As December approaches, I am taking stock of my last year. Incredibly, in the last year, I have traversed America on 70 different airplanes. You may recall, in the early weeks of the year, I was locked in the throes of acute chronic aviophobia.
Even when I lived in New York City, and San Francisco, it was all I could muster to get on a 'plane at all once a year to travel home to Seattle. Now, I routinely take multi-legged trips all over the map, switching 'planes, and hopping on turbo-props from one airport to the next.
Only a year ago, I needed Xanax, Vallium, or any sort of phramaceutical psychic soother to get close to an aiport. And those aids were often bolstered with a bloody mary, screwdriver, or glass of wine. The weeks leading up to a flight were filled with dread, and an increasing sense of doom the closer I got to boarding the "aircraft." Today? I barely even think about it until the night before I depart. Yeah, I usually only sleep a few hours that night before, but I have become sanguine about the flights. On the 'plane, I bring a load of distractions: whatever book I am currently reading, a Nintendo DS to play games, a laptop computer (that I almost never use in flight), a sketch pad or canvas to draw on, and a notebook for stories and poems.
It mostly works. I don't even think about my stainless steel hip setting off alarms and the subsequent indignity of friskings and patdowns. It's just part of the deal now. I am extremely uneasy in flight, but I've mostly sorted it out. I'll be traveling to England and Pune, India in the next couple of months, so I shouldn't get too cocky. . .but for the moment, I've tamped down the extreme anxiety and fear of flying to a level that's at least tolerable. And oddly enough, I am happiest on a turbo-prop, flying close to the ground, with the propeller whirring about five feet from my head. What's the deal with that?
---o0o---
Jackie, you should swap this pic with the cover from Special Beat Service. Yeah, I am jealous looking at your itinerary for this week. Are all the original boys in this cohort of The English Beat? You are one lucky guy even with the jitters.
ReplyDeleteThe reasons I recommend the SBS cover is: It's got a plane, an entourage, & they all arrive safely as you always do. Bon Voyage!
ReplyDeleteScooter - you are absolutely right about that album cover--I don't know why, but it's one of my all time favorites. And that album itself is also special because you were the one who "turned me on" to it. Well, yeah, the music is great too. But I had just moved to Berkeley, we'd hung out at my wedding for the first time in a year and a half, and in, like October or November, you mailed me two dub tapes that I loved, and that I've always associated with you, and Berkeley. The tapes: Special Beat Service, and King Sunny Ade's JuJu Music. I remember there was one song you said reminded you of me...I don't remember which one 'though. But their last album, Special Beat Service was a knockout: End of the party, save it for later, rotating head (which I think may be the one you peeged as me)...are all great tunes.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a Dave Wakeling band, but it's hard to tell who's who in these bands, between The beat, The Specials, General Public, and the finy young cannibals. I don't know what mix will show up. But i just read that the entire band often appears, the whole deal, except for the sax player, who is ill. Whatever happens, Friday night I'll be hearing some great Ska. And I owe it all to you, brother.
It just hit me, I think gthe song you pegged me with was Rotating Head, and this lyric is particular:
ReplyDeleteRotating head, keeps on the right side
Colied up and tense remains on the lookout
Expects to be shot or get given the bullet.
Rotating head tries to look on the bright side of things.
I think! /johnnie