This is the first time in my 23 year of life that I have ever traveled alone. It’s a little scary but kind of fun. I feel like I am being forced to grow up a little bit and becoming more independent. I am traveling to Irvine, CA to compete in the IBJJF: Pan Jiu-jitsu Championship. I wasn’t supposed to take this trip alone, but due to unexpected circumstances I had to. I was pretty stressed out this morning – I had to work before leaving for the airport, and the entire time I was at work I was on the phone with the travel agency making changes to my trip – cancelling a flight and changing the car rental. After being on the phone for what seemed like forever, I finally got things straightened out. After getting of the phone I felt like one weight was lifted off my shoulders and another was put on. I am about to travel to the other side of the country to compete in the second largest tournament in the world – ALONE!
Dave Trader was supposed to bring me to the airport but because of those unforeseen circumstances he was running late. Those of you who know me know how crazy I get when I am feeling stressed. So finding out Dave was going to be a little late got my heart rate going and I could feel the stress coming on. Luckily for me, Dave is awesome and knows that I got nuts about this kind of stuff and he suggested I drive myself to the airport and just pay to park. Initially my heart sunk at the thought of not being able to see him before leaving for this trip – my first trip alone, to a big tournament. I wanted to wait for him so I could get some last minute words of wisdom before the tournament, but then I decided it would be best to just get to the airport and not stress myself out too much. I can always talk to him on the phone right? :-)
Josh was in between clients on a long break so he said he would take me to the airport. (Thanks again!) My flight was scheduled to take off at 2:20pm so getting to there airport at 1:00pm gave me plenty of time to get through security. So I head to security dreading the long line I’d have to stand in, but luckily for me there was almost no line at all! I flew right through that (no body scanners) and headed to my departure gate. When I got to my gate I saw there was a flight delay! Ugh, I wished I had waited for Dave! We didn’t start boarding the plane until 2:45 and didn’t take off till after 3:00! This pushed our arrival time back to 6:00pm – hopefully this doesn’t effect my car rental…I know they are weird about you picking your car up within a certain amount of time. I’m sure things will be fine – why do I always do this to myself, stressing over nothing!
Anyways, now I am bored on the plane with nothing to do. The last two times I traveled out to California I traveled on Virgin America, which was awesome. They have TV’s behind every seat and you can watch TV or movies, play games, listen to music, order food – it even shows you a map of where you are, how fast you are going, your altitude, and your ETA! Today I am flying American Airlines and I must say I am very disappointed. The only thing for you to do is watch the “feature film” on the one TV they have for every 3 rows. Fortunately for me I was interested in what they were showing – a documentary on how bad the education system and teachers in America are. Now that that is over there is nothing to do again, so I thought to myself, what better time to write a blog entry! As soon as I land and am able to connect to the internet again I will post this!
Later!
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