Leaving on a jet plane 20 October 2009

So tomorrow I am off to San Diego, to meet up with fellow bloggers and javelina hunters for several days of fun, laughter, and good times.  I have to say I have been ignoring this trip in my head for the last several weeks.  It’s not that I don’t want to go; it’s just that I hate to travel.  Once I get going, I will be fine.  But packing, thinking about whether I’ll make it onto the plane with my stuff, sitting on the plane for six hours….  All of these things make me nervous a bit.

But I so love to fly.  Taking off and landing doesn’t bother me in the least, and even turbulence doesn’t normally faze me.  I love to look out the window and see the scenery, thinking about what the folks far below me are doing and whether they even notice me so high up in the sky.  I have gotten some really interesting photos from that vantage point.

That was taken on my first trip out to San Jose during the first annual CakesCon.  Like father, like daughter — my father flew somewhere not long after I took this trip, and he took a very similar photo.  I love these crop circles, formed by the circular irrigation systems.  And the little dusting of snow really brought out the contours of the fields.

I’m sure I’ll see some interesting scenery on my trip across the country.  I start out in Providence (praise cheeses, since that airport is close to my home and is so easy to fly in and out of), hop a puddle jumper to Newark, and then begin the long, long trek to San Diego.  That’s going to be a long, long time in the air — but I have a couple of books and my iPod to entertain me.  Hopefully I’ll also be tired enough to snooze a bit.

My aim during the flight is also to overdose on peanuts.  Since we can’t have them in the house, I tend to overdo it when I do get hold of them.  Seriously, I love peanuts — and it’s such a travesty to have a peanut-allergic kid.  Sure, I’ll do whatever it takes to prevent her from getting hold of them so she doesn’t suffer a reaction, but it still makes me sad.

Mmmm peanuts….

So now I am fully packed into one small duffel bag!  The hardest part was trying to decide what makeup to take with me. Folks, I have tons of it.  I have almost every color eyeshadow you could possibly want, and it’s so hard for me to choose ahead of time what I want to wear because I usually base it on my mood.  I don’t much care if I match my outfit, though I do try not to clash too horribly.  But there are days that I feel bright and days that I feel neutral. How to plan for that in the future??  I packed some of both, but I know I’ll want something I don’t have while I am there.

Hopefully I’ve brought enough.  I’m saving the food for the airport since I’ll be in Newark by the time I get hungry.  I figure that’s a large enough airport to give me lots of options.  I will have to remember to eat breakfast, though, so I don’t starve before I get there.

Also I am going to San Diego, so if I have forgotten something I could probably just buy it there.  Mainly the things I have to remember for sure are my contacts and my glasses.  Everything else is pretty much replaceable.

And if it weren’t exciting enough to meet all these fabulous ladies, I’ll also have the opportunity to meet up with my best friend from high school.  Sandy and I were inseparable back in the day, sharing nearly everything, including some of our deepest and darkest secrets.  She was going through an incredibly stressful time in her life back then, and somehow I managed to distract her from that enough that she could focus on being a teen.  Unfortunately she moved away after 10th grade, after one short year together — and she moved all the way to Coronado, California.  She stayed there until she decided to come back to the East Coast during my freshman year in college.  Over spring break she stayed at her mom’s long enough for me to catch up with her, and we spent a lovely night together, talking all night and catching up on everything — just like we’d done in high school.  Once more we lost track of each other, up until I thought to look for her on Facebook.  And lo and behold, there she was, about to marry her high school sweetheart, and more than thrilled to hear from me once again.  When I posted last month that I was on my way to San Diego, she insisted that I save some time for her — so on Sunday evening we’ll be having dinner together, and she may even join us for the road rally.  I can’t wait!

I also cannot wait to meet all these lovely ladies, like Rosie and Poolie and Terri and Beanie, whom I’ve read for years and years, as well as the other women who will be joining us.  I won’t be taking my laptop, so any posting I might do will happen on Beanie’s computer.  If we have time for that, of course!

Wish  me luck on these flights!!!