Amber Mac

I'm not going to lie.  I love to travel, but i HATE flying (yeah, I know, I fly all the time and have flown to dozens of countries since I was a wee kid).  But, still, I really HATE flying.  Sweaty palms, shaky legs, you name it and I've got it.

When I worked at Razorfish in San Francisco in 2000, I refused to fly to a company retreat in Las Vegas; instead, I took a 6-hour train ride and a 6-hour bus ride to Sin City (while on Greyhound on the way back to SF, I was one of two people on the ride before we headed up to a prison to collect half-a-dozen newly released inmates - but still, to me, sittin' on a bus with criminals in the desert was much better than boarding a plane).  

For most of the late nineties, I avoided all opportunities that involved air travel.  But in 2004, when I moved back to Canada from the U.S., I started to get sick of being so afraid so my doctor suggested that I take Ativan when I'm high up in the air.  Yes, high up in the air (turns out Ativan is an amnesiac, so you can't even remember that you were afraid - weird, huh?). 

Over the past few years, I've had to fly more and more, and am (finally) getting pretty solid at talking my way through each and every minute while in-flight (oh, and talking to pretty much anyone who sits near me or who works on the plane).   Here's an email I received yesterday from someone I met two(?) years ago en route to Los Angeles (in other words, you might want to hope that you don't ever have a plane seat near me):

"I met you on a plane from Toronto to SF and it was the weirdest flight I ever had... We passed cryptic notes to the crew and scared everyone else... do you remember this?" -Eric

Most recently, I flew from Orlando, Florida to Brisbane, Australia, which is why I've got flight on my mind.  For 13 hours over the Pacific Ocean, on Qantas Airlines, I kept remembering what "Rain Man" said in the movie, so tonight I looked up the video and had a little chuckle.  Here it is for your enjoyment.  And, I'm not going to lie, this silly scene made me feel less sweaty and shaky the whole flight to Oz!  Please tell me i'm not the only one with stories like this ;).  -A

April 14th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (32)