I haven’t unpacked yet. There is finality in unpacking all my socks and underwear. My shoes still have Waikiki sand in them. I wasn’t expecting to feel this way. Being unable to wind back down into my daily Florida routines. Either I left a part of me in Oahu, or I brought some part Oahu back with me. Either way. I’ve been kind of screwed up from this trip. In the best way possible.
Thursday, January 28th 2010
I had probably slept less than 2 hours. After I had gotten off work I instantly started packing. There wasn’t much to worry about. My mom was worrying for me and making sure that I had absolutely everything I would need. My worries weren’t about my clothes, or having toothpaste, or brining enough ibuprofen. I was simply worried about flying.
I had done it once or twice when I was a fetus, but that doesn’t count. I was nineteen years old and had never experienced flying before. And of course, its my personal philosophy to go big or go home. My first flight would be nearly 4,800 miles away from home, away from my family and friends, all by myself. I was freaking out.
I don’t think it was until I was putting on my seatbelt, heading to the airport, that it sunk in that this trip was actually happening. I knew I was going. I knew it was happening, but it wasn’t until the car was moving, did I understand that. I was going to Hawaii. The trip I had been daydreaming about over a year ago was actually happening.
Back when I was skeptical and worried, I told a friend of mine, “If it’s supposed to happen, its supposed to happen. It’s all up to Jacob”. And I guess Jacob willed it.
I said goodbye to my mom at the security check, and kept looking back over my shoulder to see her waiting until she couldn’t see me anymore. Security check was super easy and not as intimidating as it was in the movies. I journeyed to my gate, bought that crazy expensive muffin, and sat around for nearly an hour.
Heart pounding. I watched probably over a dozen YouTube videos on flying, trying to prepare myself. Too bad those only made it worse. I wasn’t ready to leave the Earth. I liked being on the ground way too much, but it needed to be done. I needed to get it over with.
The plane was a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be. I was expecting something Oceanic, but alas, it was much more miniature than I had thought. I made myself past each row, realizing my seat was much farther down than where I was. Of course. I was in the tail section. And when I say tail section, I mean, I was the LAST seat on the plane. By myself. I looked around hoping to find an “Ana Lucia” looking woman to protect me in the event of an island crash landing. No such luck.
I had a pretty good plan of bringing a notebook with me so I could invent back history and flashbacks/flashforwards for all the people I experience on the flight, but when we were taxiing away from the gate I had already completely LOST interest in it.
The moment those engines kicked in and the entire fuselage started shaking, I actually began to laugh. I was having too much fun and the excitement of lift off instantly blew my face off. It was decided. I loved flying. I almost forgot that everything that was so flipping tiny down there was real. Tiny cars operated by tiny people. It was cool.
I had an hour long layover in Phoenix. Flying over the mountains and deserts was cool, but honestly, there is nothing appealing about Phoenix. So I’ll skip that bar and talk about the wonderfully crazy city that is Los Angeles. Approaching the city from the air was awesome. Even from 20,000 feet, it was obvious that Hollywood was down there. 
Now, I only experienced the traffic of LAX, and I must say. LAX traffic is apeshit. Airport buses cutting in front of other buses. J-Walkers and police officers. It was fun. And I really wished I could of seen more of the city, but that will be another trip.
The only downside of my LAX layover was the fact that my plane was delayed nearly four hours and the Dramamine I had been taking that was supposed to be making me sleepy, had an opposite effect and had been keeping me awake. I crashed in a restaurant outside my gate so I could charge my phone.
Through eavesdropping I discovered that not only had the plane’s CPU crapped out, making them unable to fly over water (which you have to do to get to Hawaii, right?), but the engine was missing a part and they had to FLY IT IN from Salt Lake City. Seriously? UTAH?! I was not a happy camper. I was incredibly sleep deprived and I was ready to in Hawaii, in a bed, sleeping…
Finally. The airport staff thought of something. How about they steal the part they needed from a plane they weren’t using and use the part they were flying in to replace the one they stole? That sounds fine by me. By then I had almost forgot WHY I was on this trip in the first place, until I saw a man reading a newspaper with Michael Emerson’s face on the front. I was finally stoked again.
The flight to Hawaii was a rough one. Five and a half hours crammed in a window seat with literally ZERO sleep. WHY, OH GOD?! WHY COULDN’T I SLEEP?! And for some reason my kneecaps felt like they were going to BURST out of my legs. It wasn’t fun. And I wasn’t a happy camper. When I was seconds from going insane I heard the pilot say we were 20 minutes away from Oahu. I almost cried. It was almost over.
I was greeted at my gate by a tiny little lady holding a sign with my name on it. It was interesting to see how many other people were coming off the plane. I was curious as to why everyone was coming here and if there was anyone else on board coming to get LOST like me.
The tiny little lady ran out of those pretty flower necklace things (Leis?), so she gave me an “Aloha Hug” instead, which was cute. We marched through the airport, grabbed our luggage, stepped outside into the fresh air. A few friends back home told me that Hawaii smells like flowers. I think it smells like awesome. If awesome was a smell, it would be what Hawaii smells like.
The shuttle ride to Waikiki was fun. I was a little bummed that it was night time because I couldn’t see anything outside. No sweeping mountain views. No misty cloud-ness. No palm trees or island stuff. It was going to have to wait until morning. Plus, I had to pee. Like. Really bad. I hadn’t gone at all on the plane because I was afraid to move around due to turbulence.
I checked into my hotel. This weird lady in the lobby told me LOST was stupid. I pulled a Sayid and twisted her head around 360 degrees (in my mind). My room was tiny, but I loved it. It was all mine. I just tossed everything onto the second bed and CRASHED. I was done. No more moving, no more traveling, nothing. Sleeeeeeeeeeeep.
I set an alarm for 8:00AM. Tomorrow I’d be touring Oahu. And I was too stoked.
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