A not so Air Force One experience…

8/17/08

A not so Air Force One experience…

Right now, I’m sitting at San Jose “International” Airport
waiting to get on my afternoon flight back to the City of Sin.
I can’t really say why they call it an international airport,
as I’ve never flown out of San Jose to a foreign country – I
guess if you call Mexico a foreign country, that might count.
Well, San Jose is supposed to be a metropolitan city – yes,
one that closes at 130 am every night, hehe. That’s the culture
I guess, it’s sometimes hard to go back to a “sleeper town”
after you’ve lived in a city where you can get anything your
heart desires, as they say “Twenty Four-Seven”. But what do
I know, when do I ever get the craving to get a salmon lox bagel
at 330 in the morning. At least the option is there, lol.

My credo again, it is better to have a gun and not use it,
than not have a gun when you need it. I guess that makes some
kind of sense.

Anyway it was good to come back home for a bit (even though
I am coming back in a couple of weeks , again for another week).
Seeing family, friends and the GF is always great. Even though
I did not get to see everybody I wanted to see, I’ll be back in
SJ or most likely see them in Vegas (it is the center of the
universe). Plus the weather is a lot cooler in the Bay than in
Vegas this week. Weather in the triple digits can wear on you.
I miss driving my car with the windows down. The little things
keep you going, hehe.

To kill time of course, while I wait and write – I have “Entourage”
playin’ on my laptop. The show always cures my boredom. Even
though I’ve seen each season several times, I can not humanly
get tired of the show. It was probably the only reason I had HBO
(well, besides Real Sex, G-String Divas, uh…you know documentaries
for educational purposes). If you don’t know what the show is
about, it is basically about a young movie star and his buddies,
hence the “Entourage” title, regarding their escapades in the
“industry”. I wouldn’t mind getting in to something like that –
Hey, if I made it big, I’d want my best buddies around to revel
in it to – I don’t want to be alone at the top, yo’…

Again, I’m kinda’ straying away from the subject at hand. Is
there one? Nah. I’m just writing here for my enjoyment.

I’ll see the GF this week when she comes back through Vegas,
on her road trip. She’ll be in Vegas for a couple of days,
before going back to San Jose. I’ll be pretty happy when she
comes in – it’s hard to having someone far away (even though
the flight’s only an hour n change away).

No poker in San Jose this week either. I was only going to
play in our “$700.00” poker club (and the "408 Tour), if a
game was set. It seems like the old school players can’t get
together these days. Hopefully I can win that pot, I’m up about
$535.00 in that game. One more first place, I should be able
scoop it. It’s within grasp, I can taste it, but like I said
we all haven’t played with each other for a long time. Just
give it to me already, hehe. Or at least put the pot in the
mutual fund or something, let it grow, lol.

Now I’m on board the plane, just got over 10,000 feet, so I can
use my laptop again. I think I need an Ambien. As much as
I have flown throughout the years and the distances I’ve t
ravelled (to the Philippines is a pretty long flight), I still
get a bit of the jitters. I always ask myself what kind of
physics allows a huge blob of metal with wings, sustain flight
in the air? I’m just glad it’s the safest form of travel (well,
statistic wise).

I think the root of my minor nervousness in flight, stemmed
from a connecting flight I had taken from Tokyo to Manila.
That flight was on a trip I had in December of 2006. There
was a storm brewing off the coast eastern coast of Vietnam,
which was right in our flight path. There also a monsoon or
something occurring in the Bicol region of the Philippines at
the same time. The flight was scheduled for 2.5 hours, from
gate to gate. The flight wasn’t too long, but the flight from
San Francisco to Tokyo was about 11 hours already. Thank God
for the smoking rooms at the airport in Tokyo.

Anyway, we were flying out at night, so you couldn’t really see
anything outside the windows of the plane. I think it was about
a half hour after taking off, we started to fly through the storm.
This caused a lot of turbulence around the plane. I experienced
turbulence before, but this time it was freakin’ crazy. In my
prior flights, I think the longest time I have experienced turbulence
was for maybe 15 or 20 minutes, which is a long time. This time
the turbulence lasted about 1.5 hours. Imagine riding a roller
coaster (like the Grizzly at Great America) for the length of a
movie. Lightning started to crack outside, and I could see
that the wing on my side of the plane was flapping up and down
a good foot to foot and a half each way. Are they going to
fall off or what?

I was glad that I didn’t throw up or mess up my shorts.
But I was grasping my seat, white knuckled and belted to my chair.
We were supposed to get dinner at the beginning of the flight,
but it was delayed till the last half hour of the trip. I didn’t
think I would be able to even eat.

All the while, I was thinking, “Is this what the characters of Lost
felt, before they crashed onto that island?, “Which group would
I hang with on the island, with Jack and Freckles, or with the Others?”.

That flight felt so gross. I was about to abandon flying and
take a boat back to the States. I wasn’t looking forward to my
flight back home. But hey, I’m impatient and flying is the quickest
way to from point A to point B.

Great, we got turbulence now. I wonder if they I can use my drink
coupon for an Ambien or Vicodin? Hmm…(as I press the button for the
Flight Attendant)...