flights + phoenix

On Saturday night I got back from my first trip to Arizona!

Mack grew up in Phoenix, and was asked to be a groomsman in his good friend's wedding, so I got to follow along and meet friends and humbly accept that the desert isn't THAT bad (in October, at least).

I flew in a few days after Mack (he drove), and was SO nervous about boarding a plane for the first time in four years (and only the second time alone).  

Security went great and flying from a small airport was comforting, but you guys...I quickly realized gravity is the friend I never fully appreciated and often take for granted.

All my other friends think I'm kind of silly, and think I'm being a little dramatic, but I don't think it's crazy to argue with those who say FLYING THOUSANDS OF MILES IN THE AIR is a totally normal experience without physical consequences.

The second we took off, my body felt itself being pushed back into its chair (I was told my plane was also extremely small, which 'makes things worse'), and as I looked out the window I thought, "Ooo this is fun, we're going so fast!" 

But then the plane started turning, and my head felt heavy, and my eyes weren't keeping up, and then I thought, "Ooo I don't feel so good. I don't like this very much."

The sweet man next to me tried offering advice, saying "looking out the window and focusing on one point helps," and normally I would have trusted him, but every time I looked out the window I just felt worse.

When your flight is only an hour and a half, you climb climb climb and stay normal for about two seconds before you descend descend descend, so by the time we reached any equilibrium, it was all changing again.

I sipped on water and chewed gum, and tried looking at passengers in front of me while eavesdropping on conversations behind me, but once we started our final descent the same thing that happened when I was 15 started happening again: my body felt totally out of my control, my stomach was coming up as we were going down, and these gross involuntary burps began happening.

Within 30 seconds of landing, I thought I was going to vomit (something that's only happened once since I was four years old), and whatever came up I quickly swallowed because having a burning throat was way better than spewing my breakfast across the seat in front of me.

Sweet man neighbor asked if I was okay and turned on the air vent as I covered my mouth, reassuring me that we'd be on the ground in 10 seconds. I looked out that window and looked out that window and felt MEGA LAME for being THAT person, but I survived without upchucking and got off the plane in one piece. Praise the lord.

And the weekend after that point was absolutely perfect. I was met by my handsome boyfriend and instantly felt better, we ate In n Out for lunch, and relaxed at his parents' house (with dogs!) before heading to the rehearsal dinner.

I put on my extroverted face all weekend (which wasn't TOO hard), and met tons of people I didn't know, making connections as I heard snippets of their lives, and I preeeettty much loved every second of it. Learning to have conversations with strangers is a skill I want to continue developing, and this weekend was a great leap in that direction.

The wedding was fun, and special, and inspiring, and I got to enter into so many contexts of Mack's life before there was an "us." Which I love, because I love context.

Best of all, Mack and I got to DRIVE back together, and that might have been the highlight from the whole weekend. We drove for hours across the desert, mountains and cacti and rocks surrounding us on both sides, and the sky was blue with strokes of clouds throughout. It was beautiful.

We talked about the weekend, and weddings, and relationships, and we listened to some blogging podcasts and talked about creativity. Weekends like these are the ones I know I'll look back on with warmness and assurance, knowing that significant memories were made and relationships were deepened. 

(Also going to share some photos of Ashley's baby shower last weekend! We are in the new house and expecting the baby any day! Also apologizing for picture quality!)

Ayden is eating a ball...typical Ayden. Love this family so much.