Really. I do. What I like least, I suppose, is the flying and the vague nausea and headache that stays with me for a day or two after a long flight (I should preface all this by saying that I flew back to Beaumont from San Francisco yesterday, and thus, I am still in the throes of some jetlagged crankiness). I should actually be grateful that the planes I've been in have never crashed. But that crushing boredom between takeoff and touchdown is what really gets to me. That and the patently offensive in-flight movies--yesterday, it was "The Women," and yes, I am completely embarrassed to say, I shelled out a dollar for the cheap headset (which, I kid you not, fell apart in my hand immediately after it was purchased, forcing me to do some pretty impressive makeshift engineering to get one headphone to work) to watch. "The Women" is one of those movies that is soaked in pathos but, ironically, is also so bad that I ended up hating all of the characters and not caring what happened to them at the end.
I did get some free food, though--a lunch consisting of a microwaved hamburger in a plastic bag (yeah, I know), a "salad" consisting of some room temperature iceberg lettuce and a tube of parmesan cheese dressing (which totally countered any nutritional value the "salad" might have otherwise had), and a mini KitKat. I ate all of it, by the way.
There, I said it. And I know I can't be the only one who abhors the process of travel.
Now I can get back down to the business of some scholarly writing and research...
Update:
OMG! Check out my distant colleague Cheryl Ball's blog post in which she vents about travel: http://www.ceball.com/blog/?p=418
Turns out she has had a similarly (but far worse in that it was even more tedious) dismal experience flying. But much of her post deals with traveling (by train) to and from the exact same conference! What a coincidence that we'd both blog about the same thing--cybertelepathy?
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2 comments:
Ok seriously, you should patent the world "cybertelepathy" !!! Rock on.
Planes are safer than driving. You're far less likely to get in an accident. . .
. . . That never helps, does it? Doesn't help me, either.
My worst and so far, only flying experience:
When I flew back from a fiction conference in Phoenix, my bags were loaded heavy with freebies and souvenirs, mostly books. I passed inside security fine and waited on the plane. There was a slight delay before taking off; I assumed it was the rain. When I got home and opened my bags, I got a nasty surprise. My bags were opened in the rain before they were loaded onto the plane, and many of my books suffered water damage, including one I brought specifically to have signed by a favorite author. Because it was all in the name of "security," I'm not allowed to complain and expect any kind of resolution. Yes, I am pissed, still.
And just think, this was before 9/11.
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