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lying\u2026I dream about having wings (literal actual wings) and flying dreams are amongst my favourite. They make my heart soar.<\/p>\nFlying\u2026I dream about having wings (literal actual wings) and flying dreams are amongst my favourite. They make my heart soar.<\/p>\n
But \u201creal\u201d flying? The kind you do in a plane?<\/p>\n
No, please no.<\/p>\n
Of course this comes as no surprise to anyone. Anyone who knows me knows how much I dislike flying. But even without my fear, I do wonder why it always has to be so stressful<\/em>. Only a small handful of times have I had a trip be genuinely relaxing\u2026this time, wasn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n My current ship is in drydock, and since the break is only 5 days, and I would be truly useless during a drydock (plus my computers are all in storage) I opted to just take a brief vacation and stay with Amras in Florida and then we can both rejoin at the same time. Should been simple enough right? Wrong. You see, immigration laws say that no matter where you are from (and as a Canadian I can go back and forth across the US border as a tourist basically whenever) you cannot remain in the States for more than 48 hours if you are coming ashore as a crewmember of any type. Period. The end. Not allowed. And if they catch you trying to do it, you\u2019re deported and barred. Clearly this was not a risk we could take for any reason, nor would I have ever wanted to do so anyway. So I booked a flight from Florida to Toronto and then a return flight back to Orlando the following morning. Even paid all the booking fees and everything in advance, like a good girl.<\/p>\n And then came the day itself\u2026<\/p>\n Debark\u2026I can\u2019t comment on\u2026I\u00a0mean well, I could, but I try not to talk a huge<\/em> amount about work and debark is not really in our control. I can say this: it was long, it was convoluted, there were many delays that were out of our hands, and it was made even more so by the fact that a huge amount of people are coming on just<\/em> for drydock (that\u2019s the other reason I was more than willing to leave for five days) \u2013 by the time we finally got off the ship it was after all, by the time we got to the airport it was noon.<\/p>\n Although I did spend the rest of the afternoon playing giant Jenga with some fellow crew members at a restaurant down the street from the airport (our flights weren\u2019t till late) so that part of the day was fun,<\/p>\n Eventually I loaded myself onto the flight, stowed my careful-packed-and-weighed carry on properly in the bin above me (zipper side out, so that I can actually access it \u2026because\u2026I\u2019m short)..and tried ot settle in as everyone else found their places. This is when my first ick-moment took place: one of the last people on the plane was a lady with a slightly over-sized carry on, who refused to check it. She never said why, and I know I shouldn\u2019t judge, but I also never saw her access it once during the flight so whatever was in it couldn\u2019t have been that<\/em> essential. So she refused to check it, even though the stewardess kept telling her she should \u2013 and as a result, she ended up insisting it be put in one of the bins, which had the knock down effect of all the other bags that were stowed in that bin already (y\u2019know from those of us who carefully followed instructions and were legitimately in earlier boarding zones that hadn\u2019t<\/em> been warned that we would have to check our bags, unlike the zone the lady in question was in) \u2013 reorganized, and crammed so<\/em> close together (facing the wrong way) that they ended up completely locked in place, totally inaccessible. All the stuff I bring with me to keep me from freaking out on flights? Including my sleeping pills? Were in that bag\u2026and I couldn\u2019t get to any of it. All so that one person could force in a bag she didn\u2019t even need access to.<\/p>\n Thanks.<\/p>\n But obviously I survived. So I get to the airport, and pay an outrageous amount to get to the Motel I was supposed to be staying at.<\/p>\n Now I had booked a Motel 6 because I was actually trying ot be smart. I was thinking, hey, I\u2019m only there for one night, I\u2019m trying to be smart with money, do I really need to pay $200 for a pool and a sauna and a movie library I\u2019m not even going to be able to use? And I\u2019ve terrible motels\/hotels all over the place, I figured it couldn\u2019t be that<\/em> bad.<\/p>\n Ooooh I was wrong.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t do it. I just couldn\u2019t. I was in that building a grand total of 10 minutes before telling the clerk to call me a taxi and high-tailing it to the nearest best western. The motel refused to give me a refund, nor had they given me a receipt, so I just had to eat the cost of the \u201croom\u201d and the taxi back and forth. But the second taxi driver was nice and his prices much more reasonable, and even he said \u201cyeah, that\u2019s a bad place\u201d\u2026which assured me I had definitely made the\u00a0right choice in turning tail.<\/p>\n Long story short(er), I reboarded my next flight this morning with no cash left, and running on 2.5 hours of sleep\u2026for the first time in years I was tired enough that I was actulaly able to sleep on the flight..<\/p>\n And I won\u2019t be actually inOrlando \u2013 where Amras is picking me up\u2026<\/p>\n Hey! At least I\u2019ll sleep well tonight!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Flying\u2026I dream about having wings (literal actual wings) and flying dreams are amongst my favourite. They make my heart soar. But \u201creal\u201d flying? The kind you do in a plane? No, please no. Of course this comes as no surprise … Continue reading