I don’t know why, but it hasn’t fully sunk in yet that I’m headed to London tomorrow. I feel like I should be so much more excited- it’s my favorite city in the world after all, and I haven’t set foot in my beloved town in nearly four years. Shouldn’t I be rocking out the the Beatles in my Burberry stockings while waving a Union Jack right now?
It’s probably my pesky fear of flying. When buying plane tickets I specifically chose to go out of Los Angeles rather than San Diego. The latter is much closer to my house, but landing there is absolutely terrifying. I also payed the extra hundred dollars to ensure I got a direct flight (did you know that you up your chances of being in a crash if you opt for layovers??). Then I picked an aisle seat closest to an emergency exit- which ended up being at the back of the plane, right above the loud engine. Screw comfort during a ten-hour flight, I just want to survive it!
I know I sound crazy. I know after years of flying around the world I should be fine with it. But wait, my fear gets stranger: I actually have become more terrified of planes the more I’ve flown. It’s something to do with statistics; part of me thinks that the more I fly, the more likely I’m going to end up incinerated in a massive crash. And yes, I’ve actually looked up the statistics to see how likely I am to be in said crash based on the number of flights I’ve been on. It didn’t make me feel any better.
In fact, Florence + The Machine is the only thing that comforts me when I’m at 30,000 feet. I’ve considered getting some tranquilizer from the doctor or drinking, but decided I’d rather be white-knuckling it for ten hours rather than actually be in a crash and be too drugged up to be able to save myself. I can’t really think of any other ideas to comfort myself, other than meditating, which is out of the question when my stomach is churning that much.
So if anyone out there has any ideas for me to try tomorrow, I would really like to hear them. Whoever thinks of something that works will get a virtual bear hug from me and shout-out in my next post 🙂
Anyway, that was a bit of a pointless ramble. I was planning on explaining the reason for my visit to the good ‘ol UK and talk about shamanism (I promise the two are connected).
I’ll try to get into that while I’m waiting at LAX tomorrow 🙂 Thank God for their free wireless.
Sarah Long Writes 
3 responses to “London Is Calling… But I’m Not Picking Up”
Read read read. It helped me a lot on long flights. Also when they have the movies going. Anything to get you distracted.
Yeaaa that helps too. But when the turbulence starts I can’t concentrate on the page =/
This is the perfect opportunity to practice lowering your heart rate and remote view. There are many advantages here. Your heart gets to save a number of beats, which you may need later in life so scientists can increase human life spans. And if you happen to be successful in your viewing, you are conveniently no longer in the plane, but still connected to your body so you may instantly snap back to reality if anything requiring your attention were to happen. I’ve learned you need to try weird things, especially if those are the things your brain tends to think about. You are going to have a great flight.