Fight or Flight
We all know flying is the most unsafe form of transportation. At any given moment, a fine flying aircraft could find itself plummeting to its fiery destruction just because of the slightest turbulence. At least that's what my body is ready for. Despite flight's safe track record, my "fight or flight" instinct keeps me ready for the improbable aforementioned situation. As if my body somehow figures it can do something if ever we were to actually plummet! What am I to do? Run into the cockpit and do what the pilots clearly can't by pulling up on the wheel? I don't even know if they call it a steering wheel, much less how to operate it! Or will I stick my hand out the window, vigorously waving my arm to keep my side of the plane aloft? I imagine incontinence will be my only true reaction. That's why I try to use the bathroom frequently. That's something else my "fight or flight" instinct helpfully does for me in nervous situations: give me the constant feeling of needing the washroom! When's that gonna come in handy? "Matthew, run! The tiger is after us!" Me: "Wait! I know! I'll distract it by peeing on this tree then it'll want to re-mark its territory whilst we escape!" If I'm gonna be the dumbest cat victim, I may as well use some fancy words...
I do try to do what I can to relieve my anxiety about flight. I take the largest B vitamins known to man. The hope is I'll choke on it, pass out due to blocked air passage, and wake up being well taken care of in a state-of-the-art hospital. And the airline foots the bill. The scare of a US hospital bill isn't much more preferable to turbulence. But really, the B's are supposed to help with stress. They do seem to help, but sometimes the body doesn't get the memo. In my mind I feel less stressed, but I still feel it a bit in my body.
So far I can't complain about my experience. I am traveling with Delta, and I gotta say, much to my friend's chagrin, they do provide a pretty good service! Every time we've flown with them, something has been positive. In this case, somehow I got upgraded to "Sky Priority" so I got to board first, with all the people who made more money this month than I've made all year! I played it up a little and started saying things like "shan't". Apparently it doesn't translate well into Spanish... Anyways, I'm one row behind first class which gives me more legroom, and the chance to exit the plane quick. That will help my quest to clear customs quickly and get to my next flight. However, it does mean I have longer to walk to the back of the plane to the restrooms.
"Wait!" You say, ambiguously using the second person pronoun that could be singular or plural, "You're speaking in the first-person singular!" Correct. Me. I. This trip Shelagh is still in Honduras. Certainly not our preferred way to travel, but since I will be gone only a short 2 weeks, she is staying. Travelling is still not her favourite, the stress takes a lot out of her. So we changed her ticket, and I kept mine to go home, work a week, and pick up some forgotten items. You see, to enter Honduras, you're supposed to have proof of exit, ie a return ticket. Thus we had to buy a round trip to enter. But since we are working on our residency, we don't HAVE to leave. However, changing a ticket is incredibly difficult for an airline (I think it took Shelagh almost an hour, something about having to move heaven and earth, I think...), they charge you an undervalued $200 to do you the huge favour. So, instead of changing both and then getting things shipped to us, it seemed practical to us for me to use the ticket, pick up the stuff, and get a week of work.
While I miss having Shelagh with me, it does take stress off of me to travel alone, Shelagh will be the first to tell you I'm not the funnest travelling partner...Alanna will second that. I spent last night at my friend Celeo's place in Puerto Cortes. I went there first, because it's closer to the airport than Santa Rosa. If there were an accident on the highway in the early morning, I could have easily gotten stuck. Also I had the chance to see my poor Land Cruiser in desperate need of TLC! Another goal of mine in this trip is to get a part for her that a fellow Canuck is giving me an incredible deal on, practically pays for the trip! So anyways, I got into Cortes last night just before a meeting started at one of the Kingdom Halls there, so I just barely made it on time! It was going to be my only opportunity to catch the midweek meeting, so I had to go for it, and trust that somehow I would get to Celeo's after. There are no buses running by that time, but he arranged for the mother of his nephew to pick me up. My bus rides from Santa Rosa to San Pedro and then to Cortes were thankfully uneventful.
(Puerto Cortes from the air.)
This a first for me, leaving while Shelagh stays. I'm pretty good at keeping my emotions in check though, of course, so I only balled while we said good bye at the house. And tears only well up in my eyes when I think about missing her, which is no big deal y'know. Hold on, gotta wipe my eyes...I'm fine, really, someone in first class is chopping onions. Having a pig roast on this flight. Two weeks, keep telling myself, two weeks. Thank goodness for aviator shades! Missing someone is beautiful really, reminds you how much you care. This crazy world seems to make us lose appreciation for the things and people we should most have it for. A reminder of that only hurts the emotions. I'm already decided I don't really wanna do it again, the strange looks from the guy whose hand I tried to hold during take off assured me of that! Ok not really, I didn't try, but that's my takeoff routine: holding her hand. She helps calm me. And knowing I'll be back soon will keep me calm this time. Heaven knows I need to keep calm, I'm high above the Caribbean Sea whilst I write, and when this plane plummets, I may find myself face-to-face with pirates. And in that case, flight having failed, I'll need to fight. But first, Captain Sparrow, where's the men's room?
