"I am flying high over Tupelo, Mississippi, with America's hottest band, and we are all about to die." - Almost Famous

In trying to find the right words to describe our trip home from Tampa, these kept flashing through my brain. Granted, there were no rock bands that I was aware of and we weren't anywhere near Tupelo (North Florida, actually), but the overwhelming feeling of what the next few moments held were VERY real!

We were held on the ground in Tampa for an hour and a half until we got clearance to take off through the remains of a thunderstorm in North Florida. Jill and I were both hoping for a flight cancellation which would've kept us in the 85 degree weather for another day. It probably didn't help that I woke up Sunday morning feeling flu-ish. The pilot warned us of some turbulance, but I don't think his "slight turbulance" warning did us justice. We had several sharp dips down, just dropping what felt like 10 feet, like a roller coaster. (Appropriately serenaded with the little kids next to me going "whoo-whoo" as if they WERE on a roller coaster. There were a couple factors which I tried to use to calm me down.

*Jill was with me. While my mom was dreading us flying together, in case something happened, no one wants to die alone. It was nice to know Jill was there to comfort me, and vica versa.
* There were alot of young children on board. I always check the number of children on board. I am a firm believe God would not wipe out many young lives in one fell swoop. (pardon the slight pun)
* Somehow, I didn't feel death was an option. I was a little worried about being a survivor of a crash and prayed for strength to help those around me, but honestly the "nope, your card has not been pulled" feeling came over me.

I reached out for Jill, as I noticed her fighting back the tears which were beginning to surface. As I did, my eyes too began to fill with tears as I began thinking about what I wanted to accomplish before I died. The plane took a sharp roll to the right accompanied by a little ding one might expect from one fender of a car hitting another fender of a car at about 15 mph. Then, it was over. (Little did we know how much worse the trip would get - missed our connection, scheduled us on a flight almost 24 hours later to go 1.5 hours south, they didn't accomodate us in any way - train, car rental fee, or hotel if we decided TO stay over, played hide-and-seek with our luggage, we rented a car and drove from Kennedy in NY to Mt. Laurel, near home.) Somehow, I get the feeling God really wanted me to stay in Florida.