Please Raise Your Seat Into The Upright Position ...

... and so it begins.

I love flying, actually - I find it completely and utterly relaxing.  I think it's because the moment my seat buckle is fastened (do we really need someone to tell us how to do that?), I know that no matter what is happening in my life, how crazy things are, how much turmoil is rocketing around ... there is piss all I can do about it for the next x hours. 

So sit back, relax, close your eyes, and give over complete control of your very life to a complete stranger.  It's very ... liberating.  For me.  Your mileage may vary.

I wasn't always this way.  There was a time when I was a white knuckle flyer, which made my father, the Air Force Jet Pilot, a bit nonplussed.  In fact, I think he was downright embarrassed for me.

So, he gave me books about flying.  About aeronautics.  How planes get up in the air and how they stay there.  How it all works.  He de-mystified it all, explained every tiny noise and every lurch and shudder in the airplane's journey.  And that, coupled with growing older and wiser and realizing that if my plane really did take it into the ground and create a giant meatloaf, the universe would not implode - that life would go on, just without me, and that maybe that wasn't so unnatural ... well, once I was able to look at it that way, I got a lot more fatalistic.

It's not like I don't care.  It's that I know I can't control it, so my energies are better spent on what I can control, such as how to talk my way into Business Class (70% of the time, I can - people have no idea how easy it is.  And I'm not about to share the secrets).

So this morning at 5 AM I woke up, got dressed, left the house at 5:15, arrived at the airport at oh, about 5:19, and checked through.  I flew through Montreal to get here to Winnipeg, and for the next week I'll be visiting family and doing some shows on the weekend.

I won't have as much time to blog or keep up with blogs, but I won't disappear entirely.  I'll keep in touch ...

Comments

[Gerah]

Share your business class secrets with us! Please do!

You must post on it later. Promise, Nils. Promise.

[suburban misfit]

Now, is it just Canadian airline staff letting you join the upper crust? Because I know, generally speaking, that Canadians are known for their nice-ness. Yes, that includes you.

See how I butter you up so you'll spill the secret?

I'm smoooooth like that.

[JD's Rose]

Have fun!!!

Secret?!

[marybishop]

Enjoy your mini vacation/business trip...

I want to remember all you said about flying so I don't flip out next time I fly...I hate it.

[Laura]

I usually take a look around at the people on the plane and mentally tell myself that since they're not flipping out, there's no reason for me to worry.

During one flight to LA, that litle method didn't work so well. The plane couldn't land and ended up circling the Pacific for almost an hour. (long story, that one).

So there are two other things I say to myself, if the above mental exercise doesn't seem to work:
"...just a walk in the park... this one." yep, "just a walk in the park..."

and, during bad turbulence:
"the Lord is my shepard..." believe it or not, I'll recite the whole thing!

(that has worked on certain boat rides too).

Looking forward to your updates. Why not write about what's going on with your family in Winnipeg?

[kalki]

Ooh, I love to fly, too. Never been in business class, though. Sure would be nice....

[song]

i don't care how it works, i just know I don't like it.

I'm a shocking flyer