Fiery Crash

So today is my day for wigging out—I am flying to Atlanta tomorrow for some NAPL thing. It is perhaps a testament to the success of Toastmasters that I am completely blase about giving the presentation, but am dreading the flight (I need to find a Planemasters group, methinks). This is the first time I will have been on a plane in more than seven years (April 2000 was the last time). Actually, I had no desire to do this NAPL thing whatsoever, but only took it on it as an excuse to take a “test flight” in preparation for a trip to London to visit Amy and Steven in August.

I figured it was high time I got over this ridicuous fear of flying—it reached the height (so to speak) of absurdity last Graph Expo when I spent more time getting to Chicago than actually being in Chicago.

Of course, one of the worst things about flying, I discovered, was actually finding a flight. I wanted a non-stop flight (I don’t like takeoffs and landings—well, I should say I like the latter better than the former...). Naturally, there was no non-stop flight from Albany to Atlanta that cost under $1,000, but with Dr. Joe’s help I discovered one out of Newburgh, NY—about a 90-minute drive south of here—for under $200. As long as I keep thinking logically—the drive to Newburgh is statsitically less safe than the flight—I should be fine.

I also will keep playing one of my favorite Andrew Bird songs—“Fiery Crash”:

turnstiles on mezzanines
jet ways and Dramamine fiends
and x-ray machines
you were hurling through space
g-forces twisting your face
breeding superstition
a fatal premonition
you know you got to envision
the fiery crash

oh close your eyes and you wake up
face stuck to a vinyl settee
oh the line was starting to break up
just as you were starting to say
something apropos I don't know

beige tiles and magazines
Lou Dobbs and the CNN team
on every monitor screen
you were caught in the crossfire
where every human face
has you reaching for your mace
so it's kind of an imposition
fatal premonition

to save our lives you've got to envision
and to save all our lives you've got to envision
the fiery crash

it's just a formality
why must I explain?
just a nod to mortality
before you get on a place

oh close your eyes and you wake up
face stuck to a vinyl settee
oh the line was starting to break up
what was that you were going to say?