Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Sweet Dreams


I don’t want to brag or anything, but I’m a really good sleeper. Seriously - once my head hits the pillow - its lights out, no tossing and turning for me.

The only time I have trouble sleeping is when I’m on a plane, which is a problem when you fly as much as I do. It gets even worse, because when I do manage to doze off - it always ends badly.

More often than not, I jerk awake with a piercing little scream – which goes over really well with the passengers in 24a and 24b.

So last year when my husband and I travelled to Chile, I was desperate. How was I going to go from Vancouver to LA to Lima to Santiago without sleeping? Especially considering that within hours of landing in Chile I was expected to attend an industry conference – its not easy to network when you are so exhausted you can’t even remember your name.

So I decided to take the advice of a good colleague and friend, who is the ‘King of the Long Haul Flights’ - and take a sleeping pill. My doctor prescribed a mild sedative and I was good to go.

As far as I’m concerned it was a great flight, but my husband says it was the flight from hell! Apparently, after taking that little sleeping pill in Los Angeles, I was comatose. Hours later, preparing to land for a stopover in Lima, Tom did everything possible to wake me up. I don’t snore, but it seems on that flight I snored like a drunken sailor. It got to the point where the stewardess asked Tom to prove he was my husband, just in case he had drugged me. Fortunately, we knew several people on the plane who reluctantly vouched for him.

Prior to landing, Tom had to get help from other passengers in order to prop me up, so he could put my seatbelt on. Everyone else deplaned in Lima for a 4 hour break, and poor Tom had no option but to stay on the plane, with me – curled up on my seat - happily snoring away.

I did eventually wake up when we landed in Santiago, our final destination - and I felt fabulous! It seemed like a 20 minute flight from Los Angeles to Santiago! I couldn’t wait to get out and explore the city. My exhausted husband checked into our hotel - and went straight to sleep.

Tomorrow I go to Boston for a few days. Needless to say, I’ll skip the sleeping pill

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Nothing more needs to be said!