Arrived in NY – After Almost Causing the Plane to Land Early!

Feb 14, 2010 | Fashion, Life

Worst.  Flight.  Ever.

My redeye out of Honolulu to Newark yesterday definitely took the cake in terms of horrible flights.  And it was all of my own doing, ironically.

Friday night I boarded the plane, prepared to sleep the whole 9 and a half hours to Newark.  I put on my brand-new eyemask, got into my sleepsack, put on my U-pillow, and lastly, took 2 Tylenol Simply Sleep sleeping pills, just as it was written on the bottle.  Hub had suggested I take them to sleep the whole flight; as my last trip to New York last year I had taken a dose of Nyquil when I wasn’t sick…and instead of sleeping the whole way ended up jittery and awake the whole way.  Never had Nyquil not work for me before, but after that experience I decided I shouldn’t take medicine if I wasn’t sick, and so Hub recommended Tylenol Simply Sleep, which is what he always takes.  The last time I had taken any sleeping medication of any sort was more than 2 years ago.  But this time I was exhausted from going to the wedding and the long day, and just wanted to sleep.

Well. (Read on for the gruesome details…)
I had taken the medicine on what I guess was an empty stomach.  We had had the wedding banquet from noon -3 pm Friday, and I was honestly so stuffed still at 9 pm that I didn’t feel like eating anything.  I had just guzzled a whole lotta water too.  I felt full!

An hour later the pills didn’t seem to be working.  I felt my breathing was depressed – it was difficult to make my lungs inflate; I felt a little short of oxygen.  (Sleeping pills/cold medication depress one’s breathing rate in order to force relaxation.)  I felt nauseous, and got up to go to the bathroom.  I didn’t throw up, but in the bathroom my vision started to get fuzzy; I felt claustrophobic and couldn’t figure out how to open the door.  I scrabbled at it, and managed to get out.  I was walking back towards my seat when it happened.

I blacked out and fell down the aisle, hitting my face on the carpet when I fell.

At least I think that’s what happened.  Nobody I asked saw what had happened; there was no sensation of falling, no feeling of faintness, no warning whasoever – just one minute I was walking down the aisle and the next minute I was conscious of people all around me – “What happened?”  “Did she fall?” “Is she okay?”  “Is there a doctor on the plane?”  I had a glimpse of a white uniform and I thought the pilot had come out (it was one of the stewards).  There were voices all around me; I was being pulled by numerous hands, and dragged across the floor to the back empty row, where they stuffed me on the floor in front of the seats.  [could they not have lifted me into a seat?]  I heard the words “nurse practicioner” and then “I’m a doctor” and an elderly man was looking at me, taking my vitals.  I told him I had just taken 2 sleeping pills; I told them where the bottle was.  They kept asking me if I was on any other medications or if I had drank any alcohol.  I kept saying no; I hate alcohol, but they weren’t listening.  I kept falling in and out of consciousness and my head was lolling back.  Finally, I threw up.  The doctor said now I had thrown up it would be okay, and they took me back to my seat [so I would vacate the 2 seats I had been lying in, which were for the crew to lie down and sleep in], and gave me some juice.  The doctor told me to sleep.

Funny thing was, I couldn’t.  I was all shaky and nauseous, but kept drinking and eating some crackers.  I threw up again, and then felt like I was going to pass out.  I called the steward back, and let him know; he brought the doctor who re-checked my vitals.  I threw up again, everything I had drank or eaten since boarding the plane.  (I was on the aisle side in the middle; the guy next to me must have been loving me by that time.)  I kept saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”  I realized I was also wearing two titanium Phiten patch discs on my shoulders where I had some sore muscles; once I removed them I suddenly felt loads better. [Phiten uses magnetic technology to draw blood flow into sore areas, relieving pain.]  It shouldn’t have made a difference, but I felt much less woozy; though I insisted they were just magnetic discs the doctor didn’t believe me and told me they had medication in them.  Anyway, I thought the ordeal was done.

But per procedures the crew had to call MediLife or something – a ground unit that relays medical advice to crews when flying.  They instructed to put me on oxygen for an hour, and then do an IV if I wasn’t responsive.  If I further didn’t respond, they would have to land the plane early.  I heard them whispering in the back.

Anyway, so I was put on an oxygen tank which ran out after about 25 minutes.  I kept breathing in the mask for another 10 minutes before I was feeling faint again and finally told the attendant I couldn’t breathe and was taking it off.


After that, I spent the remainder of the flight shaking and nauseous.  Luckily they assumed I was sleeping and did not have to land the plane early.  When we got to Newark I was so weak I couldn’t walk, and disembarked the plane on a wheelchair.  I was taken to the curb and put in a taxi, and collapsed when I got to the hotel room.


Much fun.  Must do it again sometime.



I was too weak to go to the Academy of Arts University show [section G, row 4, seat 4, thank you very much], could not do my backstage interviews, missed going to the HauteLook suite (free pampering!  ugh.) and couldn’t go to Irina Shabayeva’s show sponsored by Tupperware [which looked fabulous by the way – will post piccies soon].  I barely was able to make it around the corner from the hotel to get something to eat and check in at BP for my press credentials.

Now today I’ve slept a fair amount since yesterday, and am ready to go. Much better- stomach is still a little tender, so I’m taking it easy.


So.  Moral of the story?  Don’t take sleeping pills on an empty stomach! [love that it doesn’t say this on the box.]

Maybe this is not normal, even on an empty stomach.  Had anyone had any similar experience with Tylenol SimplySleep?

(original img from aol travel)

xoxox
Carly

Chic Steals is Going to New York Fashion Week!!

Jan 25, 2010 | Fashion, Life

Well, I, Carly, am – as a FashionTribes Contributing Editor.  (Doesn’t that sound all pompous and deserving of capitalization?LOL:-)

I went last February and it was a blast!  At the time I wasn’t blogging with the fervor that I am now; I just was contributing weekly articles to my editor over at FashionTribes.com.  I decided to make the trip to NYC in February 2009 to help her cover the shows.

I grew up in New Jersey, and so had been to NY a couple times on school field trips when I was a kid, and then again in 2002 on a trip with Hub and the parents-in-law just before we moved to Hawaii.  (We stayed at the Plaza Hotel, just before they tore it down.:-(  Well, the room was threadbare, stained, and the sink leaked a pool of water into the bathroom.  I felt sorry that they couldn’t have fixed those things, but yes, the hotel seemed like it had seen better days.)

I also went to New York on a 4-day trip in Spring 2007 when I was a finalist in the Bacardi Limon Express Your Style Competition and they flew me and four other finalists to New York to compete in a live cut-and-sew event.  Kind of like Project Runway, they said…but it really…wasn’t. 

But I had never experienced the city like this!

What an experience!  I ended up attending 10 runway shows and submitting 11 articles to my editor.  I also conducted numerous interviews with people: Yigal Azrouel (my first interview EVER – I was super-nervous, sweating like crazy, and babbling like some insane gibbon), Tina Turnbow for Tarte Cosmetics (who told me she LOVED my eye makeup – who applied it??  Um…Avon in a Wink Instant Eyeshadow Sheets, thank you very much!), Abaete designer Laura Poretzky, hair stylist Ted Gibson, Vena Cava designers Sophie Buehl and Lisa Mayock, Lela Rose, Verrier designer Ashley Verrier, and makeup artist Vincent Longo, plus numerous student designers from Academy of Arts University.

Excuse me while I name-drop a little;-)

I was bummed that not a single article I wrote was posted onto the FashionTribes site, but it’s really all at my editor’s discretion, and I got the feeling that she wasn’t really interested in a “this show had these pieces” sort of thing – which isn’t really what her site is about.  Ah well.  I shared write-ups here on Chic Steals of the runway shows from Vena Cava, Yigal Azrouel, Lela Rose, PORTS 1961, G-Star RAW, Christian Siriano, Leanne Marshal, and Academy of Art University.

Some highlights from the trip:

A caramel apple cupcake from Crumbs Bake Shop.  Funny story – I saw a photo of this cupcake in a 2003 InStyle Magazine – where it was listed as “Jay-Z’s favorite cupcake when he is New York City.”  I thought it looked delish, and saved the clipping.  Somehow it managed to survive a move to Hawaii and then a move to Oregon – and finally, 6 years later I happened across the magazine clipping again and said, “when I’m in New York for Fashion Week, I’m having this cupcake!”  I paced myself too – I managed to wait until the third day I was there before I ate it – and I even set aside a whole hour to do so!  When you wait SIX YEARS for something…;-)

It was divine.

Sitting front row at the Academy of Arts University runway show.  Only show I got to sit front row for.

Famous people: Tori Spelling causing a near-riot just by arriving at Christian Siriano’s show; Anna Wintour sitting front-row at the PORTS 1961 show; Miss J. Alexander looking trashed by Day 6 of the shows (“You look exhuasted – you poor thing!” I told him, and he could barely nod); me accosting Robert Verdi and Fern Mallis with the bag I spent 6 weeks sewing every night; Tim Gunn graciously answering questions after Christian Siriano’s show; spent 2 hours talking with Steven Rosengard from Project Runway Season 5 (the sweetest person you could imagine!!) – my editor was talking to him about perhaps writing a series of articles for the site, but it never seemed to materialize; going to Leanne Marshall’s show (Project Runway Season 5 winner) and also meeting Suede there (he even wished me happy birthday last month…awwww; such a sweetie!); Real Housewives of NYC Leann de Lesseps sitting first row and her Juliette Lewis-wannabe 20-years-younger girlfriend sitting 2 rows behind her at the PORTS show…and numerous editors and other famous people that I just didn’t recognize as well.  Benecio del Toro at G-STAR RAW taking the stage and reading song lyrics – strangely moving.

Thrilling over the abundant swag bag at Vena Cava (my first show) and then expecting it at every show I went to afterwards – and feeling totally let down because there wasn’t anything else except at the Verrier show!  But at the end of the week I got a press swag bag full of liquor and alcoholic products, which I bequeathed on a well-deserving liquor-liking friend. 😉

I wore my DIY Burberry studded belt over my black trench and was feeling particularly fashionably fabulous the day I arrived in NYC – and I rained buttons up 6th avenue…I was missing 3 when I finally noticed.

I dragged my 70 lb. suitcase all the way from Bryant Park to Brighton Beach (next to Coney Island in Brooklyn, where I was staying with a friend) BY SUBWAY.  The people in Mahattan were super-nice to me, one guy even insisting on helping me down 3 flights of stairs into the subway; other people opening doors, one lady swiping her metrocard when I couldn’t get mine to work in the turnstile…but the closer I got to Brooklyn, the less willing to help people became.  Two days later, when I was dragging said 70-pounder BACK to Manhattan up two flights of stairs to the entrance to the Brighton Beach B train – a bunch of old Russian men gathered and watched me as I struggled.  “Whatcha doin lady?” one of them asked, with much gesturing.  (You should hear me say that in my Russian accent impression – it’s pretty cool.  Not.)  I was surprised and amazed at how nice everyone was to me while I was in New York…well, except the strangers in Brighton Beach.

Between shows I hightailed it over to this creepy warehouse where they were having the Alexander McQueen for Target preview event where editors were invited to shop the collection – I got into an unmarked black taxicab and truly thought I was being kidnapped on the way there…the guy got lost and then had the gall to charge me almost 3 times what the fare was back to BP when I used a YellowCab…learned my lesson!  (And bought a crappily-made McQueen for Target jumpsuit for my editor too.)

For the first time in my life I bought a pack of hot nuts – cashews – from a nut-truck on the street.  (It sounds a little risque, I know.)  Yum-O!  Now I am addicted!

Standing next to catwalk models really made me realize: they truly are genetic freaks!  (I don’t mean anything hurtful by that comment BTW.)  Someone had told me that once and I really couldn’t understand what they meant.  I mean, how tall and think could they really be?  I’m about average height (5’6″) and have been around models before – modelled in Tokyo about 10 years ago, cast models for m
y runway show when I launched my clothing line a couple years back…but high-fashion catwalk models, I found, were a whole different breed altogether.  When I was in the same room as a bunch of them, backstage as they were getting ready for the Abaete show, all of a sudden that generalization made sense.  So leggy, insanely, unbelievably thin, striking facial features – gorgeous skin…it was difficult to stop staring at them because they literally looked like beings from another planet…well-dressed, impeccably-made-up aliens… I was kind of goggling up at them for most of the time, wondering how they moved without falling over or snapping in two they were so emaciated.   In.SANE.

Getting a fashion sketch done by an artist in the tents (sponsored by Chambord – he was doing sketches for anyone who asked)…along with my fabulous handmade bag.

So anyhoo – I’ll be going into the fray again in two weeks’ time…so expect much on-the-spot happenings, photos, and updates from NYC come Feb. 13!

There’s tons to cover and I’ll be right there – bringing you gals straight to the action!
Wish me luck:-)
xoxoxo
Carly