I heart my company

Or not...

I really hope that yesterday, day 1 or 4, wasn't any representation of what the rest of this trip will be like. I showed up at work yesterday all ready to go work and have a good time. But when I signed it I saw that our flight was already delayed an hour. Never a good way to start the day. Our flight was delayed because the plane we were supposed to take was late coming in. No idea why. The weather in ATL was perfect... but whatever. When that plane finally got there we went out to it, only to find out that it has maintenance and we can't take it. Our captain gets them to swap us to a different plane, which of course, isn't in Atlanta yet. We go to one gate and wait and wait for the plane. Only to be sent to another one all the way at the end of the terminal. (We're walking around outside as well).

We finally take off around 740 (flight was supposed to leave at 515) and still have to go to Detroit and back and to Montgomery... I knew then it was going to be a long night. I did the math and figured out that we'd get back from DTW around 1130, which was 30 min after we were supposed to leave for MGM. A smart company would have planned ahead and put another crew on that flight. I guess a smart company would've found a different airplane for us in the first place instead of making us wait 2 hours for one that they already knew was late.

Anyhoo... We get back to Atlanta and park at D35, only to be told that that plane was staying there for the night and we had to go over to C35 to get the plane we were supposed to take to MGM. It's almost midnight by now. For those of you who don't know, these two gates are both at the far end of each concourse. They are the farthest two gates away from each other on the ASA concourses. So frustrating... We were the second to last Delta flight to leave last night. So we finally get to the gate and everyone is clapping for us cause evidently they've been waiting forever. It was nice and I was thinking, maybe this won't be so bad after all.

We finally get everyone on the plane, which has a broken lav. Some people were griping "I'm not a happy camper" "Took you long enough to get here" etc... but most people were ok. I'm waiting and waiting for them to come tell me that that is all the passengers. Everyone is sitting looking at me, wondering what's going on. I have no idea. Finally the gate agent comes out and says there is a couple who really needs to make the flight. The husband is handicapped. Unfortunately we only have one empty seat. So they finally persuade someone to give up their seat. People offer to switch around to let them sit together. It's all good. And then we wait. And wait. And wait. We finally see them coming up in a wheelchair and find out that we also need a lift. The man can't walk up the steps. So we wait for that. Then we get the man on the lift and bring him up on the plane and they don't know how to get him to his seat. He doesn't have use of either of his legs. Evidently the people whose job it is to work with handicap people, getting them on and off planes, are all gone for the night so we have rampers working on this. Finally someone moves so he can be in the front seat and everyone picks him up and somehow maneuvers him into his seat. We've all be on the plane for over an hour by now.

I have a man call me to his seat to ask if that's the only lav we have on the plane. I say yes. He says, well I'm a diabetic and when I have to go, I have to go. At this point I'm too tired, irritated, frustrated, to even care. So I just look at him, I think. He says, well I guess I'll just pee in my seat. I said ok. You have got to be kidding me. My dad has been diabetic his whole life and last time I checked he's never had this problem. I'm just thinking, noone is making you take this flight.... aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh. Seriously, what does he expect me to do? Pull out my tools and fix the lav? Personally find a different plane for him??? People are so ridiculous. This whole time we had a jetblue jumpseater standing up in the front with me. It helped some cause he would entertain me when I thought I was going to shoot myself in the head.

We finally take off at 106am. I just turned off all the lights and let everyone sleep. It took a whopping 29 minutes to get to Montgomery. We pull up at the gate and of course everyone is anxious to get off. We're happy cause they have a jetway so we don't have to deal with a lift. I stand there at the door waiting for them to bring the jetway up. They dont' seem to know how to drive it. Then they tell me that we have to pull the plane up further cause they jetway wont' reach. I tell the captain who says no just as they're slamming the door in my face. We have to make everyone sit back down, restart the engines, and move the plane about 5 feet forward... Right now, all I want to do is hide in the corner and go to sleep. We FINALLY get everyone off the plane, except for the handicap man. Unfortunately all of their people who are supposed to help with handicap people have also gone home and there are two women to deal with it. Between the jumpseater, these two women, and some really nice passenger who came back to help, we finally get him off the plane. I then proceed to kill myself... oh wait, nevermind. Then we go get in the taxi, ride 20 minutes to the hotel in podunk nowhere Alabama, and sleep until I can't sleep anymore.

Thankfully I have a great captain and saw a lot of my friends from work when I was waiting around. That made it all a little less painful. I had one passenger come back after he deplaned in Atlanta and ask if we could be friends, and another ask if I had a card so we could go for coffee... Not so much. But it feels good to be asked anyway. Makes a really, really miserable night a little more bearable. Now I'm going to be late for work if I don't hurry. I know this is really long but last night pretty much took the cake for miserable days of work and I felt it should be documented.

all that saved daylight....

This is practically a modern miracle... It's 10am and I just got back from running. I ran/walked 1.8 miles. Took about 20 min. I don't know what it is but whenever I run in the gym here at the apartments I can't go very long. I think it's cause there's no circulation in the room and I feel like I'm about to suffocate. I'm going to write about when I run in here cause it seems to be the only way I can keep up with it. I left off one day this week (Friday), so that makes 4 out of 7 days that I ran. Today starts a new week so I'll have to see if I can make it 5 this week. Honestly I'd be content maintaining 4. Just as long as I don't run less.

It's back to work this afternoon. It's a pretty easy trip, but I don't really feel like it. I'll be in Montgomery tonight, Corpus Christi tomorrow, and McAllen, TX on Tuesday. Weather.com says it's going to be in the high 80s in McAllen so I'm hoping I can get a little sun.

When I was in the gym just now another lady came in and since the tv was on a fish show I told her I didn't care if she changed it. She put it on some horror movie. The funny thing was, though, she kept closing her eyes and looking away. I just don't understand why people like to watch things that scare them. I hate scary things. I hate scary movies, scary books, scary costumes, haunted houses... All that stuff just grosses me out. Why do people voluntarily subject themselves to that? And ENJOY it.

This weather is so amazing. J and I went and walked part way around the lake in PTC yesterday. It was such a beautiful day with the breeze, the trees changing color, the sky sooo blue... I love this time of year.

I need to go shower so I can get to church. Blessings and peace to everyone on this beautiful day that the Lord made for us.

if only dreams could come true

So I told my dad that I hated him today. It was a first, but he, admittedly, deserved it. He sent me some stupid video that scared the daylights out of me, and any of you who know me well know how much I HATE being scared. I can't believe I trusted him... :-P It makes me laugh a little thinking about how much it scared me though, and the fact that I knew when I replied and told him that, he would laugh as well - and he did.

I'm so happy to be off work for a few days. I don't have to work again until Sunday which is good cause I am le tired. Since 5pm yesterday I flew to Raliegh and back, Cleveland for an 8 hr night, back to Atl, then a RT to Panama City. All within about 20 hours. Good times. Friends are coming in town and I'm sooo excited to see them. Hopefully there will be lots of quality hanging out going on.

My room is messy and last night I dreamed it was clean. Bummer.

I need to shave my legs cause they were prickling up against the sheets last night at the hotel so bad that I could hardly sleep.

There isn't much else going on in my head right now. I've been going through all the trips in open time next month cause I don't like the schedule they gave me. I'm going to swap all those babies out. I'm hoping to get a SFO or OAK overnight so I can see my sister.

My old man magnet seems to have been activated cause they seem to be the only ones who pay any attention to me lately. And I'm not talking about 35 old (that really isn't that old any more - SCARY). I'm talking about men that ask me where I live and then tell me "oh my son lives there with his two boys". I had my second second-time passenger the other night, and he was, of course, an old guy. I should have just said hello and moved on and not tried to figure out when we'd flown together cause when I did he reminded me that he had given me his card and asked me to go to dinner with him sometime and I had never called him... Oops.

I guess I should go be productive. I also need to run. I think I have already lost some weight. I put on some jeans that haven't been fitting so good lately and I laugh at myself as I admit that I turned around in the mirror and said (out loud) "wow". hahaha.... I'll just leave it at that. :-P

PS. If anyone wants to clean my room, you're more than welcome to do so.

What a wicked thing to do, to make me dream of you

It's a good thing the weather is beautiful, otherwise I think I'd feel pretty lousy. I slept sooo long. I only woke up around noon. There were helicopters flying over here for about an hour. I'm guessing there was a wreck or something. I went to the gym to jog but was feeling very unmotivated. Only went a little over a mile and a half and walked a lot. I didn't eat or drink anything this morning which is probably part of the problem.

I would just like to say that my baby sister is queen of the world when it comes to volleyball. She's only in 8th grade and is awesome. She is one of 3 people on her team allow to jump serve and she's awesome. Not to mention that she's absolutely adorable. I watched her play yesterday. Her team did really well as long as she was in. Unfortunately they lost but they were playing a really hard varsity team and their team only has one varsity player on it. So I'm proud of them.

I need to get out and do something today. I find that lately I've been much happier when I'm away. Probably the whole distraction thing. Maybe it's avoidance. I don't know.

I don't really have anything interesting to say. I'm kind of frustrated but will probably feel better when I've accomplished something today.

She looks like a flower but she stings like a bee

Just ran nearly 2.5 miles=about 30 min. My face is doing the whole half and half thing. It's pretty funny looking. Good thing I have bangs now so it's not so obvious.

I napped for 2 hours. Then Amy came over for a few hours and we got to catch up. I'm thankful that I have a job that allows me to have face to face conversations with my far away friends more often than once a year.

How long before I'll start seeing results from running? (Impatient much?) I'm hungry, need a shower, and need to find a way to go to sleep soon since I have to get up at 4am again.

I may have said this before...

But I am sooo tired. The whole theory I had yesterday about getting my second wind and not being able to sleep was true. The sad thing is it was even worse than I expected. I got in bed around 8, read til about 830, decided to sleep. Couldn't. Turned the tv on til 9 something. Decided to still. Lay on my stomach. Lay on my back. Lay on my side. Turned the heat up. Turned the heat down. Still couldn't. Turned the tv back on minus glasses hoping the blurriness would lull me to sleep. No banana. I didn't fall asleep til after 1am. 4am comes around waaaay too early when you've just fallen asleep. The first flight was ok cause I drank coffee but by the time we were in the taxi line waiting to go back up to Portland it was all I could do to not let my head drop on my chest (while sitting in the front jumpseat). Good times.

Portland is beautiful. Atlanta was yucky. I'm glad we didn't stay there. I'm going to take a nap, run, then hopefully see Amy. I finished the book and it ended just as poorly as I expected. What a depressing book. It was still interesting I guess... Everyone was so messed up though. Now I'm reading one of David Sedaris's (sp?) books that one of my passengers gave me cause it was "too gayed up". As I get into it I'm beginning to see what he meant. We'll see how far I can make it.

When I'm tired passengers are sooo stupid. I have to wonder sometimes if they do it on purpose. I'm still all for everyone that flies having to take a course. I'd be willing to teach it - Air Travel 101. I'd tell them stupid things like "hey, when you get on the plane and then we take off, pretty soon after that we're going to serve EVERYONE on the plane a drink and a snack. NOW is the time to get one. Not 30 minutes later when they've just finished and are putting things away and you wake up. Not after they're finished and you 'make space on your tray table'. Not right before we land and you wake up and decide you can't make it another 15 minutes without a drink or you'll die." Also, don't make it seem like they're asking you to choose between your mother and your child to die. It's a freaking drink!!! Not a life changing decision. Have a little foresight and think about it before they get there if it's such a hard decision. Not after you said you didn't want anything and they moved 4 rows down and then you decide you want them to come back and go through every drink available, only then to decide on a bottle of water........

I have no idea where that came from. Something just possessed my fingers and all that came out. Oh yeah, and don't put all your trash at the edge of your tray table and look at me waiting for me to pick it up. I don't want to touch your trash that you just slobbered all over... Now I'm really finished (I think). I had to get that out of my system so I could go to sleep. I'm not really as grouchy as I sound. Not really grouchy at all. This is a good trip and my crew is really fun to fly with. People just get on my nerves sometimes.

I'm really liking the song suggestions. I need to get an ipod. One of these days...

I'm too sleepy to think of a subject

I'm in Albany, NY and I'm sooo sleepy, but it's only 6pm so it's too late to nap and too early to go to sleep. So I'm sitting here in the armchair in my room struggling to stay awake. I have a feeling that around 7:30 I'm going to get my second wind and be wide awake til 11. I don't know why I'm so tired. It might be cause I kept getting woken up this morning. Who knows... I have to get up at 4am tomorrow though so I need to sleep good tonight.

I would like to make note of my accomplishment for the day, week, month... I ran, not walked, but ran 20 minutes today. I warmed up by walking for 2 minutes, then ran for 20, then walked for 3 more. Might not impress anyone else but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the longest I've run in years. And you know what made it possible? (I know you're dying to know...) I listened to music. My mom bought me some new headphones that actually stay attached to my head while I run and I used a little mp3 player. It was amazing. During some of the songs I actually FELT LIKE RUNNING. As I was running I felt like I had discovered the goose that lays golden eggs or something. My main problem with running, other than just being really out of shape, is that I get really bored. I run for 5 mintues, watching the timer the whole time, and get so distracted by the pain and tiredness that I stop. It kind of sucks though cause now that I know what I'm capable of I'll have to do it again next time. (That doesn't really suck. I just raised the standard on myself. Go me!!) Now I need to get some new running shoes cause the ones I'm wearing are the same ones I've had for 3 years and they hurt my toes a lot. Needless to say I'm pleased with myself today. I also walked to and from lunch which was nice. It's really cold up here so you have to walk fast to keep from dying :-P.

I need suggestions for good music to run to. I found that a lot of the hip hop stuff, though it has a quick beat, it isn't strong enough. The song that I liked running to the most was the Jay-Z Lincoln Park remix, which I don't normally like, but it was fantastic. I'd appreciate suggestions.

Speaking of accomplishments (though this one has nothing to do with anything I did), I have a new "nephew". Chasity and Aaron had a little boy last night. I'm waiting to hear back from her for more details. Some of you may know her (and therefore may care). I'm really happy for them.

I think I'm going to go watch tv or read. I'm guessing football is the only thing on, as football seems to be the only thing people care about in the fall. I'm working on what feels like the longest book ever "Cider House Rules". I never watched the movie but I found the book at work a few weeks ago and have gotten sucked in. It's going on forever and ever. I just want to know how it ends. It's really interesting. Lots of controversial things in it, but that's what makes life interesting sometimes, isn't it?

Happy Saturday to all.

today is my Monday

I've mentioned this before but it's so wonderful I have to say it again. One of the things I appreciate the most about life is the chance to start over and over. I love the way God made each day to only last 24 hours and then it's going to be over and you get a new day. I love how as bad as one day may feel, the next day can be totally new and different. The fact that everything changes and nothing lasts forever can sometimes be a sad thing, but I think it's also a blessing. Yesterday I felt really sad. Today I feel so much better. Nothing has changed. I just feel better. I actually have to go to work today, which would usually bum me out, but I'm kind of glad about it. I talked to my mom and sister yesterday which seemed to help a lot. I'm not sure how. Like I said, nothing about my circumstances have changed, but I just feel better. Maybe it's having someone else to share your burden with. Knowing that others will pray for the things that make your heart hurt. Knowing that you don't have to deal with your problems alone. It feels good. They are still the same but don't feel as discouraging. Yesterday was nice. I have faith that today will continue to be nice.

It started out kind of scary. I woke up to the sound of a door closing. My house is usually really quiet in the mornings as both of my roommates work early. I looked at my watched and was horrified to see that it said it was 1:30. I have to be at work at 3:55 and have to do laundry and pack and get ready for 6 days of work. I jumped out of bed and was surprised to see Tanya in the hallway. Evidently she was feeling bad and didn't go to work. It was soo weird for us both to be home in the morning. Nice though :). Even though we're both just doing laundry and computer stuff, it's nice to have someone around. Oh yeah, evidently the battery stopped on my watch and it was only 930. Good times.

This morning I dreamed that I was at some big house by the sea (I think). It seemed that there was someone giving tours?? I had J's camera in my hand cause I borrowed it (which I actually did). Strangely enough the ground, which was sand and shells suddenly became like water and we were all kind of swimming around. After we got back on stable land I realized that I had lost his camera. Not cool. Did I mention that I have really bizarre dreams? At least there weren't bugs involved.

I guess I need to go work on my laundry and my room. It's a disaster and I've kind of given up on it lately. But I know that I don't want to come home to the same wreck on Thursday night and then again on Monday. Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to clean I go.

It's raining, it's pouring

It's been raining since about 8pm last night (at least). I love waking up and hearing it. It's one of my favorite sounds to sleep to. Right now my bed is the most comfortable place in the world. Which is a good thing since I've spent nearly 12 hours here. I went to bed fairly early last night cause I've been feeling kind of blue. Ask me and I'll tell you why, but I'm not blogging about it. Once I was in bed it took me another 45 min to put my laptop and planner away and actually go to sleep, even though I was exhausted. I feel like I'm always exhausted lately. Might be the weather. Might be work. Maybe I'm just easily exhaustable (whatever that is). I think one of my problems with going to sleep may be that it seems to take me a long time lately. My mind never stops going. That why I was so pissed off when I was awakened at 4am. I knew it would require a second falling asleep. What was me up was the sound of a bug buzzing against my window. It was so loud, I started conjuring up images of enormous bugs that could carry away small people, shoes, etc... and since I just got some new shoes yesterday, and am kind of fond of them, I figured I needed to exterminate said bug before it stole them. (That and the sound of it was preventing me from going back to sleep.) Thankfully, due to the state of my room I didn't have to search far to find a shoe on the floor to kill it with, and I did - in the dark no less. I went back to my comfy bed to resume my sleep, and was severly annoyed that my guts were hurting and I couldn't sleep. After lying there long enough to realize it wasn't going to stop I figured I had to get up (out of my wonderful bed). I got up, figured out why my guts hurt (I'm so glad to be a woman) then got settled back in my bed. My only complaint about the whole sleeping situation is that someone needs to invent sleeping pants that don't ride up. I hate getting in bed, sliding your legs under the blankets, and having my pants go up to my knees.

As I lay in bed, trying for the third time to fall asleep, I thought of the options for pants that stay down. They are 1. sweat pants with elastic at the ankles. These usually stay down better but you usually wake up with lines around your legs because they went up as far as they could and then just squeezed for the rest of the night. 2. leggings... who wants to sleep in something so tight? 3. stirrup pants... oh wait, this is 2006. Do they even make them anymore?

And that's as far as I got before I realized my guts were still hurting and it was after 5am. I won't tell you that I got up AGAIN and out of sheer frustration and desperation took some prescription medicine to numb all feeling and knock me out. The beautiful thing is that it was raining the entire time. It rained during my dreams of being on airplanes (the bug interrupted that one - stupid bug). It rained during my dream that I was late for work and couldn't find somewhere to sign in (pleasant, huh?). And now, as I write this long, pointless, stupid blog, it's still raining. All I can say is, I'm glad I don't have to work today. I do work tomorrow and then for the next 6 days.

I got paid yesterday which was really nice. I haven't used my credit cards in several months, and though it is really hard sometimes, it's been great. It feels great not to spend money I don't have. It feels great to know that my debt is only going down. I feel like, for the first time in years, I have a little bit of control over my finances. I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's a really, really long tunnel but at least it doesn't go on forever. I found a website (somewhere on CNN Money) where you can put in your debt, interest rates, minimum payments, and it will calculate when you will pay it off, 1. by paying the minimum payment, 2. by paying the same amount every month 3. or how much you have to pay per month to be finished during a certain time period. It also give you a month by month plan of how much will go where, etc... It was interesting and encouraging.

This is the most rambly, stupid blog I've written in a long time. I'm aware of it though so it's ok. I guess I should get out of bed now. I'm going to see my family today cause I miss them.

Tell me this doesn't make you smile a little...

http://fun.from.hell.pl/2003-11-24/bubblewrap.swf

hey... whatever it takes

Fortunately and unfortunately

I don't have anything significant to say. It's Saturday night and I'm sitting on my couch. I've been here for about 5 hours. I came home with the intention of napping, cause I'm at that point of tired where I can't do anything until I've slept. Unfortunately, I didn't go to sleep. Hopefully I will soon. I think it has something to do with getting up at 430 for the last several days and then sleeping longer, but very poorly last night.

Today I went with Jamie on a low fly by over the Great Georgia Airshow in Peachtree City. It was really cool. We were in an MD-11 which is just a tad bigger than the planes I work on every day. We flew over the field at 500 ft. I could see the whole area where I'm from, the grocery stores, the street my parent's live on, etc... The only bad thing was it was really windy and all the circling around made me feel like I was going to lose my lunch. I'm getting kind of tired of feeling like that. Thankfully I didn't. It was really great.

I don't really have anything else to say. I'm going to try to sleep soon. I have to work tomorrow afternoon. Good times. I miss good times. I miss a lot of things and I don't like it. I just wish it would all go away. Winter is on it's way and I'm not happy about it. I don't like being cold.

Prop planes...

...are the devil in airplane form. I just got off a 2-day trip that seemed to last for ages. Without being too graphic, I came as close to puking as one can without actually puking. This was while I was sitting in the jumpseat facing all my passengers. The one at my left knee was trying to hold conversation with me. Good times. Then I remembered why I don't fly that plane anymore. If I ever contemplate picking something up or swapping something on the ATR, I demand that any and all who love and care about me, prevent me from doing so. For those of you who don't know, the problem with prop planes (ours anyway) is that it flies at such low altitudes so it never gets out of the clouds and stuff that makes flying bumpy. It's pretty much bumpy the whole flight. On our last leg home the autopilot didn't work either. Fantastic. All I've got to say is when the airplane's rocking, Grace is puking. Nothing quite like spending two days carrying a barf bag in your pocket in case you can't make it to the bathroom. Nothing like doing a job that sometimes makes you sick and want to die. I heart my job.

Other than that it was a good trip. The lady I flew with was really nice. We talked a lot, and unfortunately she and her family have the craziest relationship problems I've heard of in a long time. It's really sad what kind of stuff people will tolerate. I had some really nice passengers as well. I had a lady talk to me the entire flight from Augusta yesterday. She was so enthusiastic about life, it was great. I want to be someone like that. She loved her job. She was blessed and completely aware of it. I don't know how people are that way but I'm going to find out.

I also really enjoyed the airport on this trip as well (if you can believe it). It may have been because I can see out the windows from this jumpseat. I could see the airplanes taking off next to us, see the lines of airplanes coming in, see all 21 of the waiting to take off. I've said it before but airplanes amaze me. I was sitting there in my jumpseat and realized again how weird it was that I was in a metal tube, weighing thousands of pounds, moving very fast high above the earth. It just doesn't make sense - but I'm glad it works. I was my favorite plane yesterday and today. It's really sad but I think I have a crush on this plane. I always look for it when I'm at the airport. I admire it's sexiness. It's power. How big and beautiful it is. And whenever I see it, it makes my day a little bit. I saw it as I arrived at work yesterday and then again today when we had just taken off. I saw several other 747s but none of them are quite as nice...

I think that's all I've got to say about airplanes and airports. I'm really tired and hungry and still feeling a little unsettled from flying. I think I'm going to go veg for a good long while. Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather as much as I am.

salmon skin roll... mmmm

I'm supposed to be packing for work tomorrow but I think I'm going to go to bed instead. It's only one short night away so I don't really need much stuff anyway.

This last week or so has been really nice. Any sort of funk that I was in previously has definitely gone. It's been good to be at home. Have time to do stuff. Reconnect with people I care about. I still didn't do everything I was supposed to but I got a lot done so I'm happy.

I just got back from hanging out with the girls for Kat's birthday. We had sushi and it was fabulous. I'm slowly but surely learning about it. I really like sushi but eat it so rarely it's practically a new experience every time. I don't think our waitress liked us at all. We weren't THAT difficult :-P. It was a lot of fun though. I had the rainbow roll which is a CA roll with avocado and the chef's choice of fish on top of it. Also had two Unagi rolls. They were quite tasty. I'm so happy cause I even got Faith to taste it. She also had the bean sprout salad, which she originally turned down, and tofu - and enjoyed them all. I really enjoy helping people broaden their horizens. Even if they don't like everything they try it's nice to at least try. The CA rolls had orange caviar in them, which if I've had before I never noticed. I only really noticed this time cause I cut the rolls up and saw it. Either it doesn't have much taste or there wasn't enough of it to taste.

Today was a busy driving day. Peter, Amie and I went up to Atlanta, met Wendy, ate at Moe's, and then went to IKEA. It was the second time I've been there and just made me wish I lived in a cool apartment in the city or something. They have such nice model rooms there. I'm still on my comforter search. Found something that was a possibility, but I'm really broke (broken - haha) right now, so I was just looking.

Speaking of broke - this whole cutting up the credit card thing is scary. Through the beauty of online bill pay, my bank account was nearly cleaned out yesterday. The suckiest part of it is that I'm going to be traveling for the next week and a half which makes it a lot harder to eat cheap. Maybe I can lose a little weight this way though :-P (or maybe I should just exercise).

And speaking of traveling - my company is stupid. It is taking them days and days to process requests for my swaps. I'm trying to get some different days off at the end of the month and I put in a few requests to swap and finally two days later they get denied so I have to put more in and they sit for two more days. So frustrating. What are they doing over there? Playing tiddlywinks??? That's my rant for the night.

The last day or so has been full of all sorts of accomplishments. I found the much sought after bathtub scrubber I need at good ol' Walmart. I did my laundry.... Okay, so maybe not a lot of accomplishments. I did get out of the house at least. I'm starting down the slippery slope of rambling. I need to sleep so I can get up early and get ready for work.

as I was saying...

I so love not working.

Yesterday I went to my parent's house and helped my mom and Peter paint their living room/dining room/kitchen. It looks really nice. I spent a lot of quality time on the ladder. Funny how I can spend nearly every day on a plane, even jump out of a plane, but I'm not crazy about being on tall ladders. Tall buildings either. One of the best things about going to my parents is that they take care of me. It's nice, after taking care of myself all the time - fixing all my food, paying my bills, doing my laundry - to have someone else take care of me. Peter takes really good care of me. When I walk in the door my mother asks me if I've eaten and starts offering me things. Then when I pick an apple, Peter suggest peanutbutter on it. I'm like sure, whatever. I start eating the apple. He takes it away from me. Cuts it, cores it, peanutbutters it and gives it back. Then he starts making tea like I like it (his way). It's the only sweet tea I like. Then we paint. We listen to music. We talk. We talk about our family members that aren't there. We compare who has talked to who and how they're doing. We try not to drip on the floor or paint on the ceiling. Then we eat more. Yay! I got to see my daddy a little when he got home from teaching. He works so hard. I admire him so much. He's set a high standard for men in my life.

After all the painting we drive over, in my lovely shiny car, to the school and watch my not so baby sister play volleyball. Her team is all very young and they're already able to hold their own against varsity teams. They won some but didn't win the match, but they still played really well. Michal is a rock star. I love my siblings. It's crazy how they're all growing up. I'll try not to embarrass them on here with talk of manly facial hair and the likes...

Last night I spent the entire evening (once I got home) watching tv and swapping trips. I've been halfway successful. I'm off on Friday for Kat's birthday. I have to do a sucky ATR trip on Saturday and Sunday. I can't believe they actually approved anything. Still trying to work some stuff out at the end of the month. The bad thing about having these days off is that I'm going to be working constantly for the rest of the month. J's trip got changed so he came over last night to eat leftovers from when I cooked on Monday. Now that I know how easy it is to cook shrimp I think I'll do it more. I really love leftovers. Except for when I cooked Monday, it seems that all I eat is leftovers. Sunday I ate Saturday night's leftovers. Monday morning I ate some of Amie's leftovers (she doesnt like them). This morning I ate some leftover smoked turkey chili my mom gave me. It's so good. My mother is quite the cook.

This morning I was going to go play tennis with Jamie, but then there was the confusion about the location, which led to a confusion about the time, so I ended up just going to the gym and mostly walking, a little running, 2 miles. It's better than nothing. The weather here is amazing still. I saw someone at the pool yesterday. I might go today. Who knows... I have a lot of house stuff to do since I haven't really done anything this week. So I guess I should go do it instead of sitting here blogging :-P.

I'm so happy these days. It feels really good. I would be waiting for the other shoe to drop, but why ruin a good mood waiting for the next bad one?? Life is good.

betty homemaker :-P

I so love not working. It's kind of bad. I should be independently wealthy so I don't have to work to have fly privileges. I've been chilling this whole week so far and it's been great.

Yesterday I woke up at 1030. Then I sat around in my pjs and tried to swap trips online until J came over and we went and washed, waxed, and detailed my car. It looks sooo good now. All nice and shiny and pretty. After that I cooked supper. It was whole wheat egg noodles, shrimp, sugar snap peas, brocoli, asparagus, and sauce. All homeade. It was really yummy. It was fun. We had apartment family supper.

I forgot to mention our lunch at my parent's house on Sunday. My little sister made yellow curry chicken and rice and veggies. It was so good. I'm glad she's getting an earlier start cooking than I did (not for lack of trying on my mother's part). Cooking is so much fun. I can't wait til I have more money to cook with and maybe someone to cook for on a regular basis. (And before I have everyone offering for me to cook for them... you know what I mean :-P).

There's more to write but I have to go... toodles

Insomnia is the devil

There are very few things that are as frustrating to me as not being able to sleep when I want to. The fact that I took a nap this afternoon could be part of the problem...

I called in on the trip I was supposed to be doing right now. I was tired of being gone and it was a stupid trip anyway. It's nice to be at home. Unfortunately that means I have to do all the things I've been putting off doing cause I haven't been home. My room is a huge disaster. I wish I would just wake up and it be clean.

I had a lovely visit with Adri. It was her birthday on Friday so we hung out, went out, shopped ourselves out, pigged out. You get it. It was fun. I think if I lived up there I would be tired all the time. Her friends are really fun as well.

I don't really have much to say right now. Most of the stuff on my mind isn't blog material. I'm still working on locating the off switch for my brain. Oh wait, all I need to do is be an airline passenger and my brain will switch off.. hehe. Just kidding. They aren't all that way. Just enough of them to make it seem they all are.

Oh yeah, I left my cell phone in Adri's car so I will be unreachable via phone until sometime Tuesday.

This weather is amazing. One of my favorite things to do is drive with the windows down and the music up really loud. This weather is perfect for it. Not too hot, not too cold. I need to make some new cds of "turn it up" music. You can't just blare anything. It's a good thing that I don't care what other drivers think of me when I'm dancing and singing in my car.

In spite of the insomnia, messy room, lack of money, forgotten cell phone, and other brain clog, life is really good. I flew back next to a lady yesterday who lost her husband of 40 years while they were on vacation in Barcelona in May. They were walking and he just fell down and died. Helps me put the things I whine about in perspective.

I'm off to attempt to sleep. Good times.