Day 1 - December 31/January 1

My flight leaves at 12:53 AM (Happy New Year), and I can’t sleep worth anything on a plane, so I tried this thing where I stayed up late the night before then took an extra long nap in the afternoon, with the hopes that when I got to the airport, it would feel like a semi-reasonable time in the morning, say 6 or 7, rather than the god-awful dead of night. One hitch with this plan is, when you stay up late and get up at the same time you normally do, you’re TIRED. Then, life happens and you don’t get to sleep for longer than an hour in the afternoon, and instead of having a sort of regular timing/sleep schedule, you’re just extra tired with a seriously screwed up schedule.

Of course, my flight is now delayed until sometime between 2:11 and 3:11 (it can’t make up its mind). On the plus side, I checked in so early that I got exit row seats all the way to Amsterdam, and a $12 food voucher for my delay which I won’t be using because I’m not in the least hungry. I went to McDonald’s thinking maybe I’d get a McFlurry, but apparently their ice cream machine shuts down at exactly midnight on the dot and it’s impossible to turn it back on manually? (Very strange, considering that the majority of flights out of Anchorage leave after midnight). So, I’ve been spared the calories but not the disappointment, and I left with a large orange juice and two water bottles, since the woman was insistent that I should use as much as possible of my $12. What I need with two water bottles when I’m going to be on a good 20 hours of flight that serves me as much water as possible, I have no idea, but I thought it best not to argue since I really wanted my orange juice.

What I really want to know is – will the movies on Continental be the December movies or the January movies? Do they switch over exactly at midnight? How does that even work, anyway? Do they have to load a program into the airplane? Now I’ve made myself curious.

Sadly, the internet here, while free, is excruciatingly slow, so what to do for 2-3 hours when I’m too tired to do much of anything? I suppose just yell at the internet for at least an hour, while listening to my iTunes on random (currently playing: Don’t Stop Believing, Glee version). Maybe it will work for long enough to let me say a proper goodbye to Hulu. Nope. Ah well, then.