"Captain, we're out of Colombian coffee!"

Remember that old ad? Yes, I'm dating myself.

I guess I spoke too soon and jinxed us. We left Atlanta at 7 p.m. for a 4-hour flight to San Jose. About an hour out of Atlanta, the captain announced that the plane had a mechanical problem, so we had to go back to Atlanta. Given the extreme turbulence and the mysterious mechanical problem, it was a VERY long hour. The poor Korean guy across the aisle from me doesn't speak much English so when we landed he was shocked to find out that we were back in Atlanta.

After a bumpy landing they gave us food vouchers and got us a new plane, which was much preferred over the original plan to try to fix the problem. On the way out I said to the captain, "Please tell me it was just a clogged toilet," and he said, "It was nothing serious, just something that couldn't be fixed in San Jose." They could have shared that extra bit of information during the flight and saved us a some worry.

We boarded the new plane around 10:30, but a bunch of the runways were closed for maintenance so we had to wait until midnight to take off. We'll be arriving in San Jose at 3:30 a.m. (only 2:30 local time), which is a little late even for me. Then we have to get our bags, go through immigration/customs, and get a cab to the hotel. Our rental car is being dropped off at 9 a.m. so somebody has to be awake to do the paperwork. Then it's about a 3-hour drive and hopefully a nap before our volcano hike.

For all of my friends who know about my fear of flying, I decided to fly without taking my medicine today and I've been fine. I think if I can survive these flights without my meds, I'm doing ok. I did use the Rescue Remedy spray even though Karen said it doesn't work because she used it when she was mad, and she was still mad.  :-)  I think the anger-management spray is the one in the red bottle.
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