"Take Me On Your Mighty Wings"

Well hello there faithful followers, this is Jenn speaking.

Let me tell you a little about our trip from California to Lubbock.

As some of you may know, my Dad and I stayed at home until Thursday, because we were both supposed to work and I had finals for nursing school. On Monday night, my cat (Michelangelo, aka Angelo, aka Mikey) got really sick. Long story short, I spent a lot of money on him, and a lot of time and effort, but he is alive and well as of now. But it was a very stressful couple of days when he was sick, because I almost had to put him down. I was supposed to work on Wednesday, and then fly to Lubbock on Thursday morning. Because Angelo was sick, I was taking care of him constantly. Giving him meds, making sure he hadn't gotten his cone collar stuck on anything (the morphine he was on made him a little loopy. ha) and flushing his catheter (yes, it wasn't glamorous). I was concerned because I was going to have to leave him home alone all day Wednesday while I was at work. A couple of my friends told me that I should just stay home to care for Angelo, but I wanted to go to work anyway. So, as I got up at 5:30 am, I gave Angelo his medication, and went to get in the shower. As I stepped down the 2 story drop into our shower (it's a really big step down) my foot landed sideways.... and rolled completely over, with quite a bit of force. Darn wet shower. I landed against the far wall, and tried to recompose myself. Well, as soon as I looked down, it was already bruised and swollen. So much for going to work. One sick call and a few x-rays later, I was back at home icing and elevating, and taking care of Angelo. That definitely threw a wrench into all of my plans for the day. Note to anyone who has never used crutches: THEY SUCK.

Thursday morning my Dad and I got up early to meet my Grandparents, who were driving us to SFO. We took little Winnie with us to their house, where he is staying while we are gone. He was very excited to go see his favorite people, because they give him lots of treats.

(He looks very pitiful. But he was very happy when we got there!)

So we made it to the airport, and I was hobbling along on my crutches. Just inside the door, I saw a soldier saying goodbye to his dad. I think it's a pretty sure bet that he wasn't just going for training, considering that both he and his dad had tears in their eyes. It was a touching thing to see, and reminded me of how grateful I am for every man and woman that serves our country. We were directed to the front of the line at security (hey, there are perks to this whole sprained ankle thing!) and I hopped through the metal detector. After that, they made me go stand in a clear plastic box. What the heck. My dad kept looking over and laughing at me. I didn't see what was so funny, especially since they wouldn't let me have my crutches back. They then tested my hands and splint to make sure they weren't weapons of mass destruction, and finally let us through. We made it to our gate, and sat waiting to board.

Now let me tell you, there are some interesting people at SFO. Sitting to the left of me was an Asian man who was coughing constantly. I'm pretty sure he had Tuberculosis. So if I die Moulin Rouge style any time soon, you'll know why. To the right of me was a man and his wife, they may have been european tourists. Not completely sure. Now, this man was doing something so unbelievable, I wanted to record it with my phone (yes, all of you iPhoners out there that don't have the latest generation 3g, I can record video. IN YOUR FACE) but I thought that might be too obvious. Anyways, the guy (and I'm not making this up) had his hand up his shirt, causing his middrift to be exposed, playing with his nipples. I can't even make up stuff this ridiculous. And because I had to be a witness to this, I think that it is only fair that you all get to share in my horror.

We finally boarded the plane, and started on our journey. My foot was hurting quite a bit, but there wasn't anywhere to elevate it. So this is how I had to make do:

Yes, that is my Dad next to me. I made him sit to my left on both flights, so that I could put my leg on him.

I also had to sit right next to the engine, so I couldn't hear anything the captain said overhead. And I was well aware that in the case of an engine fire, I was for sure a goner.

Now this brings up the major observation that I had during my flights. It has been a while since I have flown, and I have never had the blessing of flying with an injury. Of course I somehow developed a acute case of overactive bladder while on the flight, and had to squeeze past my dad and the little lady sitting next to him twice. Which brings up my point: if sitting in that seat, and squeezing out past people is hard for me, how the heck do average sized people do this???? It was horrible.

We stopped in Dallas (where are the pilots look 15. It's scary) and then finally made it to Lubbock. And the rest you were updated on in my Mom's last post.

So there you have the story of our journey to meet the rest of the family.

Bardle Do,

~Jenn