Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Wedding in Philly

I Went to a Family wedding in Philly this last weekend and I don't like to fly.
My Dad, sis, bro and I flew together on a very scary flight. After the door to the plane was closed and we all were belted in, sitting on the Tarmac, the flight attendent takes the mike. She says "I don't know if you've heard the news.... Pregnant pause...( what ??? We all wondered?) she continued with, "the weather on the east coast is abominable! The pilot has two alternate airports where we can land if we don't make it". " In all of my years of flying I've never had a flight attendent say anything clsoe to what she said. I was mortified!

I'm thinking, "Can I get off this plane?" (inner silent scream)
The flight was three hours and the first two were ok except for the fear of what was to come. Ugh! Glad I asked my doc for xanax since I'm always on the verge of a panic attack with flying anyway.
We bounced around, starting about two plus hours into the flight. Then we were in the clouds, with no visibility. I had my eyes closed and was doing my best to center myself and not come unraveled, Hold Your Space. Do what you preach. I asked my brother to please stop talking to me. I know he was trying to help by distracting me. I just wanted to  freak out alone and try to manage my overwhelming fear ... Chill and hold my space

Anyway, the plane blew side to side, wings up and down. The plane would drop, leaving that weightless feeling in my stomach, which I hate. As we were bouncing in for the final approach, my sister and brother each linked arms with me for the landing simultaneously. My eyes were closed, so I don't know if they planned it or were just as afraid as I was. We made it. My brother said the right wing nearly hit the runway, and my sister said she saw white water directly below us ( the Delaware river we learned later) I have almost never been as relieved to land! (only a Hawaiian islands flight was worse)  Whew! what a wild ride. I wanted to hug the pilot and kiss the ground. I thanked him for getting us there. ( alive ) my Dad ( the flight instructor ) was critiquing and complimenting the pilots landing and telling him what a good job he did with his approach.
As we were renting the car, I learned it was hurricane Nicole ending her reign of terror! It was her last hurrah up the coast! I had no idea and I'd been checking the weather every day on my iphone. I thought I was in the know!  If  I'd known about the hurricane, I would have opted out and missed a great time at the wedding.
The wedding was beautiful and we had a fab time. The stress of the flight was worth it since we made it and lived to tell about it.

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