Lying in bed just like Brian Wilson did

I don't know any songs about Providence. But I am lying in bed, evidently just like Brian Wilson did - though I'm not sure if he was lying in bed with his laptop.

Yesterday was a day that makes you glad you work for an airline, and makes you hate working for an airline. I spent the first part of the day lounging in Albany, NY. I ran, which made me feel good, but wasn't easy since it's been about a week. The weather in Georgia has been ridiculous for being outdoors. It was cooler in NY but not as much cooler as I would've liked. The change of scenery is nice though. We got back to Atlanta around 7 and were supposed to have a 2.5 hour break. Our plane was late and there was terrible weather surrounding the airport, so long story short, we left the gate about 1:15 late, then took off about 2 hours later. We were in good company though with about 30 other planes hanging out on the runways trying to leave as well. We finally made it to Providence at 2:30am. Hotel around 3:15am.

I've been realizing more and more lately what a role we flight attendants have in making passengers happy or miserable. I knew this before, but after flying with angry people two weeks in a row and now happy people two weeks in a row, it's reinforced. The last few days I've flown with a lady with a crazy deep Texas accent and a British guy. Both have an amazing sense of humor and people always leave the planes happy - even if it's 2:30am. We actually had a fun time on the flight. My crew is great and it makes all the difference in the world. I also seem to be sending off some kind of vibe cause all the old men are really loving me lately :-P.

Last night on my flight I had a lady that I've known since I was born but probably haven't seen in 15 years (Marianne Dias). She was on her way up to visit her daughter, Jenny, who gave me my first short haircut when I was little. I didn't recognize her (I'm not normally on the lookout for long lost friends at 11pm), but she gave me a note cause she wasn't sure it was me. I also met a girl yesterday who is on her way down to Rio for the summer. She said she was planning on going to Buenos Aires at some point so I told her when I'd be there and she might meet us there. These are two examples of why my job is great.

I'll be in Providence until tomorrow morning. I have recurrent next week and have some homework to do before then so that's probably what I'll be doing. And watching the food network. I kinda like these days of forced relaxation.

PS. Since I didn't blog yesterday on the day of, I will wish my wonderful older sister Christine a happy birthday month.

Giant steps are what you take walking on the moon

Considering the amount of sleep I've gotten in the last few days I'm ridiculously tired. It's thundering outside. Hopefully it will rain and cool things down. The heat might have something to do with how tired I am. I also ate a bunch of pizza and icecream a while ago. Talk about falling off the wagon - I've been eating junk, spending money, and not exercising. It's amazing how easy it is to lose concentration on your goals.

I went to the foot doctor today and found out that genetics suck and I get to have surgery on my foot some time this year. Joy has already had it so I'm not concerned about the actual surgery at all. The problem is that, due to the nature of my job, I'll have to take 6-8 weeks off of work. I was pretty sure it was going to happen but now that it has been confirmed I can start figuring the rest out. I'm hoping to do it around the end of the year so I'll be in recuperation over the holidays. This will also give me time to prepare for it physically and financially. Good times. I'm not worried about it though. God has always taken care of me in the past and I know He will continue to do so in the future. It's kind of exciting to me to think about having that much time off work. I just need to find a side job that I can do while sitting or save a lot of money now.

I ran across a good friend from Europe on facebook last night and it's made me remember so many things. I don't usually miss things, but there were a lot of good times had with this person while I was in Madrid. It's hard not to feel a little pain in my heart when I think of it and how it is now so long ago.

I'm waiting for my laundry and trying to think what I should be doing to get ready for my trip tomorrow. And trying to stay awake. Knowing me, I'll be really sleepy until it's actually time to go to sleep. Then I'll be wide awake.

Lazy Sunday evening

This is the second night in a row I have been doing nothing at my own house. It's pretty cool. I forgot what it was like. I was supposed to cater yesterday but I pulled something in my shoulder Friday, aggravated it working Friday night, and woke up yesterday with a really sore neck and shoulder. I decided that recuperation was a necessity. After I got my hair done yesterday I came home and sat in front of the tv with my laptop and some Publix sushi. It was awesome. Then I fell asleep on the couch around 5:30, woke up at 9:30 enough to move to my bed, and stayed there til this morning. Once again, it was awesome.

Today was an equally leisurely day. It's too hot to do anything that isn't leisurely. It's so hot, I sweat while I'm showering. I did strenuous things like go to church, eat lunch with my parents and Michal, load music on Michal's ipod, go to Starbucks with Isabella, and wander around Ross and Target. I found the perfect shade of hot pink nail polish. Well it better be perfect since I spent 15 minutes deciding.

I've also decided that I am doomed to be a boring dresser. The only interesting pieces of clothing I own were passed down to me by someone else (Amie or Molly). I try to get things that are interesting or unusual but always end up with the same old solid color things like white tank tops.

I guess a boring wardrobe suits me since I seem to be limited to super comfortable, super boring footwear. I wore shoes with one inch heels Friday night and my foot still hurts. It made me realize that the only shoes I wear anymore are my Teva and Clarks flip flops, Clarks work shoes, and running shoes. I have an appointment tomorrow with the foot doctor to see if I'm doomed to have the same surgery that Joy had the pleasure of experiencing.

I think I'll go to sleep now so I can stop feeling like I should be cleaning my room.

From the Inn by the Bay

I'm in Portland, ME again. Second time in a week. I love this town. I love the old buildings and houses. I love that it's near the water. Today is rainy and cool. I've been watching seagulls out my window. I love that there are people out walking everywhere. I think the closeness of this area is something I really like about it. I went running this morning. I ran down Spring St. past a lot of restaurants and shops. I feel like I'm part of the life happening around here, even though I'm just running through. Again, I managed to plan (or not plan) my run so on the last 2 minutes of my first 10 minute run I was headed up a huge hill. I had to walk to the top, but did the whole second 10 minute run. I thought about turning around so I could keep running, but once I got to the top of the hill I was glad I didn't. There was a park at the top that looked out over the bay. I could see the boats and islands. The rainyness of the day seems to make everything greener and brighter. There are also a lot of flowers blooming up here which looks and smells wonderful. Once I got to the top of the hill I found a trail that went down to the edge of the water so I could run along and look at all the boats. This type of life, small city on the water, is so different than any that I've lived. I'm still surprised by how many homeless people there are here. After I ran Shane picked me up and we had lunch with Amy. I'm so thankful I was able to swap my trip and be up here.

I'll probably write more during my 3 hour break in Atlanta.

Nobody cries, there’s only butterflies... hahaha

Sometimes it feels like I'm never going to get a chance to slow down and relax. It's silly cause I will. I know I will. I should be able to tomorrow afternoon when I'm in Portland. But right now all I can think about is getting up early for work for the next 5 days, doing 18 flights, and then catering two days after that. My room is once again barely walkable and I can't be bothered to do anything about it. The main thing is I'm really tired. Once I get a good night's rest tonight I'll realize it isn't all so overwhelming.

I got to spend a very lovely day with Peter and Michal. We drove (or sat in Atl traffic) up to Lenox and wandered around and shopped and looked at all the strange people. Then we went to Krispy Kreme and had some doughnuts hot off the.. doughnut maker? We also made a stop at the Stewart Avenue thrift store and then looked for hookers on the way home. We didn't see any. I guess it was too early. It was good fun with half the Holby litter. Since we spent about half the day in the car I was able to get caught up on all my pop music, since that's all Peter will allow me to listen to in MY car :-P. I feel so educated now.

Last night I catered a backyard party for some people on the south side of Ptc. Their house, yard, and pool were amazing in a very unpretentious way. After we set up the food and I sweated off about 5 lb in the blazing heat, we sat in the kitchen and watched them hang out for about 3 hours. Then we packed our stuff back up and left. They were very nice and we both got tipped almost what we made for the whole evening last night. All for doing nothing. Sometimes the catering is a lot of work, but then you have nights last night that are easy and relaxed and lucrative and it all evens out.

I'm going to sleep since I haven't even packed my bag and have to be at work in 11 hours. I know the first part of this sounds complainy but I'm really quite happy and blessed. I'm just a little tired, by my own doing, right now. Tomorrow I'll be in Portland for the whole day and it's going to be beautiful.

Something good this way comes

I'm sitting here in the lounge in ATL, eating my high sodium, non-refrigerated, microwave meal (don't be jealous) wishing I was going home instead of going to DC. We don't even get to spend a decent amount of time there. We just finished our third leg of the day. I've been very cheerful these last few days (trying to compensate for my other FA who is a bit testy at times), but it's running out. I've gotten some good swaps for next month and I'm quite pleased about that. I hate that I missed most of Joy's time in town, and am afraid I'll miss Peter's as well. Joy headed off to Martha's Vineyard for the summer today.

I ran this morning, which was a good way to start the day. Syracuse is a far cry from Tallahassee. It was kind of cold when we got there last night but this morning when the Sun was out it was perfect. I ran through some neighborhoods that looked like a combination of New England and the 70s. They all had beautiful little lawns and flowers everywhere. The first street I ran down was Patricia Drive :-D. I even saw a few fighter planes taking off while I was running.

I'm off to find my plane and head up to DC. Maybe someone amazing will be on my flight (besides me of course :-P).

Nothing but clouds in the Little Rock sky

I feel like a slacker. It's 12:23 local and I've done nothing with my day. Of course, I was still in the airport 12 hours ago. We got to here 2 hours late because of maintenance. It's hard to keep that in mind and remember that I'm not such a slacker, I just have a weird schedule. I was hoping to get up and run this morning since I haven't since last week, but it looks like it's been raining anyway.

This weekend was very full and fun. Peter got here on Friday. I got to see all of my younger siblings a few times. Michal turned 15. Went to a Braves game. Catered a wedding. Went out in Atlanta. Had good food in the Highlands and at the parents house.

I just left and had lunch with my crew. It was a pizza buffet which my stomach almost instantly hated. Good times. The captain paid though so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. My crew is pretty nice, but it seems like half the things I say they just kind of look at me. It's crazy that by the time I start my work day today most people will be home from their work days already.

I'm going to spend the rest of my time watching them deny my swaps in open time. I did manage to trade a 4 day for a 3 day, which gives me an extra day off next month, but there's still much more swapping to be done.

My life, and consequently my blog, is boring today.

Madder than mad

Today feels like one big freaking train wreck.

It started off with me oversleeping. I set my alarm for 8:45. This would give me time to clean around the house, run, get ready for work, maybe do some laundry, and not be rushed. I think largely because of the Benadryl I took last night for allergies, I absolutely could not wake up until almost 11. I still had 3 hours before I had to leave. Around 12:35, after cleaning my room for a while, I got dressed to go run. I slacked this weekend and have been feeling bad about that. At that point I saw my old work shoes sitting on my bed. This is when I realized my good work shoes, that I left at Jersey's house a week and a half ago, were still at her house. The old shoes hurt my feet too much to wear another week. So I had to drive all the way into Ptc to get her apartment key. Then I drove 5 minutes back toward me to her apartment, got the shoes, drove 5 minutes the other way to return the key, then drove 15 minutes back home. By now I have just about an hour before I have to leave for work. I haven't showered or packed. Thankfully I cooked food last night to take with me so that was all ready. Plus I had poppyseed chicken left over from last night to take. Yum... I survived the morning drama and made it to work but without accomplishing anything else at all. Disappointing.

I got to work and had an uneventful flight to Milwaukee. On the way back we ended up holding for about 35 minutes due to severe weather passing through Atlanta. On approach we got to see an amazing lightning display. I don't think passengers enjoyed it.

The next flight should've been pretty simple. It was 36 minutes in flight. You board, take off, cruise for a few minutes, and land. But no... Everyone was mad cause they had had really rough flights into Atlanta. Of course I made the weather so you should be mad at me for it. Then it took us almost twice as long to taxi out as it did to fly down here (and that's after we cut in line). It was really bumpy so we couldn't get up the whole way and everyone wanted everything. Oh well... We were less than an hour late, which is good considering how many planes are probably still taxiing in Atlanta. I sat next to a nice lady from Portland, OR who gave me her address and phone number and told me to come visit her.

All's well that ends well right? Wrong. We finally make it to the hotel after a ridiculously long van ride. My FO brought her boyfriend and she's sitting on his lap next to me since there isn't an extra seat. My flight attendant has a bad attitude cause he thinks that everyone is against him cause he's black. Maybe they are. I'm obviously not very sensitive to that sort of thing. He also assumes cause we're both flight attendants that I'm going to be on his side when he gripes to me about things...

We finally get to the hotel. I sign all of us in and go to my room at the far end of the hall on the fourth floor. The key doesn't work. I go downstairs and get two more. They don't work either. Finally I get another room and it's on a different floor from my crew and a handicap room. Whatever. I don't care at this point. By the way, the hotel looks like a nice one, but it doesn't seem to have air conditioning. Neither did the taxi ride over. Just windows all the way down as we drove 48 mph down the interstate.

I put my stuff in the room and go down to the other end of the hall to get some ice to put my food on since they "ran out" of rooms with a frig or microwave. This also bugs me since we're going to be here for 2 nights. I don't want to have to buy all my food. I get to the ice machine and there isn't any ice in it. Arg. So I go back up to the floor I was .. down to the end of that hall and finally get some ice. I was going to take the trash can and just fill it with ice, but there was trash in it. Isn't that a pretty obvious thing to clean when you clean a room? I finally get some ice and open my lunch bag to get my food out. This is when I realize I LEFT MY FOOD ON THE PLANE. I'm sooo mad. My poppy seed chicken. My jambalaya. My sugar snap peas that I purposely only ate a few of them so I could have them for the rest of the trip. And I'm sure the cleaning crew tonight will throw it all away. I'm heartbroken. So now I have a big bag of ice for a Diet Coke. It better be ice cold when I drink it tomorrow.

After that I come sit at the desk to write a blog about how mad I am. (At least the internet works.) I sit down in the chair and put my foot up again my leg and realize there's gross sticky stuff all over my heel and now on the inside of my pajama pants. The look and smell makes me think the inside of a fig newton (I guess that would be a fig). How the crap did I get fig on my heel? I'm so over this place and I've only been here an hour.

On top of all this, allergies have been killing me. I've been rubbing my eyes until they're sore, and then I rub them more. When I rub them my contacts get lost in the far regions of my eyeballs. Then I find them and they fall out and all my make up is gone. My throat itches. My ears itch. My nose itches. I'd pick my nose in public if it would help.

Hopefully tomorrow is better. Hopefully the sun will come out and I can go to the pool or something. I'm finished with my rant.

Sweet Caroline oh-oh-oh

I know that many of you spend your days wondering what us Holbees do when we gather together. You may think we discuss literature and poetry - twas brilig in the slithey toves. You may think we discuss travel and the world - our brother lives in China. Or you may think we discuss religion and politics. I hate to disappoint you, but all we are is one big mutual admiration society. I tell Joy how pretty she is. She tells Michal what a good athlete she is. She tells my mama what a good cook she is. She tells my dad how smart he is. And on and on it goes. Some would think it'd get tiresome always hearing how wonderful you are, but it really doesn't. It's actually quite lovely. Then I start thinking about all the friends I have and am blown away by the fact that I have not a single terrible person in my life :-D. I love it.

I didn't blog last week, but it was mostly due to the fact that I had lousy or no internet on my trip. Then I spent a whirlwind weekend in Louisville for Joshua and Brittany's wedding and visiting Jamie. I got home last night and haven't slowed down since.

The first day of my trip was spent in Oklahoma City. It was surprisingly hot. I did day 2 of week 5. This is the first week where all three days of running aren't the same program. Day 2 was two 8-minute runs, which is the longest I've gone so far. On Wednesday I was privileged to see Amy and Shane in Portland. It was the most beautiful day I've had up there. I usually bring bad weather with me. They've moved us to a hotel that is downtown near the port so there are plenty of places you can walk to which is really nice. The next day I was in Montreal. The weather up there was also beautiful. I was exhausted from staying up too late with the Whites so all I had the energy for was a run. I wasn't sure I could make it because it was day 3, which is a 20-minute run, but I survived. It helped that the sidewalks were busy so I couldn't really run that fast. It's good mentally to keep extending the time. I'll work on speed later. I went to sleep at 7:30pm that night :-P.

I got off work on Friday, after doing 5 legs that included a Louisville round trip, just in time to get my violin and my weekend clothes from my car and rush over to the gate, to wait and hope I got on the flight. It was delayed forever cause of maintenance but TanJoe and I finally made it on. Once we got there Jamie took us to Louisville's finest where we heard a really awesome band play a really fun variety of music. I did a crossword on Tuesday that was themed songs named for women. One of them was "Sweet Caroline" so after hearing that song play in my head for a week it was great to hear it live. The rest of the weekend continued in that vein. The wedding was lovely and I was thrilled to find out that I had not forgotten how to play the violin.

I got back yesterday in time to go up to Buckhead for my cousin's graduation party, come back down here for dinner with some friends, and crash. Today was shopping and cooking and picking up Joy who is back from Spain and seeing the rest of the family. Hopefully I'll write some blogs coming up that aren't just about what I've been doing. We'll see. For now, I must sleep.

let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height.

It seems like these weekends are gone before they start. Here it is, another Monday. Another week of work about to start. I am fortunate that my work week doesn't start until tomorrow, but mine ended on Saturday, so I guess we're even.

I catered a wedding Saturday night. We thought we were going to get blown away by the tornados that were coming through. Then we thought we were going to get washed away by the rain. But everyone survived. It poured until about 10 minutes before the wedding started and only sprinkled a little after that. (It was outdoors and the reception was under a tent.) Nearly every wedding I attend confirms my desire to either not have a wedding or to have a highly unusual wedding. I hate all the frou-frouness. I hate the exorbitant amount of money spent on a day that usually becomes more stress than fun. I've also decided that cutting the cake is the most pointless tradition. I hate cutting cake on my birthday, so if I ever get married, I'm not cutting the cake. Someone else can do it.... When we got there, they asked us if we could put all the sodas and waters in a fishing boat that was propped up on sawhorses. They should've gotten the groom's cake from the first wedding we catered. It had a guy in a fishing boat on top of it.

I just got back from my first run of week 5. I was a little nervous since it was 3 5-minute runs and I struggled on the 5-minute runs last week, but it went pretty well. I'm fortunate because the weather that came through this weekend brought a nice cool breeze so I wasn't suffering from anything besides running. I love this time of year. The sky is that beautiful bright blue, and everywhere I go I can smell honeysuckles and other wild flowers growing. It's amazing that God made plants that smell that good just grow wild for our smelling pleasure.

I feel like I have a lot to do today. It's my last day of freedom and I need to squeeze as much as possible in it. But now it's already 1pm and I haven't really done anything.

I got to see more of my family this weekend than I have in a long time. My mama got back from visiting Joy in Spain and Israel was in town at the end of a business trip. On Saturday night after I catered we (Jamie, Jersey, Adam, Israel, and me) decided we wanted to do something. Anything. Since I'm sick of the options down here in PTC and it was kind of late to go up to Atlanta we decided to go to what used to be B52s by the airport. It's a fairly decent place to go grab a bite, hang out, have a drink, watch people. We got there and noticed something was different. For one, there was a huge number of very white, European looking/dressing people there. For two, they weren't playing any hip hop and three, there were lots of white people dancing. Then they started playing music with unitelligible lyrics. Not unusual except remember, they weren't playing rap or hip hop. The more unintelligible the words were, the more the white people jumped around and danced. I finally went over to the dj to ask what the name of the song was. He started talking to me but I couldn't understand anything. Then he asked what language I spoke. English. Asked where I lived. Atlanta. Why? Umm... cause I'm from here. Turns out he, along with about 80% of the other people there and the owner of the place, was Czech, and they were playing Czech music. Oooohhhh... It's all so clear now. It was really fun though. I felt like I was back in Prague or some other eastern European nation. We had a good, interesting time. I have to say that it was far more than I hoped and dreamed for that night :-).

Yesterday, even though it was mother's day, my mama wanted to celebrate Israel's birthday (a month and a half late). I was happy cause what she made was better than what I would've thought of, and I've been wanting a real, home-cooked meal for a long time. I'll have to cook for her next week. We spent the day in the yard kicking a soccer ball, throwing a frisbee, and trying to fly a kite (since it was so windy). We never got the kite above our heads. It was kind of difficult when the wind couldn't decide which way it wanted to go.

I need to go shower and get on with my day. I just re-read this, and it's pretty disjointed, but I had a lot to say. Sorry. Hope everyone's Monday is wonderful.

remembering in Toronto

On this day four years ago I was riding in a bus from Split, Croatia to Sarajevo, Bosnia. I was with Raechel and we had just gotten back from spending a few days on the idyllic island of Hvar. I was beginning my journey through many foreign places. We rode down the Croatian coast for long while watching the waves crash below. Seeing the patterns the wind made on the water. Enjoying the beauty of it all. As we left the coast and began to make our way inland we started singing all the disney songs we could think of to distract me from the impending motion sickness that had plagued me on every method of transportation for the last week or so. We traveled through beautiful green mountains. I had no idea what to expect when I went to Bosnia and was very surprised by how lush everything was. We stopped at a restaurant perched above a valley and I used my first eastern toilet. It was pink ceramic and I realized it was not intended for women who wear pants. As we went further into Bosnia we began to see evidence of war. Raechel told me the stories behind many of the remains. It was a very interesting day that began in wealthy, beautiful, cosmopolitan, coastal Split, Croatia and ended in a war-scarred, graffitied, but still beautiful in its bowl of mountains Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Today I had no such exciting journeys. I spent another day in Toronto. They put us in a different hotel. It's really nice. I wouldn't mind having an apartment like this hotel. I ran again today. It was much better than yesterday. I'm spoiled up here by the cool breeze that is constantly blowing on me. This hotel is also in an area that is much nicer to run in.

I've spent most of the day updating a blogspot blog I have. It's the same as this one, but I just wanted to have a back up should something ever happen to this one. I also want it to be accessible to non-myspacers.

I'm not sure what it is about Canadian men, but within a few hours last night I had three of them give me their contact information. None of them were particularly interesting, but I really respect the fact that they aren't afraid of making the first move. That is a current peeve I have with most men I come across. Though I'm perfectly capable, I refuse to take the first step. I want a man who is man enough to do that. I may be single forever.

My mama should be back home by now. I'm excited to hear how her trip went. Israel will also be there when I get back tonight. Good times. I've been reminded a lot lately how fortunate I am to still have both my parents and all my siblings. I think I take it for granted that people's parents die when they're old, but I've come across more and more people who have lost theirs early in life. I hope this reminds me not to take the time I have with loved ones for granted.

As fantastic as Canadia is, I'm ready to blow this joint and be home.

Not much happening in Toronto

I'm a little bit frustrated. I'm in week 4 of this running thing. In the past weeks the first run of the new week was hard and the rest were significantly easier. This week the first run was really hard. Now I finished the third run of the week, but don't feel ready to go on to the next week. I still feel like it's too hard. Maybe I'm a big wuss. This week was 3 and 5 minute intervals. It's kind of embarrassing to tell runners that it's hard for me to run for 5 minutes straight, but it is. It probably doesn't help that I haven't run every other day like I should be. Maybe cause I'm giving myself too much space in between. I'll do better. Running in Toronto isn't as inspiring as Wilmington either. The temperature is nice, but I'm running through a very industrial area. Sometimes there aren't sidewalks and it smells bad. I'm quite the complainer.

Today I slept longer than I have in months and months. I don't normally like sleep past 10:30 or so. I just feel like I'm wasting my day. Today I slept until 1:20. I can't even remember most of the dreams I dreamed. The last one I had before I woke up involved a tall military guy who was wearing short shorts and first appeared to have no arms but was pretending. I was working at some bar type place. I think Michal was there. It was kind of strange and confusing. And oddly humorous. I wish I could remember the others.

Yesterday was the long day of our trip. We had a lot of sitting around time which makes the day go by really slowly. We did a Pittsburg round trip during the afternoon and came to Toronto for the night. I've just discovered that an old college friend, Neil, lives about 30 minutes from here and works right around the corner. I need to find a way of keeping up with where I know people. I hate spending a long time somewhere, bored out of my mind, and finding out the next day or week that I knew someone there.

It's time to head back to Atlanta and then turn around and come back. I wish I could just leave all my stuff in the hotel. My bags are really heavy this trip for some reason. Knowing my luck though, if I left it here we'd get our flight canceled or something.

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.