Wii!!

So we finally found a Wii!

My husband and I (self-proclaimed nerdy gamers) have been kinda looking around for one for quite awhile. But pretty much had given up after seeing bare shelves at big box stores everywhere. We weren’t super stalking a Wii by hunting Ebay or waiting in line at Best Buy on Sunday mornings or anything…but always thought if we ran across one…we would get one. But have never actually found one.

But a weekend trip out to West Texas to visit my family turned our Wii hunting around. My family and I made a quick time-killing trip to the small-town Wal-Mart in little ‘ol Lamesa after slamming down some yummy enchiladas out our favorite Tex-Mex joint, Pedrosa’s. And low and behold….a Wii was sitting inside the glass case. I guess demand for the $300 game system isn’t very high in Lamesa.

So we snatched it up and have been Wii-ing ever since. We quickly found out that my mom and my 6-year-old nephew are pro Wii bowlers and my husbanded needed to let out some penned up frustration with me on boxing.

So now, I’ve got to run and play some tennis!

Flying the Not-So-Friendly Skies: (Part II The Trip Home)

I’ve never really been frightened on an airplane. Sure, there are little bumps of turbulence that make my stomach jump into my throat and I get a little woozy when the plane makes a sharp turn…but really no fear.

That was until my last trip.

After a weird ride from New York to Dallas (some lady actually offered my husband $20 for his seat so she could be near the front and get off the plane faster, and I actually shed tears when my laptop ran out of battery power) we arrived back in Texas….a bit frazzled and ready to get home.

We had a short lay over at DFW and then it was back to the plane for what we thought would be a quick, easy 30-minute ride to Austin. 

We board, get situated and we sit, and sit, and sit some more. Nothing is happening. On top of it all, the airplane’s air conditioning was not working. Sitting in a metal tube which is parked on concrete, in the hot Texas sun is torture in my book. When I got on this plane something just didn’t feel right about it. It seemed old, and dark and dirty….some old shitbag airplane that American Airlines had dusted off to make short little trips between Austin and Dallas all day.

So when the pilot came on to tell us that the crew was busy fixing some “discrepancies” with the cargo doors, I wasn’t surprised. He promised us it would only be 20 minutes and we would be on our way. Well, 30 minutes goes by and the discrepancies….whatever that means… aren’t fixed. The pilot actually came out of the cockpit, addresses everyone of the plane and said he was just as frustrated as we were and he’s actually going to go down and see what’s going on.

I stopped looking at the clock, but I was told we sat there and waited for about 2 hours, in the heat. The pilot finally comes back up and says the doors were fixed and we will be on our way. We pull away from the gate, get about 20 feet away and we stop. Again, we were not moving. We sit for several minutes and the pilot comes on again. This time a member of the ground crew spotted a “scratch” on one of the wings and the pilot has called out someone to check it out before we can go. URGH!

By this time we could’ve been almost back to Austin if we had just rented a car and driven ourselves home. So I guess someone finally came out and inspected the “scratch” …. whatever that means…. and we finally had the thumbs up to leave.

“I want to assure you that this plane is 100% safe to fly,” the pilot added before we took off.

Hmmm….something about that statement actually is not very assuring.

So here is when I almost freaked out. As we took off, something just didn’t feel right. I’m no seasoned flier, but you know what a taken off is supposed to feel like. There’s some shaking and you feel this weird sinking, pulling feeling in your gut. Well, that didn’t happen. It felt like we were just barely getting up off the ground, almost gliding through the air. On top of that there was this horrible BURNING SMELL.

And there is something you never want to smell on an airplane….it’s burning. I clenched my husband’s hand and buried my face in his shoulder. “Are we going to die?” I asked. ‘No,” he said half convincing.

Finally my nerves calmed, those trusty fight attendants came around and gave us a Coke and some scammed snack mix from first class (mind you, we haven’t eaten or drank anything in like 3 hours) and we finally touched down in Austin. I’ve never been so glad to be home.

This was definitely a trip to remember….for all the wrong reasons.

Flying the Not-so-Friendly Skies (Part I: The Take Off)

I’m not a frequent flier. The longest airplane trip I’ve ever actually taken is about four hours and I usually only hop aboard these Death Tubes about once or twice a year. I’m not horribly afraid of flying. I’m usually fine with it. I do get a little hot and board and my butt begins to go numb about two hours in…but that’s the trade off for not having to drive….right?

My latest trip to New York forced me to get in, strap on and pretend that defining gravity at 35,000 feet and 500 mph with a bunch of sweaty strangers is A-OK.

This marked my first experience with American Airlines. The company hasn’t received a lot of good publicity recently for charging people to check bags and actually making people pay for those shitty airplane meals they serve on longer flights. But the flight was cheapish and served its purpose so my husband and I just decided, what the hey….roll with it.

Things were going OK until we hit our stop in Raleigh/Durham. I have NO idea why we had to stop here on the way to NYC…but we did. We didn’t even get off the plane…but had to just sit there for about half an hour. After killing time on the tarmac in North Carolina (my first visit to this fair state….but I’m sure there is more there to offer) we were finally on our way. We actually had to move seats because for some reason our seats for the first flight were not the same as  the second leg of the trip….but oh, one minor inconvenience….roll with it.

We taxi out to what we all expect is the runway…but things started looking suspicious when we saw like six other planes just sitting around….going nowhere. This is when the pilot gets on and tell us we must wait…indefinitely until Laguardia gets unclogged. Apparently this is typical for the airline industry (and not American’s fault)….but this was the FIRST time I’ve ever just had to sit on the runway and wait….little did I know this was just the beginning. I again decided to just roll with it.

So finally we get up in the air and everyone’s a little bit cranky, including some of the flight attendants (I think that’s what they are calling themselves now days).

One crusty air hostess got a little impatient with one passenger as he tried to stow away his laptop upon departure. She kept angrily saying, “you must put away ALL electronic devices.” And the guy apparently wasn’t moving fast enough. “Sir,” she snarled. “Put up your computer.”

“You aren’t being very nice,” the passenger said.

“I AM being nice,” she said.

“No you are not,” the passenger rebutted.

“Whatever,” the stewardess said before stomping off in a huff.

What happened to the glamorous days of flying? When people got all spiffed up to fly and stewardesses wore scarves and cute little hats and said hello and goodbye and “thanks for flying with us.”

Now days everyone is just angry, rushed, scared and just plain ol pissed off….including those damn flight attendants. I know it must be a stressful job…pouring out diet cokes, passing out peanuts, being rude to people. But c’mon, show a little heart.

I think my next vacation will be a road trip.

Stay tuned for FLYING THE NOT-SO-FRIENDLY SKIES (PART II: THE TRIP HOME)