8 hours and 3 time zones worth of travel

Ever flown across the country? I did it once, when I was 13. We basically wasted a whole day of our trip to DC commuting there and another whole day commuting back. So, genius that I like to think I am sometimes, I booked a red-eye flight. I would leave Los Angeles, CA at 12:30am, arrive in Houston, TX 3 hours later, have a 2 hour layover, then another 2 hours to Charlotte, NC, then another hour to Spartanburg, SC, still leaving me with the whole afternoon and evening.
If I was capable of actually sleeping on a plane, that would have been an awesome idea. Turns out, as I should have remembered when I flew to Germany, I don't sleep on planes. I may doze out of sheer fatigue after a few hours, but it isn't sleep.
Perhaps it is because I am secretly not the world's best little flyer. I blame this on too much information. Things that I know to be true (that I wish I didn't know) keep me from enjoying planes. Yes, it is true that you are more likely to be involved in a serious car accident than be involved in a plane crash, a fact that would normally bring me comfort, save for the fact that in my life I've been involved in 3 serious car crashes. Statistically, I start to think that I am "due" whenever I get on a plane. Or the fact that if you are going to be involved in some kind of airplane catastrophe, it will most likely occur during takeoff or landing. When I worked for PGS a million years ago, our owner William was involved in a plane crash on his way back from Asia, and it happened during takeoff. Luckily, he survived. But that fact alone prevents me from ever really relaxing while I'm on a plane, because even though I may have survived takeoff, we still have to land. And yet, I get window seats. Over the wings in fact. Half asleep but unable to sleep I begin to feel like Shatner in that infamous Twilight Zone episode. Every little noise I hear I am looking out onto the wing for gremlins. I swear today I heard something hit the plane.
"There's something out there! There's something on the wing!"
My flight out of LAX to Houston was on time and aside from some turbulence and the fact that I heeded everyone's advice and got to the airport to freakin' early and had to sit there for almost 3 hours, it went well. I still didn't sleep, but managed to rest my eyes. I landed in Houston (2 hours ahead of California time) 3 hours later and had a 2 hour layover, which was just enough to find my way over to my gate on the other side of the airport (I had to take a train to it), use the restroom, eat, buy a chochkie for my travel chochkie collection, and spend a few minutes going over some Mock Trial work before boarding. Apparently, when you fly connecting flights between some cities, they stick you on these teeny tiny planes instead of 747's or something that size. The plane that I was on sat 3 people across. So from wall to wall, it was: seat, aisle, seat, seat. They looked like little planes you make from empty paper towel rolls with cut up paper plates glued on them for wings. I was partially dozing off and partially on edge for the whole 2 hours I spent up in the air on this rinky little contraption, but we made it safely and on time once again to my destination. Another hour in the car from Charlotte got me safely to my hotel in Spartanburg where I eventually got a nap and a much needed shower.