I hate flying. This is not a secret. I HATE flying! It makes me nervous and extremely anxious. I keep thinking that the more I fly the more I'll come to enjoy it like when I was younger. Nope. It's getting worse. So you can imagine my serious concerns flying to Houston, TX for my brother-in-laws wedding. I really wanted to go but I seriously did not want to fly. That's a lot of time in an airplane. I decided to suck it up and go.
I felt the anxiety of it all about 24 hours before the flight. It kicked in big time when we got to the airport and parked the car. I was shaking by the time we got through security. Stomach in knots, fidgeting...and nothing is helping me.
Thank You:
The people of Southwest airlines for canceling our flight as we are leaving for the airport then putting me on hold for half an hour while we get a new flight. Then giving us 3 flights instead of our original 2. That made me feel soooo much better.
The TSA staff at Portland International for going on your lunch break so there is only one lane open at security. We stood in line for45 minutes. Not fun when you have all this time to just stand and think about how you really don't want to be there right now.
To Erik for holding my shaking hands and letting me literally cry on his shoulder as we take off.
To my friend, who I'll call Maria, seated next to me who told me she felt better about her freak outs after seeing me freak out. She told me that she's never seen anyone but herself have a hard time flying so she felt not only compassion for me but we were instant plane BFF's.
The turbulence for making the flight as bumpy as possible.
The pilot for making sure we all felt like we were on a roller coaster.
To Erik for, again, trying to calm me down and letting me hold on to your hand as tight as I wanted.
To the 60ish woman, who we'll call Rhoda, who was seated next to me in the second flight eating her sausage biscuit. The smell was wonderful and sure helped my stomach feel better after the roller coaster.
To Erik for letting me have my panic attack and not telling me I was an absolute nut job. Maybe thinking it but not saying it. One of the reasons I love you!
To "Rhoda" for trying to get to her purse in the overhead bin during take off to get me some Meclizene or her Xanex...both from Mexico.
To the flight attendant who told her not to give me anything from her purse and got me some Meclizene from the plane supply.
To the Meclizene. My true BFF. You knocked me out and calmed my nerves. It was seriously like I just blacked out and woke up an hour later. It was awesome! And you lasted through a landing, another take off, and another landing. You kept my anxiety down and my pride in tact. I will never fly without you again!
2 comments:
Oooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhh my goodness! I'm so sorry you had to go through ALL of that. But I have to tell you, I'm still laughing my head off about it!!! You just have a way with words, I tell ya. I can't wait to meet you. You're so hillarious. I'm glad to hear that Erik was so understanding and kind to you. Looks like you survived and lived to tell the tale. Thank goodness! Even for someone that likes flying, turbulence and being delayed and all that, is terrible! When we lived in Hawaii, the flying back and forth was the worst. It was the longest flight alive, and was ALWAYS super bumpy, and late at night or super early. I don't know, but the combo somehow did it for me every time, and my face was in a bag. ;) Anyway, thank goodness for DRUGS, huh?! haha Glad you got to go to your brothers wedding. I can't wait to hear about that.
Rachel!! I heard you had a hard time, but I didn't know it was that bad. You'll have to make sure you load up on drugs every time you fly. I will do the same since I always have a problem with nausea on airplanes these days. Which is worse? Barfing all over and stinking up the plane or having an anxiety attack? I don't know, but both are pretty bad. I'm glad Erik was nice to you.
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