Day 1 Part-B

As Flt105 continued to climb into the night sky, I slowly settled into my seat finding the most comfortable position. My thoughts were racing of Merly such as the first time I saw her photo, her first response to my introduction email, first webcam chat, first phonecall, etc... I honestly never felt this way for any other person. There are many elements about her that I find so addictively attractive about her. All I know is that Merly is the only lady I have chosen to have children and grow old with. There are not enough days in a lifetime to express my love and gratitude to her for accepting me. The same can be said equally of her family and friends. They have all accepted me so warmly; yet, never have met in person yet. Bestowing that level of courtesy imprints on me a sense of loyalty that can not be easily dissolved.

We finally reached the intened cruising altitude of 36000 feet at about 550 MPH and I was able to equalize the pressure on my ears.(I never mastered the yawning technique to equalize; but instead, the nose holding and blow method.) One of the most interesting elements of the flight was the 48 inch flat screen mounted on the wall section directly in front of my row. I assumed correctly the flatscreen was for the inflight movies and other visual entertainments; but what totally caought me by surprise was the GPS status of our location. The GPS data consisted of the local times from departure city and target city, airspeed in both MPH & KPH, distance to tavel in both miles and kilometres, outside temperature, and ETA to target city. The data updated every 10 minutes so I intended to stay awake to watch the progress across the Pacific Ocean to Guam. Since I rarely travelled, I was unprepared of how long it would actually take to fly from san francisco to Hawaii of a few hours. Understand I was not bothered; simply unprepared. The first in flight movie Live Free or Die Hard (the fourth Die Hard movie)began and the flight crew began serving the late night meal to the passengers. Even though I had not actually eaten all day, I was still mentally saying I was not hungry. My stomach had other intentions. The scent of the food was enough to convince me to eat. Again using the excuse of not flying in over ten years, I thought the meal consisting of rice, vegetables, chicken, bread roll was most decent. The portions were filling and I was satisfied when I finished eating. Once the food trays were removed, I tucked myself under my blanket and continued to watch the movie. I found myself starting to get sleepy; but, still had enough excitement to stay awake. Another moment to keep me awake was the turbulence we encountered about two hours into the flight. The bouncing was slight then it increased intensity to double in approximately under 2 minutes. I do not recall feeling anxious because of the bouncing; but instead, I made myself more aware of the turbulence and continued to watch the movie. Within moments, I was unaware the turbulence had ended.
I think it was about the time when the movie ended did I feel my body relaxed enough to get some rest (if not actual sleep) The GPS updates began for a few minutes and the next movie Evan Almighty began. I was not too interested to watch it, so I switched to another channel and listened to some music. I found myself listening to one channel that was giving some kind of Michael Jackson tribute by playing several of his top hits. Although my respect for Michael has dropped significantly in the recent past, I was reluctantly listening to some of his hits. I was mentally recalling the moments when a certain song had a personal imprinting on my life. I was finding it interesting that while I was listening to Michael Jackson; I was to some level, still watching the Evan Almighty movie and making weak and distorted attempts to lip read. I was finally drifting to sleep. Somewhere in my mind I wanted to stay awake so I could witness the crossing of the International date line.

Between listening to Michael Jackson and watching Evan Almighty at the same time, I was surprised how awake I was. I do recall having moments when I dozed off to sleep; but, I think it was for only a few minutes at the most. When the movie ended, the GPS updates resumed and we were very close to the International Date Line. The best description I can give about waiting to cross it would be the same as a kid trying to stay awake to witness Santa coming with the presents. There was something magical about crossing the line since most people will never experience it. I focused on myself and mentally noted how tired I was becoming. The GPS data was not making too much sense. The dim lighting in the cabin had become relaxing and the drone of the four 747-400 engines were singing a wordless lullaby and I closed my eyes.
There would be no mental celebration of crossing the International Date Line. I had fallen asleep long enough to miss it.