Sleepless in Downey

Alot has happened in the last month since my update. After giving my notice at work, I spent the next two weeks up to my eyebrows in ‘last minutes’ to get done before I left. This included things like site tours, documentation, purchases and installations.. We also interviewed several IT consulting companies who we felt could be used to fill in some of the gaps in my absence.

Then I had a few days off and we traveled to MA for Thanksgiving.

That was my final reprieve, as we returned on Saturday and I flew out to Downey, CA on Sunday.

So I’m laying here now on Tuesday night, and I’m hear for another 3 days. I’ll be returning Friday night. I don’t have a car this time, so there isn’t alot I can do after I get done my work training. Granted, I didn’t finish until almost 6 tonight anyway. Originally, I thought I might see who was around up in LA from my Ithaca days and maybe stop by and say hi for dinner or something, but that’s not feasible without a car.

Luckily, on day one, I got a new mobile phone and laptop. So now that I’ve got it all configured, I’m actually paying for WIFI access in the hotel for the next 3 nights, and hence my ability to finally post.

I’ll talk more about the job later, but I wanted to comment on the flight out.

The worst flight I’ve been on in 25 years. We got in the air 45 minutes late, but then the pilot told us we might be in for some rough weather and he was going to leave the seatbelt sign on. He wasn’t exaggerating. He got on 3 more times to update us over the next hour. He apologized and said it was the worse he’d seen in years as well.

For an hour, we kept changing altitudes. 20k. 28k, 22k, 3ok. 25k. Trying to smooth things out. It didn’t work. I haven’t see a vomit bag used in 25 years, and I saw a dozen used on this flight. People would vocalized ‘woahs’ and ‘ahs’. We were holding onto headrests and arm rests. I found myself locking my fingers under the tray table and standing on the balls of my feet trying to deal with the shifts and bounces. I felt myself straining against the seat belt several times as we dipped unexpectedly. I’m glad I had a seat belt on, or I’d likely have hit my head on the ceiling.

Wow. Don’t make me go through that again please. At one point I thought, what a way to start a new job, dying in the mountains of western PA. When we arrived, we heard that we’d just missed being redirected to Ontario, CA because of the fog. Flights afterwards were, and that would have put me 50 miles from the hotel instead of 22.. The taxi at 22 miles cost my $64.. another employee got redirected and split the $130 cabfare with someone else. Heard later that there we delays all across the country. In LAX, outgoing flights were backed up several hours.

I’m so glad I didn’t have to add on THAT to the end of a horrible flight.

Let’s hope Friday’s return is easier on the insides..

I know I haven’t been sleeping well the last two nights.. Hoping staying up a bit and writing this will help me settle down… last night I was up at 3 and 5 and finally got out of bed and started my day at 6. Monday morning, I was up at 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. I wanted to attribute that to the plane ride + first day jitters, but today was day too.. Am I still nervous? A good night sleep will prove otherwise.