12/5/16 – Psychological Plane-Fare
I’m currently sitting in the Phoenix airport, halfway through back to back five hour leg flights. I’ve flown longer and farther but today is really taking a toll. These aren’t quite long enough flights for me to try for solid shuteye (if such a thing exists on a plane). But they are just long enough to suck enough of the day that I’m completely discombobulated.
I didn’t run this morning as I needed to be back at the Park n Go lot at 4 am. Trapped in flying tubes of the sky and isolated islands of terminals, I’m snacking my way through the hours, feeling my sloth and weight. The food passes the time but contributes to the sedentary and psychologically heavy vibe. By the time I land and get my luggage and shuttle it to the hotel, I’m not sure I’ll feel like getting a run in today.
Some friends of mine have been streak runners for ages. Chris Bielinski is one who just celebrated five years of streaking — a mile or usually much more a day, every day. For five years. That’s impressive. I run almost every day but definitely not EVERY day for the last 1,825 days. Everyone has a story, a success and setback filled tale. I’m impressed by Chris’s dedication and commitment. I’m also impressed with someone who has just decided to take up the sport and get off the couch. It takes courage to lace up and get out the door, whether that be day one or day 1800+. I’m just personally feeling cowardly at the moment having scarfed down another snack bar while sitting in transit.
I’m meeting my Mom for her first official race this weekend. Like royalty, we are on different flights. Unlike royalty, it wasn’t for security sake, just whatever worked out to be the cheapest options.
Mom’s knee has been bothering her more and more. A few cortisone shot regimens coupled with various rest, ice, compression, elevation concepts but she’s struggling through. No surgery as of yet (and hopefully never) but I know she hasn’t had a chance to walk the mileage she’d like to do. It’s the Inaugural Merrie Mile in Honolulu on Saturday and she will definitely get it done. But I think she’s a little worried about her knee. We will walk it as fast or slow as necessary to ensure a great time, the experience more important than any arbitrary clock reading. I’m proud of her for taking on this challenge and hope she is proud of herself.
These are the things I’m trying to focus on then. I’m looking to draw strength and encouragement from others as I feel a bit waist ballooning and down on myself for gobbling down junk food, sitting for hours on end. Is it helping or making things worse? Is it inspirational or coloring me green with envy at others? Perhaps it’s as much thinking about others as pondering what this silly little blog thing o do everyday contributes to the world. Is it a force for good or just self-centered braggadocio?
The mind is a maze of emotions and insights, filled with dead ends and unexpected shortcuts. Maybe I shouldn’t have watched the season finale of it’s just TV and enough with this ‘ohhhh…it’s HBO’ WestWorld before boarding the plane. I probably could’ve gotten in my run if I had skipped the video and just gone out the door. Sigh. Choices, choices. Decisions, decisions.
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A few stray thoughts as I sit once more on a plane, the second leg of today’s journey, a 6.5 hour flight:
The preflight American Airlines safety video is a pack of lies. The weird Brechtian plane set shows legroom you wouldn’t find in a New York studio apartment let alone on individual rows of aircraft. I’ll try and find a YouTube screen grab as it’s astonishingly insulting to passengers.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Here’s the full video. Judge for yourself.
Despite what the inconsiderate passengers around me believe, it does not take slamming the overhead compartments closed with all your metahuman strength to get them to latch.
I broke down and bought a chicken wrap from the dining cart, despite planning on holding out for a better dinner once I land. But given the time zones and hours in the air still remaining, combined with a headache I can’t seem to shake, I went with more not less. I regret this decision more than words can convey.
Flight attendants have gotten less friendly in the skies; that or as I’m flying American Airlines today, they are allergic to their new uniforms.
Honest to god — one can move about the cabin without slamming into others; a turbulent bump can cause one to lose footing and stumble into others now and again, but it really shouldn’t happen EVERY SINGLE TIME you get up.
There are actually at least three voices — inside voices, outside voices, and plane voices. Passengers on this flight seem to think that to be heard over the din of the engines by their seatmate… and everyone else on the plane… they need to use their loudest possible outside voice. I know way too much about the woman’s medical woes five rows ahead of me and way too much about the things one simply MUST do from the know-it-all jerk three rows behind me.
Zotz! is William Castle’s answer to Walt Disney’s Absent Minded Professor. Tom Poston is no Fred MacMurray and it’s far from great. Still, there are a few laughs and it’s worth it if only for the final line: the Columbia Pictures’ lady liberty intones, “Zotz all!”