Flight to Albuquerque, New Mexico

*Mom please help me out if I leave anything out. Thanks :) *

I had a hard time sleeping the night before I left because of my nervousness and fear BUT the family cat (Sox) saved me and helped me sleep better. I also read a post from a famous celebrity make-up artist (Kandee Johnson) about FEAR (if you wanna check out the post go to "kandee the make-up artist" on GOOGLE and you'll find it. She's amazing). Anyways, my mom helped me pack so I felt secure about what I was bringing and how everything was organized.

My flight was scheduled at 8:30 AM so after last minute packing and organizing, me and my loving mom left at 5:30 AM for DIA (Denver International Airport for those that don't know). It was a nice drive and more stress-free with my mom driving and helping me calm down and not feel so scared or stressed out. I teared up a lil bit in the car and my mom noticed and offered words of comfort which helped me :)

We got to the airport and made our way to the check-in line. At first we pasted the Delta line and it was PACKED!!!! I was soooooo relieved to know that that wasn't the line we were gonna wait in. I was flying with Southwest and the line was long but the waiting went fast and before we knew it we were being called at by a check-in helping man that was yelling numbers. At first me and my mom didn't know what the numbers were for, I thought we had forgotten to take a slip with a number on it, until the man yelled "5 and 6 are opened for whose next". We walked up to the announcing man and my mom was able to get a pass to come with me to my gate.

"How old are you?" the man asked me.

"I'm 21 but it's my first time flying by myself." :)

The man and my mom helped me poke the screen to get my tags for my one, big (but not really big) suitcase which was for baggage claim. I had my backpack with my laptop and other belongings in it for carry-on.

We made our way down to the security check points....WHAAAAAAT!!!! The lines were just as packed, if not, even MORE worse then the Delta line. But my mom is a smart woman whose been in DIA enough times to know where to cut the long waiting periods. She led me to the Frontier security check-point ("You don't have to be Frontier to go through that line," said my mom) after walking around to only see thousands of people in the other security check-points.

I was wearing my recently new blue ROXY shoes from Ross without socks so my left heel was getting a blister that started to hurt but I kept up with my mom so I wouldn't get lost :D We had to wait in line anyways but it wasn't as long or as slow as the other ones. As we waited we were entertained at the glass case displays they had set up for waiting passengers to look at so they didn't get bored so fast or for too long. There was a display of "corn kerns" (the biggest corn on the cob I've ever seen, but don't worry it was fake), one with the faun from "Pan's Labyrinth", because mom pointed out the display description that said "Who is Pan?". There was also one that caught the sun and blinded me the first time I looked at it, I don't know what it was made of but it was shiny and bright. I looked at others but these are the ones that stood out the most (MOM if you remember other cases let me know so I can include them :) :)).

We got past security safely without any trouble (like my last belt incident from my past adventure to NM on a plane. Mom knows the story!!!).

Our next stop was to the train that had funny music and a robot voice that said __________. As we walked my mom tried to keep important information that I'd need on my flight back home and she kept me focused on being observant on where we were going. We got on the train and held onto the pole as hard as we could till we got to Concrod C. My gate number was C46 and we didn't walk so far till we found it (passing the flight to Salt Lake City).

"Do you notice the evens are on the right and the odds are on the left?" my mom pointed out :) ;) (I love you mom :D)

After getting a drink, going potty and putting a band-aid on my blistered heel my mom gave me, I begged my mom to not leave till I started boarding the plane and she agreed to stay. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!! THANK YOU MOM!!!!!! That made me feel better cuz she helped me sit in the "place" I needed to be to board. Class A Position 57 was my boarding call. We talked about me being over there by myself and to not worry so much about the nighttime because that scared me the most.

Finally about 8:15 AM (uh-oh flight 815 on LOST) the guy announced "Now boarding Plane ____."

"Alright, Missy-boos," my mom said. "Time to put your big girl panties on and be brave." She smiled and I laughed embarressingly :) :)

As I took my place in line my mom hugged me goodbye and we said our "I love you"s and as the line started to move I kept looking back at my mom to find her still standing there waving me off :) :) :) At that moment I realized how much I'd miss my mom being away for a week and once the ticket guy took my boarding pass and scanned it, I was off going down the tunnel to the plane...with blurred eyes :) :D

I was able to pick any seat on the plane because it wasn't fully booked and it was a "free for all" seating. I found a seat by the window!!!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!! :) :) :) and there was no one else in the row....till a young, skinny, black, fashionable woman came at the last minute right before (or even during) the demonstrations of how to use the oxygen mask and the life jacket. She was carrying a big light gray snake patterned purse with high-heeled shoes that matched with it. She looked professional and confident but late.

After texting my mom and K, I turned off my phone and waited for the plane to move around the platform to lift off. Two flight attendants (that pasted out drinks and snacks) told the young woman, that was late, to turn off her phone as she was talking to someone fast and after texting someone then turning it off as we were backing up. She was nice but annoying!!! She asked me if this was a non-stop flight to Phoenix but I told her it was to Albuquerque then to Phoenix. I sounded confusing to myself because I was trying to look out the window, my head hurt and I was trying to be nice :) After giving her the best explanation to her questions...she asked the same questions to a nice, patient, female flight attendant that was passing by. I didn't care I just smiled because I told her the same thing the flight attendant told her. I was proud of myself knowing the answer none-the-less :D

As we got speed and lifted into the air, climbing into the sky I looked out my window....and all I could see was the left wing of the plane, not much of a view but the sun hitting the wing then hitting my window helped me keep warm (not too hot or too cool from the AC). I asked for water and closed my eyes. I opened them a few minutes later and saw the flight attendant passing with a tray of snacks. I could smell peanuts in the air as my fellow passengers opened their snack bags, so I figured those were being handed out too. I heard somethings were free over the announcing speaker but the lady on the announcer was talking fast and mumbling so I wasn't sure if the snacks were free so I didn't bother calling her back because I wasn't very hungry anyways and just wanted to close my eyes.

So as you could probably figure out my eyes were closed most of the flight I was comfortable but my neck started to ache at all angles.

"Ladies & gentlemen we are now at 30,000 feet."

Today was a lil girl's, named Madison, birthday and she was traveling with her dad. We all sang and clapped "Happy Birthday" which was kinda funny cuz I was half aware while doing it and mumbled the song with my eyes still closed!!!

"Ladies & Gentlemen we are now 15 miles from Albuquerque." said the pilot.

Before I knew it the 1 hour and 15 minutes went by FAST and we were descending down to the landing platform at the Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) safely and, for me, confident and comfortable :)