19F a sad seat

Current mood: sleepy


Sunday, June 8, 2008
ATL-PHL-ATL-MEX

After a long day yesterday I slept in the crew lounge in the A concourse on the couch. I passed out but kept waking up unsure of where I was and where I needed to be at what time. I also kept waking up scared that somebody would say something to me about sleeping there all night.
In New York we were not allowed to sleep in the lounges so I would set my alarm for 4:45 to wake up before the Field Service Managers would come in so that they wouldn't know I was sleeping there. Apparently in Atlanta they don't care if you sleep there. In Atlanta there are people who pretty much live there. Cool.

So I finally got up around 8 and got dressed and freshened up and found my friend Abi in the lounge. We got breakfast and caught up on good times. My check in and briefing was at 11:20 am so I closed my eyes again for about another 45 minutes. I found a couple more friends in the lounge... Orit and Ahmad, neither which I had seen since training. So that was cool. I met my crew in briefing and they were all very young... apparently they were in the same class and good friends with my crew from yesterday. Funny stuff!

Boarding my Philly bound passengers with minimal stress, the boarding doors are closed, the safety video is playing the larger lady in 19F signals at me. She asks me if she can go use the restroom. I tell her that if she could please wait until we reach 10,000 ft because we are in critical seat belt time. We aren't even allowed to walk in the aisles during the safety video. She motions that she needs to throw up but she can wait. Question mark. Let's talk about this. 1) Who controls their puke? 2) I am sitting directly in front of 19F and I am facing her... I would hate to have an excorcist moment on me mid flight on the first leg of the day. So I make sure that 19F has a barf bag handy and I strategically watch her during take-off. As soon as we reached 10,000 she was in the bathroom. I asked her if I could get her any crackers or ginger ale... and I felt especially bad for her since I just lived that about 2 days ago. She told me she couldn't keep anything down but had just started chemo and it makes her really sick. I felt so bad for her that I almost cried... and I do not cry. The little old man in 20C needed extra attention because he couldn't walk well so I made sure to take care of him... During landing I watch 19F again just to make sure I stay puke free again. :)

The boarding door opens and everyone exits and my little old 20C passenger has to stay on until the wheelchair comes down. Well we wait... and wait... and no chair. Finally a gate agent comes down to ask if everyone is off... I tell her... "Um, NO. I'm still waiting on my wheelchair for 20C." With her Philly attitude she tells me that the chair has been waiting at the top of the jetway. I snap back that a wheelchair at the top of the jetway does me no good when my passenger can barely walk to the boarding door of the plane. She tells me that it is too hot to bring down the chair. I flipped out. Are you kidding me? It will take 20C thirty minutes to make it to the top of the jetway. Is this wheelchair made of wax that it will melt in heat? Is my gate agent made of wax? I told her in a very firm voice that the chair better be down there because my passenger can't walk. She makes it obvious that she rolls her eyes and shoots me a nasty look. Bring it!

We start boarding again and immediately I have a seat duplication. No problem. I get that solved with the other gate agent over the phone and done. Success. A few minutes later I get 2 older passengers that ask me where their seat is. 17 E & D. My plane is a regular Boeing 757. I have rows 1-9 in first class and then it starts up at row 19 in economy. There is no row 17. There isn't even a row 18. I'm baffled. So I go back up to the gate phone and call the agent back. They are on the wrong Atlanta bound flight. Whew. Boarding door closes. Safety Video plays. We pushback. I walk through and sit down. Again I am facing 19F. I notice 19F. She is a young pretty little blonde girl and she's looking out the window and tears are falling down her cheeks. I've been there before... many a times... leaving parents, friends, family, & boys behind... I've shed many a tear in the window seat. She tears up the entire take-off and after 10,000 feet she is still shedding tears so I go to the bathroom and bring her more kleenex's. The look of gratitude she gave me almost made me cry... I understand her.

I think I'm just getting emotional... whether from exhaustion or I finally grew my heart back after working for the temp agency and misplacing that heart somewhere in Nashville. I actually cared about people. I'm so proud of myself... temporarily though... it ends later in this story.

Two flights done and one more to go... the longer one. Mexico City... again. We grab some food, eat in the E lounge. There I run into Abi, Aritrea, Sean & Jalal. Small world! My flight takes off at 7:30pm... We eat, get to the gate... and nothing. The flight has been moved. So we look at the screens and it says our flight is delayed until 9:30pm. Heck! No fair! So we go back the the E lounge and try to figure out how we can stay awake and how we can drop the trip with the scheduling and rest requirement rules. No such luck.

Around 9:20 we have the plane boarded and ready to go. Starting beverage and dinner service my beverage cart breaks... Bad. So I'm doing that alone and kinda stressed but fine... every single can of coke fizzed like it had been shook up for days. I hate that. Makes my job take forever. Everyone was sooo needy! Everyone wanted 2 drinks and I was doing it alone. I'm on my 12th hour of work and already tired. A lady keep pestering me that her headphones aren't working and proceeds to yell at me while I'm serving drinks about how we always say we will fix it but never can. Um I'm not a freaking mechanic, electrician, or a person that gives a crap right now. Her yelling on my left side... the right side was being yelled at too by an impatient passenger who wants her special meal right way. She said if she didn't get it now then she wouldn't even have time to eat it... Does it take you 2 hours to stuff some nasty meal down your throat? There is a lot more details to this flight but its all along the same lines of needy people... I stopped caring. After 14 hours I just shut down.

Made it to the hotel. Bubble baths help calm. So now I'm heading to sleep. I only have one flight and then I get to home to Nashville! :) Haven't been home in over 30 days! Can't wait!