Not afraid of flying, but I don't enjoy the lead-up to the trip. I'm usually ok once I'm through security. I must have this aura about me that suggests I'm just
plotting to start a peace protest on the plane or something. I tend to get searched a lot. And I'm generally tense whenever I have to be somewhere at a specific time anyway, because I'm quite often late. (Though I've only missed one flight from it, in years of having to travel for work.)
Two particularly memorable experiences:
Chicago O'Hare, 2am. Traveling from Terminal B to Terminal C via the underground passage with the pretty lights and surreal music to catch the other leg of my flight, after numerous delays coming back from California to the East Coast. Closest I'll ever probably ever come to a hallucinogenic experience.
LAX, International Terminal, on my way to China to adopt our older daughter. Had waved to a few other people in (long) line also wearing buttons indicating they were with the same adoption agency. Got to the front of the line, was told there was no record of my reservation and the flight was full. I was 3000 miles from home and about 3000 miles from where I hoped to be. I smiled, nodded, showed my printed copy of the reservation, and asked what the ticket agent could suggest? He suggested politely that I wait nearby and he would "help" me after seeing to the other customers. I was in a pretty zen state by then, because we'd waited 14 months to be approved to adopt this girl, during which time China had completely shut down older child adoptions and for a while it had looked like it just wasn't going to happen, so I figured it was out of my hands at this point. I asked some of the other adoptive families who passed me in line to let the agency know that I'd be along eventually, if it happened that I didn't make this flight. They were far more distressed than I was. A young couple soon landed next to me on the sidelines, in the same predicament and somewhat panicky, so I calmed them down a bit.
The three of us got put in crew seats in first class, at no extra charge.
Of course, that was the one time I actually checked a bag (I usually fly with one carry-on, no matter where I'm going or for how long), and I was stupid enough to check the one with the adoption paperwork in it, and they lost it, and I had to wander around Baggage Claim in Beijing asking (in my very limited Mandarin) "Have you seen a bag? It is blue. It is medium sized. It is round." I did get the bag back. That makes a good story when I'm teaching introductory Chinese lessons.
