Day 271.

Monday, September 28, 2009.

I hate flying. I've officially confirmed that. You might remember that my last trip to Colorado was by car. And now I think I'll be doing that route more often. I recently read some article about fears/worrying and it talked about overcoming fear of flying with these various audio programs. I thought at the time, "wow, I'm glad I don't have THAT fear at least." Now, I might re-evaluate that thought, but what really stuck with me from those few sentences about fear of flying is that one should repeat in our heads..."Turbulence is not a safety issue, but a service issue."

I am grateful to have landed safely this evening.

I bought the whole service issue thing while we were in the air. Granted, I was still scared stiff by the plane flopping around in the sky thousands of feat up in the air. But, I kept myself relatively calm.

Then came the landing. There was wind in Chicago and as the plan descended, it could not stay level. We would drop suddenly (what I imagine is several hundred feet) and then start swaying. Side to side to side we would lean one way almost 45 degrees, and then back the other way. I think it was a negative that I was sitting above the wing and was watching it sway as we got closer and closer and closer to my beloved city below. I was all but sure we were crashing into a Cicero Ave. stripmall.

Obviously, we made it - we landed, and everyone aboard clapped. Thunderous applause. Now THAT doesn't happen on every flight.