July 24 - Part 2 - Up Up and Away Back to Seattle

JULY 24

You may recall that my trip on the plane out East was a little boring. I was not looking forward to another almost 5 hours on a plane, and I told Wendy and Ken that I would try to be a good sport, but that they need to remember that I'm just a little sock monkey. Ken told me that he would do his best to make sure that I was more comfortable this time. And WOW did he come through!

We had the coolest seats! It was like we had our own playroom! Ken smiled his way into the heart of the gate attendant, and she gave us exit row seats. Not only were we bound to be the heroes of the flight in case we were going to crash, and I could be there yelling (in a very deep and grown-up voice), "Be calm! Single file! Women and children first!" and maybe put my hand on some nervous person and say, "There, there. It will be all right!" just like I've seen in the movies, but if we didn't have to be heroes, there would be room on the floor to PLAY! The man who let us get on the plane asked if we would take our Hero job seriously in the exit row, and I said that I most definitely would. Wendy showed me the folder that had lots of pictures that told me what I had to do in case of an emergency. Do you know that they have slides on the planes? How amazing is that? I wish I had known that on the trip to Detroit, because I was bored and that would have been fun.

Once we fastened our seatbelts and took off, I started to look for things to do. Soon I was able to spread out on the floor with my toys and play for a really long time. Baby played "Rescue Time" with me (Baby makes good siren noises). The flight attendant, Nico Fuentes, was so cool! Not only was he one of the nicest flight attendants EVER (Wendy told me that), but he could sing! Nico used to be a back-up singer in Las Vegas, and he said he sang with Tony Orlando and Dawn for a while (I wanted to ask him to sing "Knock Three Times" but Wendy pointed out that he would just be singing the back-up part...). Nico liked me a lot, and I liked him. He even gave us a copy of his CD to listen to! Oh! My friend Jeff from the flight to Detroit was also on the plane! It was really great to see my old new friend again! 

The exit door had a sign on it saying "DO NOT SIT" - and it reminded me of the "No ANIMALS!" sign in Beulah. So I hopped up there to sit. I had a hard time balancing, and this nice guy sitting behind us - his name is David - helped out by holding me with his foot. It was very friendly and simian-like of him! Made me feel like he was a good friend and cousin! He offered to take me mountain climbing and to China too - but Wendy told him that I couldn't go. I was relieved, because I didn't want to be so far away and he didn't say if Puppy and Baby could come with us. Then I got very excited when I saw where they hide the slide!!! I love slides. 

 

Some of the time on the plane, Ken gave me pony rides on his leg because he could stretch out all the way with no seats in front of us. Then he gave me his iPod to listen to. I like his music. All Wendy wanted to listen to on her iPod was show tunes, which I like, but I wasn't in the mood for Ethel Merman and she was. After a while, Ken wanted to take a nap, so I looked at GAMES magazine, trying to find something to do. HOORAY! They had some "kids stuff" pages and those puzzles were easy. Then I asked Wendy what I could do next, and she let me read her Craig Ferguson book. I liked that A LOT! He's very funny, and I think he would like me as a friend. He has puppets on his show a lot, and they sing and dance, and he is very cool and fun. His book was pretty interesting. I don't know if he has any sock monkey friends yet. It would be fun to sing on his show with the puppets.

  

I looked over at Ken and he was dozing. I asked if I could join him in a nap, and he said that I could if I would stop talking and just be still. After a few minutes of me asking Ken lots of questions and if HE would sing "Knock Three Times," he asked Wendy to settle me into the little suitcase to take a nap. She let me use her really soft red pillow to cuddle up in, and I have to admit that it was very peaceful and comfy all snuggled in there. I fell asleep singing "Knock Three Times" with Puppy. He pretended to be Nico, and I was Tony Orlando. And that's how I spent the rest of my plane trip!