I Believe I Can Fly

by Megan Waldrep

What Flying During a Pandemic is Like from Santa Barbara Airport

As you might expect, I had mixed feelings about flying during a pandemic. Thankfully, the Santa Barbara Airport eased pre-flight nerves before I entered the building. For example, there are separated entries for Alaska and American Airlines on the North end, United and Delta through the main entrance, and signs requiring face masks at every turn. Upon entry, the airport wasn’t empty, but it wasn’t busy either. Without lines at the check-in counters (as in, not one person), the vibe is… chill. Relaxed. Enjoyable? No one is in a rush to catch a plane, people are kind and socially distancing, and hand sanitizer stations are filled and located anywhere you may roam. The best surprise was taking my time through the TSA screening. (To private jetters and TSA pre-checkers, the following may sound foreign to you.) With my boarding pass and ID in hand, I strolled up to the TSA agent’s desk and passed my documents through a cut-out hole in the plexiglass barrier between us. What usually feels like a race to disrobe and unpack your perfectly packed belongings for the TSA scanners was the opposite – as opposed to limping out of the way wearing half a shoe, I had enough time to redress and pack up again like a civilized human. A first.

After a short wait at the gate, about twenty passengers boarded the Alaska Airlines flight to Seattle. With seats in front and behind remaining empty, we strapped into entire rows to ourselves. The flight attendants ensured the cabin had been appropriately sanitized and proceeded with the pre-flight safety demonstration in masks and gloves. Besides the mortality check of turbulence, and hoping my N95 mask does its job, it felt like a normal flight. So normal, in fact, “maskne” (acne from wearing a mask) was my greatest concern other than the virus itself. (A vain yet strange

relief, I admit.) A twenty-minute flight brought us to our first stop in San Luis Obispo, where a cleaning crew would disinfect the plane before the next group of passengers came aboard. We were advised to either stay seated and direct the crew to clean around us or deplane with our belongings for a quick break. The cleaning crew turned out to be one cleaning guy, armed with a spray bottle of “high potency cleaning solution,” paper towels, and a vacuum which he used to trace each row of the cabin. The cleaning guy asked if he could further assist me in any way, and I asked to take his photo instead.

During a pandemic, check-in is a breeze at Santa Barbara Airport

Here’s where the anxiety set in: enter twenty more passengers from SLO. A couple plopped down behind me, and one man scooted to the window seat in front. After the food service of bottled water and packaged snacks – instead of a variety of sodas and juice poured into ice-filled cups – the coughing and sniffling commenced, seeming to echo inside my brain. Each sneeze made me shutter, and I prayed the phlegmy hack from the woman behind me meant she was a smoker. The man in front of me let out a sneeze, and I felt ter

I BELIEVE I CAN FLY Page 304

Check out the colleges our 2016 Eighth Grade graduates will be attending in the fall . . .

Bates College Boston University Carleton College Claremont McKenna College Dartmouth College (2) Emory University Georgetown University New York University Northwestern University Occidental College Pepperdine University Pomona College Santa Barbara City College (3)

Santa Clara University Skidmore College Smith College Southern Methodist University (3) Stanford University (3) Tulane University (2) University of California Berkeley University of Redlands University of Southern California (2) Westmont College Williams College Yale University

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New plexiglass barriers for extra safety. The hole is where you pass a boarding pass and ID. The cleaning “crew” who disinfected the flight in SLO before additional passengers came aboard

An empty seat remained beside each solo-flying passenger for the trip to Seattle rible when I said, “Bless you,” when I meant, “F you.” Though the City of Santa Barbara Airport was the easiest part of the trip, and the airlines work hard to ensure the planes are clean and disinfected, you can’t control who will sit near you and trigger MONTECITO WATER DISTRICT IS CONSIDERING CHANGES your silent vitriolic attacks on other TO HOW IT CHARGES FOR WATER SERVICE passengers. The moral of the story? If the virus is your biggest concern, postpone your vacation or fly at your

Information, Presentation, and Online Bill Calculator own risk. all available at WWW.MONTECITOWATER.COM/RATES2020 A Message from City of Santa Barbara Airport: Here is a breakdown of service PUBLIC HEARING JUNE 25, 2020 | 9:30 AM by airline and destination according to Angi Daus, the Marketing • Board to consider Water Rate Changes Coordinator of the City of Santa • Remote access information will be available at www.montecito.com, and on the meeting agenda • For assistance call 805.969.2271 Barbara Airport: - Alaska’s current service is to Seattle (SEA). The current service pause via Alaska is to Portland (PDX) and will return based on demand. - American Airlines’ current serwww.montecitowater.com customerservice@montecitowater.com 805.969.2271 vice is to Dallas (DFW) and Phoenix (PHX). No loss. - Delta service to Salt Lake City (SLC) is paused. However, we don’t 30 MONTECITO JOURNAL Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.” – M. Scott Peck

have set dates for the return, and, once again, it is dependent on demand. - United is currently servicing SFO and DEN.

The lost number of flights going out changes daily, sometimes hour by hour. “We’ve seen some stability in scheduled flights not being canceled, but that isn’t guaranteed. Again, it’s based on demand and other needs of the airlines,” Daus said. “We at SBA are doing everything we can to keep as much service as possible for our community, but ultimately these decisions are made by the airlines.” SBA highly recommends all passengers check their flight status and services regularly and to contact the airline directly with any specific needs.

Currently, there is a live, daily flight schedule on the homepage of www. FlySBA.com. Daus reminds passengers that the online flight schedule is just a quick reference, but passengers should check directly with their airline to ensure they have the most up-to-date information. •MJ

This is ‘Spring Lamb’ Do you really need to eat these babies? Only weeks old, they are pulled away from their mothers, crying as they are taken to be slaughtered! Stop: “Baby Animal Death”

The DPHS Class of 2020 drove through local neighborhoods before a parade through the school

San Marcos High School held three celebrations for their seniors, including a drive-thru parade ferent school parking lots with six feet between the sides of the cars. The ceremony was live streamed through Zoom; families in cars outside watched the livestream through various devices. There were three student speakers, a speech by principal Dr. Kip Glazer, and seven alumni speakers who wanted to give their best advice to the Class of 2020. The alumni speakers were: Dr. Robert Orr (1982), former Assistant SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations; Cady Huffman (1982), Tony-award winning actress; Oscar Gutierrez (2002) and Alejandra Gutierrez (2001), both Santa Barbara City council persons; Todd Rogers (1991), Olympic gold medal winner; Alex Mack (2004), starting center of the Atlanta Falcons San Marcos principal Dr. Kip Glazer with students during one of three graduation celebrations and NFL all decade team; Anthony Edwards (1980), co-star of the movie gold decorated cars while they were and honor our Class of 2020 was Top Gun, star of TV show ER, and wincheered on by their teachers and staff. important to myself and our entire ner of multi Emmy and Screen Actor Graduates made a pit stop in front of staff,” Simmons said. “Not only Guild awards. The celebration ended the historic building to receive their because our graduates deserve the with a slideshow of all the graduates’ diploma by their principal, Elise recognition, but our staff needed the pictures and names. Simmons. chance to say their goodbyes.” Staff On June 8-10, graduates were able

“Finding the right way to celebrate worked hard to create a video honorto walk across the stage at the school’s ing the graduates, and came together Greek Theater and have their name last week to cheer on students getting announced. Dr. Glazer and other disCoastal Hideaways their diplomas. “We can’t wait to come together for trict officials were there to help celebrate the seniors, and families were Inc. a traditional ceremony in Peabody able to be there to take pictures and 805 969-1995 Stadium when we are allowedto. I am watch their student walk.

Luxury Vacation Rentals very proud of the accomplishments, Dr. Glazer stood on stage (with

Short or Long Term strength, and positivity that the Class of 2020 has shown these past four social distancing) for 15 hours over the three days to honor the seniors

Interior Design Services also available years,” Simmons said. The school graduated 505 seniors this year. as they were announced. “I want to thank the Class of 2020 for their kindness. Many seniors were concerned

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SMHS had 439 graduates this year, losses. They taught me how to be a and administrators planned sevRoyal with a fierce Royal Spirit of carPlease stop in and visit us 25 years serving the Santa Barbara community eral celebrations to honor the Class of 2020. On June 1, seniors were celebrated by teachers and staff as they drove into campus in a parade; they also ing for one another. I am so grateful to them,” Dr. Glazer said. Dos Pueblos High School

Melissa M. Pierson, Owner 1211 Coast Village Road #4 Montecito, CA 93108 received a personalized yard sign and a Class of 2020 flag to help celebrate, which were donated by the PTSA. D PHS held a parade through campus that led out to the student parking lot where there was a drive-in

Vacations@coastalhideaways.com Two days later the school held a style graduation. Students and famwww.coastalhideaways.com drive-in Graduation Ceremony; ilies decorated their cars and drove cars were lined up in the three difthrough a parade of all the DPHS 32 MONTECITO JOURNAL “Don’t keep a man guessing too long – he’s sure to find the answer somewhere else.” – Mae West

Heading up the parade was the school’s mascot vehicle teachers and staff. After the parade, all the cars gathered in the student lot where a ceremony featuring student speakers was projected onto the side of the school’s performing arts center. “We set up a stage so our 460 graduates could have their moment of walking across the stage and hearing their names called as they were projected on the big screens,” said principal Bill Woodard, who called the graduating students “resilient young adults.”

The environment was casual and festive, with lots of horn honking coming from the crowd. “We also had a couple of surprise shout outs from performing artists Katy Perry and Jack Johnson, and a shout out from Class of 2008 Major League All Star Catcher James McCann,” Woodard said.

“The graduation ceremony itself was truly inspirational and therapeutic for our entire school community but especially our Class of 2020 graduates. It wasn’t your typical ceremony but in many ways was much more festive and special. So glad we found a way to pull it off as it was a huge undertaking.”

The DPHS Foundation is also creat

ENTERTAINMENT (Continued from page 28) nice group of locals who are always up for supporting such great causes. I’ve done stuff for CADA for years. But really, how hard is it to put on some clothes, turn on the camera and live stream from your own home? It’s a much easier gig than normal.

How has sheltering in place been going for you?

It’s not all that bad. All of my musician friends live in a vacuum anyway. With no gigs, we’re mostly just waiting for something to happen. The guys in the band (Dishwalla) we’re more of a low key, local vibe, so we’ve been kicking back for a while, which seems to be the status of the industry. But we are starting to get calls for virtual shows, which looks like how it’s going to be for the foreseeable future. I was on the phone today with our agent today to talk about some virtual music festivals. There will be a lot of really high-end productions coming this summer.

Hopefully, as restrictions lift and with safety precautions in place, the band will ultimately be able to get together to play, but nothing like those 10,000 people together in the audience at the festival. So there will be lots of things – some solo shows, maybe me and Rodney, and then start planning for the whole band.

Dishwalla’s Justin Fox is one of the performers that will be featured at CADA’s virtual fundraiser on Thursday, June 25 (CADA Cares streams at 7 pm on Thursday, June 25. Visit https://cad acares.cadasb.org.)

Bringing Movies Back to the Big Screen

COVID-19 has certainly crushed a lot of dreams since forcing a shutdown back in March. But it’s also had a silver lining or two: After having closed its doors, supposedly forever, just a little more than a year ago, the Westwind Drive-In movie theater reopened a couple of weeks back, and immediately became a desired destination for families and others sick of being stuck at home watching Netflix night after night.

Now, with the most recent relaxing of the shelter-in-place orders, Metropolitan Cinemas has announced plans to reopen two of its most cherished theaters – the Metro 4 in downtown Santa Barbara and the Camino Real Cinema at the Marketplace in Goleta – next Friday, June 26. (Much more about that next week.) In between, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Riviera Theatre is slated to start screening art films once again this Friday, June 19, at the cinema that SBIFF renovated after acquiring it from Metropolitan.

The folks over there say they’ve “implemented every recommended safety precaution… and then some,” meaning in addition to touchless ticketing and social distancing seating, SBIFF has reconfigured its hospital grade custom-built industrial AC/ heat/filtration system so that air recirculation has been disabled, with negative pressure pulling out stagnant air to be exhausted externally, replaced by filtered outside air. Disposable seat coverings will be changed for every screening, while all staff and guests will be required to wear masks at all times. Meanwhile, film-wise, the first offerings include The Trip to Greece, written and directed by Michael Winterbottom, and Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth, playing in repertory for the first full week.

In other SBIFF news, the public

The Trip to Greece will be one of the first films shown at the Riviera Theatre when it reopens June 19

is invited to view and vote for the Audience Award winners in the festival’s Student Showcase-in-Place in high school and college divisions, in which the students, who have submitted their end-of-year films for the community and a panel to view, are vying for the Jury and Audience Awards. Voting ends at 12 noon on June 22, and people are limited to one vote per day for each division. Winners will be announced the following day. Visit www.sbiff.org. •MJ

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SBMM Thanks Its 20th Anniversary Fundraiser Supporters

Honoring Surf Legends Shaun Tomson & Renny Yater

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