as time went by.

My first plane ride, I felt as though I was going to throw up the entire time, so this time I was prepared; I had Dramamine with me. (That’s an anti-motion sickness drug)  So I killed like…four seconds during my waiting time taking my pre-dose of that stuff.

The rest of the time I spent calling my parents and telling them I got to the airport and everything okay…
…and playing Sudoku. 
I was extremely bored.

Eventually boarding started and I was the 6th or 7th person on the plane, and when I got to the plane, as soon as I got on I asked for a seatbelt extender, and the lady was extremely nice about it. 
I got to my seat, sat down, and buckled up.

Then it was informed that the plane was only half-full, which meant that I wouldn’t have to sit next to someone.  Which made me feel even better about everything.

So takeoff was fine; I got a window seat and was looking outside the whole time.
I was pretty bored until they told us we could use electronics, and then I got my laptop out and watched Elf.

They went around offering food and drinks (which was very nice) and then I watched It’s a Wonderful Life.
…I only got halfway through that movie though, because I got sleepy and decided to take a nap.

I woke up what felt like minutes later, but was actually a few hours later, and was told that we would be landing soon.

I was thinking ‘okay I slept for a long time but that’s cool’

…and then we hit major turbulence.
I got pretty damn scared after the plane started to shake like crazy. I thought we were going to fall out of the sky.

Eventually that calmed down and we landed, and I got off the plane and went to the bathroom.

Then I made my way to baggage claim, where my dad and younger sister Lizah was waiting for me.

From there, everything was a breeze, and I was just happy to be back on the east coast.

And now I get to make the wonderful trip back to Utah in two days, and I’m not looking forward to it.
Don’t get me wrong—now I don’t mind flying because of my Dramamine (by the way, that stuff worked extremely well. I had a headache the whole planeride, but I didn’t feel sick)—but I just don’t want to go back to Utah.
I’m going to miss being home…and driving…and not having to wear shoes in the shower…

but it’s something that needs to be done, and as I said in my last blog, it won’t last forever, and I’ll be back in Blue Ridge Summit before I know it.

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