Organizational frustration

That's exactly what I'm dealing with right now. One of my goals for the month of August is to make my room a place that I enjoy being. Right now it feels too cluttery. It's hard to keep it clean. The walls are boring and white. My main wall decoration is a Porsche poster. One of my problems is that things don't have places. So I bought some underbed boxes to store seasonal clothing and things like that. I refuse to box junk under my bed but I figure since I don't have a dresser, if they're organized it's okay to have clothes under there. I've gone through a bunch of stuff in here. Emptied boxes. Sorted piles. Gone through my closet. But I don't really feel like I'm getting anywhere.

I'm also trying to decide between these two quilts.
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=107430&RN=42
http://www.lnt.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2101535&cp=1331605.1331629&view=all&parentPage=family
Tell me what you think. Then after I get that I can get curtains and other things that will make my room nice.

I don't really know what the moral of this story is. I'm just tired of sorting and I need a break. Sometimes I just feel like throwing away everything in my room. Maybe I need to take advantage of that feeling and throw stuff away. Guess I should get back to it.

It's my Friday also!!

My airline buddies will realize that just because it's Friday for the rest of society doesn't mean it is for us. Usually it's the opposite. But today actually is my Friday and I'm so happy. I think if I had to go to work tonight I would cry. I miss my roommates. I miss my family. I miss my friends. I miss sleeping in my own bed at night. I don't have to work again til Monday night and I'm so pleased.

Last night was uneventful except that we actually got to Cleveland early, which is an event in itself, since it hasn't happened in the last week and a half. That meant that I got around 6 hours of sleep last night. Not bad for a nap. I had a lovely conversation with my favorite little brother yesterday before work, which also made me happy. I've been having very disturbing dreams about my family lately and I don't know why. It makes me want to be in touch with them more. I seem to have a recurring theme in that someone, often my mother, is rearranging my living situation, usually in a way that takes away my independence and privacy. It doesn't make sense to me cause my mother has never been that way. She still isn't. She's always encouraged me to step out and be on my own. If not encouraging she has at least been supportive. Dreams can be silly things sometimes.

Speaking of silly things, my fellow FA was coming up the escalator yesterday before work. He was riding next to some girl and he said she looked him dead in the face and said "Is this Atlanta?" He said, "yes honey, this is Atlanta." That really, really concerns me that a person can be in an airport and be so confused they have to ask what city they're in. How did she get here and not be sure where she was going? Like, oops... the Atlanta and Seattle flights were right next to each other and somehow I ended up in the wrong city. Ooopsies. The stupidity of people will never cease to amaze (and humor) me.

I have a lot of stuff to do today so I need to get to it. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend.

24 in 7 clarification

Here's the deal. Pilots and flight attendants both have to have 24 hours off in 7 days. The difference is, pilots have to have an entire day midnight to midnight. Ours is a moving 24 hr window. Example: next week I finish at 9am on Tuesday morning and don't have to work until 2pm in Wednesday. I will be working M, T, W, Th, F, Sa, Su, M. Which, in case you can't count is 8 days. The only break I have is that 29hr break. A pilot would have to have from Tuesday at midnight to Wednesday at midnight. If this doesn't make sense to you now then you're just dumb. I can't explain it any further.

grouchy tired blah

I'm so tired and grouchy right now. The first half of the month of naps was nice. It was nice being home. Nice only doing one flight at night and one in the morning. But now I'm sick of it. I don't know if it's cause I picked up stuff on my off days and haven't given myself time to rest or what, but I am. I'm tired of only getting a normal night's sleep 3 nights a week (if that). I'm tired of getting up at the buttcrack of dawn and having to be pleasant and professional. Tired of stupid, demanding passengers. Can you believe someone asked us at 6:30 this morning if we had liquor on the flight??? What is wrong with people? I'm tired of their grouchiness and them thinking they're the only ones that are inconvenienced when we're late. When we get there really late at night I just want to yell at them and be like, hey, at least you get to go home and sleep. I have to be back here in 3-5 hours. I'm tired of them treating me like I'm their slave. I'm tired of being gone every night and the nights I'm home I'm too tired to do anything. It sucks too cause this month is ending soon but they have been kind enough to roll me right into 6 more days of work when I get back from my nap on Tuesday morning. It sucks cause pilots have to have an entire day off after 6 days of work but we only have to have 24 hours. So from this Monday until next Tuesday I will be working every day. Anyway... I'm finished complaining. I'm going to go into the simulated night in my room and try to pretend I don't have to get up in a few hours and go back to work. I'll be much more cheerful at this time tomorrow.

Hi, I'm Grace J*** H**** and I'm a bad friend

Please egg my apartment and my car. That's what Kathryn says anyway. I'm writing it so she doesn't have to. But I have the most fabulous shoes ever so it doesn't really matter. And Amie's sister wants an engagement ring made out of a tree. I would give you my license plate numbers so you can find my car and egg it, but I don't have a license plate. So good luck with that. Plus it's raining so the egg would just wash off. I got these shoes yesterday at Ross. They pretty much make me want me. They're pointy black, slingback, Nine West stilettos. I used to hate pointy shoes cause they made my feet look longer and skinnier than they already are, but these actually look really nice and hot. So I bought them as a reward to myself for making it through a month of naps. Regardless of what went on this month, I would have come up with a reason to buy them. I wore them to the wedding I played in today. I'm so sick of going to weddings. It was really nice, which is one reason why I'm sick of going. You all already know how I hate happy people. hehe...

Charity is really weird. My friends and I have reached a new level of old. We've spent hours discussing the prices of homes, insurance rates, interest rates, the cost of health insurance, loans... I think you get the idea. And just when I think we're all old and grown up, Charity starts using a golf club like a light saber. She makes me laugh though, and those who know me well know how high the ability to make me laugh puts you on my list.

I had dinner tonight with some of my old Patricia Drive roommates. Adri is in town this week and she cooked for 5 of us. It was fabulous. She made poppyseed chicken and I ate too much. It was good to see everyone. We should have a reunion sometime. It's crazy thinking about how many people that would involve. I have had a lot of roommates in my life. Some I would rather forget about, but some have become my best friends.

And that's all I've got to say about that. And put the eggs away. I'm a fabulous friend.

ramblings of a half asleep woman

I'm sitting here at the table next to Amie. She is making chicken fingers and I'm trying to decide what I'm going to eat. I managed to sleep a little over 4 hours just now and it felt good. Despite all the good things I've come to realize about naps, I just feel like they drain me so much. I'm worthless during the day. I guess the fact that I keep working on my off days doesn't help. My line next month is totally different so we'll see how that works out.

It's really sad when one of the highlights of my week is getting ALL my laundry done. As many of you know the girls here at 8302 have been experiencing difficulties with our dryer. This makes doing laundry a huge mission. You have to make sure it's a dry day and then hang all your clothes all over the house so they dry. It's such a pain. They don't smell like anything when you're done and they're usually wrinkled which drives me crazy. I'm not a wrinkle freak but I really like just taking my clothes out of the dryer when they're hot and folding or hanging them up. Then they're all smooth and beautiful. I went over to the guys' apartment yesterday and spent the entire afternoon washing, folding and drying all my clothes. Now they smell so good and are so nice and pretty.

I got pulled over the other night which was pretty scary cause I left my planner with the bill of sale and proof of insurance in it, so I was driving with nothing. It didnt help that it was 1am, I had my hair in a mohawk and the cop was 7 feet tall. Long story short, he let me go, but not before much fear and trembling in my legs.

I had a conversation with my fellow flight attendant last night and I need some input. Once upon a time I was told that because I had been a teacher and was now a flight attendant I would check off two boxes on a man's "fantasy woman to get with" list. So my gay male friend and I were coming up with men's fantasy women. This is what we came up with so far:

1. Teacher
2. Flight Attendant
3. Cheerleader
4. Nurse
5. Lifeguard
6. Maid
This is the input I've gotten so far - so I don't necessarily endorse all of these (but I'm a woman so what do I know??).
7. Hooters Girl (our captain said that one)
8. Librarian
9. School girl (legal age of course)
10. Asian girl

Tell me what you think kids.

I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel....

Ahh... Saturday night. Sitting in front of the tv watching "You've Got Mail". Too tired to do absolutely anything at all. Livin the dream I tell you.

I would feel pathetic for sitting here by myself on Saturday night, but it's honestly all I can be bothered to do. I came home from work this morning and for some reason couldn't go to sleep. I lay in bed, listening to the neighbors downstairs, listening to the noises of daytime, thinking about all the things I needed to get done, and combatting those thoughts will all the usual sleep inducing thoughts. I even tried earplugs. Oh well. Ended up having lunch with Jamie. Then headed over to my parents' house to pick the veggies in their garden because they're all out of town.

It's funny how smells are so strongly attached to memories. As I stood in their garden picking cherry tomatoes, green beans, okra, and squash, it took me back to my growing up years. Off and on throughout my childhood, we had a garden. Cherry tomatoes are some of my favorite foods. I love the way tomato plants smell. I love picking them off the plants and putting them straight in my mouth. Sometimes we would have tomato fights. Gardens also represent a great thing about my parents. We sometimes grew gardens out of necessity but it showed me that they were willing to work hard. They taught us about them and we learned the joy of growing things and then being able to eat them. We learned about taking care of things. We learned how you have to commit to something for it to pay off. You can't just plant a garden and leave it and expect it to turn out well. You have to pull the weeds, kill the bugs, get dirt under your nails...

Anyway... I love Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks.

I should be finished with work for three days but I picked up a dayline tomorrow. I need the money. That's what I have to keep telling myself cause right now, I really don't feel like working tomorrow. Work this week was pretty good. The overnight was decent. Last night I saw so many people at work that I haven't seen in a long time. It was fun. I was reminded how ridiculous pilots can be. I don't think any pilots read this so I can say all the bad things I want. Hahaha... But I still love them. My other flight attendant I work with got mad again last night cause I was getting more attention from the rampers than he was. I'm like hello!!! You work in an industry dominated by straight male pilots and rampers. You are a gay male. Do the math honey!! It's good times though. I could've done without the child that screamed the entire way from Cleveland to Atlanta yesterday but I guess it's all in a day's work.

I think it's time for this day to wind down. Hasta la pjs.

PS. I didn't really hurt myself today to see if I still feel. I just had to use that subject before someone else I know does :-P. Cause I'm evil like that. Mwahahaha

Holbys scattered hither and yon

I'm nearly through my month of the dreaded naps, and the funny thing is, I wish I had gotten them next month. My line came out yesterday for next month and it's pretty decent. I have a lot of time off and will be able to play with my schedule a good deal, I think.

Last night none of my Holbys were in GA. My mom and Peter went to NC, my dad, Joy, and Michal are in LA, and I was in Cleveland. They're still all over the place. It's pretty cool. I just got off the phone with my dad, trying to get him back to ATL in the morning and then on up to NC shortly thereafter. I hope he makes the flights.

I'm really tired and grouchy today and I don't like it. I went straight to the auto shop this morning after I got off work for what I thought would just be an oil change. Turns out my breaks needed changing and the rotars were completely worn out. $360 later I'm never going to make any headway on my finances. It was necessary though, and I'm at least thankful I take my car to people who will work with me. They're really great. I had to run a couple of other errands and by the time I got home it was noon and I needed sleep so bad. Thanks to some other schedule things changing I got to sleep all afternoon so I feel some better, but it's just not the same.

I got a compliment last night that I have to share. I would criticize it for it's cheesiness, but I hate girls that criticize compliments. If someone has something nice to say about me, I'm going to appreciate it. Last night we were forever late getting out of ATL. First we had to wait on a plane. Then we had no rampers to load the bags. Finally two guys come up and load the carry-ons. After they finish one of the guys, a short little, old, white guy comes up the stairs where I'm standing with the other flight attendant (trying to avoid the prying eyes of the passengers who wonder why the heck we haven't left yet). I'm assuming he is there on business. When he gets up with us he says, have you heard that nasty rumor that SkyWest is spreading? (Rumors are as common on the ramp as airplanes are.) No, we haven't. What is it? Well evidently SkyWest is telling everyone that they have the best looking flight attendants in the industry, and I just proved them right. Hehehe. Ya, it was funny. I think the funniest part though, was how pissed off the other flight attendant gets cause people compliment me and not him. He's like, I hate flying with cute girls. I don't appreciate comments like that. Blah blah... I laughed at them both. But it was a nice thing to say anyway.

I must go shower and get ready for work. Hasta..

Friends helping friends

I don't know how many of you have heard of love languages. Basically, each person has a different way, or several ways, of expressing their love to those around them. It is often the cause of a lot of confusion in relationships because one person's way of expressing love may not be understood by the other because they express love differently. They are 1. words of affirmation 2. receiving gifts 3. quality time 4. acts of service 5. physical touch. This will explain them more if you're interested - www.thefivelovelanguages.com. I haven't put enough time into figuring out what my love languages are. I can make some guesses. But whichever ones have to do with helping other people out, especially helping people save money, makes me happy. Several times lately I've been able to connect one friend to another to help someone out and it makes me feel really good to do that. Peter accidently went swimming with his cell phone in his pocket and was out a phone but thankfully Angela had her old phone and she was nice enough to give it to him. Jonathan's phone got smashed the other day when he was flying and instead of him putting down $130 for a new phone he didn't really like, I remembered that Adri had an old Verizon phone that she had offered to me. So he just has to activate it. My older brother, Israel, was going to a job interview in Boston and instead of him having to get a hotel room I was able to put him in contact with a girl who lives near Boston that I'm friends with through Adri. I don't really take credit for any of these things. I can only take credit for having wonderful friends that are always happy to help someone out. I guess I can't even really take credit for that. Every good gift, including good friends, comes from God and I thank Him for them.

I've got a bunch of stuff I'm supposed to be doing today, but my mind is all in a kerfuffle (great word, huh Tanya?). I already paid a lot of bills, and unfortunately have more to pay. I have to get my car registered but need to print something off before I can do that and don't have access to a printer right now. I need to do laundry but want to wait until this dryer gets here. I'm getting my hair cut this afternoon which makes me quite happy. I need to finish cleaning my room and change my bed, but am obviously procrastinating. I haven't even showered yet. Gross, Grace!! I want to get my car all washed and waxed and pretty but have to get all my cleaning stuff from my parent's house. I need to do something with my old Civic but don't know what to do yet. Any ideas?

I guess that's about it for now. My dad and Joy are in CA visiting Christine and Scott. Michal is flying out to LA tomorrow to be with Joy at an evangelism camp. I'm so glad my family gets to go and do so much more now. I thought I was going to have to force my parents to take advantage of their flight benefits but I've been pleasantly surprised. Speaking of surprises... It'll be interesting to see what our power bill is this month since my dear roommates insist on keeping our apartment at glacial temperatures. Oh well.

nevermind

It pisses me off how when I'm sitting in class, trying to sleep, taking a shower, driving in my car, I have so many things to say. Then when I have time and I sit down to write I have nothing so say. None of the good things I had to say before anyway.

The roommates and I have just decided we are running to Ross so this will have to wait. My stomach hates me today and I kind of hate it back.

the long and winding road

As tired as I am, I only managed to sleep 4 hours this afternoon. I should have turned my phone completely off cause it kept buzzing at me and disturbing me. It's taken me nearly 2 hours to feel somewhat normal though I'm still really, really tired.

Sometimes when I am falling asleep I have these weird dreams. I don't even know if they're dreams cause I still feel like I'm partially awake. But it's just people having conversations. I don't think it's normally people I know, but the thing that is so bizarre to me is that in these dreams the people will be having conversations about things that I know nothing about. They'll be using words and my observing subconscious is just like, where did that come from? You don't know anything about that and have never even heard that word before. Because it's in such a weird stage of sleep it's hard for me to remember anything specific but I've had this thought on several occasions. How can our dreams involve things that our real life minds don't know anything about?

Back to yesterday... I woke up yesterday morning and called the bank first thing, as I've done every day this week, trying to see what remains to be done before I can get the check, go to Miami and get my car. Lo and behold all is complete so it's time to go. After much running around gathering insurance info, etc... (thanks to my dear friend Joe who has been kind enough to entrust me with his car), Tanya and I went to the airport. This guy I've been dealing with said that he would pick us up when we got to Miami which was great. I was worried about taxis and stuff. He still seemed to be a little surprised that we were really flying down to get his car. He picked us up and we hit it off right away. He told us about his wife, daughter, and son, about Miami, the car and then informed us that we couldn't leave Miami without going to South Beach. He was still turning other buyers away, all the while laughing that we would go to such lengths to get a car. I told him it's not that big of a deal. Which only tells me that I've already been working for the airline too long.

We got to the house and there my car was, sitting in the driveway in all its little Honda cuteness. I'll try to get some pictures up before too long. It's a black 99 4 dr Civic EX. It's got a leather interior which is in great condition, sunroof, manual transmission (yay!!), cd player, etc... It even has keyless entry which will be fantastic for someone who hasn't even had power locks for over a year, but they have to find the remote. His family was really nice and they have two adorable little dogs. The smaller one was a dog I could possibly see myself owning. I bought the car, then Tanya and I followed him and his wife over to South Beach where they insisted on treating us to dinner. We walked down Ocean Dr (I believe that was it) in front of all the restaurants and shops. I don't know about the rest of Miami but just that one street felt so alive. It reminded me of Madrid how everyone was always out at night, eating, drinking, playing music, spending time with family. We ate at a really great seafood place. They ordered shrimp and mussels for appetizers. I've had oysters and thought mussels would be like them (don't really care for oysters) but they were pretty good. Then we all had different kinds of fish. I had grouper with pear chutney over spinach. It seemed like it was lightly breaded, but whatever they did to it, it was very good. Then we had two different desserts that were really amazing as well. Not the best way to start a road trip but it was sooo good. They were a great couple to talk to. They had married really young but were still together after 26 years. Had a lot of cool stories to tell as well.

Because we got out of there so late we didn't get to stop in Ft. Lauderdale and see Simon, who I owe getting this car to. That just means I'll have to go back down there again soon. From what I saw it seems like a cool city, and now we have new friends down there.

The drive back was long. I was thinking about it today as I was lying in bed trying to sleep and I can only say that it was Jesus that made all this happen. When I was driving I didn't feel tired for hours and hours. I didn't feel anything. Just drove and drove. I don't even know what I thought about half the time. I made this cd last month and the whole point of it was songs that you like playing really loud, so I listened to that at least 3 times while Tanya somehow managed to sleep. I even had the air band going to Alice Cooper's Poison. You just can't help it when that song comes on.

We got home around 9 this morning. Tanya drove the last hour or so which involved coming up Hwy 16 through Griffin. She got pretty frustrated at some of the lights, and I'm sure gave some construction workers a good morning laugh at her stalling out, but I'm determined (and I believe she is too) that she'll learn how to drive a stick. Everyone should know how. They're so much fun also.

Well now it's time to get ready for work. Good times. Off to Ft. Walton Beach. Wonder if we'll get a fun captain tonight? J is off to Zurich and I'm gonna miss him. Or maybe I'm just jealous cause I can't go :-P. Who wants to go to Zurich when they can spend 6 hours at Ft. Walton Beach anyway?

It's about time

This is my sad way of letting all concerned parties know that Tanya and I made it safely home from Miami, and I am now the very happy owner of a lovely car. I will tell more about my car and our trip later but I am so tired right now. I have slept about 45 minutes in the last 25 hours. My body is feeling surprisingly well but my mind is starting to go crazy places. Lack of sleep is one of my worst enemies emotionally. (I'm so tired I have to check online to see if emotionally had one or two ls.) I know I have phone calls to return and people to tell that it finally worked out, but I wanted to get it out there in case between getting some sleep today and working tonight I don't get back to people for a while.

The moral of the story is: I got the car. I'm very happy about it. It's a long drive back from Miami.

Nap time.

New car time

The other day, I wrote a whole long blog, and then before I saved it all the windows on my computer closed. It made me mad so I gave up.

Monday morning I had a humorous dream. I often have bizarre dreams (who remembers Lynn Flyn?), but in this dream, my friend Jamie was a movie actor. Sounds cool doesn't it? Well the funny part was that he was playing the part of a woman, and part of his role was to very passionately make out with Ewan McGregor. This may not seem terribly strange to those of you who don't know Jamie, but last time I checked, the only people Jamie is passionate about making out with are women. Having never witnessed this first-hand, I suppose it could all be a facade - but I won't insult Jamie like that. He's straight. But in my dream, he sure was loving making out with Ewan. And who wouldn't? Obi-Wan is hot! There were a lot of other bizarre facets to my dream that I can hardly remember, much less describe, but seeing Jamie, dressed as a woman and making out with a man, sort of stuck in my head I guess.

The other thing I wrote about was spending 2 hours Monday afternoon sitting in one of the hotels on the north side of the airport, watching planes land and take off. I have admitted in previous blogs that I am becoming quite the plane nerd, but this really proves it. My kind friend Joe had lent me his car while he was on a trip, since mine can't be bothered to start. He was getting back from work late in the afternoon and Jamie and I were discussing what we should do in the meantime. We had just had lunch with Amie and David in Ptc so we considered the Starbucks option - go drink coffee and make fun of the locals. Neither of us wanted coffee which kind of rules that out. So Jamie suggested watching planes, and that's what we did. Those of you who know me well and know the pleasure I gain from seeing miniature versions of real things, or just really tiny things will understand why seeing a Cessna driving around at the airport pretty much made my day. It looked like a little wind up toy. It started out on the far north side of the airport and evidently had to make its way to the south runways. I think the journey across the airport must've added at least 45 minutes to their trip time. It'd get across one runway and have to wait forever for the next huge plane to land. I was surprised it didn't get blown over by the exhaust from the engines. It made me feel better about our airplanes, cause normally ours look funny in comparison to the big planes, but this one made ours look big. All in all, it was a very fun time. I am learning, very slowly, to identify the different planes. I think I get it down and then Jamie's like "no, that's a QR-19445.6". Not really but that's what it feels like sometimes. They should just put what they are on the side of the freaking airplane. So for all you guys who care, I'm an easy date. Pay to park at the Renaissance Hotel and we can watch planes for hours. It's fun.

Finally, a bit of good news about my car. I have been playing phone tag with this man in Miami for days and days now. By the way he talked on Friday and Saturday, you'd think the guy was anxious to sell this car. But when it came down to me actually purchasing it, he wasn't ready. Long story short, I was prepared to go down on Monday and get it, and now, Wednesday morning, I finally get word from the bank that they have all the paperwork from him and I can go get the check and fly to Miami. So I need to go get my lazy body off the couch and get ready to go. And because he dragged his feet, I can't even take my time coming back like I was hoping. I have to work tomorrow night. Thanks man...

the sun came out

Seven hours ago I was sitting at my parents' house crying to my dad about how overwhelmed and frustrated I was. My car decided to stop starting Friday night before work. Since then I've gotten rides and borrowed cars to get to and from but was concerned about how long this could go on. I can't afford to call in for work and can't have people hauling me around. On Friday I found a car that was exactly what I wanted but was in Miami. I have a friend who is a mechanic down there who I was hoping would check it out for me but when I called the seller he had three people looking at it that night. Long story short, the guy got offered a lot less than he wanted, I told him that if he waited until tonight when Simon could look at it, and he gave his approval, then I'd pay him more for it. So he waited, Simon saw it, he liked it, I like it, I'm happy, I'm getting a car. Hopefully I can get all the paperwork done tomorrow morning, fly down there with Tanya tomorrow afternoon and drive it home. Oh yeah, and I was supposed to work tonight/tomorrow morning and Tuesday all day and wasn't sure how I was going to do all that work and get the car as well. I put in to swap Tuesday's trip for something next week (the beauty of having a line) but up until late this afternoon it hadn't even been looked at yet. After being sick this week and doing two naps already I was exhausted today and tonight's nap was going to be really rough. As I was driving home from church tonight scheduling called me to say my trip tonight was canceled! That in itself made me really happy. Then I got home and checked online and they had approved my swap. Shortly after that I found out about the car and everything has just fallen into place within about an hour. I think this story is kind of jumbled but I'm really happy about it and tired all at the same time so my writing skills aren't my priority.

I'm going to bed so I can get a whole night's sleep in my very own bed. Yummy. You'll never know how much you like your own bed until you only get to sleep in it half the time. My life isn't perfect, but I know God is in control of things. Yesterday when I was worrying and wondering if I should really pursue this car in Miami my dad prayed with me on the phone and I had to remember that none of this is in my hands anyway. If the Lord wanted me to have that car He would work out the details that were too big for me. And if it wasn't the right one for me then it wouldn't happen and there would be a better one. I don't know why He is so good to me. I definitely don't deserve it. In other areas, I'm learning to do something I've never had to do before. It's not easy at all, but I believe it will be worth it.

I smell onions

This is the good life. It's 9am on Saturday morning and I'm sitting on the back deck, listening to the birds (and the traffic), just chillin. I've got the whole day ahead of me to do as I please until I go to work again tonight. I'm really starting to appreciate naps. I'm lucky because for the most part I got naps with decent overnights this month. Sunday night when I get 3 hrs of sleep in San Antonio I might be singing a different song.

For the past few weeks the air around where I live has had the most bizarre smell. It smells like onions, but more like sauteed onions than onion grass. It makes me hungry and wish someone would fix me some good food. I don't know where it's coming from. Maybe Purina is making a new sauteed onion flavored dog food. If anyone knows where this strange smell is coming from it would be fabulous if you could let me know.

In our society today we've gotten where fewer and fewer things shock us. We've seen so many things, real and fake, on tv that it takes a whole lot to even make us blink. Last night as I was falling asleep I was flipping through channels and saw something about "what women go through to wear sexy shoes." I stopped to see what they were saying cause I really like sexy shoes. I found out that along with all the other outrageous plastic surgeries they have you can now get fat injected into the balls of your feet so you can wear stilettos longer, and this is the one that totally blew me away cause it hits kind of close to home - Women are getting parts of the bones taken out of their toes because THEIR TOES ARE TOO LONG!!! They showed this woman's feet who came to the doctor because she couldn't wear her Manolos because her toes were too long, and they looked just like mine. Her second toe, especially on the right foot, was significantly longer than the others. So the doctor goes in and takes part of the bone out and the toe will eventually shorten itself. I've always joked about getting my toes shortened, but now that I know it can actually be done it is the last thing I would ever have done to my body. I have taken a lot of flak for my finger-esque toes, but really, they're my toes and I like them. I'm not going to stop wearing sexy shoes cause my toes are long. This surgery starts at $3500 as well. I'm still blown away by this. I guess there really isn't any part of your body that isn't subject to change. Whatever happened to people just being happy with what God gave them?

I'm trying to decide if I should stay awake or go to sleep. It's such a beautiful, albiet smelly day. It'd be a shame to waste it sleeping. But I don't really have anything to do or the energy to do anything. My roommates are gone so my apartment is really quiet. My car isn't running well so I should probably look for another one. I found one that I loved and was great but it was in Miami and I'm pretty sure the guy sold it last night. Guess it wasn't the one for me.

blog blog bo bog banana fana fo fog

I'm off today, beginning to end, and I love it. Yesterday was a crazy long day but for the first time in the year since I started this job (Yes, today is my 1 year anniversary with ASA) I could take consolation in the fact that I was making extra money for the extra work I was doing. And boy did I make some extra money yesterday. It felt great. I flew with a lady who was a lot of fun as well. We went to St. Croix which is one of the longest flights ASA does. It's part of our new extended overwater deal. I think the story before was that we weren't allowed to fly anywhere where we had to be more than 50 miles away from the coast. But now we can. Long story short, on the way back we left late (surprise, surprise) then when we finally landed in Atlanta we had to sit on the runway for 45 minutes because there wasn't anywhere to park. And not only were we stuck for almost 4.5 hrs on the plane with passengers, we were stuck with some of the most demanding passengers I've ever flown with. That stupid flight attendant call button rang more times on that one flight yesterday that it has in my entire career as a flight attendant. And it usually went like this - I get up and walk to the seat where the light is on and the same little girl that rang it two minutes ago hands me her empty cup. Then two minutes later hands me her napkin, then her soda can, then the scrap of napkin she found on the floor... you get it. I wanted to slap her silly. But at least I was making money. Such a nice change from the slavery that is ASA's reserve program. (I wonder if I'm allowed to type such slanderous things on here.)

I still have whatever was making me feel rotten the other day. This whole sneezing thing is getting really old. My apartment is so quiet. Amie is gone for a few days and Tanya is at work. It's raining outside which sounds quite lovely and has brought the hideous July temperatures down.

Because of the rain (and my sickness and laziness) I slept til noon. I had some of the weirdest dreams ever. I think Ashton Kutcher was in one of them. I won't even begin to tell them. There were three major ones that I remember (they happened in between the three times the phone woke me up) and the further I go into wakefulness the more they run together. I seem to have dreams a lot that I still live at my parents house. It's so strange since I've only lived there for about 6 months in the last 7 years.

I'm trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do with this lovely day off. Right now my mind and body are in veg mode but I suppose at some point I need to put all the clean clothes away in my room, look for a car, and other fun stuff like that. I feel like my blogs lately have been really boring, but my life hasn't been that interesting either so what can I expect?

Pre-nap wind down

Once again, it's unwind time. Right now I'm so tired I'm not sure what I'm thinking. Or at least not what order to put everything in. I love being in my bed. It feels so nice. I think I want to get one of those down things that you put over your mattress to make it softer. The bed I spent 2 hours and 30 minutes in this morning felt like it had one and it was sooo nice. It was almost torturous to sleep in it, knowing I had to get up so soon. I slept with all my clothes on except my dress and shoes. Ridiculous. What's even more ridiculous though is that my captain didn't sleep at all. She said she started watching some movie and next thing she knew the phone was ringing with the wake up call. She's crazy though. The other FA thinks she might be on Adderall, since she is very skinny and extremely energetic. We were supposed to leave for Detroit last night at 9:39 and didn't end up leaving until 11:30 which put us there after 1 and at our hotel around 2. We had gotten almost all the passengers on board and the other FA commented "at least we're getting out of here on time since our overnight is so short (it's was at 6.5 hrs then). Not more than a minute later a mechanic came up and told us that the right engine was leaking fuel and we had to deplane... Good times. I was hoping they would cancel but my flights never get canceled. This all happens after I've given myself the "naps aren't so bad" pep talk yesterday afternoon. The only way I got up this morning was to keep telling myself that at least I got to go home and sleep. I get to sleep in my own bed tonight but picked up a trip tomorrow so I won't get to sleep late. As long as it's past 4:40 though I can deal with it. Thursday morning I'm sleeping as late as I want though.

In Detroit they have a lot of moving sidewalks and each one has a yellow line down the middle of it. On the right side it says STAND and on the left it says WALK. I want to know how stupid a person has to be to stand on the left side and not even notice when people are having to weave their way around them every two seconds??? Naps seem to reinforce people's stupidity in my mind. The fact that I'm usually exhausted only amplifies every stupid thing they do and makes me imagine doing evil things to them :-P. Another thing that passengers do that pisses me off is to 1. ask me if I can call and get them to hold the flight or 2. complain to me about whatever it is on the other end of the flight that their late for or will miss. I'm just like I have no control over the departure and arrival of flights. I'm not a mechanic. I'm not a gate agent. I don't have any way of calling anyone from the airplane. I don't have anything to do with hotels or connections. And on top of all that, when we get there tonight and you go home and go to sleep I'm going to have to be back here in 3 hours to fly back. So there. Last night when we were deplaning everyone this lady came by and was like we have a bus that is supposed to drive us to Grand Rapids that we rented for $1000. What's going to happen with that? So I said "how am I supposed to know, you big idiot?", slapped her, and threw her down the airplane stairs. haha... Oh wait, that's what happened in my head. Am I being a jerk to think this way. Is it not common sense that flight attendants don't know about stuff like that?

When I get home in the morning from these things I feel like I've been gone forever. But then I realize that depending on when my roommates may have gone to sleep I could have gone to work and come back before they even realized I was gone. I'm tired and my nose is stopped up. I can't tell if I'm getting a cold or if there's something in the air I'm allergic to. I've been sneezing my brains out for three days.

Happy 4th of July everyone. Hope you have a great day and stop at some point to appreciate what a great country we live in.

work, cars, and planes... super exciting

This is my post-work unwind. I just got home from my second nap of my line. Some guy is downstairs doing whatever adjusters do to cars when they've been wrecked. They don't adjust them do they? So I'm waiting for him and my laundry to be finished so I can go to sleep. It seems like I haven't written in forever. I don't know what's wrong with me. Just haven't had much to say I guess (shocking, I know).

Back to my line. Saturday night was the first nap of the month. The other flight attendant wasn't the one I was going to be flying with for the whole month and neither was the captain, so when I got there last night I was a little scared to see who I was going to be spending the rest of the month with. Our captain is a lady and I was hearing like she was the devil in pilot form. The flight attendant I flew with the first night nearly drove me insane. It's too much to type but she just did all this really petty stuff, complained about everything, talked bad about everyone - all in a very heavy Boston accent. She had the personality that just grated on people's nerves, including the passengers. Thankfully my real crew is cool. The flight attendant and I seem to be a great match. He loves doing announcements, hates doing the demo, and likes sitting in the back jumpseat. I'm pretty much the opposite. I don't love doing the demo but if it means I don't have to do any announcements for the next month it suits me fine. He also has almost the exact same hairstyle as me :-P. It looks way better on me though (obviously ). Anyway... I woke up at 4:15 yesterday morning, and even after getting almost 6 hrs of sleep, thought to myself - there is no way I can do this all month. I looked at my schedule and I can swap trips out but I'll end up being gone so much and working all the time, for nearly the same money. I'm not going to try to explain it. Just trust me. So I figured I need to find a way to enjoy them. Well maybe not enjoy them but at least not hate life every morning when I'm getting up at some ridiculous hour. I've come up with some reasons why naps are good things and I should be glad I'm doing them.
1. I'm home every day during the day.
2. I will work 14 nights this month and be off the rest of the time.
3. I won't be working during the heat of the day. It's hard to stay professional looking when you are sweating to death and I get sick a lot when the planes are too hot. Won't have to drive in the heat either.
4. Get to avoid summer mid-afternoon thunderstorms that can ruin your entire day's schedule.
5. Passengers are usually asleep or more relaxed late at night and early in the morning so they don't give you as much grief.
6. I only have to cross seatbelts once.
7. People that get you in trouble, compliance check people, FAA inspectors, other flight attendants, can't be bothered to stay up that late or get up that early. (Not that I do anything to get in trouble for, but I still try to stay under the radar.)
Just to name a few reasons. So I just need to keep reminding myself of that when it's 4 something in the morning, I've only been asleep 3 hours and I have to get up again. Last night we overnighted in Detroit. The walk from the gate to the hotel van is supposedly 1.25 miles. It's ridiculous. I feel like it's the biggest, or most spread out, airport I've ever been in. Thankfully we only have to do it one more time (tonight) and then we're finished with Detroit for the month.

Enough boring work stuff. On a not so great note, I have to buy a new car. I'm happy to get another car but not looking forward to having car payments again. I took my car in to the shop the other day cause it's been running bad for a while, and they told me it will cost me more than I paid for it to get it fixed. They offered a temporary fix for around $800 but said I'd probably only get another year out of it. I don't like that car enough to put any more money in it. I want a car where I can use the air conditioner. One that doesn't leak or burn oil. One that has a functioning speedometer. One with two side mirrors. Four windows that roll down (power windows). I don't think these things are too much to ask. I'll be looking for another newer Civic. I'm not looking forward to the searching process, but I will be happy to have a nicer, more reliable car.

One more thing before I hang my clothes up to dry and go to sleep. I saw one of the biggest airplanes in the world yesterday. I was out at our pool yesterday with one of my friends and we were trying to identify the planes flying over. It was late afternoon so all the big ones were heading to Europe and other such places. This one plane flew over that neither of us recognized. It was enormous. He guessed it was Russian but we couldn't even see the tail markings. When I got to work last night it was sitting over by the cargo planes and was in fact a Russian cargo plane. I'm going to see if I can find a picture of it to show how big it was. It dwarfed all the other cargo planes around it. And that's about enough of being a nerd. Those of you who care about planes will appreciate how I feel.

It's nap time.

PS. That guy appraises, not adjusts, cars. It's good to be informed.