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.