A letter from last year

These pictures are of Kelsi and I at Paula Deen's Lady and Sons in Savannah, GA

This is an email I wrote last year that I thought I would post here for posterity... It's from when I flew the first time to visit my daughter in Georgia:

I FLEW IN A PLANE TWICE!
uGH, I DON'T LOVE IT, BUT I DID IT. I WAS SCARED. BUT THANKFULLY, I was sitting by an old lady from Ft Lauderdale, who was so concerned about getting there on time for her theatre tickets in BOCA, that I was distracted. At one point in the beginning, we taxied out to the runway, and then turned around and went back to the gate, she said, "this is not good" (broad east coast accent, a long hair coming out of her chin, about 80 yrs old, with tons of jewelry and running mascara) I was gulping and trying to remember to breathe. I took several Xanex, thank you Laurie. I kept looking around the cabin at the other first class passengers and thinking, these are the people I will die with. They did not look any more wealthy than me. Maybe they all have generous sons with frequent flyer miles.

The delay was for some sort of flap problem. I do not know what flaps are, and I do not want to know... I was just glad they started working and kept working. There was turbulence. There was a lovely salmon dinnner and wine that I could not eat, because I was terrified. There were cloth napkins, there were fresh chocolate chip cookies. There was chocolate chip on the lady from Ft Lauderdale's lips. I did not tell her. There was flying above clouds, that did not make me feel like things were ok. Kelsi feels safe once she gets above the clouds, because she thinks the clouds keep the plane up. I know more about gravity than that.

On the flight from Dallas, I was sitting by a middle eastern man. He had the window seat and I had plans to block him from getting up if he was a terrorist. Happily, he nver had to pee, so it did not come to that. He was evidently NOT a terrorist, because he watched a Tom Cruise movie on his laptop and fell asleep WHILE we landed. I wonder if I will ever get so cavalier about flying that I will feel as though I can relax my vigilance and the force of my will that is doing a better job of keeping the plane up than the clouds.

I am having a wonderful time already, although I am awake at 4Am, which is odd because I should be sleeping in. Kelsi has the most adorable dog ever. I am so in love with her. The coffee is TERRIBLE, but her house is like living in a magazine with a cute dog and husband.
Love you all, having a wonderful time, not the least bit homesick, but hopefully will get, so I can get back on the blinking planes.
J