‘Bama or Bust

Well, we made it to the dirty dirty without any trouble. My dad works for Northwest, so while I am too old and quote-unquote independent to fly free like he and mom do, I fly on a cheaper companion pass and we all fly standby. Try THAT on Christmas Day the year they reduce the number of flights in general. The flight this morning was supposedly oversold, but we still managed to not only get on, but to sit up front. That was always the perk about dealing with not knowing whether or not we’d actually get ON the flight – knowing that there was always a little chance of sitting in first class.

And I hate take-off. HATE it. Something about the initial force of power or height or something, but my whole body just kind of silently freaks out. So what if it’s 7 in the morning? I’m sitting in first class, stomach in knots, dressed UP (because we are “representing the airline” or something) so dammit, I’m having a drink. And I did. I thought about a bloody mary, but vodka seemed fairly intense for barely being 7AM – even for me. I opted for Bailey’s and coffee instead.

I don’t know if it was the alcohol or just the coincidence that we “reached a final cruising altitude of 39,000 feet” at the same time I finished my coffee, but 25 minutes or so after take-off, I’d finally calmed down enough to read my book. *see next entry for my totally unqualified and abbreviated review of Chuck Klosterman’s Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs.

So I read and we flew, and eventually we ended up in Memphis. We switched planes, and headed to Mobile, which is where we are now and have been lounging for the past few hours.

I brought books, magazines, and my laptop. I’m planning to read, read, write a little, dig up trashy celebrity gossip, and watch whatever the rest of the family is watching on whatever TV is in the room. Right now, it’s something on PBS about the Vanderbilt hunting lodge (aka MANSION) in North Carolina. Before this, it was Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” (about sushi!) and then Marc “I’ll-Take-the-Physical-Challenge” Summers’ “Unwrapped.” *more on this later – I totally found my dream job.

So, Day 1/Travel Day of Vacation has been a success in that I really haven’t accomplished much except finishing one book and starting another – My Point… and I Do Have One, Ellen DeGeneres’ 1995 book that was updated (or something?) and re-released last October.

My goal is to finish that and start The Audacity of Hope by lunchtime tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!