Traveling Day

Wait- you're moving to Alaska?!

This morning began with a tone that remained throughout the day- it was like the sound of a beautifully composed cluster chord, filled with feelings of nervousness, excitement, tiredness, and hectic chaos. I feel like that introduction sufficiently sums it all up. But if you want to know the boring details that I try to make sound entertaining, you first must know that I have certain routines when I travel. I usually begin packing a significant amount of time before my trip. Check. I started packing over two weeks ago. I prepare myself mentally for the trip by checking in, going over in my mind what I am about to do and how I will react to different situations. Done. I must say that the Delta app is the obsessive planner’s dream and nightmare, depending on which way you look at it. And then I pick out the comfiest blobby outfit I can get away with wearing while still looking like a college graduate. However, this day of travel was different for me. This is my first time moving myself to a new place. It’s the beginning of a new journey where I am older and am making significant life choices by myself. Because of that, I felt that it deserved some class. And by “class”, I mean first class. Oh yeah. Okay, no. I mean, I did fly first class. But there’s actually a “reasonable” reason: I’m moving far away from home for a year and have a lot of stuff. First class= three free checked bags that can each weigh 70 pounds. So it actually ended up being cheaper to fly business because I have four very large, very heavy bags containing almost all of my possessions. If you know me well and how I pack, you are very proud of me right now. On top of my four large bags, I also had my good old cello- Mr. Cello, or “Ruth Cello”, as it is written on his boarding pass. He might not be talkative and may be annoying to lug around when traveling, but he certainly attracts attention and gives me “coolness” points. So as Mr. Cello and I prepared for flying first class, we both agreed that we needed to go for the sophisticated look. I wrapped him in my llama sweater and stuffed a bunch of last-minute laundry around him and closed the case. So he was good to go. I took a little more work. I decided to go with a classic look: jeans, casual shoes, solid-colored shirt, nice blazer. I got up extra early to get ready and do my hair (airplane hair is just not a good look on me) and stuffed all my other last-minute things that didn’t fit in my cello case in my nearly-bursting suitcases. I know that my fashion choices do not particularly interest most people, but getting so dressed up and preparing for this flight made me feel so grown up and excited! So it was an important part of the process. So by the time I finally got ready and had all my things packed, I was, of course, late. My dad is the kind of person who will get in the car the moment we are supposed to be leaving and sit there until we are actually ready. Even if we are running late by ten minutes or more. Unfortunately, he couldn’t even do that to express his impatience with me this time because he was waiting for me to bring down the rest of my belongings so he could load them into the car! But we still made it to the airport with great timing and somehow fit my four checked bags, his one bag, and my five carry-on items in the car. We did have a slight bump along the way to the airport...in the haste of us leaving and him trying to rush me out the door, my dad had left a notebook of his on top of the car. It impressively remained on top of the car as we backed out of the driveway and turned down our street. And then it slid off the roof the moment we entered a much busier and faster street. My dad saw it fly in front of us and then circled around the area until he finally found it, sending me to retrieve it. Of course, it ended up being too far for me to reach while remaining inside, so I quickly unbuckled my seat belt, ran into the road, and scooped it up. He didn’t even need it for the trip…! We joked that hopefully the rest of the day wouldn’t be quite as difficult, and thank goodness, it wasn’t! As we were driving, I called my bank to notify the phone robot of my upcoming move out of the state. I don’t especially enjoy calling strangers, especially when it’s customer service-related, but I love talking to the robots. I know that the call is probably recorded and possibly monitored at that moment, but I feel the freedom to truly express myself with my mechanical friends. So every time robot man asked a question, I would reply with some strange voice or accent, and when he asked where I was going, I exclaimed, “ALASKA!” in a really strange, squealy voice. My dad was laughing as hard as he could without making any noise, in fear that the robot would pick up the noise and go into his, “I’m sorry” spiel. Unfortunately, robot man couldn’t understand my craziness, so after a while I resumed to being a normal human being. But that was definitely a fun way to express my excitement! My first flight from Detroit to Seattle left in the afternoon, and my departure time was perfectly synchronized with my dad’s flight to Colorado (he was traveling there to join my mom for a two-week vacation)! My dad and I have spent the past two weeks together, just the two of us, as my mom has been studying at Colorado State for a Master’s program. This was the first time my dad and I had spent more than a day alone together, and we had a blast!!! We did a lot of chores (for both himself and me), ran errands, and watched a lot of Alaskan reality tv shows. Oh, and Grey’s Anatomy. We even developed our own inside jokes (remember when I had you pretend to give yourself a root canal with a can opener on camera, Dad??). And there were two phrases that we would repeat to one another constantly: “Can’t touch this!” and “Good work, Squidward!”. They might not make sense to you, but they were highly amusing to us. We somehow ended up yelling Squidward at each other habitually, and it never got old. I said goodbye to my dad (sadness!) and soon after boarded my flight to Seattle. Let me tell you, flying first class across the country is snazzy. I’ve never had flight attendants treat me so well. And all of a sudden, being a passenger who brought a ginormous, intruding instrument on the plane didn’t make me imposing or annoying, but “interesting” and “cool”. I strapped Mr. Cello in and had several people, including the flight attendants, ask me what I do and if I was a professional. The man across from me leaned in and asked if I had just played on NPR. He had recently heard a cellist perform and thought that maybe it was me! It must have been the blazer. I tried to hide my amusement and said that unfortunately, no, that was not me, but maybe someday (what else do you say?!). I think my favorite part of the flight was the blanket. Oh, and maybe the free drinks and the delicious meal! I only had one drink per flight, but to be able to order alcohol on a plane made me feel so grown up. And I had a nice salmon salad for lunch. The attendant spread out a little tablecloth for my tray and everything! And don’t get me started on the warm towelettes. It was crazy. I spent the four and a half hours eating, listening to music, and texting with my family with the wifi I purchased (all of these were firsts for me!). Before I knew it, I was stepping into the Seattle airport, looking for my next gate where my flight to Juneau would be leaving from in three hours. I stepped up to the board, and just as my dad had predicted (if you knew how he predicted it, you would realize that he is the perfect obsessive consumer for the Delta app), my gate was literally across the hall from where I was standing. BOOM. I found a charging station and wrote my first blog post as I waited for my plane. Two and a half hours later, and the gate attendant announced that we were beginning to board in three minutes. Ahh! I was nowhere near ready. And packing up all my things while collecting and draping all five bags all over me was no quick task. But I was still toward the front of the line by the time boarding began. As I did with my first flight, I explained to the gate agent that I had two tickets, and there were no problems- praise the Lord! With my flight to Seattle, I had two tickets next to each other. But with my flight to Alaska, I didn’t. So I played multiple rounds of musical chairs with other people in first class to get a row with just me and Mr. Cello.
Traveling with an instrument makes for a good conversation starter and can also provide entertainment (Example A: NPR fan-girl man). Another example: when I walked onto my second flight, lugging both my cello and suitcase in front of me, I kindly asked the flight attendants if I could have a seat belt extender for my cello. They all three looked at me with a sort of hesitant, curious, disturbed look. And then I added, “I bought a seat for it”, and all of a sudden their expressions changed and one of them said, “Of course! Let me get that for you”. Oh goodness. The magic words. Also, when I was going through security in Detroit, the man working there just looked at me and my cello travel buddy and said, “Uhh you have to check that”. And I just wanted to be like, “Uhh I bought a whole extra seat for that”. I offered a politer reply than that, and all of a sudden, everything was okay. It’s honestly fun to watch people panic for a moment when they see me with this giant creature, as they become terrified of what it might do to inconvenience them.
Once I got a seat with my cello and strapped him in place for the second flight, we were golden. Unlike the other flight, this one had the personal movie option, so I took advantage of the free movies for a little bit as I ate! The flight attendant was very warm and friendly, and she would make jokes about offering food and drink options to my cello as well. Always a good joke. Yes, I’ve heard it quite a few times now, but it’s still cute! It was also sweet because I told the attendants on both flights that I will be playing with the Juneau Symphony, and some of them wanted to get information about the concerts because they all spent time in Juneau in between flights. I thought that was really neat! Maybe I could trade a free concert for a free flight with them! That’s about even, right??
I finally arrived to Juneau after 11 total hours of traveling!! It felt like 1:30am to me, but it was only 9:30pm. My wonderful hostess for the first month, Sue, graciously picked me up and even helped me with my gigantic bag pile! I had texted her a picture of me with them earlier that day to show her what I looked like, and she joked about how she would just strap me down to the top of her car. Classic!! She found me rather quickly at baggage claim, after I accidentally gawked and smiled at a woman I thought was gawking and smiling at me! Nope. Definitely the person behind me. But we made it safe and sound to her wonderful house, and she even told me a little about the area as we drove the fifteen minutes from the airport. I am tucked in bed and am pretty unpacked and can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings (besides the inevitable rain)! I know that I am meeting with my quartet and Lorrie for breakfast, and then our first educational experience that will last for ten days, the Juneau Basic Art Institute, will kickoff with a dinner in the evening!
My first observations about Alaska are:
1. It is as gorgeous is it looks in the pictures.
2. The people are really friendly.
3. The water tastes like it came fresh from the mountain gods.

Here we go! Alaska, DAY ONE!