Leaving on a jet plane

July 30, 2008 at 12:01 AM

After I learned to drive, I once volunteered to fetch tomato paste from the grocery store for my mom just so I could get more time behind the wheel. Driving was fun and new and exciting. Then I had to start driving three hours between home and college, or I had to drive thirty minutes to work every day and driving suddenly wasn't fun.

The first time I flew in a plane, I went to Disney World and I probably wasn't tall enough to ride all the rides. It was also so long ago that they let people meet you at the gate. I flew a couple times after that as an adult, to New York and Boston, but it was still a rare thing - a scary, rare thing. I would listen with rapt attention to the flight attendants. Where were the emergency exits? You say the closest one might be behind me, not in front of me? Good tip! Are the seats really going to work as flotation devices? When the plane sped down the runway and took off, my stomach would drop and not return to my chest until the "Fasten seatbelts light" was turned off.

When I flew home from San Francisco at midnight last week, I whipped out a pillow and snoozed through the emergency exit lecture. I've reached the point where air flight is now boring. This is good for my anxiety levels, but a little bit sad when I think of the millions of people who lived before me who would have gawked in wonder at an airplane. What would Leonardo da Vinci have done to sit in coach beside me? I have to wonder what technological wonders of the next century will seem mundane to our descendants. I suppose they'll jaunt off for weekends on the moon and think nothing of it.

If you are reading this on Wednesday morning, I'm probably on a plane. I'm probably not freaking out about it. If you're in New York this evening, you can catch me tonight at Swizz at 7:30pm. I will send updates to Twitter via my cell phone, which I just configured tonight. I'll announce when I arrive and when I leave if you want to check in. Here is my Twitter page. (Yes, after intense peer pressure, I've started Twittering). Then you can watch me on CBS's The Early Show on Thursday morning. I'm not going to Twitter during that because it's rude to text during interviews.

Read more about: flight, swizz, the early show, twitter

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Red • July 30, 2008 12:59 AM

I've probably flown 5-6 times, I still take the window seat out of a sense of wonder.

I will often look down just as we take off and remark to the person next to me that this Iron Stork has defied gravity!

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ShanaOB • July 30, 2008 1:39 AM

Have a great trip. You figured out twitter? Huh, I cannot make heads or tails of it.

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maggieapril • July 30, 2008 7:55 AM

Damn, it feels good to be a gangsta'! Flying so much it's become routine, poppin' on television like everybody does it, authoring a book, not to mention being all cute and skinny... Life is good. Have fun in NYC.

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MizFit • July 30, 2008 8:31 AM

i love to fly.
or did pretoddler anyway.
I think of it as a slice of QUIET in the world.
somehow, however, I married the most terrified flier known to (wo)mankind.

really.

he has run OFF more flights pretake off than I taken---and Ive flown a lot.

have a great time!

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Laura • July 30, 2008 12:08 PM

I now fly twice a week for work, sometimes more, and it has totally taken all the fun out of air travel. Sometimes when there are little kids on flights (and they're not driving me nuts), it's neat to see how excited they are by the whole flight ritual. I agree that it's sad that we've lost that sense of wonder.

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Laura N • July 30, 2008 1:01 PM

Wow! Another trip to NY. Hope it's a great trip.

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Pamela R • July 30, 2008 2:55 PM

I'll be watching you Thursday morning. Gee, that sounds kind of stalker-ish, doesn't it?? I tried the twitter thingy, but I spend 90% of my day on the computer and it doesn't work with IM now and I'm not getting my phone out just to be a twit...

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Meg • July 30, 2008 9:12 PM

I'm so upset that I won't get a chance to come out and meet you! I live in NYC, but unfortunately I work nights.

I hope your NYC trip goes well. I fly a lot and I *still* get a little butterflies-in-the-stomach with each flight. Mostly because I just enjoy the sensation, and I *love* watching the landscape out the window.

-Meg

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Karen Malloy • July 31, 2008 1:50 PM

I was at the gym this morning with a few friends doing cardio. I glanced up at the television, and there was your smiling face!!! I yelled to my friend, "Hey, that's Jeanette, she sent me a copy of her book, and i loved it!!!" I am so happy to see the sucess you are having. I hope it continues, and it was so cool to catch you on television!

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asithi • August 4, 2008 7:56 PM

Yep, after a while, you start to lose that sense of wonder with flying. Now I just dread flying because of the long lines and cancelled flights. Getting from Orlando to CA took me 13 hours the last time I flew because of the cancelled flights and delay. I spend more time laid over at Dallas than the actual flying time.

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