Takeoff and Landing

Day One: 5/10/09
Takeoff and Landing

It’s been over a year since I’ve been on international soil and I am happy to report that is about to change. I am off on an 11 day adventure that will feature (sometimes multiple) stops in Philadelphia, London, Amsterdam and Washington DC.

My flight out of Eugene was the 6 am to SFO. After spending the better part of Saturday moving into our new, and yet to be completed office, I decided that I should pull a packing all-nighter. This is not uncommon for me. I tend to prefer to stay up all night so that I can easily sleep the whole time on the plane. It makes the trip go faster.

I was one of the first people to board my flight out of Eugene. I sat down, got settled (Ipod and Bose headphones out), and ordered a glass of water. I drank the water and listened to the couple in front of me talk to the flight attendant seated next to me about travel. It seemed the man was a retired United pilot. The flight attendant was on her way to SFO to work the flight to Beijing. She has been working for United for 35 years. Five of the flight attendants working her flight have been with United longer. I’m not sure if this means that the perks of being an active United employee are too good to give up or if the recession really hurt her age bracket. If it is the latter, she should have her money with JP Capital Management.

After giving my empty water glass back to the flight attendant I could feel my eyelids getting heavy. I closed them and didn’t reopen them until the plane landed in SFO. I managed to see absolutely no sky.

My layover in San Fran was roughly an hour and half. Traveling without dad has three big negatives: 1) he isn’t here to do things I can make fun of in the blog; 2) there are no Dr. P Fun Facts ; and 3) There is no Red Carpet Room access domestically. Without the ability to get soda and snacks for free, I decided to go and pay up for breakfast. I went to my favorite little restaurant located by gate 70. I had my usual (ham and cheese omelet, dry wheat toast and a diet pepsi). It hit the spot and was served in a very timely manner. Upon completion of my meal I walked down to gate 75 where the screen said boarding would begin in 1 minute.

Upon arriving at my seat I was overcome by quite an odor. The man in the seat in front of me conservatively weighed 350 pounds. Every time he raised his arm I thought I was going to pass out. The odor was worse then 99% of what Jason can produce after a chinese meal. I was freezing in temperature but the stank was so bad I didn’t want to turn off the vent my seat mate had pointed at him. After getting settled, again with my Ipod, and a pillow and a blanky, I told the gentleman next to me that I was probably going to fall asleep and if he wanted to get out while we were flying to just wake me. He said, “I won’t.” I proceeded to fall asleep in roughly two seconds.

A typical flight from SFO to PHL is five or so hours. We must have had quite a tail wind because when I woke up to squealing wheels it was only four hours and twenty minutes later. Again I saw absolutely no sky. When I woke up I told the man next to me I wasn’t kidding about sleeping the whole time. He said, “No kidding. Congratulations.” With that I proceeded to exit the plane, thank the flight attendant for his service (he laughed) and head onto the jetway.

Before I even had two feet in the terminal my phone rang. It was dad. He wanted to welcome me to Philadelphia. How he knew exactly when I would be in the terminal, I’m not sure. But I found the timing funny and just assumed he was doing whatever he could to not be doing paperwork. I’ll never know why following a dot across a map on a computer screen is so captivating to him but clearly it is. And I know he was watching this intently because my flight came in a half hour early.

Fortunately my awesome cousin Ben was also on top of things and he showed up right on time to pick me up. Everyone said that I should be scared of his driving but honestly I wasn’t nervous even once. He did a great job. I concluded my day with pizza, (Levita’s is REALLY good. I hate to say it but it may be better than Passerello’s.), talking to Granny and Pop, some Starbuck’s, and an early bed time.

Night,

Katy