The journey begins

I know I mentioned this in my first entry but I’m feeling the need to say thank you to my incredible friends and family. Elisabeth threw me best birthday / bon voyage party on Sunday. It was very humbling to have so many people that I care about in one place.

I thought I would be nervous getting my final things together for the trip but was actually pretty calm. I started my day out by getting my 3rd knee injection. Only 2 more to go! Yea! So far so good, still not allowed to run but can cause any other kind of mayhem.

My parents and Elisabeth took me to the airport and waited until I made me way through security. How fantastic, the last thing I saw was my Mom, Dad, and Elisabeth waving…. Very cause celeb.

I walked down to the same gate we took to Cabo San Lucas a few years ago. At least this time I didn’t run into a hurricane warning leading to a flight cancelation. I saw the cutest guy ever sitting 6 rows in front of me. What a doll! No I didn’t talk to him, what was I going to say… "ummm duh… hi"??? You never know how the airplane seat lottery will turn out… lucky me I had a homely older man next to me. Well maybe in the next 16 flights I will have someone fun to sit next to. One can only hope.

The flight to London was pretty easy. I have decided that any flights under 5 hours are a big mountain of suck. You don’t really have time to get any decent sleep and the babies never stop crying. At least when the flights are 10+ hours you can have your little snack and a Xanix to knock you out. I have made it a point to order “special” meals when I fly long distance. They seem to be a little more palpable. I didn’t say good but marginal at best. My choice was the low fat option; sometimes I’ll go crazy and order the vegan vegetarian meal. It’s fun to see how veggies and fruit can be messed up. I watched “Up in the Air” and took a nice little nap.

I’m currently sitting in the Heathrow airport with a few hours down and a few more to go before a hop on my next flight. What is the deal with airports with no Wi-Fi? I’m feeling very circa 1986. Panic sets in… My IPod Touch is almost out of juice and I packed my converters in my checked baggage… the question at hand is do I spend a billion British Pounds to buy a converter? I decide against buying a new one. At least I will have my IPod Shuffle to drown out my airplane seat neighbor. But hooray!!!!! I remember I can charge my IPod Touch via my net book! Happy panda!

What would we do without our IPods? I so remember the day of schlepping cassette tapes with the ever so handy “Walkman”. Half your carry-on bag was full of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pat Benitar, The Cure, Grateful Dead, Bob Marley, Fleetwood Mac, Siouxie and the Banshees, Footloose soundtrack… etc… My parents and I were reminiscing about the worst TWA flight ever… 1997 returning from Israel and our layover in Shannon. Ireland turned into my worst nightmare ever… we were stuck on the tarmac for over 5 hours and not allowed to get off the plane because we were coming from Israel. My mom and I were in the back of the plane. We had 10+ babies and toddlers under the age of 2. And to make things ever better, my Walkman BROKE!!!!!