leftover land... mmm

This is what I call living the dream... I'm at my fabulous overnight in Des Moines (properly pronounced dess moi-ness). Another king sized bed which rocks my face off. The weather here is really pleasant. There's still snow on the ground in places but I'd be surprised if it was even the low 50s here. I wore my sweater and scarf over my short sleeved shirt and was warm. I just finished off some lovely cold leftovers which will probably cause me to dream really ridiculous things.

Last night I had one of the loveliest meals someone (besides my family) has prepared for me, and this evening I had it again. Only cold and out of tupperware. It was still good. Yesterday J invited me to come eat with him. He has been buying kitchen stuff and I think he was just eager to put it all to use. He wouldn't tell me what we were eating and when I got there he was scurrying around like mad. I was extremely impressed with the multi-tasking taking place. There was beef on the grill, bruschetta on bread with parmesan toasting on it in the oven, a salad (no iceberg) already prepared in the fridge, shrimp for the salad being browned, pasta boiling, sauce simmering, brie and bread as well as 3 kinds of olives on the table, asparagus ready to be steamed, mushrooms to be sauteed, and strawberries cut up and soaked in a lemon liquer to go on icecream later... It was so nice and tasted so good. I felt like I was in a fancy restaurant (or.... the queen of the world :-D). I even enjoyed mushrooms. I don't really know why I don't like them since they kind of remind me of olives and I love olives. I'm working on it though. But they were good with the sauce, beef, asparagus, and pasta. Combine the good food with wonderful company and it was a perfect way to end a truly restful, happy week.

And then it was back to the real world today. I wasn't feeling going to work today but once I got the passengers on the plane it reminded me why I do like my job. The first place we went today was Monroe, Louisiana and I have to say there's something about southerners. I'm not just saying this because I am one either. There are certain places I fly in the south where I know there will be at least a few really friendly people on my flight. They might have ridiculous accents, but at least they're friendly :). And that's what makes my job enjoyable. I hate when I have a whole day and no one talks to me. It can get lonely out there.

Speaking of lovely meals, I had a completely different type of one again today, which also made going to work difficult cause I was so full and sleepy. At my parent's house we had split pea soup, deviled eggs, potato salad, tuna and crackers, carrots and jello with pineapple. It's funny cause they're all pretty simple things, but made in a way that was so good, and something I wouldn't make for myself. My mom adds all the extra stuff that makes it really yummy. I don't know how to describe it but it's so good to go to my mother's house and eat real food, not the kind you find in every other restaurant (or my refrigerator).

It is now past my bedtime. After writing this blog I'll probably dream about food, food, and more food. Last night as I was admiring and enjoying the wonderful meal I realized how good God is/was to us when He made eating such an enjoyable thing. Not just the being full part, but all the varieties of flavors, textures, and colors. It's funny because He could've made necessary things, like sleeping and eating, unpleasant or just boring, but instead He chose to make them both things we could really love and enjoy. As you may be able to tell, I really love food and I really love sleep. Thank you God :). And thank you, God, for giving me people in my life who like to cook yummy and pretty things for me.

frustrated is the word of the day

I think I could really get used to not working more than I work. Now that I'm feeling some better I've been able to enjoy being at home more. Because of a court appearance that never happened and me being sick, I've only worked 3 of the last 12 days... I didn't realize how much it was until I just counted it up. I haven't been able to enjoy it as fully as I would prefer since I've been sick but at least I'm getting better now. The weather has been amazing lately. There have even been reports of people getting a little bit of color from the sun! I sat next to the lake in Peachtree City yesterday and watched the planes fly over and the old men jog by in shorts so short they should be illegal. Such fun :). It has been nice to have time off to do nothing but get well.

I've been a little frustrated with my life lately (before this hiatus) due to the lack of productivity. I feel like all I do is go to work and sit at home. My job isn't very challenging or fulfilling, which is fine, but it means that I have to challenge myself in other ways. There are things that I want to do, books to read, things to write, things to make, music to play, people to keep up with, and I haven't been doing them. I guess I just need to make goals for myself and then meet them. I'll figure it out. Just a bit frustrated right now.

I'm also frustrated with my job. I feel like I work for a company where I have no voice. Scheduling has been a huge frustration lately. I submit swaps and then get denied for reasons that don't make sense. The logical response is, well call them and talk to them, but then I can't get anyone on the phone. I feel like my hands are tied. Or like in my dreams where I'm trying to yell at someone and make myself heard but since I can't yell no one listens to me. Once again, very frustrating. I also haven't gotten paid for work I did over 3 months ago. It's sad to me that people can't just do their jobs without you constantly chasing after and keeping up with them. I spent half the afternoon yesterday on the phone trying to figure out why they haven't paid me yet. I also got a jury duty summons which meant that they took a day off my trip next week. Sounds good except that I'm losing about 10 flight hours (pay). The thing is, I'm on jury duty standby. I may not even have to go but wont' find out until after 5pm the night before, which is too late to stay on my trip.

I think that's about it. I'm frustrated and just need to make it motivate me to do all that I can to change things. Today is going to be a good day though. It's too beautiful not to be.

what a waste

It really bugs me to spend all this time off feeling lousy. The weather has been beautiful, I have people I need to catch up with, things I need to do, places to go, and I've felt like crap the whole time. I did get some things accomplished. Got my oil changed. You can now walk in my room. Got my hair cut. But it's still frustrating cause I wanted to do a lot more. I went to the doctor today cause I can't call out without getting paperwork from a doctor. Blah. More money spent. I feel like I go to the doctor too much. But then I remembered that two of my friends don't have health insurance which keeps them from going as much, and a lot of the rest of them are men, which keeps them from going at all... And I felt a little better.

Last night I went to bed at 8:30 and woke up at 11 this morning. I've been having dreams lately that I can't play my violin anymore. Partially cause my fingernails are too long (which they are), and partially cause it's been too long (which it has). I should do something about that. About both.

Now I'm going to do what I've been doing most of the rest of the day - lie on the couch, drink Emergen-C loaded water, and do nothing. Good times.

Someone needs to entertain me.

these are the days...

The days that make it all worthwhile. Being at home during the week rocks my face off. The sky is my favorite shade of blue. Not that gross winter blah white. It's spring and fall blue. I'm sitting on my balcony (unfortunately in the shade) listening to the sounds of the wind in the trees, the trucks on the road, planes overhead... All the beautiful sounds of nature :). I still feel funky but after being woken up by the sun burning me up I decided to go to the gym. Didn't do a lot cause I have no energy but by tomorrow my legs and shoulders should be joining my triceps in pain. I love it.

After the gym went with J to Moe's and sat outside and enjoyed the warm sunshine. I love weather like this when you can be comfortable outside. When you can drive with the windows down, top open, music loud. It makes me happy.

I also journeyed over to Newnan and got my hair cut and colored. I was looking a bit shaggy and since my hair grows so fast most of the color had been cut off. It's nothing ridiculous. Just like before where you can't really tell it's colored, which is how I like it. It just brightens up my not brown not blond hair.

My room is still a wreck. It seems like it always is lately. I wish Mary Poppins existed and would come magically clean it for me. Ha.. I should work on it now but it's too nice out here. Jamie and I are going to see Spamalot tonight, which should be lots of fun. Woo hoo :).

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

It is quite a frabjous day, but I don't feel like calloohing or callaying. Either I'm getting a cold or pollen has come to visit a bit early this year. Either way my face hurts. I'm eating wonderful homemade oatmeal cookies though which helps anything get better (right?). I've decided that God needs to make the sun rise in the west and set in the east so we'll have sun on our balcony all day, instead of until 10am. Sounds like a plan huh?

I like the way I ask questions on here like someone is actually going to answer them. At least I keep myself entertained.

Last year around this time some of my stuff got stolen out of my car when I was down in Griffin. They caught the guy because evidently he had stolen a lot of stuff. Now he's on trial so I got called to go to court this morning. Good times. Instead of going to court I actually sat around for almost 2 hours. Turns out the actual trial is next week so I have to go back and testify. Cool thing is, I was supposed to do a 2-day on Monday and Tuesday and since I have to be in court I can't do it. They're trying to get restitution but she thinks he'll actually go to prison, in which case he wouldn't be able to pay. It would be nice to get money for all the stuff he stole, but I also think he deserves to serve time. Not sure which I prefer. Good thing it isn't up to me.

After that I called the foot doctor. Every time I go to them the problem seems to get worse, which is pretty irritating considering the time and money invested. I want good results already!! I finally saw a different doctor who was much more informative and seems a little more proactive about sorting it out. It's just really frustrating. I hate spending $25 just so a doctor can be like "you have a problem."

Next I went to get my oil changed. My life is so exciting. I hate having to spend all this money, but I guess it's the beauty of being a responsible adult. So there goes half of a beautiful Monday. I like the way this man committed a crime against me and a lot of other people and we are the ones who, a year down the road, are having to take time out of our lives to make sure he gets punished. At least he's getting punished though. The sun is still out though so I should find a way to enjoy it.

This blog isn't turning out like I thought it would. I guess today was just an errand day so I can't expect much more. I think I'll go have some more cookies :).

I still need to write about China. It's on my to do list (along with cleaning my room and dumping out my fish tank). One of these days...

Oh yeah... I knew I had something good to say. Yesterday I actually ran 3 miles in just over 30 minutes. I thought I was going to die but thankfully I didn't :). I've been pretty consistent about running which makes me feel good, even though some days I can barely go a mile. Hopefully I can make it a habit. I did see a fellow flight attendant on Saturday (married male) who asked was it just him or was I gaining weight... ha... thanks buddy. I will keep in mind that this is the same guy that said "you look much better with long hair. I'm not saying you look ugly now, you just look better with long".... We celebrated my daddy's birthday yesterday too which was really nice. My mom made a fabulous lunch followed by carrot cake and icecream. Mmmm...

That's all for now.

profile music

I'm normally a hater of music on people's pages cause you usually only the beginning of the song over and over, but this song is too fabulous. It makes me happy. It reminds me of Queen which also makes me happy.

I'm going to sleep so I can be at the gym at o'dark early to ride a bike. I figure I need to take advantage of the new gym member enthusiasm I have, and having a gym buddy, and make it work for me.

I like being off work long enough to completely forget about work. And I still have a whole day and another night at home before I have to work again. Yay!

Today is my daddy's birthday and my mother is coming home from China. Good times all round.

Currently listening : Grace Kelly By Mika

there's no place like home

I just got back from a long, long trip. So glad to be home. And I am not just home, I'm home for the next 3 and a half days. Nearly 4 since I don't have to work until 1355 next Wednesday. This is the first time in over a month I've been home for more than 2 days in a row. It makes me le happy.

Things that don't make me le happy:
- We left for Atlanta 6.5 hours late this morning. Gotta love loading everyone up, getting out on the runway, and then having some maintenance issue. I guess the silver lining was that I didn't have to go to Witchita after that.
- Getting up at 4am. Especially not when it's -100 (at least) outside.
- Getting a jury duty notice. Last time I had jury duty I got a speeding ticket on the way there for going 42 in a 40, except it was during school hours.

Things that do make me le happy:
- I'm learning to enjoy running. It actually feels good. I spent about 50 minutes on the treadmill yesterday and ran for at least 30. I'm able to run longer and faster than before and it hasn't even taken much time. Still have a long way to go but for a running hater, I'm pretty pleased.
- I've lost weight. I think between walking miles and miles each day in China, eating lots of veggies and little else, and going to the gym a little it's beginning to happen. My uniform is fitting better as well.
- BEING HOME

I need to write about my China trip before I forget it all. It almost feels surreal to think of my mom and Israel still over there and what they're doing and how different it is from everything here.

I'm so happy to be home.

arg...

just wrote a blog and it got lost. pisses me off.

the moral of the story was, i'm going home tomorrow. leaving here around 930am to go to tokyo. then to atlanta around 430p. should arrive there around 240p (contrary to what my email said tanya and amie. hopefully i can get a ride.)

I'll write more when i get home and don't hate the internet so much.

you're so far away from me...

This is my last full day in Fenghua and it feels weird. It's been nice to be in one place for more than 24 hours. We've spent most of the time walking around, looking in shops, and eating. Everything is so cheap here. The other night the three of us went to eat with one of Israel's coworkers. We ordered 4 dishes and each had rice. The total was 70 RMB which is less than $10. I'm having trouble finding souvenirs because it seems all you can buy here are sweaters, coats, shoes, and food. And most of you back home wouldn't enjoy the food I could bring back for you.

We went to a market yesterday with fresh food and meat in open stalls. They even had live octopi. It's very interesting. I can't even begin to list all the different unusual foods. They even have dogs for sale out back (yes, for eating). Last night we ate at the home of one of Israel's coworkers. We had a really nice time and ate some really unusual foods. I haven't even seen a fork since I got off the airplane on Monday. I'm doing pretty good with the chopsticks but I always mess up when someone is watching me and manage to drop my food, or just not pick it up. When you eat you order several different dishes and everyone gets bowls of rice. The dishes go in the middle and you just use your chopsticks to put the food onto your rice and eat it from there. They do have spoons sometimes, which is nice, but the Chinese people usually keep the spoon in the left hand and and chopsticks in the right.

After we finish up online we're going to go back to this place we ate the other day where the ladies taught us to make dumplings. There is so much to write about but it would take me forever.

I think if I lived here for a while I would develop body issues. I am bigger than every woman i have met here. I can't find shoes big enough for my feet (and my feet really aren't that big!) I can't even imagine what it would be like if i tried to buy jeans here. Last night I was told that my legs are longer and bigger than the Chinese (which I already knew.) No one here has much of a butt either so they must think mine is enormous. Oh well. That's why I love America... haha Oh yeah, and my nose "is very high (long)".

More to come later. We go back to Shanghai tomorrow and then if all goes to plan I'll leave for Tokyo early Monday. I should leave Tokyo around 4:30pm and get to Atlanta around 2pm. Same day. How cool is that?

Peace from China.

it's Wednesday over here

Greetings from China. Last year at this time I never thought I'd be saying that. My mother and I left Atlanta Sunday morning and flew to Tokyo (BUSINESS ELITE - Woo hoo!!). From there we flew to Shanghai where Israel met us at the airport. We spent the night in Shanghai and after having a good wander around the city embarked on the remainder of our journey to his house. We took the train to Ningbo, which is about 4 hours south of Shanghai, and then took a taxi the rest of the way to Fenghua where he lives. I think it took us 48 hours to get there (granted we did take our time in Shanghai). Since Saturday morning I've been in 5 countries.

China is a really interesting place. I've only seen one or two other non black haired people and one black person. People often stare and even when I smile at them they continue to stare. I am once again reminded of how spoiled we are in the US. Endless supplies of hot water. Cushy beds. Central heat and air. Emissions control. People who follow traffic laws.

There's so much more to write but I'll probably wait til I get back and do a big ol' write up on it. My cell phone is roaming down here so I've received a few texts messages, though I can't reply to them. I even answered a phone call but I have no idea how much that cost me. I'll find out. It's nice to have some contact with the other side of the world. I still have my watch on home time so I can kind of keep up with what everyone is doing (assuming I can remember what day of the week it is). I slept for about 11 hours last night so I think I might be getting adjusted to the time over here. I'm sure I will just in time to head home :).

I haven't seen an of the typical Chinese take out boxes. Have eaten a lot of Chinese food but none of it is anything like the kind we have back home. And it isn't bad manners to spit things on the table here.. kinda gross if you ask me. but really, who is?

I'm off to pay bills and see if I can email Verizon about making my phone work.

Here we go a-traveling

I think I'm packed and ready. This is the first time in a long time that I've packed for mor than 4 days and it didn't involve any navy blue polyester. Scary but fun.

My mother and I are leaving for China in the morning. I'm surprisingly nervous. Surprisingly, because this isn't the most daring adventure I've ever embarked on. I'll even have my mom with me! I guess my main concerns revolve around getting stuck either in Shanghai or in Tokyo and not having enough money to get back to work in time. I believe this is the first time I've gone on a vacation without a credit card in years and years.

Other than that, I have my warm clothes packed. According to Peter's wise council, I've packed enough beads, hatchets, and mirrors to hopefully buy something equivalent to Manhattan. If Peter Stuyvesant can do it, why can't I?

I would love to write more but this week has been ridiculous and I'm exhausted. Today was the latest I slept all week and it was 6am eastern time (though it was 5am in Monterrey where I was).

For those who are concerned, we will be leaving tomorrow morning at 10am flying from Atlanta to Tokyo. We should arrive there around 2:25pm on MONDAY afternoon. Then we'll get a flight from Tokyo to Shanghai where Israel will meet us and we'll stay for the night. Then we'll spend the week around Ningbo where he lives. I'll probably fly back to Tokyo Monday morning and leave around 4pm for Atlanta. Crazily enough, I'll get back on Monday around 2.... Go figure. I'm supposed to work on the 14th but am trying to swap just to give myself some more time to miss flights and such.

That's all for now. I plan to be checking email and myspace and such. I'll try to update on how the trip is going but I'll have to see how that goes.

Currently reading : The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity By Lee Strobel

oh yeah

I'm proud of myself. The other day I ran 2.5 miles in 30 minutes which is not fast but my personal best. I haven't been able to run much because of my schedule but I ran for 25 min solid and went faster than I have before. And this is only my third time in a week. Hopefully I'll do enough walking in China to make up for not going to the gym. Hate to take a break so soon after I've just started back. As long as I keep trying, right?

I heart sore muscles

Thanks in huge part to J, I am now a proud member of PTC's World Gym. I am also the proud owner of very sore muscles. It feels so good. I went yesterday and today. Ran/walked some, worked out, and did enough crunches so I can feel every muscle in my stomach. It feels fantastic. I can't wait to see results.

Had a great day with my family. Celebrated my birthday with wonderful food and lovely gifts.

I have to work at 719 in the am so I'm out. Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend.

caffeine is the devil

I knew getting the Diet Coke with my Zaxby's was a bad idea... And here it is, one hour and 35 minutes into my most fabulous day and I'm still awake, messing around online. But the Zaxby's was sooo good. Well worth the pain.

Many of you are aware of the somewhat obsessive, never satisfying relationship I have with Flica, our online scheduling, swapping program. I would like to point out here that my relationship with Flica is not completely one sided. When I signed in a while ago to see if they posted my new schedule it said happy birthday. How nice, huh? Who says scheduling doesn't love me? ha

Lately has been tired. That's mainly why I haven't written. I went to Maine this weekend which was really nice but other than that (and partially including that) all I do these days is go to and from the airport, either by plane or by car. It's all good though. Today was a nice day at work. I had really friendly passengers who made me smile. The weather is still bumpy and I'm getting a little tired of being thrown around for hours on end, but what can you do?

I'm learning that pride goeth before a super suckiness at crossword puzzles. All my life I've fancied myself a word girl. I like to read. I read a lot. I remember a lot of what I read. I like to write. I like good spelling and proper grammar. But I can not, for the life of me, do crossword puzzles. And it makes me feel like I'm stupid or something. I think it's God's way of keeping me in my place :-P. Tanya says I need to start out with easy ones, but I guess the easy ones aren't easy enough. Now I feel like I have to be able to do them just because it's a challenge.

My China trip is sneaking up on me and I just realized I have a lot to do. It looks as though my mother dearest and I will be making the journey together, which will be nice. That's a long way to go on your own.

Another thing that will make long trip much more pleasant is that I have the best friends in the whole world and a bunch of them went in together and got me an ipod for my birthday. I consider myself most blessed. Not just to have an ipod but to have friends of the quantity AND quality that I have. And that's just my friends. Nevermind my amazing family. God has been and continues to be so good to me. A very wise person told me recently that it's really important not to focus so much on one thing you want that you miss the other things around you. I'm afraid I do that sometimes when it comes to my friends and family. I want that one special person. I want to find that someone I will spend my life with, but obviously it isn't God's time and I would hate to think that I neglect the wonderful friendships that I have because I'm looking for something else. Oh yeah... I love love love my ipod. It rocks my face off.

Just some thoughts from a very blessed, but crossword-ly (yes I just made that up) challenged girl.

5000

Sometime recently I had the 5000th view on my blog. Woo hoo!

This was a long week of work. Now I'm home for one night and off to PWM tomorrow to see the fabulous Amy for her birthday, as well as my lovely Matt, Adri, and Shane. Should be good times.

I like the ad where they're like "lock the cashbox... or is it stop the catbox?" It makes me smile.

It's Friday night at 9:14pm and I'm ready to go to sleep. I feel lame. But too tired to do anything about it.

Hasta la pasta.

when you feel so tired but you can't sleep...

Evidently sleep hates me. I spent most of the afternoon trying to stay awake and now I've been lying in bed for almost 2 hours and can't go to sleep. My mind won't ever stop going. So frustrating.

I'm realizing how much I have to do tomorrow. I start a 4 day on Tuesday morning so I have to get ready for that. And my room is disgusting. It seems like all I do is try to keep it clean. Lately I haven't even been trying though. I think I've been in denial about it, like if I ignore it it will clean itself, which is probably how it got to this point. It's awful. So I need to clean it up, do laundry, put my clean clothes away, pack for this week, etc... Basically good times.

The last two days off have been lovely. Last night Amie, Jay, and I had supper with my family, which was fabulous as always since my mother is the best cook ever. Then after supper Peter and I went shopping for dress shirts. Too bad noone else knew that's what we were doing and it just looked like I was wearing 6 ties for the fun of it (we were trying to match shirts with ties he already had).

This morning I went to church then back to the family's for lunch. Also got my hair styled, then restyled, then restyled, then finally when I threatened Peter's life he put it back in a way that I could wear in public. I don't really care what he does to my hair really, it just feels nice to have my hair messed with.

Tonight Amie and I used what was left on a giftcard she had and all the change in the bottom of her purse to buy stuff to make quesadillas. It was so disappointing though because the avos we bought were harder than rocks. The lesson for the evening was microwaving avocados does not make them soft. It just makes them really hot. (I swear it was Amie's idea.. haha). The quesadillas were pretty good considering it was my first attempt and I had to use a frying pan to cook them.

Oh yeah, this is something I overheard on a flight the other day. A man and a college age girl were talking and I'm almost positive he asked her if she was bilingual. Her answer was (in English) I'm not bilingual, I just speak Spanish. I really hope I misunderstood her, otherwise I should probably feel sorry for her for being so stupid. It did make me laugh to myself though.

I'm thinking about joining the gym. It's not like I need something else to spend money on every month, but I really, really need to exercise. I would feel better, look better, probably sleep better. I'd save money in the long run cause at this point I'm having to replace all my clothes because none of them fit me anymore :-P. Right now there is a $1 sign up fee so I pretty much have to decide tomorrow if I'm going to do it... My foot is finally getting better and I can get back to running. It's frustrating cause J started back running the same time I did in Nov. but didn't stop and he's lost about 10lb. I, on the other hand, have gained several more, bringing myself to an all time high. Woo hoo. I'm not saying I'm fat or anything, I just know I could be healthier and it would be good for me to be active... We shall see.

This is getting long and I'm still not ready to sleep so I think I'll have to try something else. Hasta la pasta.

Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain/plane

I'm so glad that I only have one flight tomorrow morning, then I go home. The part that isn't fun is that the flight is at 6am. We were supposed to go back to ATL and do a round trip to the grand city of Erie, PA but our FO lost her voice so she had to be replaced and the replacing took so long that our rest got super reduced tonight. wheww... That was a long sentence and now I'm all out of breath. The problem is, I slept really late this morning and can't seem to be tired yet. All day today I've felt slightly out of it. I drank coffee thinking that might pull things together more in my head, but nothing has seemed to work. I feel like I'm forgetting something. I just had a panic moment and went to check and make sure that my manual was in my bag.

I've noticed that they made myspace somewhat Australian or something.. It's kind of odd cause they put the date day first, month second, opposite what we do here. I wonder how many people that will confuse. My heigh is also listed in centimeters. So for all of you who have been wondering how many centimeters tall I am, now you know. I know it's been keeping you awake at night.

I continue to be addicted to Flica. Swapping is just too much fun. I swapped my 4 day next week for one of J's which should be fun. Work isn't that much fun anyway so it's always nice to be able to work with someone fun. Still working on some swaps though. I need to get some more hours but would rather work longer on the days I'm already working than give up more of my off days.. We'll see.

As much fun as Tulsa is 410 is going to come too early.

And if I had a million dollars we'd take a limousine cause it costs more

I've had that song stuck in my head ever since I heard it this morning. It makes me smile a little :).

I just realized that I didn't speak to a single person I know today. Only my pilots and I just met them last week. At least they're nice. I was in Montreal last night and my phone is roaming there so I can't call. I did get some text messages and a voicemail upon my arrival back into the good ol' US of A. I'm not complaining. It was a quiet day which is fine, just a little odd to realize that.

I also didn't have any internet access while up in Canadia, which is quite frustrating. I'm addicted to Flica (our scheduling site) and keep checking to see if they've approved any of my swaps. Today was nice though, despite the lack of communication. I got up late this morning (we landed in Montreal at 1215 last night and didn't get to the hotel until 130. That airport is enormous), then walked a few blocks out of the ghetto to eat lunch. In spite of the cold it was nice to get out, walk around, and see the city a little. I don't understand how people live in climates like that. I saw something really interesting - we were walking back from lunch and passed a little park where there were a lot of pigeons parking off with their feathers all fluffed up. All of the sudden they started flying around, but kind of in an orderly way. I thought the wind was doing something weird. They flew to one side, then back, and I saw this lady trying to walk through them and was thinking every time she walks a different way they keep flying in her face and all around her. I finally realized after she had made a half circle walk around the park, that all the pigeons were following her. I guess they had seen her coming up, flown over to her and kept going until she stopped. It was the weirdest thing. And sure enough, she stopped and started throwing bird seed to them. I didn't know that pigeons could recognize a person but that is definitely what happened. And even before she started throwing the bird seed more birds kept flying up. Definitely something a little out of the ordinary.

This morning when I woke up I washed my face I was looking in the mirror and noticed a weird mark on my cheek. Some of you know that whenever we take off I write the time on the back of my left hand, kind of between my thumb and index finger. Evidently I spent a great deal of the night sleep on my hand. No amount of soap and water would get it off so I had to go to lunch with three little numbers on my cheek. How cool am I?

This hotel we're staying in is really nice. I'm in the grand town of Monroe, LA. Not a bad place though, it seems. They have earplugs, popcorn, full kitchen, nice soap and shampoo, pleasant color schemes, and will even go grocery shopping for only the cost of the groceries. There is a mall across the street and breakfast. Only drawback seems to be that I can't pick up wireless. Arg.

Ah, I have just discovered why they give you earplugs. Here comes the train! I don't think I have anything else to blather on about. Tomorrow night I'll be in Tulsa, then Thursday I'm home. Four day trips are way too long!

I've tried posting this 3 times with the proper time, not Pacific time, and it won't let me. Arg!!

I can't think of a subject

I don't have much to say. I don't seem to very often lately. Probably makes some people happy :-P. Things are good which helps, I guess. I just had a day of driving around in the rain, talking to my other little sister Roya, seeing the family, eating my mom's great food, and general pleasantness along those lines. The weather here is disgusting. Friday it was awful. There were tornadoes south of here and it rained and rained the entire day. Yesterday, when I had to go to work, it was beautiful. And today when I'm home again it's gross. It may seem like a complaint that the weather is only beautiful when I hvae to work, but I'm actually really glad I'm not having to work in this weather. Flights get delayed. People get grouchy. I have to be in the rain cause we don't have jetways in Atlanta. All good times.

Yesterday I flew to Melbourne, FL and back and then to New Orleans and back. It was a pretty easy, normal day except that I was really tired. Then I came home and watched The Devil Wears Prada with J. It was cute. Glad I've seen it now. Maybe because I had already read the book, it was one of the few movies I've actually really wanted to see. We did watch Invincible Friday night which was good. I'm all about the feel good movies. There's enough crap in life that I don't need to pay someone to bring more of it into my head.

There isn't much else to report on. I was reading back on some of my old blogs and they seem more interesting to me for some reason. Who knows... I need to go put my clean clothes away and do something productive. I'm reading Case for Faith and would like to finish it soon. I guess sitting on myspace isn't going to make that happen, huh? :-P

Oh yeah, Amie's gonna be home soon too. Woo hoo!!

polar opposites

I'm in a really good mood today but need to vent about a few things that really bugged me today and recently.

I can't stand people that let their children drink lots and lots of Coke on airplanes. Or people that let their children stand up and move around while the airplane is taxiing. Do they let their kids stand up in moving cars? (FYI to parents - the juices on airplanes have nearly as much sugar as sodas.) I can't stand people that turn around before I've gotten to them and are already telling me what they want when I'm obviously busy with someone else. Or the people that think they're cute telling you they want the filet mignon. Yeah, we all want filet mignon honey.

Now for the good stuff.

This morning as I was driving into work I saw the love of my life landing. I nearly wrecked, I was so distracted. I wish I could've just stopped and stared as it flew over me and landed... I even got goosebumps watching it. As you can see, I worked today. It was my 7th day being at work. Normally I would hate it but these last few days of work haven't really been typical. I got to spend an entire day in San Francisco. Did a lot of riding around on planes and not working but still getting paid. I did a two day on Tuesday with a great crew which made that trip really nice. Got home last night and was able to swap a trip later this month for a trip today. The moral of the story is, work is going well. I did a round trip to Springfield, MO, made money, and am now home and not tired. I did accidentally wear two different trouser socks. It was noticeable if you looked at my feet, but I don't think anyone did. One was opaque and the other like hose.. Haha..

I can't remember what else I had to say. There are my gripes and my smiles. Polar opposites. Life is good (even though the weather here is disgusting). Hope everyone else is happy as well.