Shakes on a Plane

Accomplishing “sleep” in the economy section of an aircraft requires a great deal of neck-bendiness and good ole’ circus-style contortionism. Thanks be to God I have neither, or else you wouldn’t be getting this “long-awaited” (jokes, jokes) update! Anyway, who needs shut-eye when you can… ramble at length to your friends over the internet? At least SOMEONE will be getting some sleep! ;)

That aside, I’m decidedly impressed by the offerings of this airline! (And yes, I’m typing this in a Word document after having been in here for nine hours. What you’re reading is something I’ve simply copied and pasted to the internet much later.) Anyway, as I was saying - free headphones and movies, maps and 3-D diagrams of our flight progress at my fingertips, and I even have my own electrical outlet for cryin’ out loud. SPOILED!

My dad, Mark and Richie dropped me off at LAX tonight (Last night? Yesterday? This morning? I don’t even know anymore!) and pretty much left me for dead at about 10 ‘o clock. It was a strange feeling, being alone. I was all smiles at the security gate (and just to make me laugh, the guard took a look at my passport and said “Is this YOU!? What happened? Did you grow up?” to which I replied, “not yet!”) but, as the figures of my dad and brothers grew smaller and smaller, finally disappearing into the chaos of the airport, I found myself feeling slightly sick to my stomach.

I boarded the plane at 1:10 and immediately tried to wrap my head around what was happening to me. All sorts of thoughts came to mind. I’M MOVING TO ASIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! AND I’M ALL BY MYSELF AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I MAY POSSIBLY RUN OUT OF MONEY and then I calmly sat down and buckled my seatbelt.

It’s a 14ish hour flight from LA to Hong Kong, and a 3 and a half hour flight from there to Singapore. My poor little brain is so confused by it! It’s 10:25AM on my watch and outside my window is complete and utter blackness. It’s trippy.

How HUGE this world is, and yet, how small! The Pacific Ocean is so vast… I can’t believe people used to try to cross this thing with wooden ships and only moldy bread and salted meat to sustain themselves. Sick!

So what have I been doing all this time? Well, apart from developing (and then discovering, ughh) my first zit in years on my forehead, I’ve managed to get in a little bit of sleep, meet this awesome Columbian girl seated next to me, eat dinner at 3 AM for the first time ever, watch “Exit Through the Gift Shop” and then proceed to become impressed by it (except for the French narrator who rips off of other artists and neglects his family errgh), read, pray, and contemplate the blackness outside my window. This, my friends, is what I call the ACTION PACKED itinerary for the seated traveler.

At any rate, it seems that I’ve accumulated a long backlog of stories, news, and other bits of nonsense from last week to share with you and the world wide web!

But where do I start? If it were up to me I would have documented things as they happened, but alas … I spent way too much time this past week trying to avoid anything resembling productivity! (This is also where I conveniently insert my famous “I work better under pressure” line.)

I think I’ll just do a massive picture post next, and throw in some spontaneous commentary to clue you in. It can be the Katrina Tabloid.

Can you believe it? The next time I write, I’ll be in Singapore, 8,700 miles away from everything I’ve ever known. (Stop sounding so dramatic, Katrina.) Maybe what the guard said earlier is going to come true after all. More than just an exciting adventure, this will be a time for me to do just as he suggested – grow up.

And if I don’t, then … well, looking 16 has its perks… ;)