back in Charlie West

I survived my 5 leg day today. It was actually not bad at all. The fact that I slept at least 8 hours last night probably was a huge factor. I'm glad I did. Tomorrow, for the first time in what seems like forever, I can get up whenever I want. I don't have to be at the airport til 1:25pm. Then it's just one leg home. Woo hoo!

Today I had a guy ask me for vitamin water. He was completely serious. I wanted to laugh. I had another guy who decided that a flight would be a good time to break his year old nephew's habit of sucking his thumb. I was thinking, hmmm... there's one thing that is guaranteed to make this child happy for the next hour, and you're repeatedly taking it away from him and making him scream. Good job genius. Thankfully he stopped after 20 minutes or so, otherwise I would've had to have an intervention. Sometimes when people are waiting to get off the plane I ask them where they're going, just to make small talk. A man coming in on the 6am from Wilmington yesterday said he was going to the north pole. I thought he was joking. Then he listed all the flights it was going to take for him to get there. After he left Anchorage I kind of lost him. He said he'd get there at 2am. I wonder what time zone(s) the north pole has? I wish I had gotten to talk to him more, cause that is definitely one of the most interesting destinations I've come across yet.

After we went for tacos in Wilmington the other night my pilots decided they wanted to get cigars. I wasn't really interested because my once experience with cigars led me to believe that their wonderful smell is deceiving, but I went along for the walk anyway. We went to this little cigar shop and started talking to the guy that works in there. They both picked out cigars and offered me one, but I still wasn't interested. Then the sales guy, who has been describing all the different cigars and explaining why they taste a certain way, where they're grown, etc... shows me this chocolate cigar. It smelled so good and he said it tasted just as good. It also had a coffee flavor somewhere in it. So we got them and walked along the river and smoked our cigars. Now I'm addicted to cigars and am planning on having my room turned into a humidor. That's a lie. But I did enjoy it. There are certain things in life that if enough sane people are crazy about I'm willing to try it at least once. So I had my chocolate cigar and it was very good. And my FO had the brilliant idea of making me look like a gangster so he lay down on the riverwalk and I acted like I was kicking him and we took a picture. And I was getting paid $1.50/hour. Good times :-)

I think I'm going to continue my fabulous trend of sleeping on this side of midnight.

pre-nap rant

My first gripe is that after I finished work today I had to travel into the dark labrynth that is the bottom of the far end of C Concourse to take a random drug and alcohol test. Good thing I've been laying off the crack. I was annoyed cause I was supposed to be on the bus going to my car before noon. I was also annoyed because whoever invented the idea of peeing in a cup for any sort of purpose had to be a man. Maybe I'm retarded, but I think I speak for most women when I say that it isn't easy for us to pee in cups. They need to think of a new way to do it. I'm not a fan.

My second gripe is the way you can hang on to a piece of paper for months and months, and when you finally need it it's nowhere to be found. I had an ad for a place where you could get massages for cheap. Some therapy place in PTC. I've been keeping it hoping one day I'd have enough money to get one. The last few days I've been having pain in my neck from a tight muscle and figured a massage would be a good thing to spend part of my tax refund/rebate money on. Now I can't find the number anywhere. It doesn't help that my room is barely walkable. It still makes me mad.

I'm also irked becuase it was in the 50s (if not colder) in Altanta this morning. Wtf? It's almost May. Let's get with the program here.

That's all for now. I'm going to nap before Michal's soccer game.

PS. Happy birthday Charity :-D!

People never cease to amuse/amaze me

My mood is definitely on the up and up since yesterday. I think if I could spend at least one overnight every week in a place like Wilmington, I would like my job a lot more. I run when I'm here because I feel like I'm wasting this beautiful place if I don't. It was nice today cause it's overcast, cool and windy so even when I was getting hot and tired the breeze would cool me down. The river is dark and choppy and high, but I still like it.

Work was okay today. I got up too early and was really tired. Our day started off with a unhealthy plane that had to go back to the plane hospital. This immediately put our entire day over an hour behind. Add ridiculous air traffic and long taxi lines to that and you've got a lot of happy people. Thankfully no one was really terrible though.

There are several things I've noticed lately that either amuse or annoy me about people (depending on the day). Some people like to watch you when you're pouring their drink. Some watch like they've never seen a drink poured before. That amuses me. Others watch like they're waiting for you to screw up. That annoys me. Sometimes I'm pouring and it makes me laugh to realize that at least four pairs of eyes are glued to my hands. Watching soda fizz is just a little more exciting than watching paint dry. Then they say something like "you got that just right" when it fizzes just to the top but never over. Then I remind them I'm a professional. You pour several thousand of these and you'll get it right every time too :-P. I also get amused by the drinks people ask me for. It seems they think we're a flying convenience store. Grape juice, pineapple juice, sweet tea, root bear, diet Dr. Pepper... Sure, sure... Let me get it out of my own private stash. Or when the wife asks for Diet COKE and the husband says "do you have Pepsi in there?" Maybe I'm overthinking this, but Coke and Pepsi are huge competitors. You can't carry both on one tiny plane. Maybe this is the jerk in me coming out.

When people are late they do silly things as well. Today on the way back into Atlanta from Gulfport a couple stopped me as I was going through the aisle and showed me their itinerary. They were concerned that they were going to have to rush to their next flight, which left at 1225. I looked at my watch and it was 1225 and we were still cruising. I pointed out the current time, of 1225, and they still said "well do you think we'll make it?" Yeah... no problem. Then when we're taxiing in they always insist on reaching up and opening the overhead bins and getting their stuff out while still seated. I'm like, you're halfway back in the plane. By the time everyone gets out of your way you could've gotten your bag out 15 times... People, people, people.

I had another first time flyer today. She was about my age and was traveling with three other adults. She asked the man next to her several times how to buckle her seatbelt. (Enough time passed for me to walk through the cabin twice before she got it.) She buckled it backwards. And people laugh when I do the demos.

On a non-work note. Last night I had a really good time eating with some of the girls. It's funny how when most of us are down we tend to avoid our family and friends, when in reality, they're the ones who are going to make us feel better. They have a tomato and mozzarella salad at Longhorn that was really good. (Though when they first brought it out it was drowing in dressing, even though it was supposed to be "drizzled with balsamic vinegar". I tried to eat it but it was too soppy and told the girl. She was like, our manager actually fixed it wrong, but I was seeing if you minded it that way. I'll get you another... So the girl brought me the wrong salad, knowing it was wrong, and hoped I didn't care... Nice.) When we stopped in Gulfport my captain bought me some red beans and rice. It was really, really good and made me feel a lot better. I've been really fortunate to fly with generous pilots lately. I never ever expect anyone to buy my food, but sometimes they (especially captains) do. I've been fortunate to fly with captains like that a lot lately. I'm very grateful.

Now I'm going to check out these $1 black bean tacos that are supposed to be amazing here. I love Wilmington.

I’ve been too tired to write anything this week

I'm tired. More tired than is normal. I'm not sure why. I don't know if it's the gray, gloomy weather. It might be the continual pollen in the air. It could be my body deciding to wreak havoc on itself. It could be the fact that last night was the first night in a long time that I got a decent amount of sleep. I don't feel like a got any time off this weekend either and from 4/22 to 5/08 I will be working 14 of 17 days. I probably shouldn't think of it that way for my sanity's sake, but I just did. Whenever I had time to write anything this week I was either too tired to write or couldn't think of anything to write. I also haven't run since Tuesday, which sucks. Hopefully once I get more sleep I'll feel like the happier version of me and be back at my normal things again.
I got my hair cut yesterday which makes me happy. I didn't realize how shaggy it had gotten, but now it's short and manageable, and I love it.

Last night I catered, which was good. I wasn't originally scheduled this weekend, but they called me Friday afternoon cause someone fractured their wrist. We catered a dinner for a fly in club. I noticed that almost everyone had pins on with names, planes, tail numbers, and cities on them. Turns out, it's a group of old people (lots of retired pilots) who now have enough money to own their own planes, and evidently nothing better to do with their time and money than fly around the south east once a month touring, drinking, and hanging out with other such people. Some of them were really nice and I was advised by one lady to not marry young (no worry of that). Others were plain old rude snobs.

This morning I went to church and saw another really good message. It's amazing how practical nearly every message I see there is. This one was Andy Stanley interviewing the author of a book "For Women Only" which I'd never heard of before. I've read a lot of books about the way men are versus the way women are so I'd heard some of the stuff before, but there's always something new to learn or a different way to view things. It was really interesting.

After that I rode over to Michal's school with the fam for the science project awards program. Out of 110 projects in the high school, Michal, a lowly freshman, got honorable mention. I'm really proud of her :-).

Tonight some of us are meeting for dinner in Newnan to celebrate Charity's upcoming birthday. I'm going to get ready for work so I don't have to worry about it when I get back.

somewhere in middle America

I know everyone is jealous of me for being in Omaha. I'm practically jealous of myself. I really don't have a problem with this place. I have a king size bed, microwave, frig, B&B Works toiletries. Plus mid-westerners are the nicest people (besides southerners). Granted, they don't fit on RJs very well, but they're very nice about it. Especially when the AC on the plane isn't working properly and we are all sweating our.. things off. But we made it here. Was pretty uneventful. I got to read some more of The Titan's Curse, which is the third book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. It rocks my face off. Pretty surprising for a book aimed at pre-teens.

Today my first round trip was to Panama City. A Delta captain and a lady got on last and sat in the front seats. The lady was smiling constantly. I finally asked her why she was so happy, assuming she was going on vacation or something. Her answer was that she was blessed by the Lord and she was married to that wonderful man. I was shocked. That's just not an answer I get very often. Later I asked her how long they had been married. (I like to talk to people that seem to be happily married. I figure, I'd like to be happily married someday so maybe they can give me some tips.) I was surprised to hear that they were both 50 or so and had only been married 2 years. Neither had every been married before and had both given up on ever getting married. It was really interesting. I'm glad I asked her cause I was about to assume that she was medicated (still could've been I guess).

I had at least one really friendly person on every flight today and it made all the difference in the world.

these dreams we dream

This morning I had another weird dream. I was supposed to do a dayline. I was going to deadhead (ride) somewhere, then pick up a plane in Anchorage (cause that's normal), and fly back. I was waiting for the bus to get a ride into the airport and for some reason I was changing my pants when the first bus pulled up. I was embarrassed at being naked from the waist down and pulled my shirt down to cover myself. I decided I'd finish changing and get on the next bus cause it was right behind that one. Then that one left me. I was supposed to be flying with J that day so I tried to call him so he could duty me in. He wouldn't answer so I called scheduling. The usual guy, Tom, answers. I told him I was trying to get in touch with my captain, but tried not to let on that I was late. Somehow I'm on the plane after that and it's a mainline flight. It was weird cause there were only a few people on it, the door to the cockpit was open, and there was only one pilot. I was like that's weird cause at our airline you have to have two pilots all the time. Then somehow I was home again and Amie was supposed to be in a wedding. She had been waiting for her ride for a long time so I said we should just go there on our own. But we ended up walking a really long way. Then Chris Isaak starting singing "Baby did a bad, bad thing" (my ringtone - he wasn't at the wedding)and I realized my mother was calling me so I had to wake up.

I just did the second run in week three. My face is doing the half and half thing and I'm really tired. I need to go get ready for work so I don't have to change my pants in the parkng lot and miss the bus and be late.

I dream of Jeannie

I just woke up a while ago and was having the weirdest dream. We were back at Heritage and doing some kind of variety show. The whole school was in the gym watching and who knows who else. The only difference was, I was the only one doing the entertaining, and I had nothing planned. No one was allowed to help me either. I tried making up stuff for a while. I did something that had to do with being a fat opera singer and was stuffing cushions in my dress, tupperware-esque bowls in my chest for voluptiousness, and a mattress around my waist... Finally after that I got so mad about them expecting me to do this all on my own for an hour and make it entertaining that I just walked off the stage and swore to never speak to the organizer again...

And I didn't even eat anything before I went to sleep last night.

erranding, eating, running, visiting, and much more

I have nothing particularly fascinating to report today. I had a lovely past two days. I did a lot which makes me happy, and it also makes me happy that I'm off tomorrow as well. I guess that's the nice thing about catering after I get off work on Friday - I have 3 full days off, plus Tuesday morning.

Yesterday J decided erranding in PTC was more exciting than erranding in Atlanta so he ventured down to pick me up. As we left my house we noticed his tire was flat. After driving up to Union City where he bought it, they told him they didn't have that tire and sent him to PTC. Down there they discovered it was just a nail and patched it. There goes half the afternoon. In the meantime we did have a nice burrito or two at Moe's and enjoyed the beautiful spring weather. We also contributed to the American economy and I got a lovely pair of Clarks flip flops. I'm in love already. Now that I have my brown Tevas and now the black Clarks, I shouldn't have to wear regular shoes anymore.

While at the Avenue we ran into Tracey, the wife of one of J's classmates, Cameron, that we're both friends with. She was with her mother-in-law who had just arrived from South Africa and they invited us over to eat. We had a lovely dinner complete with a game of croquet (I beat J) and some jumping on the trampoline with the munchkins (thankfully before dinner). We got to talk about SA a lot. It was nice to remember some of the amazing things I saw down there. I'd really love to go back (Adri - make a plan!)

This morning I got the day off to a good start by starting week 3 of my "running" program. Still not running a whole lot, but it's baby steps and manageable and I feel like I'm making progress.
Then I went to church and heard a great message. It was about landmines (figurative for all you smarty pants out there) that can destroy relationships, ways to avoid them, and what to do when they happen. The moral of the story was, if you approach a situation where someone has been hurt first you can't just skip past it. It has to be dealt with. And the way to deal with it, regardless of who is at fault, is with gentleness, humility, and forgiveness. It was a lot about marriages but I could think of a lot of situations in my friendships that could benefit from practicing this. It's amazing how many relationships aren't growing to their full potential because of harsh words, pride, and unforgiveness. I like when I go to church and remember what they talked about later that day :-P. We'll be doing really well if I can remember it later this week.

After church I went to lunch with some of the singles group from my church. I met a lot of people, but got to have quality conversation with a girl that I found I have at least a few things in common with.

From there I picked up Michal and we drove to the parents. And when I say we, I literally mean it. I drove to the neighborhood and then gave Michal her first lesson in driving a stick shift. She did a really good job. It's scary to think that my baby sister will be getting her learner's next month. Not scary cause she won't be a good driver. Scary cause she's the baby and she'll be old enough to drive soon. I sound like an old person talking about how kids grow up so fast. Maybe I am.

After the driving lesson we went over to the house where my parents' small group meets. They were grilling and all the family members were invited. It was nice to meet the people my parents are getting to know.

In case these two days weren't long enough already, I came home and put together a shelf to go over/behind my toilet that was made up of about 97 little tubes and screws. I'm my own hero sometimes :-D.

During all this excitement I got to talk to my two most far flung siblings. Such a busy, busy day... I also got my first paycheck from catering. It was a good thing cause it cost me nearly $40 to fill up my car today. That's a record for me.

That's enough for now. I'm going to read and go to sleep or something equally exciting.

Above us only sky

It's Saturday morning. I'm still in bed and it feels fabulous. Today is the first day since Monday that I haven't gotten up around 4am. If any of you are mad at me cause you called and I didn't call back, it's because the majority of my day happened before noon every day. It was ridiculous. By the time I would get to the hotel I was too tired to think, and had to go to sleep around 8 every night to get a decent amount of sleep.

In spite of the ridiculously early mornings I had a really good trip. My crew was really fun, which made work much more pleasant, and it was really nice to have someone you could talk to over supper (even if supper was at 4pm :-P).

My love for cities with rivers in them was confirmed twice this week. Our first overnight was in Fayetteville, NC and all I saw of that place was the inside of my room. The next day we were in Charleston, WV. Our hotel is right along the river. It was one of those really beautiful spring days where you can't imagine not getting outside. I ran along the river, up by the street so I could see the town on the way out, and down by the river on the way back. There was a nice breeze blowing, daffodils and other wildflowers growing on the riverbank, trees blooming everywhere, and that perfect spring time blue sky. It's so much easier to run when you have something interesting and beautiful to look at. After that we went and had some of the best Mexican I've had in a long time.

The next night we were in Wilmington, NC. If you've never been there, I definitely recommend it. They have some of the most beautiful old historic homes I've ever seen. Evidently they're having an airshow this weekend, so when I went out to run I got to watch the river and the town PLUS fighter planes flying around practicing. Talk about combining things I love :-D. Later we went to Fat Tony's and had their scrumptious pizza and hung out for a long time enjoying the weather and people watching.

I finally got home from work yesterday about two. I was able to squeeze in a nap (so I didn't lose it or kill anyone) and then go cater til 10pm last night. The nice thing about that job was that we catered a dinner at the school at the end of my street. They had kids who helped us with all the serving which made it so much easier, and once it was over I was home in about 90 seconds.
Now it's Saturday and I'm a free woman. I'm going to go make the most of it.

the weekend recap

I saw a smart car on Highway 74 tonight. I actually started laughing out loud. It made me really happy. It just looked so itty bitty on the big road with all the big trees and big cars. I've seen them a million times before, but it was always in the context of a city with small streets and crowded spaces so they never looked quite so small.

I played one of J's new friend's wii the other day for the first time ever. I'd never even seen one before. My shoulder still hurts. I think I may have damaged it. We were playing tennis and I was determined to win. Evidently, even if that meant breaking my shoulder.

I did my taxes today. I usually don't wait this long, but I had gotten an expense report from work and the thought of trying to figure out how to use it was overwhelming me to procrastination. But it was worth it because I'm going to get over twice as much back by using the expense report. It makes me le happy.

I just realized that all my paragraphs so far have started with I. I don't really care. It is my blog after all.

I started week 2 of the couch to 5k (www.c25k.com) training program. It's nice to do something that isn't overwhelming, but has a definite end and good result in sight.

Saturday was my first day catering for the Sun Dried. We did a pretty big wedding up in Buckhead. It was pretty good. There was a buffet so there wasn't any serving involved. Pretty much just bused tables for 4 hours. It's mindless, easy work and pays alright. I work again Friday night.

I've been realizing lately that the second bane to my existence is body hair removal. For all of us who like instant gratification, it works. You shave and it feels nice (assuming you get a good shave). But for all the trouble you go to, the goodness of it is very short lived. Stupid overproductive hair follicles. I hate how much time it takes. I hate that you have to do it so often. I hate how much razors and stuff costs. I just hate it. But I also hate body hair. And unfortunately I can't afford permanant hair removal. I just can't win.

I have to get up for work tomorrow morning at 4:45, and I'm at home. I'm not a fan, but I'll be finished by 1:15 on Friday so I guess that's good. I'm headed to Fayetteville, NC, Charleston, WV, and Wilmington, NC.

I got to see the parents and Mook twice this weekend (and eat my mama's fabulous food twice). It was lovely. Everything she cooks tastes so good and healthy. Lots of veggies and flavor. Yesterday we had Italian chicken and pasta with Chinese veggies and we ate it with chopsticks :-D. Today was something that she said translated literally to pasta and beans, but it reminded me of minestrone soup. Such a nice change from the processed, heavy crap I eat on the road (or at my own house). Israel just arrived in the US today. He's been gadding about Australia, China, and now Spain for the last month or so. Poor thing... He should be here about a month for work.

I also got to spend time with Amie and some new friends I've made through her yesterday. I suppose that's enough for now. I do tend to blather on endlessly. I've gotten some really nice messages lately about my writing. They are much appreciated. Very, very much. It encourages me to write more, even when I don't feel like it, or should be sleeping since I have to go to work :-D.

My exciting job

I’m in Springfield, MO and just ate some of the best bbq ever. Unfortunately I think I got my second wind as well. In a little while I’m going to try the method I use on babies when they won’t sleep - dark room, lights out, no distractions... See how that works.

Just as I expected last night, I hated myself this morning at 4:10. I think my ambien was still in effect through my first flight and the coffee did nothing for me. I honestly don’t remember anything about this morning. When I got back to Atlanta around 7:20 I was so tired I went to the lounge and sat down. I talked to a friend for a while, and then closed my eyes. The next thing I knew scheduling was calling me wondering why I wasn’t on my plane. Oh crap. Then of course my flight is all the way at the end of D Concourse, and I’m in the lounge under C. Thankfully we only had 22 passengers and my pilots were nice and had put all my stuff away so we closed up close to time, but I was really stressed out for a while there.

The next to flights to Jacksonville, NC were tough. I’ve noticed that I tend to munch when I’m bored or tired. Since I realized this I’ve been trying to stop, but since I was really tired and always feeling like I needed energy it was hard not to. Plus none of my passengers were very exciting or talkative. After that flight I had about an hour and half until my next one and my mood was failing fast. I should’ve called someone to cheer me up but was too tired. I finally prayed that I would have an interesting passenger to make the flight up here bearable. I definitely got what I asked for.

The first passengers of interest were a couple with a very cute, white, fluffy "service dog." I was trying to figure out if they’d just taken their dog and put a vest on it so they could take it everywhere for free. I finally asked what sort of service the dog did. She said she has brain seizures and the dog can detect them. I was surprised to learn that they didn’t get the dog for that purpose. When it was about 8 months old it would start behaving strangely and over time they realized that it was acting like that because it could tell she was going to have a seizure. Since then it has been trained to hone this sense/skill. I thought that was either really fascinating or an amazing lie.

The next interesting person was the lady who came up the ramp looking at everything like she’d never seen it before and didn’t know what to do. Then she got on the plane and found out she’d never been on one before (and evidently didn’t watch tv or anything) and was scared to death. She was fortunately seated near two really funny couples who kept her entertained the whole flight with pictures from their vacation and stories and explanations about all the shakes and sounds of the plane. Having dealt with a lot of scared passengers I tried to help her and make her less scared and by the end of the flight she was taking pictures out the window and had sworn off Greyhound. It was so funny though cause the whole middle and front of the plane was in on it and people would ask how she was. When she cried during take off they passed it on to me. When she put her jacket over her head someone let me know. She refused to eat cause her family said she would puke, and she refused to drink anything cause her family said she’d have to pee and didn’t want to use the lav. She rides Harleys all the time, but thinks planes are dangerous... It was amusing.

The people sitting around her were a whole other story. One used to play for the Cardinals, Mets, and Phillies. His wife was trying to set me up with their 41 year old, "loaded" son. When I said he was too old the other said she had a son. Between them they were determined to take me home.

Then there were two ladies and a man sitting in front of them. I squatted down in front of the cart so I could hear one of the ladies talk and the other, probably around my mother’s age, started petting my arm. She asked if I shaved my arms and said that all the young kids she works with do. I told her I didn’t (because it’s her business) and said that sometimes I did to exfoliate them cause I have bumps on my arms. She starts sharing about someone she knows’ arms - all the while petting my arm. The other lady laughed and explained that she was a very tactile person (I see that). If she wasn’t so nice I might’ve cared, but it just cracked me up. She said she has a habit of touching before thinking or asking whenever she sees something interesting. She also hugged me when she got off the plane and patted our captain’s cheek.
Between all of these people, and some other people who got in the conversation just to see what was going on, it was a very busy flight. I think about half the plane was nervous flyers so I’d make announcements to let everyone know how many more minutes of torture they had. It made a day that started out pretty lousy end up being pretty fun. Even if they hadn’t been humorous and amusing in their different ways, just the fact that these people talked to me constantly made me really happy and made me pleased to serve them.

PS. I also finished the USA Today crossword today. All by myself. Woo hoo!

past my bedtime

I hate when I wear glasses and drink hot stuff my glasses get all fogged up.

I hate that I can’t go to bed when I need to. Actually, not can’t - won’t. I have to be in the shower in less than 8 hours getting ready for work. I hate that too.

I like that two separate people told me today I look like Princess Di. The second person was a lady and her old husband following her said no, he thought I was prettier. It’s not the comparison to Di that I like, it’s just being told I’m pretty. Especially when I don’t feel like it.

I hate that my ipod is frozen up. I still did my walk/run anyway, but it was much harder having to time it all myself. Plus it worries me what’s wrong with it.

I hate feeling melancholy for no reason, or no good reason.

I love this hotel in Ft. Wayne. It’s another renovated Hilton. They have the idividual brew (big) coffee mugs which I really like.

I hate that sometimes this ambien knocks me out and other times it doesn’t seem to do anything.

I love that I’ve finished the first week of the www.c25k.com training plan. I tried to figure out what percentage of it that was, but the answer didn’t look right.

I hate that the good looking guy that talked to me for a second downstairs is married. They all are married or unavailable it seems.

I don’t like that I still don’t have any clarity about my blog topics from last night (or nigit).

I’m going to hate tomorrow more if I don’t stop this nonsense.

Today was a nice day, by the way. I like people in the midwest. They’re very friendly, appreciative, complimentary, and polite... I could handle that more often.

I’d love watching a very happily married couple on my last flight. They’d been married long enough to have children in their 40s and were still laughing and talking like they were young and in love. He would tease her and make up names for things we were flying over. She would believe him, realize it was a joke, and say how he was sooo bad. There was physical affection as well as obvious mutual respect and enjoyment in each other. It gives me hope for the future.

the packing avoider

I’m going to be honest - I don’t feel like getting up at 6:30am and going on a trip. It’s true. I can’t deny it. And since I don’t want to go to work, I don’t really want to pack for work. Packing blows. I could get up early and do it, but since I’m going to stay up late, be tired, and hit the snooze button a million times anyway, I might as well pack now.

Or maybe I’ll just write a blog.

Another weekend has come and gone. This one was particularly nice since it was 4 days long. Still not long enough, in my opinion, but more than normal jobbers get.

The Pollard’s grandfather died on Saturday morning so I went to the funeral today. It was sad cause I’ve grown up with him and Granny Pollard being as much in my life as my grandparents and I know how close they were to their family. He had a good life though, and was suffering a lot at the end, so I know he was happy to go be with Granny and the Lord. Still, I’m not a fan of funerals.

Tonight was community group from church. It was nice to go, but I also feel weird cause I haven’t been in such a long time and don’t really know anyone. They’ve been meeting for at least two months now so seem to know each other pretty well. It’s discouraging cause I feel like I have to choose between working to pay off debt (a good thing) and going to this group (a good thing). I guess I’ll figure it out one of these days (along with the rest of life).

I’ve had interesting discussions with my landpeople this weekend. They were encouraging me to start playing again (instead of catering or some other somewhat menial job). They think we should go back to our original name - the String Lovelies - which I previously despised, but for years now have not been able to replace. I kind of feel like it’s our destiny (though I don’t really believe in that word) to be called that. Everything else we come up with seems really stale and bland. I know it’s kind of cheesy, but I think the fact that it has personality, and indicates that we are something other than a group of middle aged, ugly musicians, could be a good selling point. Any thoughts?

I must go pack.

If you try real hard you just might find you get what you need

It’s so nice to be off work for the weekend. I’m lounging in my room listening to radio free lunch about bad girls. I love this show.

I got to work Wednesday, and lo and behold my planner was in my mailbox. I don’t know why God is so good to me sometimes. It made me really happy. It was a good thing because nothing else that happened for the next 2 days went my way at all. I changed my trip at the last minute so I could fly with one of my friends. This meant I had to duty in about 5 hours earlier. Then at an even later minute, their schedule got changed. Oh well. Then I got to work and did my first round trip. We were delayed cause of fog in FL so when I got back I found out that they had switched me to a completely different trip. I ended up going to Montreal for the night, and then because of them changing me and then our plane being sick (that’s for you Adri), I got off 5 hours later yesterday. And contrary to what my passengers thought, I only get paid $1.50/hr for being that late. The redeeming factor was that we only had two passengers on our flight back from Nassau yesterday cause they had all switched over to a different flight that was leaving on time. And I had to get up at 3:45 yesterday morning to get to the airport and through customs in time for our 6am flight. Did I mention how glad I am to be off work?

I got called by the Sundried Tomato lady and she’s already given me 3 or 4 dates that I’ll be working. I’m really happy about that. First one is on the 12th.

I’m pleased that the 5th Holby child ventured out of the United States yesterday :-D. Peter walked across the border to Mexico (don’t worry, he came back). It made me happy to hear that.

I can’t remember anything interesting that happened on my last trip. I was so tired it was taking all my energy to stay awake. When I got switched to my other trip I flew with a crazy flight attendant. She was really nice but possibly a little ADD. She would make "beep beep honk honk" noises while going down the aisle with the cart. I was embarrassed. There’s a fine line between being an amusing and an annoying flight attendant.

(trying to be) leaving on a jetplane

I feel lost and confused without my planner. I’m hoping that when I get back to the airport today someone will have put it in my box, but I’m trying to accept that it’s probably gone.

Today has been a monumentaly unproductive day so far. Last night, because of one decision by our company which seemed to become a comedy of errors, our flight left Atlanta at 1:20am instead of 9:40pm. We got to the hotel around 3am and I decided I was going to sleep as long as my body would allow me. I woke up around 11 because someone was hammering in the room next to me, but managed to forge on through for nearly two more hours of sleep. Now I have another 3 hours here in the hotel, know I should be doing something besides surfing, but can’t be bothered to do anything else.

Yesterday we flew to Belize and back. It may sound exciting, but it’s really just a long way. Then we rushed through customs, rushed through a microwave meal, and rushed back over to the plane we brought in from Belize, only to find out they had switched us to a different plane. After a few minutes of musical planes we discovered that our new plane was broken. Fantastic, I know. This at least gave us all time to take a nap in our dark, broken plane. My captain even started snoring. It amused me a little. When I woke up and saw that every other plane around us had left, I wasn’t amused anymore. When it was finally fixed we were able to start the plane up and board passengers. This is when my captain discovered that the plane had been fueled to go to Oklahoma City, instead of Dayton. We had way too much gas and all the fuel trucks had already been topped off for the night. They finally heard on the radio some other plane begging for fuel, so they sent the fuel truck over to give them fuel, thereby making space for our extra 3000lb we had. Once the fuel truck came back they couldn’t get the truck to take the fuel off. Skip ahead 45 minutes (it’s nearly 1am now) and the fuel supervisor comes out and probably flips the "defuel" switch and we were very shortly on our way. The joys of travel are neverending.