Well Hello Sunshine State… It’s Been a While
So I made it to Florida today, woo hoo! For those of you who don’t know, I have struggled for eight years to get down here. Why? I have an anxiety disorder which has pretty much gave me a paralyzing fear of air travel, which is kind of weird, because I love planes! And as I’ve wrestled through this anxiety disorder, I’ve had to realize that a lot of that fear was built up in my head and was fairly irrational. So it was a great relief when I woke up this morning and had no anxiety. Dad came and took me to the airport, no anxiety. Boarded the plane and the plane took off, no anxiety. Praise God!
I guess the best way to describe it would be like this… imagine that you’re petrified of snakes,. And over the course of time, you become less and less petrified. Until one day, you find yourself no longer petrified. That’s how it was with me, it got gradually better over time.
It was nice going to the airport and having lunch with my Dad. I was really looking forward to some Chick-Fil-A, but I couldn’t find one at the new terminal, so Dad and I had to settle for McDonald’s…. blah! He then left and I went ahead through security, no big deal. I almost felt like I got there too early (I was there two hours before departure), so I was trying to find ways to kill time. Thank goodness that the airport has power outlets and free wifi. I killed part of the time reading news stories and part of the time watching Dragnet on Hulu. After a while, I got bored with that and just walked the concourse.
The flight in itself was fairly uneventful. I got one of the best seats in the plane, the row right behind the emergency exit, so I had plenty of room to spread out. Perhaps one of my favorite things was listening to the kids get excited about taking off. “Okay Kyle, we’re going to make another turn here and then the plane is going to speed up and we’ll be flying!” It was just so cool to see the kids press their face up to the windows and watch in amazement. “Do you see? We’re going through clouds! And then, we’ll go through more clouds!”
Perhaps the weirdest part of the flight was when the guy next to me kept drifting off into my personal bubble. I leaned forward and talked to the girls in front of me (who were about my age) and asked them if they wanted to trade seats and in exchange, cuddle with the creepy guy next to me. No takers!
After talking to the guy, I found out he had a couple drinks and was a wee bit sleepy. He ended up staying awake for the rest of the flight reading his Wall Street Journal and talking to his business partner. The girls in the row in front of me got a good laugh out of it and I was happy that he finally woke up.
My mom and step-dad picked me up from the airport. Little did I know that David had plans to give me a tour of Tampa, so I didn’t get to head straight to their place. I got to see all the sights: saw where the rich people lived, checked out the University of Tampa, and saw the party scene in Ybor City. Just an FYI, this tour contained a LOT of strip clubs. Not because David wanted me to know where they are, but because you can’t throw a stick in Florida without hitting one. Ha ha!
We stopped at a nice Spanish cafe and had dinner. I had a Cuban sandwich along with some cooked plantains, they were pretty good. We finally got to my mom’s house around 8:30 or 9:00. It’s a nice house and I absolutely love it. I’m looking forward to laying in the pool and reading. I was so happy to walk in the door and be greeted by my African Grey Parrot, Isaac. Isaac moved down here a couple of years ago to be with my mom. He must not have remembered me because when I put my arm out for him to perch, he tried to take a bite out of me. Here’s a short video of Isaac showing off his signature “hip hop” move…
Well, that’s all for now. Had trouble with my GPS, but after a reset, it started working again. I’ll be heading to my Grandma’s tomorrow in Largo, FL. Hoping to go see where my grandfather is buried and looking forward to just hanging out with Grandma… maybe I’ll challenge her to a mad game of Uno. Ha ha!
I may not post a blog entry tomorrow because I don’t know if I’ll have wifi. I’m pretty thankful that my Mom’s neighbor left their wireless network open, which is pretty sweet for me because my mom has dial-up (LAME!). Anyways, I hope ya’lls (yup, picked up a new word down here) have a great Friday!