2022-11-15 — Takeoff

Well, my lovelies, we’re off! 🛫

I’m writing this entry sitting in my row-13 window seat at 30-whatever thousand feet somewhere over Arizona or California, I’d guess.

My seat was actually 22c, an aisle seat, but little Stephen did another experiment with airport security 😎 and… well… Let’s just say I’ve now gotten on two planes in a row without having my boarding pass scanned. 🙃

Add that to my experience back in 2003 when I managed to get through security, through the gate, and onto the plane with someone else’s plane ticket. 😶

That one was unintentional. I didn’t look at the ticket they gave me at the counter. Apparently the security people didn’t check to see if the name on my ID was the same as the name on my ticket, and nor did the gate people. No one, including myself, had any idea until i went to sit in “my” seat, and someone was already in it. I checked the name on the ticket, and lo and behold… it wasn’t my name! 🙃

The other guy wasn’t happy at all. Pretty angry actually, that i could get all the way into the plane with his ticket!

It’s been fun these last two times to see if the gate people would actually let me get through without scanning my ticket, but yep!

This time, however, they realized what happened because, thinking I wasn’t on the plane yet, they swapped me to a different seat in order to give someone my seat, so they could sit with their family.

I didn’t know that, so i was in my-old-but-not-mine-now seat. And I have since been moved from row 22 up to tow 13. 🙃

My plane lands at LAX in about 20ish minutes, I think, so I’m probably in California at this point–or Mexico. 🙃

I’ll have a 6-hour layover in LA where I’ll hang out with Chase before he leaves (his flight is a few hours before mine). My next leg is to Tahiti, where I’ll have a 2 1/2 hour layover before my final flight to Auckland.

It’s probably not possible, but i would love it if I were able to leave the airport and make it to the beach for a Tahitian sunrise before scrambling to get back to my gate on time for my flight to New Zealand.

I will certainly look into whether or not it’s possible. I would guess not, but hey, if you don’t try, there’s zero change anyway. Might as well try. 😎

Anyway, it’s been a really rough last two days. The stress has been so oppressive and ever present that I’ve felt the anxiety physically in my chest as a perpetual companion. I’ve been continuously just one level below full panic.

I’ve never been this way before.

Think of the panic you feel when… something happens to send you into a panic. 🙃 Ratchet it down maybe one notch, and that’s been my normal for the last two days.

It’s crazy.

I’ve never…

Guess I already wrote that. 🙃

I’ve been frantically trying to get things done. I’ve had so. many. important things to do, but i just couldn’t get to them all. I tried and tried, but it was just too much. In the end, I got very few of the things from my to-do list done, many of the ones missed being very important things.

I scrambled and worked and worked and scrambled, and i did get a lot done, but… I fell woefully short in the end.

When i finally paused, last night 🙃, to finish a packing list and actually start to pack, I realized i was unprepared. I hadn’t bought several of the things I would want to have on the trip.

Time will tell how big of a deal it will be, but so far it’s just convenience things.

My angel mother has been there to help rescue me, for which i am exceedingly grateful. She went out and bought things for me, running errands i need run, so i wouldn’t have to spend my time doing that and could focus on other things.

Thanks, mom!!! 🥰

So many things have been going on lately. It’s just been a mad house. And so many things going sideways, too. No joke, things going sideways has been the new normal.

I haven’t been writing as much lately, so i don’t remember what all y’all have been told. So… I’ll do a bullet summary…

* Got a new phone number, which is always an adventure.

* Upgraded to a really nice phone because I wanted a good camera for the trip (Samsung S22).

* That phone had massive charging issues (couldn’t hold a charge), so they swapped it out for another S22.

* That phone had charging issues as well, though not as bad, and it also had an issue with photos having blurred edges.

* After a very frustrating battle, i was able to get that phone returned as well, and after having issues with two S22s in a row, I decided to branch out, selecting the Google Pixel 7 Pro.

* i ordered a case, which came late, and of course the $800+ phone slipped out of my pocket, landing on the gravel–screen down. Fortunately, the damage was minimal, but i let myself get frustrated with the cell case company/delivery company for being late because i would have had a case on it by then had it come on time.

* When i got my case, the “screen protector” was basically glorified plastic wrap. 😶

I see ocean!!!

🐿️

The protector said not to put the screen on without reading the instructions first, but guess what came without instructions?

Yup.

So i fought with it and finally gave up, having ruined the plastic wrap in my installation attempt.

So now I had a phone with a case but no screen protector.

My angel mother went out for me to run some errands and stopped into the T-Mobile store minutes before it closed, picked up the only case and screen protector they had ($114 later when I’m used to getting cases for under $20, but I was desperate at that point, so i had her go ahead and get it). She also stopped and got me some rain gear from Bass Pro.

Did I mention things have been going sideways as the rule now instead of the exception?

So… the crazy-expensive Otter Box case ($65, plus tax). Did you know that doesn’t come with anything but the outer case? No screen protector. No camera lens protector.

And the $40, plus tax, screen protector that they said was tempered glass? Nope, more flexible junk. Better than glorified plastic wrap, but soft enough that the protector now has fingernail marks in it from trying to get out the bubbles.

Heaven help me if i drop my phone on a rock in the Misty Mountains. Screen will almost certainly shatter.

(sigh)

Final descent into LA. Gonna jump off for a bit and probably come back once Chase takes off, and I’m just waiting for my flight alone

Body is over the edge, badly. I’m fed and hydrated, but haven’t slept enough and probably have screwed it up with my stressing as well.

Catch you soon…

…

Ok, back at it.

So… Not sure how i managed this, but i managed to get from my domestic flight, into the international terminal, and all the way to my gate without going through security. 🙃

I remember seeing security, and then i saw the sign for the b terminal, and i was confused which way to go. I started walking toward security, and then I double backed because I wasn’t sure, and then i went to the left. And… somehow i bypassed security? I didn’t realize it until I found my friend a Chase and was confused that i found him without going through security, and then he was shocked that i didn’t go through security. 🙃

I figured it must be an odd mistake, that I’d surely go through security when i had to go to my actual gate, but… nope. I’m right by my gate.

I’m… confused. How did i do that? Did i accidentally walk in through the out hall without being seen?

🙃

Was fun to see Chase. Haven’t seen him since our China trip in 2019 right before covid blew up.

We caught up a bit and had a good time before he headed off to board his plane. He’ll get there 6 hours before i do, as his plane leaves earlier and is direct, while I get to go to Tahiti.

I’m not sad at all about that. 😊

That stuff aside, my knees hurt. I’m pre migraining right now. I’m tired, but i don’t want to fall asleep yet because… I don’t want to sleep through the boarding. Had that happen once, at LAX, coincidentally. I hadn’t slept in something like 2 days, and i just crashed hunched over my pack. I only managed to get on my plane because the person sitting next to me was kind enough to wake me up to tell me we were boarding.

So… I’m holding out a bit longer, though i might try and nap? 😬 Not sure.

I’m nervous about this trip. I’m not the spring chicken i once was. Backpacking can be a challenge, especially finding bathrooms. 🙃 And then… finding places to leave your pack and not have stuff stolen–at the beach, at parks, etc.

It’s always an adventure, but… it can be… crazy.

You know you’re getting old when you have a main compartment in your pack half full of prescription medications. 🙃 I’ve got like 6 bottles. 5 prescription ones for my stomach/acid issues, and 1 OTC for my migraine issues.

Gosh I’m tired.

Gonna sign off for the night, i think. Cross your fingers for me that during my 2:40 layover in Tahiti that I can make it to the coconut stand my brother recommended (he was a Mormon missionary in Tahiti way back in 1990? Don’t remember). I think he said it’s by the airport, so I’ll look for that. And I’ll try to sneak off to the beach and back without missing my plane. 🙃

The adventure begins!

Hope my legs (and the rest of my body) and my sanity hold out. Gonna try and slow the brain down, meditate, relax, regain my perspective.

Love and hugs. 😊

Lift the World

~ stephen