My Version of Hell...

....would be stuck on a long flight, excited for vacation, and sleep deprived.

My goodness there has been ALOT of chatter about travelling lately. Friends, Family, Co-workers.... It seems like they are all going places but me. [That isn't entirely true, we just returned from our vacation, but I just love being on vacation - so much that I'm already looking forward to the next one.. whenever that may be].

But with all this talk about travelling - I've decided to let out all the latent aggression I have about our last trip across the world, literally. We live 10,000 miles from our home town. We took a giant plane across the Pacific, stopped in Detroit quick, and jumped on a smaller plane to NY. 24 hours total from our front door to my Mother's front door. [Ugh - just thinking about it is exhausting]. Every time I take the trip, I vow not to take it again until we leave this island. But, my hometown has its own gravity pulling me back every so often.

I think the worst part about taking the trip is the complete lack of sleep I endure. I've taken this trip across the ocean 7 times and without the help of a tranquilizer, I don't sleep. This past time my husband travelled with me! I was so excited to show off my travel savvy knowledge to him. And I was thinking of how nice it will be to have him right next to me, we could talk and watch movies together, gripe about the terrible food - you know things to pass the time together. We get to the airport - and (WHAT?!) our seats have been changed?!?! We now get to travel in the comfort of the middle seats in the middle row! Between Justin's knees touching the seat in front of him and me scrunching my legs over so he could have a little space - we were ready for it to be over before we even left Tokyo. I'm trying (so hard) to keep thinking about how nice it is to be travelling together, but by this point my excitement was waning. The seats that I booked have been switched. Bummer. [We were told that the seats were "malfunctioning" - which was a TOTAL lie, because we scoped out the seat stealers and it didn't look like they were having any discomfort or issues with their seats or with the leg room I thought I was paying for]. So we take-off and they serve dinner a little while later, we eat and laugh about how hard it was to choke down... ahhh... things are turning out okay. As soon as they take our trays and garbage I look over and he is dozing off! No, No, No, No....You are supposed to stay awake with me.. He opens one of his eyes, and looks at me and says, "I'm sorry babe, I'm so tired.." So now I'm thinking, great, what am I going to do now?! I open my book and start to read - for all I know he is already dreaming of the vacation, and me? - I'm wide awake on this flight - annoyed & jealous that my man, my love, is next to me is getting rest that I know I need too. And to top our flight off, it came with complimentary children in the row behind us. I think their kicking feet were only attracted to my seat. Needless to say - Justin came off of that flight looking fresh and dewy, and I had bloodshot eyes and huge pores. Once we got back to my Mom's house and were able to catch up on sleep all was right with the world again.

It was a tough flight, but in the end worth it. When we got back to Japan- I vowed, once again, under no circumstances am I to take that flight again until I have to leave. [We'll see how long that lasts, my brother graduates high school next summer]

My thoughts are going out to my Mother, who in a few short weeks will be making that journey across the Pacific to come to Japan for a visit. I hope her trip is comfortable and that she finds herself sleeping all the way through it. If there is one way to travel on a plane, it is to be asleep for the whole flight.

I'm feeling aaaa-mazing now that I got that off my chest.

So for everyone that is vacationing soon, Happy Travels! :)
-K