I hate the way my teeth feel when I wake up

I've been trying to avoid the "this is what I had for lunch" kind of blogs and evidently other than what I eat, my life isn't very interesting lately. Come to think of it, I haven't really been eating anything interesting lately. How sad.

I'm in Melbourne, FL. It would be great except I have to leave in an hour. Our hotel very nice and is right on the beach so I can hear the waves right now. I can also hear the loud roar of the ac equipment right outside my room and it's interfering with my wave noise. There's a funny sign on the desk in here. It says "If smoking occurs during your stay..." It makes me a little curious to know how smoking can occur. I thought you had to intentionally make something like that happen?

Today we fly back to Atlanta, wait around a couple hours, do a round trip to Pittsburg, wait around a few more hours, and go to Toronto for a long time. I'd much rather we spend a long time here, but I guess that would be too much fun. It's hard to be at work when the weather is so beautiful and I'm missing out on it. But when the weather is bad it makes working more difficult.

hi ho, hi ho

It's Sunday again. I can't necessarily remember the last Sunday. This week has been very, very full, and very long. I did a nap Friday night. Then I catered yesterday from 3-11. We're catering the concerts at The Fred in PTC. This weekend is Huey Lewis and the News. I'm about to head back over there for another concert today. I should be cooking some food since my cereal probably won't tide me over for the day, but I have a headache and don't feel like it. The concert last night was pretty fun. It's hard work, but it's sometimes nice to work with people who are having a good time. It's kind of like doing flights that take people on vacation. They're always in a good mood and it's nice to be a little part of their good time. I need to go get ready and find some food. I am not working at all tomorrow and it makes me so happy. I complain about working - who wouldn't rather be sitting at home or with friends and family - but it doesn't feel good to know that every time I work I'm getting closer to be debt free. That's what I tell myself anyway.

such a, such a busy day.

Today is one of those days when I would give nearly anything to not have to go to work. I have to go to Providence tonight for a short few hours on the ground and then come back in the morning. I'm glad because the alternative was two miserable days of work, but I'd still rather be staying at home.

I had one of the most productive days I've had in a very long time. I had two cherry coke zeros and it makes me wonder if they're the magic motivation I've been looking for all these years. Not sure, but they did the trick today.

Yesterday after work I picked Michal up from school. My mama left to visit Joy in Spain yesterday. I'm really excited that she is going. I hope she likes it as much as I did. Since she was gone I got Michal and played mama for the night and morning. I have a feeling it was nothing like actually being a mother. We met Amie at La Hacienda for supper which was lovely. Michal practiced her amazing Spanish and Amie made everyone laugh with her terrible Spanish. I just sat and smiled and said gracias. Next we went home and said hello to the padre before he went to work. For the rest of the evening I entertained Michal with my air guitaring while she did homework. This morning I made sure I got her to school on time so she wouldn't get kicked out of school (like I dreamed she had for being late). We had a lovely evening and morning. In case no one has noticed, I have the coolest siblings in the world.

After that it was the perfect time to go home and clean and organize my bathroom. And then clean my room. And move my bed. And move it again. And pay bills. And go to the bank. And find out my catering work schedule for the next few weeks. And clear junk out of my car. And hang curtains. And wash all my towels and bedding. And swap all my trips this month. My caffeine buzz is wearing off just in time to start getting ready for work. It's a beautiful day. Hopefully it will mean good flying (though I'd prefer no flying). The perfume I bought off ebay (for nearly half price) arrived today. It smells soooo good. It's Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel. (Is that right Peter?) So now I can smell like a dream while I go to work.

I dread the thought of working 6 or 7 days a week for the next forever, but after getting my refunds and doing some calculations, paying off my debt is within sight. It's really encouraging and makes me want to do the extra work and saving to get it done.

Enough productivity for now. I'm going to go shower. I think I'll get some ice cream cake and eat it while I'm in there :-D.

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.

sweeet

I would first like to thank God for quickly answering my prayers about my trips for next month. Last month I joined a community group at the church I’ve been attending. It meets every Monday night. I went at the beginning of February, but because of my schedule I haven’t been able to go again. I was feeling really bad this morning because I hate that I’m missing out on this (they’re about to start working on a book) and I also feel like I’m letting down the other members of my group (even though I really have no control over it. The schedules have been terrible lately and because we’re short on flight attendants they have been denying all my swaps.)

This morning I wrote an email to my group members and explained this and asked them to pray that I would be able to swap. After that I offered my trip to someone on the tradeboard, even though it wasn’t the dates she was asking for, and posted the rest of mine up there. When I got home just now and checked the flight attendant had accepted my trip and someone had offered me a great trade for another trip that also gives me 5 more hours of time. All in all it’s amazing. I’m really thankful and happy right now.

I was going to write a whole other blog when I got online, but this has pleased me too much. Today was a great day. Life is good.

PS. There seemed to be some confusion about the catering job. The lady said I did have the job. I was just saying it was tentative cause I don’t really want to be too excited about it until I’m actually working (things have a way of falling through). So that’s very good.

Tentative success

I feel good right now. It’s the beginning of a new week. I worked a dayline yesterday and made a nice chunk of extra cash that can go toward my debt. I also had an interview on Friday at the Sun Dried Tomato. I didn’t even want to go there in the first place because I don’t want to wait tables and it doesn’t seem very busy anyway, but J convinced me to. The lady called me back and I considered not going. Just thinking about having to tell another person I’m only availabe to work two days a week was filling me with dread. I’ve been rejected for that a lot lately (understandably). I was really frustrated because I’ve finally, two and a half years later, been able to get Sundays off (sometimes), and I didn’t want to have to give them up. I went anyway and the lady told me no, she doesn’t hire people for just two days a week. BUT, they have a catering company out of their restaurant that only works Friday and Saturday. Seems perfect so far. It’s more money than I would’ve been making at the spa (more work too, but that’s ok). They’re also going to be catering all the concerts at the little amphitheater here in PTC this summer, so that could be fun. She’s supposed to call me this week and give me some dates they already have down. It’s also nice because it isn’t every Friday and Saturday, which will still allow me to travel and have a life (some).

Yesterday I did two fairly easy round trips. The weather turned nasty about halfway through the day which slowed things down some, but we survived. On the way back from Norfolk we had about 15 men and a lady from Mali - which now I see is a really large country in Africa. They all spoke French and had that dark black skin and bright white smiles African look that I love. Some spoke English, but it was mostly a lot of hand motions and smiles trying to serve them. They had a translator who told me how to ask if they wanted a drink and if they wanted ice in their drinks. They also taught me how to say "you’re welcome", or "it is nothing" according to them, in French. I left my planner on one of the planes yesterday which is really terrible, but I’m praying someone will find it and return it to me.

This weekend has been really pleasant. After seeing Matt and the Sirotas on Wednesday, I had dinner with some of the Charles on Thursday. After that I went over to Mr. Fuji with J and watched Amie and Jay and some friends eat to celebrate her birthday. Friday I went shopping with J and helped him find great deals on new bed stuff, then went thrift-storing with Mama and Michal. I had to cut that short for my interview at the Tomato. Then I met Kathryn, Charity, Tanya, and J at Thai Spice for a scrumptious dinner and some good times catching up. Kathryn is visibly pregnant now and looks wonderful. I’m very fortunate to have so many fun and fabulous people in my life :-D.

I went to Canadia and what did I see

I saw some Canadians. I didn’t really have a witty answer. I just wanted a way to use Canadia in my subject. That’s all.

I’ve decided that sometimes being an adult sucks. I had to buy new glasses the other day. Of course if I had been a responsible adult and not lost my last pair then I wouldn’t have to buy new ones. Bye bye $194. And since I was irresponsible, and since I haven’t found a second job yet, I decided to take advantage of the premium pay their offering this weekend and picked up a dayline. I pray that I don’t end up hating myself for it. I stil have 3 days off. I’ll still have time to rest AND have fun. Plus I’ll be making a lot of money. Sounds like a plan to me.

Today I spent a lot of time waiting in airports. I made the journey from Tri-Cities, Tennesse (still not completely sure where that is. I was shocked to hear it was near VA), then sat in ATL for 2.5 hours, flew to Toronto, sat there for almost 2 more hours - which meant we had to clear Canadian customs, then come back through US customs - then fly back to ATL. It only took about 11 hours. Throw in a self professed, high maintenance passenger with peanut allergies and you have yourself a jolly good day.

After I came home I drove for longer than I flew to Tri-Cities, and only made it to Stone Mountain. My life-risking, rapelling, rock-blowing-up friend Matt is working on Stonewall Jackson’s beard and someone else’s lapel. Evidently they’re in a state of disrepair so Stone Mountain called in the rock doctors to fix them. His family got to watch him rapel down the face of Stone Mountain today. Wish I could’ve. For someone who isn’t from, or hasn’t lived in Georgia, this may not seem like a big deal, but for the rest of you - that’s pretty cool, isn’t it? I did get to see the Sirota parents as well as Erin and Chris and their small, blond herd :-D.
And now I’m in my very own bed, hoping I’m not getting a cold, ready to go to sleep. Life is good.

blogging to remember

I realized that one of the things I like about blogging is that it helps me remember the tiny, but interesting, or significant things that happen on a daily basis in my life. I’ve had some busy days lately, some interesting passengers, good times with friends and family, but for whatever reason - too tired, no internet (yes, I’ve heard of paper), too tired, too busy - I haven’t been blogging about it. Now, looking back over the past week, I’ve either forgotten a lot of things, or they just don’t seem as noteworthy anymore. Maybe they weren’t to begin with? Maybe some, but not all.

I’m in a La Quinta somewhere in Tennessee. Unlike almost every other trip I do, this one has flown by. I want to figure out what has made it happen that way so I can make it happen again.

I’m going to try to sleep now, but I have a lot of catching up to do. Hopefully I can do some on my four days off this weekend. Woo hoo.

I could work like this every day

Work today has literally been a day at the beach. We flew into Ft. Walton Beach last night and for the first time ever I am enjoying the long overnight down here. We don’t leave until early tomorrow morning and my toughest decision today is trying to decide if I want to go to the pool or the beach. It’s a hard life. There are a few drawbacks - it’s spring break so it’s really crowded down here and it’s very windy today so sometimes it feels like you’re being sandblasted on the beach. I’d still rather be here than on a plane. The rest of the trip won’t be nearly this fun. We do four flights tomorrow and five on Thursday.

I went to Puerto Vallarta last week. It was a really last minute trip, but I had an awesome time. I’m going to blog about that separately since there’s a lot to tell.

I just got back from walking about 30 minutes down the road and then back up the beach. The wind was kind of rough at times, but I mostly love it. People were flying kites which always makes me happy for some reason. There were blue jellyfish washed up on the beach. I couldn’t tell what it was at first. It just looked like a blue plastic bag blown up. I also didn’t know jellyfish came in blue. I’ve only ever seen clear ones. It was fun to walk on the beach with the salty wind blowing in my face and watch the people.

headed for the border

I feel like a big jerk. I got the opportunity to go to Puerto Vallarta tomorrow and I’m taking it. But in doing so I’m ditching a lot of people. Lots of people are telling me I should go, it’s a great opportunity, free place to stay, free ride, friends down there, won’t come along just any day. I still feel bad though. I wish I could be more excited. Instead I feel nervous. I don’t know if it’s age or what but I’m finding it much harder to be adventurous these days. It’s not like I need to worry about getting back in time for work. I don’t work until Monday and am coming back Saturday. I guess part of it is disappointing people. I also feel like since my work days are so chaotic and subject to change, maybe I hang on to the stability of my off days a bit more. Who knows? I was really looking forward to being home for 4 days in a row, but when Matt called from the coast of Mexico, how can I say no to that? Gotta do it while I can, right? I’m even taking a bag pack. That right there is enough to make me a little bit excited. No suitcases. No uniforms. I might not even take my makeup... Okay, maybe mascara. I should go to sleep so I can get up in the morning.

I like cities with rivers

Tonight was the first time (that I can remember) that I complained and had the hotel give me a different room. There were hairs in my beds. Both of them so I couldn't just sleep in the other one. And when I pulled back the sheets, they were all pressed into the mattress pad like they would be if someone had slept on them. Not the way they would be if the sheets had only been on the bed for a few hours. Gross. Gross. Gross. And for those who knows me, you know I'm not really fussy about germs or anything. But this was too much.

I'm in Rochester. It's thrilling. I can see a river outside my window. There's about a foot of snow on the ground and it's really pretty. Tomorrow is day 4. It's going to be a long day. We work from 7am until 6:30pm and do 5 legs. At least I'll be off until Monday after that. (Kathryn, I'll be in town.)

Today when we were leaving Newburgh there was another ASA flight that was leaving a few minutes later. A lady with a little boy accidently got on our flight instead of the other and was sitting in someone's seat. When we figured out why there were two people in one seat and I told her she was on the wrong plane she said "son of a bitch", and as only a 2 year old little boy can do he repeated her exactly. It was really sad cause she's teaching her child to swear, but it was hilarious how he copied her. I was laughing inside. Maybe I'm a jerk. It still makes me smile to think about it.

I got a call from the lady at the spa tonight and I didn't get the job. She said it's cause I'm only available certain days a week. Doesn't really surprise me. I have a feeling I'm going to come across that a lot when I'm looking for another job. I'm disappointed, but what are you going to do? At least she told me why I didn't get it so I don't have to feel personally rejected (even if I was and she lied to make me think I wasn't :-P). I guess I have four days coming up to find another job.

My sleep schedule has gradually shifted to the back of the clock. I haven't been able to go to sleep before 2 or 3 am lately. It's ridiculous. And because of that I don't get up before 11 or so. Tomorrow I have to get up early though so I need to get started on sleep.

peanuts, crackers, or cookies?

I hate when I write a bunch of stuff and then hit the wrong button and it all disappears. So frustrating.

After 3 short but lovely days off I'm back at work again. The breaks in between trips are never long enough. I'm in Virginia tonight. I'm lying in a king size bed on pillows the size of chicklets. You'd think they could splurge and get some big kid pillows.

Tonight, for the first time in my career as a flight attendant, I had a passenger with enough nerve to put his hand on me. Not once, but twice. When he first got on the plane he said to me that if I was nice I'd give him some crackers cause he was starving. I told him since, not if, I was nice I would. He was probably in his sixties, white haired and wedding ringed. A few minutes later I was standing at the row behind him talking to the passengers and I felt a hand grab my calf. I was shocked, but thought maybe he was grabbing for something else. I turned around and just said "excuse me?" in the tone of voice you use when someone has just inappropriately grabbed your leg. He was sitting near the front and during my announcements was mouthing things at me. Again, people try to mess me up when I'm talking a lot so I just tried to ignore him and assume he was innocent. Then later when I was doing the beverage service I was stopped at the row behind him. I had thought about the first incident and what I should have said to him (you always run those things over and over through your head), but didn't know cause it could've been an accident or he might deny it. I was tense cause he kept saying things to me, so when I felt him grab my calf again it made me so mad. I turned around and put my finger in his face and said not to do that again. (At the same time I had another guy taking peanuts out of my drawer - my biggest pet peeve.) I was sooo mad. Then when I got to his row he had the nerve to ask if I was mad at him. I said yes. I still can't believe it. I've heard of flight attendants being touched much more inappropriately and always figured I gave off enough of a "back off" vibe, but maybe he was too dense to be catching any vibes. I'm glad today is over.

Oh yeah, I was supposed to mention that I have an acquaintance who does not see the problem with playing an instrumental version of Timbaland's "Apologize" while her bridesmaids are walking down the aisle. Am I the only person who things this is wrong on many levels?

I interviewed to be a receptionist at a spa in PTC. I'm supposed to get called tomorrow or Tuesday to find out whether I start work on Thurs. Please pray that I do. I've been saying I was going to get a second job for a long time and finally applied for a couple. I really want this one and hope I get it.

working in a winter wonderland

Tonight, as we rode from the airport to the hotel, I tried to pretend I was in a sleigh. You know - sort of "dashing through the snow in a one horse open sleigh." The roads were all white. The snow was falling heavily. I could almost hear the sleigh bells. Still wasn't enough to convince me to give up the heated, enclosed van. I think anyone around me can tell that I'm from a place where snow does not often fall. The roads were either not plowed or not thoroughly plowed and sometimes we had to drive through a big pile of snow. I had to keep from acting all amazed and enthralled with it (even though I was). I'd hate to live in the stuff, but riding around in it one or two nights a week can be interesting. A semi got stuck in the snow and was having to be towed out. That never happens in Georgia.

I was reminded again today that it's much easier to be an amazingly nice flight attendant when you only do two flights a day. Lots of my passengers said nice things about me. I didn't want to point out to them that I had only been awake for about 4 hours when we did our first flight at 3 something. When we left Toronto there was another flight to Atlanta next to us that had gotten canceled (due to a dent in the wing - sissies.) Because of this the gate was in a tizzy and was having a hard time getting anything done. After they got all our passengers on there were 5 open seats and they were trying to shift people from the canceled flight. We waited and waited and waited. My captain explained what was going on but there really wasn't anything we could do about it. A man stopped me and asked if we realized that by helping these people we were causing others to miss their connections in ATL. I said that I did. We were sorry. We wanted to leave but they wouldn't let us. All true. What can I do? Then he says "Well I know this isn't entirely your fault......." Whatever he said after that I just missed. I'm wondering how this is even partially my fault? Then I slapped him and that's how I lost my job as a flight attendant...

After two of our notoriously cold overnights (Syracuse and Toronto) ended up being warm I was a little confused about the time of the year. Had spring come already? Then we flew to Fort Wayne where it's snowing like the north pole. I think it's pretty, but it better not interfere with me going home tomorrow. That's all I have to say about that.

Pretend like it’s the weekend now, and we could pretend it all the time

I'm listening to davefm in Toronto and delaying the inevitable preparation for departure. I'm back at work after barely 48 hours off this weekend. I did cram quite a bit into those hours. Got to see my family, ran errands with my mama, had a date with Amie and Jay and Jamie, applied for jobs at two places, cooked supper for Jamie and Jonathan, and went to church. It was a good few hours off.

Work has been fairly quiet. The passengers have been behaving themselves. I am noticing more and more who says please and thank you. It's ridiculous how many grown people don't. Then there are the friendly and amusing passengers. Last night my front seat guy were from Ireland, Cyprus, and Scotland. They were funny and talked to me every chance they got. Makes me want to travel more. Oh wait, everything makes me want to travel more. Israel is in western China right now and wrote a really cool blog from a monastery on the back mountain somewhere. The other day I was made aware of something I never would've thought of before. A lady got on the plane in freezing weather wearing flip flops. I learned that it isn't a good idea to get a tattoo on your foot in the winter.

My addictions

They're getting worse. First it was flica. Now it's... banana chips. Yes, you read that right. The worst thing possible. And I just. Can't. Stop.

You should all be pleased that I had a terrible internet connection yesterday. I was going to write this huge rant about how stupid people are. I still think people are stupid, but am a little less steamed up about it. The headache I've had for almost 2 days now has kind of put a damper on any strong feelings I could have.

In keeping with the last two month's trend, our flight this morning was canceled. There's nothing quite like being woken up at 4:20am by a calling telling you to go back to bed. I'm not sure why it was canceled, but it meant we only did 2 flights today instead of 4. Not bad.

I'll tell you a few of the most outstandingly annoying things that happened yesterday. One lady told me that she wanted some cranapple - no ice and just a little (held up fingers to show about an inch). I poured her about that much and handed it to her. She looks at it, says it's too much, and hands it back. Are you kidding me??? I'm thinking, can you not just drink what you want of it and leave the rest?! So I pour about a quarter of an inch off and hand it back. Seriously... A few rows later I get to a couple. The man tells me what he wants, but the lady is sleeping. I ask if he knows if she wants anything. Tomato juice. And the lady, without moving her head (she's facing away from me sleeping) or opening her eyes says "tomato juice. No ice. No cup. Just the can." Call me crazy, but I think that's extremely rude. I can't stand when people can't bother to look at me while I'm serving them. It's not a whole lot to ask. I was trying to be understanding and thought that maybe she was sick or something. Then toward the end of the flight she wakes up and starts laughing and talking loudly. Not sick. Just rude. I'm also sick of people who don't ask if they can have something or say please. I give them a cookie and they say "one more". Excuse me? No please. No thankyou. And these are grown adults. There are so many more things that people do to drive me crazy. People are just thoughtless. They think they're the only ones on the plane and I have nothing better to do than wait on them hand and foot. And I'm the one who's concerned about getting people bent out of shape...

Today's people were much nicer and more polite. It would've been a great day minus the headache. Now I'm in the Hampton Inn in New Burn, NC. I've never been here and never heard of this place.

I'm finished complaining now.

The good word from A-town

Asheville, of course.

Lying in this bed in the front room of my grandparents house takes me way back. I remember when I came to camp up here in NC and I was so miserable and homesick I cried the whole time. I missed my parents so much. Not that I don't still miss them when I'm gone, but I can at least be away from home for more than two weeks without crying the whole time. In retrospect I know that a lot of what I thought was homesickness was just one of the side affects of intense sleep deprivation from being in the "big girl dorm" where no one ever slept - but how was I supposed to know that then?

This week was a long week. I'm so happy to have four days off this weekend. I ended up getting a lot of extra flying in, which is great financially, but it wears you out. Yesterday we flew to Mexico and back. It was just over 7 hours of actual flight time. I enjoy going down there for the most part though. The people are usually nice and not demanding. Those flights also seem to be more interesting for one reason or another. On the way down we had to deport two men. I think it was a paperwork thing in customs and they weren't dangerous or anything. One of them got airsick twice, becoming the first grown man to puke on my flight. I don't think people really believe me when I tell them I feel their pain. We also had a 94 year old deaf lady who didn't speak English. I don't know who lets people like that fly alone. It would scare me so bad to send my mother/grandmother/aunt out on her own like that. She couldn't read or write, which we come across a lot on there, so we filled out her forms, for her. Then we found out she couldn't even write her name so we tried to put her fingerprint on there by writing on her finger and stamping it. Evidently this is a very common way of signing your name if you can't write. I scribbled on my fingers trying to find a pen that would work, but it was a lousy print. Hopefully she didn't have any problems getting through customs. It always surprises me when I'm handing out forms and have someone tell me they can't write. I don't know if it's just Mexico or that generation (most of them are older). I'm sure if we had to fill out forms on US flights I'd find out that a lot more people can't read. One man was really embarrassed about it and was explaining that he had moved back and forth between the US and Mexico a lot as a child and never got a chance. I felt bad for him and fortunate that it's such a given here that we read and write.

After a delicious salmon dinner this evening, Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy, we had finally got the wireless connection set up and had a crash course on computers here at the grandparents house. It's fun to open people up to what computers have to offer. I'm proud of my grandparents cause they're willing to learn and try all these crazy new technological things.

Another day, another dollar fifty.

I'm once again being paid $1.50 to enjoy the airport. And this time without the fabulous conversation of my favorite older sister Christine :-D. She's instructing me on how to make hummus since I love it and it's not the cheapest thing to buy. I have to find a food processor first though.

My life seems uneventful these days. I started my trip on Monday and in keeping with the trend that's been going for the last month and a half I had something canceled. Unfortunately it was my 18 hour Key West overnight - the entire reason I got this trip. So they sent us home and added a Cozumel round trip the next morning. At least I made money off that one. Flying down to Cozumel made me want to take a week off, take my backpack, and just go wander around down there on the beach. Last night we were in Baton Rouge for a short night and had dinner with my friend Cooper. We had red beans and rice and boudin balls. I'd never had boudin balls before and they were so good. It seems like the cajun version of hushpuppies, but with rice, bits of meat, and more seasoning. Tonight (after a combined 5.5 hours of airport appr. time) we end up in the oh-so-exotic Maconga. And for those of you with a brain, that's Macon, GA.

I had a passenger this morning ask me about my job. How long I had been here, how much I made, etc... I told him this wasn't a job you do for the money. He said he only worked for the money. So he started telling me about his job. He makes $12/hr and is gone 6-8 weeks at a time so his wife can stay at home and he can buy a Harley... I wasn't impressed. I think if I was doing a job "for the money" I would expect a little more than that. Then on the flip side, another lady told me she doesn't believe in car payments. After a few questions I found out that what she does believe in is being with a man who makes enough money to pay cash for cars. It's funny how people have such different ideas and perspectives on money.

A man got on the plane the other day with Samantha tattooed on his neck - with a line through it. I couldn't help but laugh and ask him about it. He said he'd made it really obvious that he was with her when he put her name on his neck so now he wanted to make it really obvious that he wasn't with her anymore. It amused me.

I'm going to eat my wasabi peas and wait some more.

PS. The $12/hr guy also says that you can go to a bar and get sloshed and get on your motorcycle and be fine in an hour because of the air in your face. It gets the air in your system which sobers you up evidently... Someone needs to tell the cops that so they can stop worrying about drunk cyclist. Jamie pointed out that with that logic you could get drunk, then drive with your head out the window and be fine in an hour. I didn't want to burst that guy's bubble by pointing out that even if this were true, you have to survive that first hour of driving before you sober up.

Coming up with a subject is the hardest part of writing for me.

I'm sitting here at Amie's house watching her talk about cleaning - I mean watching Amie clean. I think I live out of my car these days. It's okay though.

I finished my trip right on schedule last night. It was a decent trip. My captain was kind of "special". I'll leave it at that. I can give you details later but this is public so I'll be nice. After I went to Newport News it was on to San Antonio. I was disappointed cause no one wanted to go out that night but the other flight attendant and I went out the next morning. We walked down to the riverwalk, which wasn't anything like I expected it to be. The part that we walked along is more like a canal than a river. The river is lined with restaurants and shops and feels very European. The weather was windy and warm and the sun was out. It was really a beautiful day to be walking around. A lot of the shops were opening as we walked through and people would be shouting across the river to each other (in a friendly way). This is another one of those cities where it's easy to feel like you're in a different country. We came across a place where there was kind of an amphitheater and it was set up for a wedding. It was Thursday, but it was also Valentine's Day. Cheesy. (Side note: If I ever get married it won't be on V'day, my birthday, Christmas or New Years.) We decided to have lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Our table was right next to the river and there were a lot of little boats going by. Most were tour boats but one was a wedding party complete with a mariachi (sp?) band - trumpet, violin, guitars and all. It was really festive though and everyone was clapping and waving at them. When we got to the airport there were some people with Ambassador buttons on handing out yellow roses to all the ladies. It made me really happy. Happy Valentine's Day from the state of Texas :-). It was a really nice layover and I'll add it to my list of places I try to go.

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. I had a lot of airport appreciation time thanks to the amazing schedulers at my amazing airline. Yesterday I had a child on my flight who screamed the whole time unless I was squatting next to her and letting her play with my id badges. I don't know about anyone else but I'm getting too old to squat in the aisle of an airplane for long periods of time. She was quiet though which made everyone else happy. I felt like I did my good deed for the day. People thanked me when they got off the plane :-P.I'm only home for two days this weekend so I'm going to try to make the most of it.

Maybe I'll watch Amie clean some more.

Rain comes pourin down, fallin from blue skies...

After spending so much time lately in places where their precipitation of choice is snow, it's a little strange to see it raining outside. I'm here in Newport News. I've never been here before. I just had to look at a guide book to find out where it is. Last week I spent two nights in Burlington, VT watching the snow fall. It was really beautiful and peaceful. After a quick stop in Key West where I chased the sun around the pool I ended up back in the snow.

Saturday morning I flew up to Portland to go snowboarding with Amy, Shane, and Adri. I was really apprehensive about spending one day doing a sport I've never done before with people who have done it a lot, but ended up having an awesome time. Four days later I can still feel the pain in my muscles a little, but it's a wonderful pain. We went for the night session and got to Shawnee Peak around 4:30. After getting bundled up and strapped in to my boots they started trying to teach me. I would have felt a little embarrassed about how much time I spent flat on my back but there were a lot of other people who seemed to be having an equally difficult time remaining upright. The most frustrating thing for me was getting back on my feet. I'm not sure if it's just cause I'm really out of shape, but there were times when I absolutely could not stand up facing down the mountain. It's much easier to roll on your stomach and get up that way but if I start going down the mountain backwards I'm much more likely to fall again. Which means I'm going to have to go through the whole process again soon. I did end up going down the mountain quite a few times and the last two times I was actually on my feet for a long time. The conditions were perfect as well. The glittery snowflakes that were falling the whole time were the cherry on top for the awesome time we had.

Monday I made a trip to Chattanooga for yet another hair color. They didn't cover up the platinum but added a lot of lowlights. I think I like it. I also think I need to get back to a more normal color for a while. Not sure though.

Yesterday I woke up pretty late and I was preparing to start rushing around so I could get ready for my trip. I didn't have to leave home til one but had a lot to do. Then I noticed there was a voicemail from scheduling. Turns out my first round trip to Cleveland had been canceled and I didn't have to be at work until 7:26 that night. I love it when that happens. Not that I don't love working... And not that I want anyone's flight to be canceled... The weather up there was terrible so we couldn't have made it anyway.

Now I have another 3 hours here in NN. Not sure what I'm going to do since it's raining. I'm sure I'll manage. I feel so content lately it's almost scary. Joy met a lady who is looking for writers so I wrote and sent her a couple of things. I haven't heard anything yet but it's been great for me to be writing more and thinking in that mode.

un-lazy Saturday morning

It's so nice to be home on the weekends this month. Because of holidays and vacation the last several months have been crazy with my schedule and I'm really happy to have it settle down - at least for this month. It seems that my Flica addiction has paid off and I'm almost perfectly content with my schedule. I have two Key West overnights that I'm really looking forward to. I'll also be in Burlinton, VT for a day and a half this week. I hope that I love it as much in the winter as I did in the summer. I need to do some research so I can do something besides sit in my hotel room.

My trip Thursday and Friday was really frustrating. The fact that it was my fifth and sixth days of work and that I was exhausted didn't help. I did a Providence round trip and remembered why I try to avoid that part of the country. I wish I could just yank these people's headphones out of their ears and say "It's rude to talk to someone with earphones in." Is it so difficult to give me your full attention for 30 seconds so I can SERVE you?

It's all better now. I'm home. I cleaned my room a whole lot this week. It looks pretty decent. Now I'm cleaning out the half bath that is mine. I seem to have a lot of toiletries and it needs to be gone through and organized. I don't know how I accumulate so much. Actually I do - I have a hard time getting rid of something that is perfectly good. I need to realize that my sanity is more important than hanging onto some body wash or something just cause I paid money for it at some point. Whenever I get frustrated enough though I just start trashing it all, which is kind of where I am right now. I guess I should get back to it.

a little too early. a little too cold. good time to break a plane.

I have spent over two years now traveling to northern parts of this country and I am still amazed and confused at why people choose to live here. This morning when we made our way to the airport it was 2 degrees. Thanks to our lovely little windy weather system that came through the windchill was -17. That is officially the coldest I've ever been. Even colder than that day my hair froze in Minneapolis (or Minnianapolis depending on who you ask).

Speaking of hair, I'm trying to decide if when it's time to get my roots covered I want to go back to a more normal color or stay blonde for a while longer. I think because I still have some remaining red from last fall on the ends it makes my hair look yellower than I like. Maybe once that grows out (probably my next hair cut) I'll like it better?

Oh yeah - we got to the airport for our 6am flight, got all the passengers on, got the plane warmed up, and found out something didn't work. So I'm still here in Peoria. At least I'm inside where it's warm. Otherwise I might cry. I even considered wearing my pj pants under my work pants this morning. Unfortunately they're fleecey and a little thick, otherwise I definitely would've.

This just reaffirms my last day of the trip theory...

addictions and millions of little decisions

I'll start off by admitting that my addiction to flica has returned. I thought I was cured of it, but now I seem to spend every minute online searching for better trips, more hours, better overnights, etc...I haven't even turned on the tv tonight (partially because that's addictive as well and I can only handle one addiction at a time.) Part of the returned addiction to flica is that my schedule next month had me wasting too much time in terrible places. Have to change that.

Now I'm in Peoria, IL. I was in Moline earlier today and between these two places I can't remember the last time I was this cold. The worst part is the wind. It's blowing so hard none of the snow that's falling can even land on the ground. I've never heard of a blizzard where the ground didn't get covered with snow, but that's what they're saying is going to happen tonight. Weird midwesterners... All four of my flights today had terrible turbulence as well (thanks to the wind). I had to stop serving once and nearly spilled coffee all over everything another time.

This trip has been far less eventful than last week's. Everything has gone mostly according to plan. I've actually flown all my flights for a change. Since the first night in Newburgh, NY we've been hanging out here in the midwest. My crew is really nice and interesting to talk to. My captain has lost 40lb in the last 4 months. I've really enjoyed picking his brain and hearing what he's learned in the process. I asked him what happened to make him finally lose weight and how he did it. His brother had lost a lot of weight and learned about nutrition and exercise. This made him realize it was possible and gave him the information to do it for himself.

The main thing, though, that has really stuck with me for the last few days was him saying "It isn't one big decision. It's a million little decisions every day." I've really thought about that a lot. I seem to think about it every time I put something in my mouth now. I also realized how that is true of every part of our lives. When it comes to practicing your faith, many people have a point where they made a "decision" but it's really the million little decisions you make every day that determine whether it's going to last. The same with love. I can tell someone I love them one time, but all the little decisions that I make every day show whether I really love them. It's been inspiring to me in a lot of ways. I still ate way too much pasta with alfredo sauce tonight, but I skipped the donuts at breakfast yesterday so hopefully it evens out :-P. I think the million little decisions idea is a good way for me to deal with things as well because I tend to get discouraged if I've made a big decision (eat healthy) and I eat junk. If I view each decision, each choice, as separate from the last one then if I make a bad one it doesn't affect the next one. I don't know if that makes sense, but it does in my head.

I think that's all for now. I'll be home tomorrow if all goes to plan. Then I work again Thursday and Friday. I'm enjoying work more this week. Not sure what's different. It definitely isn't the weather (though Atlanta did feel wonderful for the 45 minutes I was there today.) Whatever it is, I like it. I hope it stays for a minute.

Currently reading : For Whom the Bell Tolls By Ernest Hemingway

It’s easy to be happy when life is this good

It truly is - easy and good. In the last few days I've been reminded what amazing family and friends I have. I got to see most of my family and spoke to the rest of them and have heard from so many different friends of mine. We're into day three of cake day. There are about 25 muffins (4 different flavors, 4 different icings) upstairs along with a "suicide cake" which is all the leftover batter cooked together iced in stripes with the remaining icing. Matt and Molly are really into cake. I love it. And birthdays. Yesterday morning they woke me up with breakfast in bed. I was taken shopping yesterday and got a beautiful dress that made me feel beautiful. I've had all sorts of lovely gifts given to me and been reminded again and again how blessed I am to have such amazing people in my life. I could go on and on but I need to go get ready to have lunch with my parents and Michal before her game. I have to say, my sisters are the prettiest girls ever :-D. I know this isn't particularly interesting or profound or funny but I like to document the mountain tops so when I'm in a valley I can go back and be reminded of how good my life is.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

I may have used this subject title before, but today truly is a frabjous day so I'm going to use it again.

Today is my birthday and for once my company was nice (not on purpose of course) and I'm home nearly 10 hours early. I'm quite pleased if you can't tell. Yesterday we ended up staying in Tulsa the whole day. The plane we were supposed to fly to Atlanta and then on to Oklahoma City broke in Memphis. They were going to bus us over to OKC but decided to just have us work the flight back this morning instead. I couldn't believe it. Actually I refused to believe it until I was actually on the bus going to my car. But now I'm home and am so happy.

My birthday began last night when we went for Mexican and the captain bought dinner for us. The waitress gave me a scrumptious brownie (with a cherry on top, of course) and a margarita. I don't understand how people don't like celebrating their birthdays. It's so much fun :-D. Now I have a whole extra day at home and don't even know what to do with it. It's fabulous.

Ode to the Tulsa Crowne Plaza

I think I would come to Tulsa all the time just for this hotel. Some things I like about it: very attractively decorated (pale and dark green walls, dark wood trim and furniture); king size, very comfortable bed with white linens and lots of pillows so I can sleep diagonal if I so desire; nice bathroom with thick towels, good bath products, lighted close up mirror; beautiful view of the city; lots of little extras like a kit with earplugs, eye mask, linen spray, cd player with sleep cd and a plethora of outlets convenient for laptops and cell phones. Oh yeah, and unlike other cold weather overnights, they're nice enough to leave the heat on for you.

Today was a most bizarre day work-wise. Since we got stuck in NY last night our scheduling geniusi decided we had to bring the plane back today around noon. This decision was made regardless of the fact that we would then be sitting in Atlanta for 7 hours before continuing on to our overnight here in Tulsa. Being of a sane mind I decided to go home during this break. It was quite convenient since I'd forgotten to do my emissions yesterday and would've had to pay for my tag being late. I got all that done and made it home with enough time left to get relaxed enough to really not want to go back to work. Then I noticed that our flight was late, stretching our break into over 8 hours. We finally brought all 27 of our passengers out here. I managed to get a lot of reading done since they slept the whole way and I had nothing else to do. It's amazing how not working can sometimes make you more tired than actually being busy all day.

Tonight when I was reading they mentioned falafel. It reminded me of Barcelona. I introduced Israel to the kebab/pita stands that are thicker there than McDees or Starbucks are over here. I had also been introduced to them when I was in Barcelona and love them. I think he ended up eating it at least twice a day :-P. I would've done the same if I hadn't lost all interest in food after my third day there. The night I got sick we were out looking for food. We crossed La Rambla and went down some new streets. Just by crossing a street we were immediately surrounded by middle eastern stores, restaurants and people. It was crazy. We went into a little shop to look for something and saw postcards from Pakistan - in Barcelona. (Do people who live in Barcelona sent postcards of Pakistan back to Pakistan or somewhere else? I don't get it.) It's funny how in every major city people of each country and culture find each other and make their own area. The restaurants change. The names change. The faces change. I think that was also the part where the guy got kicked out of the restaurant and started picking a fight so we moseyed on the other way back to white people world :-P. - Random memory that I don't want to forget.

I seem to have left my glasses on the plane going to Barcelona. This means no watching tv once I'm in bed and holding my laptop near and dear to my face. It's pretty annoying. Guess I'll be getting some new ones soon. For now I'm just going to give my eyes a break and let them check out my eyelids.

Currently reading : Blame It on Paris By Laura Florand

Ludicrosity

Don't tell me it isn't a word. I just made it one. It's the word that best describes the things my company does. I'm in Newburgh, NY. Don't ask me where it is. I don't know. I heard it's west of NYC a good ways. I'll google it and find out shortly. It's about 20 here. Pretty warm compared to Omaha, which is where I was supposed to be tonight. Originally I was supposed to go to Newburgh and back, then to Omaha for the night. Then early this morning they discovered the plane we were supposed to take was broken in Texas. So instead of finding a new one they just delayed this flight 3 hours and canceled our overnight. Woo hoo! I get to go home. Or I can just get stuck in Newburgh because they're scared of ice in Atlanta... I give up. The main object of the game right now is to just not expect anything to go any certain way. Then whatever way it turns out is fine. They have us flying back tomorrow before noon and then sitting at the airport for 7.5 hours before we go to Tulsa for the night... We'll see about that. More ludicrosity if you ask me.

Atlanta has been tormented by the cold lately. And before those of you who live in sub-zero, snow covered lands 9 months of the year start to mock us, we live in Atlanta so we don't have to deal with that. Don't hate us just cause you're frozen solid :-P. Thanks to the cold in Atlanta I got to spend an extra 7 hours in Key West Friday night where the coldest it got was about 70. Yes, it was amazing and beautiful. I'm actually a little envious of myself for getting to go there. Then it was back on the plane, close the door for an hour and a half, and open it to snow.

All this talk of work and weather is boring even me to sleep. I'm sorry.

I think I mentioned the dating dealbreaker the other day. Tonight I realized I have another one. There was a fairly decent looking man on my flight tonight. He was sitting by the window and didn't really say much to me but smiled at me a lot and spent a lot of time looking at me. When he got off the plane he (awkwardly) went to shake my hand and gave me a paper with his name, number, and email address on it. It looked like it was written by a third grader... He had started writing out his email address, seen that it wouldn't fit as one line and scribbled it out and wrote it again smaller. He even had to correct his phone number. Is it so much to ask that a man be able to write like an adult? And I know I'm asking for the world, but how about he write like a male adult while he's at it. I'm sure I'm not the only one that gets incredible put off by silly things like accents and handwriting (and spelling, grammar, bad teeth, bad fingernails... )

The blue skies are deceiving. It’s 21 here.

I'm still in Kansas City. What was meant to be a nice, relaxing day in my hotel room has become an internet connection nightmare. Last night I couldn't get online. They offered to send someone up to fix it but it was late and I just wanted to sleep. Then this morning when I still couldn't get online I called downstairs and was informed that they have wireless in the public areas but don't have internet in the rooms. I thought this was strange since there was an ethernet cord in the room and the little booklet said there was internet. So later I went downstairs to ask what the deal was. The guy behind the desk says - we don't have internet in the rooms, just ethernet.... Last time I checked they were the same?? Then the internet help guy shows up and informs me that the internet for the hotel is working and proceeds to show me on the monitor. I let him know I think that's beautiful and all but that doesn't mean it works in my room. He basically tells me that's too bad. I can use the business center downstairs. That also is lovely and all but what's the point in having internet in my room if it doesn't work (yes, I know you have to take the cord and plug it in. I've done this a million times in a million hotels.) By this time I was so angry. I don't know if he was treating me like I was stupid cause he's Indian and I'm a woman, or because I'm blond, or because I had the worse bed-head ever. I was so mad that I turned around and walked away in the middle of what he said. I took my laptop down to the business center to prove that it wasn't the settings on my laptop. Mission accomplished they send a new ethernet cord up to my room. Unfortunately it still didn't work and was only two feet long anyway. I know this is dreadful but I'm still pretty mad about it. I finally had to take all my stuff and move to another room. So here I am. I lost my balcony and sleep number bed in the move, but there's snow all over the balcony and those sleep number beds are weird so it's ok.

I'm enjoying being blonde finally. I usually forget I'm blonde until I get some kind of reaction. Hopefully being treated like an idiot this morning had nothing to do with me or my hair color. We'll see if blondes really do have more fun. I have to bid and try to remember all the other things on my to-do list since I have a whole day here at the hotel. Tonight I'm supposed to hang out with my buddy Joshua. Should be fun times :).

snow, snow go away

I'm here in oh so fabulous Kansas City. I would be thrilled to be here cause I actually have friends who live here, but I'm too tired to do anything except lie on my bed. Today was a long day. It wasn't necessarily bad, just long. I signed in at 8:45am after waking up around 6 and we didn't get off the plane here until 11pm. We did have a long sit which meant it wasn't all work, but the sitting around sometimes makes it harder to keep your work momentum going. So after two weeks off I'm back at work and I survived. Part of the crazy length of the day was due to the massive blizzard we experienced this afternoon in Atlanta. Okay, massive blizzard might be a slight exaggeration, but there was a lot more snow than we're used to seeing in the ATL. There is actually a decent amount of snow on the ground here in MCI. It's nice to look at and doesn't bother me now that I've holed up in my hotel room for the next day or so.

I forgot to mention that I was on the radio the other day. I was listening to Star94 in the afternoon. This was unusual in the first place, and the fact that I decided to call in was even more unusual. Then on top of that they actually answered and considered what I had to say good enough to be on live radio. I was very nervous as I waited to talk to the djs. They were asking what your dating deal breakers were. One of mine is a redneck accent. I told them how I'm a flight attendant and i have a lot of really attractive men get on my flights, but once they start talking they lose all their appeal. Maybe I'm shallow. I don't care. We all have silly things that we can't deal with. That just happens to be one of mine.

I was lying in a very particular spot on the bed so I could get wireless here but now it kicked me off so I'll have to post this in the morning when I have the energy to fight with it.

The bane of my existence

I'm not going to make you guess. It's my room. If you've ever seen it you'll understand why. It is such a mess right now. I'm trying to rearrange it but I don't have very many options. It's making me insane.

As you may have noticed, I made it back from Germany. After having a crazy fun time at the club in Binsfeld (pop. 1000-8000 depending on who you ask) we drove to Frankfurt Saturday morning so I could get business elite going home. Sweeeet. I was really surprised to walk down the street of this quaint little German town and be in a dance club. I'm not talking about a pub with a dance floor either. This was a dance club (somehow fit into the historic old buildings) that had a downstairs for techno and upstairs for hip hop. It was a cool place with good music, but I honestly would've been content just to sit and watch people all night. It's fascinating to go to a different part of the world and see people my age-ish and how they dress and act. I knew there would be a lot of Americans there because of the military base, but then I started to see more and more people that made me feel like I was in Atlanta. I can't even remember how many different team jersies I saw as well as do-rags, baseball caps, and bling. I initially assumed everyone dressed like this was American until some of them walked past speaking German to each other. I also saw a guy who had a Jordan jersey on BACKWARDS. I'm assuming he wasn't American cause if he was he'd know that's a good way to look like an idiot. If he's German he can get away with it. They seem to get away with anything fashion-wise in Europe. It was pretty liberating to know that I could wear my black coat and my brown shoes and look just like everyone else there. It was a lot of fun to see the Euro-mullet again. I wore my hair in a mohawk when we went out and actually got a few thumbs up and other such signs of approval from other crazy haired people. The weather was so nice that evening that we walked to the club in short sleeves and were only mildly cold. I would've never expected such weather in Germany in January.

Now it's back to Georgia in January. I'm loving it. I think I'm still a little jet-lagged. I get tired about 6pm every day. It's kind of annoying cause I had to drink some caffiene to stay awake through the evening and now I'm awake. Looking at my room is wearing me out though. Especially now that I have a belly full of my mama's good cooking.

Today I took a journey to Chattanooga where I took part in a hair class. I had my hair bleached a week or so ago but we had trouble with the remaining red from my last hair class I was in. After about 4 steps they got the remaining odd colors out of my hair and it is a true platinum blonde. I will post pictures tomorrow. I really like it. They also sent me home with a ton of salon grade hair products which is always fun.

I guess it's time to take my extremely platinum blonde head and put it on my pillow on my awkwardly placed bed in my ridiculously messy room.

Currently reading : Hide By Lisa Gardner