in case you’ve been wondering...

Current mood: awake

...i haven't been lost...
i've been busy, running around like a headless chicken.
after Africa I've been flying whatever trips i could get my hands on...
iI've fought off some angry passengers, waited on Tea Leoni & her kids, taking off in the cockpit! Went sailing with friends in Alabama, started a revolution, kept reading like a mad woman, working on myspaces, went to a couple of shows, volunteered some time to GCP & KD, and somewhere in between found time to sleep and hang out with family. At this very moment I am in Southern Cali visiting my grandparents and my parents.

For those of you who have been around long enough... you know that my mom has had a lot of surgeries for her legs due to a sports injury years ago... well the last surgery wasn't that much of a success... so she is back walking around on a cane and in wheelchairs which is no good for a active in shape young momma. So she's back in the US with my dad and by miracle got appointments for a very good doctor who is going to fix her as good as new in LA.

I was fortunate enough to be able to fly up here to spend a couple of days with them here and tomorrow I will head over to LA (cause I’m in Santa Barbara) then catch the red eye to Atlanta then a puddle jumper over to Austin to spend Halloween there with some good friends and major cool plans... Then spend the weekend with my boyfriend and work on a top secret project that will rock your socks off... then back to Atlanta to work... where I will go up to Detroit for a day on my layover... maybe go to Canada with my old friend... then back down to Nashville to have a short layover but see some of my favorite people... and THEN on the 6, 7, & 8th head over to Alabama & begin phase one of the revolution with the help of the most amazing people you will ever meet. Then back to TX for a day or 2 then down to Mexico where I don't plan on leaving my hotel for 32 hours so I can recover from the week before. (Yes, I'm doing all of the above mentioned things in one week... 7 days.)

The good news is I am undiagnosed officially with A.D.H.D. so I can skip around on any project and still somehow get everything done in more cities than you can imagine... why am I always on the phone when you see me? I’m always planning something. anything! I've got 3 more fundraisers to finish by mid- December. Do you think I plan on going to everyone of them? yes! Do you think I still have time for my boyfriend and that it's totally in my capabilities to want a new puppy too? Of course! I've decided I won't be dying from old age... I'll be dying from exhaustion... but I have so much energy that I couldn't stop if I wanted to... I have too much to accomplish in my life. I just don't understand couch potatoes... Maybe if they spend a day with me they can find some motivation... haha

Anyways... I've got some great stuff coming up. I can feel that your at the edge of your seat now... mhmm... I knew it. I know you want to be apart... and if you don't now... you will soon.
and if I’ve called you within the last week its for something good. So call me back... I’m totally serious... josh. :)

I’ll keep you updated.
peace out pandas!

hello again... it’s me

Current mood: bouncy
so! I haven't blogged in forever. I've just been traveling, reading, designing, & doing wedding stuff... not my wedding stuff... but my little's sisters. Pictures are all up on her page and it was an amazing wedding and now we have a new addition! new addition being the groom... not a baby on the way... no waaay... not yet anyways. :)

So anyways... there is A LOT going on in my life. I've been doing everything above that I said... plus branching out into some new ventures that will be announced later as things are more solid. as if i needed more ventures :) got plenty of ventures... and adventures.

I'm finally starting to get back on my feet after working this crazy job. Just if you didn't know... It's official that I have no address. I moved from Nashville... everything is in storage. On my days off I go to TX and refuse to actually live there since I've already done that twice but I couch surf on my best friend's couches since my sister is a newlywed and well... that's just not fair to anyone. :)

So I tried to open up a PO Box in San Antonio but little did I know that you must have proof of residence to do this. Why would I need a PO box if I had a residence? So I asked the lady what I would do if I did not have a residence but just needed a place to send my mail to. She gave me a snotty look and directed her attention to my mister (a.k.a. my boyfriend) and said, "is she kidding?" I told her my story and why I didn't have a home and she just told me flat out that I don't qualify. Apparently homeless people don't get mail. :( So my mail goes to a friend of a friend’s house. ugh.

Besides the homelessness and hectic schedule and new "ventures" I am starting to financially catch up on life... Next month I can actually contemplate paying a credit card bill from 2 years ago. (Don't even ask about my credit.) So I called this one card that loves to call me about 10 times a day. I just wanted to see what the damage was and what my options for next month are... The Lady tried to convince me to give her $500... right then... yeah. No. I told her I'm tired of eating ramen noodles and peanut butter sandwiches but next month I might be able to do something... I told her the most I could offer right that second was $100. She put me on hold to talk to her boss... He gets on the phone. He is a jerk. He tells me that I HAVE to give him $500... I tell him that it's impossible to give what you don't have and that again... $100 is what I can give him. He gets mad at me and we bicker back and forth and he gets angry and he tells me to just forget about it and hangs up. Now if I tried to give you $100... would you take it? I still don't understand what happened.

Ok so life is interesting. My boyfriend has been an amazing support to me and keeps me sane. He's a crazy one which another reason we get along so well...

Another quick story. My boyfriend said something let's just say... not so smart the other day... and I laughed at him (like a good girlfriend) and he retorted back. "So I'm dumb. Blog about it." haha that makes me laugh... a lot. Then my mister sent me this link of something I should make:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Laptop-Compubody-Sock/
He said if I owned this we might have never met. Since we met by sitting next to each other at the airport and comparing computers. haha..


Anyways... that's all I have for now... I'll try and be better about blogging. For sure. :)

PEACE LOVE AND FRIED CHICKN!

Ike & Tina

Current mood: aggravated

It’s like Ike & Tina...
It’s a love/hate relationship with Nashville.
Please bare with my rant for a minute... I love watching live music but the scene is crazy.
Boys in their girl jeans or just looking like they crawled out of the seventies in their vintage... they want to be Jimmy Paige so badly that it hurts my teeth just looking at their greasy long matted hair.
My friend Wes Floyd is awesome. He leads the pack of DaisyCutters... They don't care about the scene. Usually in Nashville everyone is a musician so they don't barely clap at a show... they don't stand against a stage... They linger in corners judging the main act and would steal the opportunity to be in the main acts place if they could. Nashville has more talent in one speckle of the honky-tonk than the mainstream radio will play in the next 10 years... I've battled with how music works... it kills me how so many of these kids who are so talented will never make it because they don't know the right people, or they don't have enough money, or they don't play by the rules of the scene, or they just don't have the right look… or even because their lyrics are too deep for mainstream radio. What kills me about Nashville is that we all know each other from the millions of shows we go to... but the scenesters put on such a "I’m too cool for school" show that they won't even acknowledge that they know you sometimes... I've known some of these kids for 2 years and barely know a thing about them... they look like they just crawled outta bed snorted some heroine cause they are all so dang skinny too... Anyways... Wes Floyd is a pretty cool cat... he is nice to everyone and he doesn't play the Nashville game... people came out to see him and pushed against the stage and danced and jumped around... I've never seen any local act be able to do that besides Luna Halo... Maybe it was because they were dressed like cowboys and indians. :)

The other great thing about the Ville is that I have a slew of numbers I could call to go out with me... but no one to call when I needed a flat tire fixed... stinking boys and their art but no skills. :) Speaking of this flat tire... let's get back to my real story.
I had spent some time in San Antonio, got my hairs did by Stephanie and flew over to Atlanta and hopped in my car for the best road trip ever... just me and my itunes on the ibook... not the ipod cause that got lost somewhere between Atlanta and Panama City I think... :(
I made it into Nashville pretty late and was so happy to see my kitty and sleep in my own house and bed! The next day I planned to wake up early to go do a long overdue errand...
I've been living in Nashville for almost 2 years... and I still have a Texas drivers license with my old married last name and I was fat. I've been trying to get a new license for awhile and every time I go to the DMV in Nashville which happens to be in the ghetto then somehow I am missing some document and can't stay. UGH!
So I woke up kinda late but made it out the door and stopped in to visit my friend Rachel at work and surprise her. We talked forever and I sat in the office where I had been fired by the witch and I was soo glad to be out of there. I also learned that the witch had quit and got a new job and had recently been fired from that job... wow. what goes around comes around? hmm.. So I realize that on my way to the DMV I forgot my passport since I don't know where my birth certificate was... So I had to drive all the way back home again to get it. I noticed my tire was low and I made a mental note to fill it up as soon as I got out of the DMV. I'm driving along the back roads back to the DMV with all proper documentation and BOOM! POW! KABAM! My tire blows out... I'm in the middle of nowhere. I pull over. It's hot.

I had to call my good friend Reese in Mobile and my ex boyfriend Gabe cause they were the only ones I know that had any previous experience with cars... both said they would talk me through how to change the tire. Both asked me where my car manual was... which was NOT in the car of course... umm... yea... so I'm wearing 4 inch heals and capris and I'm dressed up cause I'm gonna take a AWESOME drivers license picture since I'm not that fat married girl anymore... I am NOT dressed to change a tire... especially for the first time... So I take a deep breath and start to unscrew the thingy to get the tire out and see if the jack is underneath... I hear some cars pull over... Thank the LORD I am a girl... and thank the LORD I was wearing heals. :) 2 guys in separate cars pull over... I am prepared just in case they are bad guys... I mean... I am a flight attendant... so anyways... the one guy was a car mechanic... a car mechanic wearing a hairnet... but good thing too because I have special tires on my car and there was no way I would have had the tools to change those... so the guy has it done in like 10 minutes. I was sooo grateful. He followed me to the gas station and put more air in my front tires for me... All I had was $11 so I gave it to him and thanked the man wearing the hairnet.

I attempted the DMV thing AGAIN... I get there and she tells me that my comcast bill was NOT good enough as proof of residence because I don't have the complete cable package because I don't have a home phone. I flipped out! I told her that I've been living in that city for 2 years and I don’t work there... and I am never ever there... she told me that I could go to the bank and get a statement printed and then stamped and then initialed... how does that prove where I live?! I dunno! So I did that... I was livid... I was sure that the next thing she would say was that I didn’t have enough money in my account to have a TN drivers license. haha
Anyways... I finally got back AGAIN and waiting and got my license... they hand it to me... it's the ugliest effing picture I’ve ever seen. I look like my chin was growing the biggest pimple ever because there is a red dot on there... and then I look and she messed up and put the wrong birthday on there! SCORE! New picture! So now there is a decent picture and I have the stupid license! It's about time. Next time I am going where all the illegals go and have it the same day... they don't require ANY documents. :)

So lets talk about that evening... sweet Jimmy Gnecco. Last year I waited for Jimmy Gnecco in the 18 degree weather outside for THREE hours in line... It was totally worth it... and I reject cold weather... I absolutely hate cold. This time we had bought pre-tickets and got inside and it was sweaty hot. Like bad. He just likes to make us suffer. My friend Breann, a fellow flight attendant joined me and Stephen Boatright and my favorite and only Belarusian, Lena... my partners in crime. :)
We listened to Jimmy enchant us with his amazing voice... Gosh. The next day we slept in.... packed up my apartment a little and I don't remember what else but we went to see Wes Floyd play... Which is where I started this little/long blog. :)

Skip ahead... It's Thursday and I don't know if I have to go back to work Friday night or Saturday because I am on call on Sat, Sun & Mon. If they give me a late sign in on Sat then I get to sleep in my bed one more night... if they don't give me anything then I have to be there by Friday midnight... which is the worst. So Friday around noon when I finally woke up... I checked my schedule and low and behold there was a rotation posted... 8am Saturday standby... that's as bad as it could get... which means I have to still leave Friday night... the only other option would be to take the first flight out in the morning and get there by 8:17 and be 17 minutes late... that is no good. So I hurried and got my laundry done, did the dishes, packed my suitcase, showered, went to the grocery, packed some more moving boxes and hopped in Lena's car with Breann to be dropped off at the airport. WHEW!

I promised Bri a good time at the Atlanta lounge... AKA my temporary home away from my "homes". So we ate Peanut Butter and Honey sandwiches and hot chocolate courtesy of my great boyfriend and we watched PS I love you on my MacBook... so far so good... except we go to sleep and the cleaning crew comes in and decides to make life miserable. They dragged the metal chairs across the floors and I know they were swinging them around... I know this because it sounded like the end of the world in percussion. I refused to open my eyes because I knew I would absolutely loose it on one of them... and they probably know how to fight better than me. There are about 5 flight attendants sleeping in there... I try and wait out the racket so I can get at least 2 hours of sleep before I have to get up and get dressed for standby... They start vacuuming around my head and bumping the couch on purpose with the vacuum. I started doing my yoga breathing to help me calm down... I kept my eyes shut tight to avoid hurting someone... They were in there forever and I barely got one hours worth of sleep. I was not a happy girl. I come down to the A lounge by 8am and I supposed to be on standby until noon... at 9am my friend Devin texts me and says he's in the airport so we go upstairs and visit him and his friend before they board to take off to Honduras.

Right as I am going downstairs back to the A dungeon I get a call from scheduling telling me that I have a flight. So I go downstairs to check the rotation and its a Salt Lake City turn... which just means I go to salt lake and back again and be back in ATL by 7:30pm... no biggie except I'm so tired that I am starting to feel ill to my stomach from exhaustion.
Our flight is delayed due to them upgrading the B757 to a B767 so that everyone could get on... The flight was going good until this wacko jacko wannabe in her 40's tells us that she lost her luggage on board and she needs to find it so she can run off the plane to catch her connection... we understand so a flight attendant proceeds to ask her questions so we can find her mystery luggage. FA= flight attendant & WJ= wacko jacko.

FA: "Where are you sitting?"
WJ: She looks at all her boarding cards... about 3 or 4 of them from previous flights and just baffled says "I dunno"
FA: "Ma'am... what seat did you just stand up from?"
WJ: "I cant remember"
*sigh*
FA: "What does your suitcase look like?"
WJ: "It's black with a polka dotted pink ribbon on it.
FA2: "No ma'am... that's MY suitcase."
WJ: "oh. Well I think my suitcase might be orange then."
FA: "Lets just go look for it."

They look forever and cant figure out where she put her suitcase... we make PA's asking passengers if they knew who this lady was or if they remembered seeing her with her luggage somewhere.
After the WJ looked in every overhead bin 3 times and looking at every tag on every bag over 3 times... and after concerned passengers ask us why this lady is flying alone... she finally finds her bag... guess what? It's over the seat she was sitting in... and guess what? It's blue.

I just don't have enough patience for that stuff.

We land... we board again to go back to ATL... everything is normal until they announce that the weather is bad in ATL and we don’t have enough fuel to keep circling the airport so we head to Nashville to refuel... only me... I swear.... only me would they linger my comfy bed in front of when I had one hour of sleep... I could SMELL my house I was so close. Some passengers just wanted to get off in Nashville because that was their final destination anyways... but we weren’t allowed because that would delay us even more... In Nashville my flight leader tells me that there is a passenger in 17A that only speaks Spanish and if I could go explain to him in Spanish what was going on... well he ended up being from Chile... Temuco to be exact... so it was like finding a long lost family member...even though we had never met before... we talked about all the good Chilean things. :)
Finally back in the air and we got to Atlanta at 10 something pm... more than 3 hours from the time when I was supposed to originally be in.

So I am tired... tomorrow I go to Guadalajara... which I’m not too excited about... but whatever... I am about to attempt sleeping at the A lounge tonight... I'm scared...
I will see you in the air.... peace out!

Guadalajara, the SA zoo, & San Juan

Monday, July 21, 2008

Current mood: rejuvenated

July 15- 19
I already blogged about Guadalajara... but I have one picture to share and add to the collection of hotel sunset views... my new favorite. :)

I got to San Antonio on the 17th after Guadalajara and went to the zoo with my boyfriend, Rick... the zoo is my happy place. I love the zoo! The San Antonio zoo is actually a pretty good one. There is a butterfly exhibit where you can walk in and they can land on you. I’ve only been to one other one and I believe it was in Costa Rica which definitely kicked SA's butt. It was a really, really hot day out but we had fun.

We saw some monkeys and I’m pretty sure that they were on something... the one kept licking the wall which reminded me of Super Troopers... "the snozzberries taste like snozzberries"
the other one was just staring at us with his teeth and hair and eyes all crazy-like...

Anyways... that was all about the zoo...
The next day I went to San Juan, PR. And we had a whole soccer team on board... it's only a 3 hour flight and they drank every drop of liquor we had on board throwing out hundreds and pulling out their credit cards... apparently they had left Puerto Rico as the biggest loosers of the league and they were gone for 18 days and came back number one! So they were celebrating and inviting us to these parties... half of them looked like David Beckham... when we landed they were all pretty intoxicated and everyone was waiting for them and they got a huge applause when they came out of the airport and there were cameras to interview them... they interviewed us since we were their flight attendants... we dodged all the questions from the boys about where we were staying and blew off the parties... they wouldn't remember us anyways. haha Anyways... they entertained our night.

I woke up and had such a nice view from my hotel.

Something was wrong with our plane so we were delayed about an hour and we weren’t sure if we were even going to go out. But we finally made it back to Atlanta then rushed to go to Richmond and then back again... then I rushed to get on my plane to come to San Antonio... So from 7:45 am until 10 pm I was in uniform. I was tired. but like my friend DJ says... no one ever wants to hear how tired you are. ;)
I’m just chillaxin today and hopefully I get to get my hair done tnight... then fly back to Atlanta to hop in my car and drive to Nashville the 4 hours... and I’m so excited to wear different clothes and shoes and sleep in my bed and start packing up my apartment. whew! That's about it for now.

Guadalajara, Mexic0

Current mood: thirsty

ATL/LAX/ GDL
So Guadalajara is a different breed of flights. I'm going to call it the West Palm Beach of the 3rd world countries. There were so many old souls on my flight. At this point I don't know what day it is without looking at my schedule. I don't know what time it is or what time zone I am on.

According to my rotation, we signed in for duty in Atlanta at 7:30pm and flew to Los Angeles at 8:30pm. 4 hours and 30 minute flight of people who are kind of crazy and we get to LA at 10 pm CA time. We get a 3 hour sit before having to take the next flight out to Guadalajara. I got in a little nap. As we walk upstairs to the gate we hear them making announcements for people who speak English over the age of 15 to volunteer to sit at the exit rows. This is a bad sign that they can't find 12 people who speak English.

I am the only Spanish speaker on the flight. As we board I look down the aisle to see people carrying their suitcases on their heads... Not just suitcases but boxes tied with strings, & trash bags full of clothes. I was halfway expecting to see chickens in cages on their heads. Some bags were too big and I told them I’d have to check them or put them in the closet if there wasn't enough space... They put it on their laps and asked to carry it like that... umm not gonna work. They put it on the floor and put their feet on it... again... not gonna work. I finally convinced them that I wouldn't loose their bag and found space for it in the closet.

Everyone was in the wrong chairs. I had to maneuver them all around which wasn't easy cause they don't move around very fast. I was tired before we ever left the ground. The rest of the flight was easy except for the part I dreaded which was passing out the immigration and customs forms. No one ever knows what nationality they are and a lot of them don't know how to read and write. I just cannot physically fill out all those forms for them all... So we managed the best way we could since I was the only Spanish speaker... We landed at 6:20 am. It's 7:20am Atlanta time, which means I worked for 12 hours. We finally got to the hotel and I started some good old 90210 re-runs... which makes me think of my friend Bri. Ha! I’m going to bed until 1pm and then head out for lunch and some shopping in Mexico! :) I'll be back in the US tomorrow.

I went to lunch with my crew and that's when I found out that Whitney Houston had been on our flight from Atlanta to LA. GOSH! I wish I woulda known that before. I used to love her. Well the girl has some pipes but she really has gone down hill just like Mariah. Two extremely talented people that just can't keep it together... Anyways... I did a little shopping... picked up a little something for the mister and went to the pool with one of my crew members that was Italian. We had the best talks and we swam on the roof top pool. I met a girl from Chile... which is rare cause I never find Chileans anywhere but Chile. :) She was really nice. I fell asleep by the pool cause the lounge chair outside was way more comfortable to that thing in my room that they are calling a bed.

I have a really hard time understanding why very expensive hotels don’t have complimentary wi-fi. Because I still manage myspaces it's mandatory I have wi-fi and in these fancy hotels it costs me $15-$17 for the day! Seriously?! Holiday Inn and Quality Inn down the street are offering it for free. I just don't get it. I’m just gonna have to put that expensive internet into my budget. Stupid.

On the flight back to LA the old people had multiplied and so did the number of people who couldn't read or write... or even know what nationality they were. I don't know if this was right but I just started asking them to what country they pay their taxes to... that seemed to help a little... One particularly baffling old man couldn't read or write... or he was just lazy because I asked him his address in California and he pulled out his CA drivers license... I was trying to hold in my emotions when I saw that... How the HECK did he get a license in Cali if he can't read or write? I hope he was just lazy or I'm completely baffled by our system in the United States.

We survived that flight with about 30-45 minutes rest before we got on the 767 heading to Atlanta. We were so tired. No one got good rest because of the beds and because of the kids that had ran up and down all the halls on every floor about midnight. This time on the LA-ATL flight I learned to ask in advance if there were any famous people in first class... my flight leader said there was and she whispered "Hal Holbrook"... who the heck is that?! I IMDBed him.. yes I just made that a verb... here is what I found... now he does look familiar: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001358/

Anyways... I was in the back galley and the cupboard door was open and I leaned to get something out of my bag and came up with such a force that when I hit the corner of the metal tipped cupboard I knocked myself backwards and almost passed out. I was almost in tears... I have a unicorn sized lump coming out the front of my forehead now ... thank the Lord for bangs! I worked for 12 hours with very little sleep or sit time... so my ankle is really screwed up. I'm glad for my break in the ville coming up so I can try and rest it by the pool in between packing. :)

I'm in San Antonio today but tomorrow I go to Puerto Rico. My little flight attendant video is doing pretty good on youtube... I have almost 300 plays... funny stuff! More adventures to come... :)

back to reality

So I ended up getting an entire week off in Texas and still getting paid and it was GREAT! I didn't realize how much I needed that. I was starting to get burned out. For a whole week my life was decently normal... I went shopping, to the movies, hung with my friends, did laundry, hung out with my boyfriend and had a great time. The only thing was that every time I tried to go to the pool the freaking rain came out! So no sun for me. :/ I guess thats the upside to being italian and having a very white boyfriend... I always look dark, even minus the tan. :) (i <3 u!)
I gotta see TONS of friends! Kevin and Uncle Greggles and Gregg G and all my girls. It was nice!

Anyways... I finally got to Atlanta for a 6:30pm standby and after weather delays and such I got here... I saw on my schedule that they had a Panama trip for me tomorrow because I'm on call for 3 days... so that means even being on stanby... they really couldnt send me anywhere because I have to technically have 24 hours of rest before an international trip. heck yes! so I sat here from 6:30pm until 11:30pm on standby and just played on my boyfriends myspace making him a layout to pass the boredom. So they didn't use me... I knew it. I coulda spent another night in Texas. :/

It is oddly good to be back though... I love this job... as much as I talk crap about it. I just needed a little break. So I saw a few of my Hebrew friends in the lounge and showed off my new phrases. I am so determined to be the 1st non-jewish girl flying to Tel-Aviv, Israel as a Hebrew speaker. I aim high! Guess who else is here at the airport? My old friend the snoring flight attendant... you remember ... the one who snores inappropriately and farts in her sleep? Oh yea... she's making quite the scene here today... Everyone is moving away from her and laughing... One girl said.. "I hope i don't end up like that in the end." Ditto girl... ditto.

They call the Atlanta old ladies the "cat farmers"... they either are divorced a few times or never got married... and they just live with their cats... I don't think thats totally fair... cause i like cats... and up until recently I had two and was divorced... am i already doomed to be the old lady cat farmer at 25?! I feel like it sometimes.... then Rick reminds me that I'm not old... just older than him. ha! just kidding... sorta.

Anyways... When I come back from Panama I get to see my mom who is on her way back from Cali heading towards Chile and took a day in between travels to spend with her oldest daughter.. aka.. me! I'm pretty stoked about that! That's about all the news I have for now... It's about 10 days before my next day off... which sucks big time... but I have a new eating regimen that Rick helped me set up... so I can eat healthier for cheaper and I think that I will have more energy and be healthy... I feel good about that. Better food= happy girl... especially to an italian/german girl... food is pretty much a big deal for me... ramen every day for a week was not making me a happy girl... or healthy or skinnier. ha! but I do love me some ramen... so it's still in my lunchbox. :)

That's all for now.. I'm sure I'll make some sort of fool outta myself in the next few days that will be blog worthy... until then you can send tons of e-mails and friends requests to my boyfriend (hes on my top friends) or comment on some pictures or watch some videos... I do what I can to entertain you... and I'm feeling a video blog coming again soon. :)

peace, love and fried CHICKENS!

Panama City & Anchorage, Alaska

Current mood: relaxed

Panama was really fast... just a 9 hour layover... but we were right next to the beach... i didn't get to see it until the next morning though. I really wanna go back. But as always... here is a picture from the 12th floor.

I got to briefing for my Alaska trip and my flight leader tells us to be prepared because these are not our average flyers... Some of these people have never flown before... some rarely ever see people because they sit on an oil rig for three months or go snow crab fishing... some of the people will be really old because alaska is on their list to see before they die... so its something to cross off their "bucket list".

As soon as we boarded the plane I get a short little middle aged lady within 3 inches from my face screaming about how she can't put her bag underneath her seat and she should have been warned about it. She kept asking me what she could do and I kept smiling and telling her to put it in her over head bin during take off and landing and then she could take it down. She asked me what she could do with it then... put it on her head... that's what she said. "do you want me to put it on my head?" i kept surprisingly calm... it might been because i actually did my devotions via podcast that morning.

Little did I know about 10 minutes after I walked away from screamy pants she had a panic attack in the back galley... she fell on the floor in tears and was outta control because she wasnt sure she could make it on a 7 hour flight. The flight attendant grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her and told her to pull herself together... The lady almost got kicked off the flight... she took some valium or something and was advised to sit quietly or else... she did. I ran back and forth though to keep bringing her a cup of hot tea and cups of ice... she had no expression the entire flight.. apparently valium just makes her stop crying... but valium makes me relaxed and happy... maybe she needed a double dose. After she got off the flight she told us that it was the worst flight she had ever had... whatever.

After we get in flight... we walk through the aisles and there is a guy with a cut off shirt and a gold swordfish necklace who has a radio with an antennae... we tell him that he cannot use that and he says he's trying to pick up the race.... umm... in which country?! A little while later he hands us 2 empty bottles of jim beam. we don't serve jim beam. we tell him that he cannot drink his own alcohol on the plane... its not only not right... it's actually illegal according to the FAA. We had to tell him over 6 times to stop drinking jim beam.

After we served dinner and finally finished picking up and had a second to breathe a guy comes in the back and asks us for dinner... the flight attendant asked him if he was served dinner and he said no that he was sleeping. she shot me a look to see if i had served him and i was 98 percent sure that i did but i couldnt prove it... so we had to give him another one. later he stopped us and said he wanted one of our crew meals... um... its one thing to con me out of an extra dinner... its another thing to con me out of MY dinner... especially since it the first time I haven't eaten ramen noodles in 2 days. We tell him no. Well he makes a smart remark to the one flight attendant about how he conned us outta a dinner and she tells him "you know what happens to liars dont you?". it was the funniest thing ive ever heard a flight attendant tell a passenger... she proceeds to tell him that she hates liars. wow. later on he comes in the back and tries to make nice with us... he asks me for peanuts... i tell him no. i told him we already served peanuts and the galley was closed for landing. he gives me a little attitude and i didnt care. he sat down. When i was picking up the trash i walked past him and he said "man... it sure would be nice to have some peanuts rights now." i said "sorry... its locked for landing." he said "well i have a key... " i rolled my eyes and walked off and told him good luck with that.

Before we landed my flight leader told me that i HAVE to go into the cockpit to look at the view. Holy crap! It was honestly the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. All these pictures are taken with my camera phone though... so sorry about the crappy quality.

We got to Anchorage and went out to dinner together. I got some tasty potato soup and tried my first clam ever. It was boiled... yuck. not a fan. The halibut was great though for sure. I was so tired... it was 10pm here and still light outside but it was 2am in atlanta... whew!

I got up this morning and walked around... it's so beautiful... very peaceful. I walked in and out of shops and watched the salmon boats... I think next may I will bring my sister, dad and boyfriend for a little old fashion salmon fishing trip... :) I fly out tonight... and get into atlanta at 6am and then straight to texas to see my man! :) for like 2 seconds... then over to london. :) it's a hard life but someone has to do it.

Crew Lounge... the downfall

Current mood: indescribable

So I picked my couch out for the night... its usually the same one always... the one close to the TV and the power outlets. :)

This old FAT... ahem... larger... flight attendant that i've seen here a lot before was sitting on the couch across from mine... we talked abit when she inquired about my handy survival skills when I pulled out a bowl and ramen noodles from my suitcase. :)

Well I left and came back and the lady fell asleep... her snoring was quite unusual and disturbing. It was somewhere between chocking on a midget and... umm... inappropriate moaning. It was embarrassing to be even sitting in the same section. So I put my earphones on and continued to ichat with my boyfriend...
Here is our conversation:

JK: ummm. this just got wierd... the old lady ... she somehow unbuttoned her pants half way so she could sleep more comfortable

RB:haha

JK: um... then she had her hand halfway down them
she finally woke herself up...

JK: because she farted

RB: lol

JK: and i have my earphones in so i pretended i didnt hear it
so she farted about 5 more times!

RB: Did you smell it?

JK: that was the hardest i have ever tried to keep my facial expressions to a minimum
im holding my breath now cause i saw what she ate.

RB: mmm
;/

JK: so she tried to get up... and shes so fat that she had to roll off the couch onto her knees and pull herself up
and she farted 3 more times...



it's a glamorous life my friends... G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S.
mhmm!

A Days (the LONG version)

Current mood: smitten


A Days.
Dreaded A Days. These would be the 6 days a month that I am on call. Meaning that they can send me anywhere at anytime during those 6 days. So I was SO lucky and I was sent to Madrid! I've always wanted to go to Spain... I've always wanted to go to Europe! I've never been to that side of the world before! So I was SO happy!

The flight went great.. long but good. We got a 24 hour layover and had a blast. My crew was pretty senior... aka old. Not THE oldest in Atlanta... cause these people didn't wear the pampers or breathe oxygen tanks yet. BUT their pants did go WAY over their belly buttons... like what the heck? You get old and your pants have reverse gravity? I don't understand.
Anyways... they were very nice... and our hotel was next to a bullfighting ring which apparently had some boy band concert going on that night...

My measily 30 dollars only got me 18 euro over there and I was told by my flight leader that she knew a place that we could get an appetizer, entre, dessert and wine for 10 euro. so I had 8 more euro which needed to be for breakfast and subways and whatever. We got into Madrid at 10am and we all took a nap... I had a headache before I got off the plane... and after I woke up from my nap I felt even worse... so I had to go to the farmacia on the corner and get the BEST headache pills for 2 euro. Totally worth it!
Then my crew decides they want coffee... so I have less than 6 euro to spare... a coffee was a euro 65 so I ordered the smallest little coffee... i needed an extra kick... i was counting my change to the tee. well the pilot paid for my coffee i was so grateful! the subway was one euro.

So I was still counting my little euros.... that was all the money i had even when I got back to the US... so I was being careful.

Anyways.. we go downtown and it was beautiful! I will post pictures very soon... maybe tonight... depending on the AABFF.

Well... we ate an amazing dinner with my whole crew and I go to pay and my flight leader tells me she has me covered... NICE! She said since I was new and this was my first time to europe that she wanted to treat me. I was so happy!
We get back to the hotel around 11 i think and I pass out... for a minute. I woke at 4am because it was like 11pm in the US... ugh... I stayed in bed until about 5am and get up... go downstairs... read my love letters. :) and I go out alone to explore the streets of Madrid... It's 5am so no one is awake. The city is DEAD! The sun was rising and it was about 60 something degrees... I am not a morning person but HECK... it was almost magical... I can't explain it.
My pick up from the hotel was at 9am... so I headed back and got on my flight. Adios Madrid.

I had a rough flight back to the US. I got in a fight with a lady in the back of the plane because she kept trying to sit in the seats that were reserved for the crew's rest... On a 9 hour flight we get an hour and 40 minutes of rest in those chairs each... and I needed every minute of that. So I tell her to go back to her assigned chair and she gives me ATTITUDE. I give it right back... I am a southern girl with a Northern attitude... I've said that before I know... but its true... so I come back a little later and this stupid lady has stolen all of the nice big pillows in these chairs for herself and is hiding them under the blanket so I don't notice... but a corner of my nice pillow is peeking out and rats her out. I ask her if she has my pillows... "maybe"... I kinda lost it. I told her that I would be happy to find her some small pillows but that those pillows are not for her. She gave me more attitude and tells me that she doesnt understand why she can't have them. I told her that if I don't get sleep for an hour and 40 minutes on a 9 hour duty day that she will no be served coffee on the flight because I will be too tired to serve her. :) Needless to say she gave the pillows back.
Now that the back was under control... the front needed some of my southern hospitality. I kept hearing the flight attendant call button go off over and over and over and couldnt figure out where it was coming from...

ding
ding
ding
ding
ding

I find it. It's a little 4 year old who is sitting on one side of this lady and the girls twin brother sitting on the other side of the lady... who come to find out later was the nanny and the parents were right next door the entire time and never even aknowledged these kids... I tell the little girl not to touch that light. She smiles at me. I walk away.

ding
ding
ding
ding
ding
ding

I walk back. She is looking right at me in the eyes and mocking me and pressing the freaking button. I tell her NO firmly and she stops...

multiply those last actions about 6 more times... other passengers tell me that if i dont take care of the girl then they will.... I told them that the restraints i have on the plane might not be ok for a 4 year old...

I get back to the US completely exhausted around 2:40pm. I don't want to fall asleep yet because I want to get used to Atlanta time again so I force myself to stay up until 10pm which ended up being past midnight cause of some long phone conversations that I had going on with my favorite AABFF. That would be my boyfriend... for those of you who didn't know...

I still have 3 more Adays left now and I pray they send me somewhere equally as good as Madrid... but I know that is not gonna work. They scheduled me for airport domestic standby at 3pm because I legally have to have 24 hours of rest after a european flight... 3:01pm on Aday number 4... after about 4 hours of sleep on a couch I get the phone call. Scheduling. They want me to go to Vegas and then Salt Lake City and then back to Atlanta with a 9 hour layover in Vegas. I'm totally ok with that because I've never been before... but that's a 2 day trip and means that I still have that 3rd Aday unspoken for which is scary... and i want to get released early on the last day so i can fly straight to texas early.

I head to my gate unknowingly to find my fate... My crew is waiting for me... they are NY based and apparently their crewmember had an emergency and had to go so I was her replacement... little did I know that I was sent there to be Aline position... AKA the flight leader!! gasp! Im not supposed to be flight leader qualified until 6 months of flying. Well I had flown with the one girl before in NY and my entire crew had been flying less than I had. CRAP! So I organize everything and start sweating profously. It was a 4 hour flight and we kicked butt. I served a full dinner and drinks and coffee to first class and my crew did 2 beverage services in the back. No one died and everyone was fat and happy. Success! We got to the hotel and as we pull up there is a lady who looks like Michael Jackson walking into the hotel who is dressed up in a wedding dress that is pulled straight from the era of Dynasty with full veil and she holds in her hand a HUGE picture of her and her husband from maybe 50 years ago... I KNEW we were in Vegas.

We go upstairs and change and come downstairs... Lo and BEHOLD there is a karaoke bar right downstairs... I hear a horrible moaning noise and peek in... its the wedding lady singing some depressing song holding this big picture... So I take video and pictures. I HAD to! We go walking along the vegas strip and I was impressed... I LOVE vegas.

We got back to the hotel and crashed and had a 5am pickup so we all slept for 3 hours and worked a short flight to Salt Lake where I played the part of flight leader again.... success again! who knew I had it in me? :) In Salt Lake I part ways with my lovely crew and I deadhead back to the ATL... meaning I get paid for the flight but dont have to work it.... my favorite thing! :) I met a very cool man on this flight and we talked for 4 hours STRAIGHT! He reminded me alot of my dad... We talked about christianity, homeschooling, music, jobs, boyfriends, future plans, college,... everything. We were both in tears at one point. He was really nice and it felt like I had just spent an afternoon chatting with my dad.

I get back to the airport and check my schedule for my last Aday... they have me working ... of course. But it's a early flight to and from Dallas so I can be free by 2pm to catch the 3pm flight to San Antonio. I was sooo tired... But I made it.
Last funny story to this LONG story... I'm sorry... I have the gift of gab...

I was jumpseating on my flight to SA today and I take one look at the flight attendant that I am supposed to share the jumpseat with in the back. He is about 300 something lbs... BIG man... big belly... big .. uh... rear end... He was sweating in the back of the plane with his big yellow armpit stains.... GOSH!
It's a tight fit already back there but we managed somehow for takeoff... Now landing was another story... I get on the jumpseat first and move ALL the way over to the edge to give him space... We land and hit the runway and the plane jumps... when it hits the ground the second time I hear a loud POW and the jumpseat breaks!!!! BREAKS! HAHAHAHAH I laughed so loud that I snorted and distrupted the aft passengers... I felt so bad for the fat flight attendant cause he got up and commented on the defective seat.... as he got up ... the seat popped back up into place... akward. :)

anyways... im in texas... i getta see my sister, my brother... my brother in law to be... and my man...

the irony that i have a boyfriend in the city that i don't like... ah... only me... i swear...

I'm tired... more than tired. I get 2 days off to rest and relax then I head off to Alaska! I'm pretty excited! More adventure to come... no doubt. :) I will add all the pictures to this blog soon... and I will update you so you can come back and check it out... it's worth it I swear. :)

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!

Mexico City

Current mood: drained

I finally made it to Mexico... Well let me tell you... that when I do things... I don't do things normal like the rest of people. I like to go out with a bang. This time it was an unplanned bang. wait. that just didn't sound right at all. You know what I mean so I wont try and reword that and make it even more awkward. I will just tell you my little story and newest adventure.

So yesterday I got to Atlanta from Orlando and I texted my friend Diane to see if she was in Atlanta. She was and she said she'd come pick me up for dinner then drop me back off at the airport so i could go on my morning trip to Mexico.
We went for sushi and it was soo good. We had soup and sushi rolls and I was in HEAVEN.

Maybe about 4 or 6 hours later I was not so much in heaven. I was back at the airport puking my guts out. I fell asleep in the lounge couch and woke up in time for work. I still felt bad but figured I'd be ok. Cause sometimes you just have to puke it out and your good to go. Lovely topic... I know. PS. I HATE talking about body functions... hate it.

I get on the plane and meet my crew and they are all pretty nice. Well there was a 5th flight attendant... which was a surprise... she was a load factor... i forgot what that means from training... but basically she was helping out cause we had a full flight. It was great cause I was not at my best today. I felt blah still but I'm a trooper so I kept going. The flight was boarded and the door closed and the flight leader and this 5th flight attendant got into it. Apparently the 5th girl thought she was the bomb-diggity and wanted to run the entire show on the plane. She rubbed all of us the wrong way... but still... i was glad she was there because as soon as the plane started to take off i had to run to the bathroom again. The plane took off with me inside the bathroom. Lovely.

So I come out and start to help set up for serving dinner... the smell of the food was making it way worse. I got halfway through dinner and started on the drink cart and had to excuse myself again. This is when my crew realized that I wasn't doing well. I regained composure... fixed my hair and tried to serve drinks again... I only got about 2 rows down and I had to excuse myself... again. This time was the worst because for 10 minutes there was really nothing left in my stomach except the 2 sips of ginger ale i drank to help calm it. So I had passengers banging on the door cause I had been in there so long while I was just trying stop dry heaving or trying to figure out which end it was gonna come out of. (graphic... I know... I'm sorry)

The pilots asked if I wanted just to go back to atlanta with them but I told them I was sure I'd be fine after a good nights sleep. Well load factor number 5 was just doing a Mexico turn on her Adays (on call days) which means she was not laying over with us... she was going to go straight back to Atlanta... She was trying to convince me to go back so she could have the layover. Heck no. I knew exactly what she was doing... I may be sick as a dog but I wasn't born yesterday. Meanwhile my crew kept approaching me and telling me that no matter what to not let her convince me to switch with her cause they hated her already and didn't want to layover with her or fly with her tomorrow. She kept complaining because she was being over worked because they were basically minus one crew member since I was in the bathroom the whole flight... Well since she was just a load factor (extra person) we weren't technically short a person... such drama! I hate drama... no lie.

I tried to drink water... I ate 2 small bites of bread... to no avail. We finally land and as soon as I disarm the doors I run back to the bathroom. We finally get everyone off and that stupid woman comes up to me again to convince me to trade with her. I say no... Then she tells me that she is gonna put in for short pay cause she worked hard and she can get more money out of it since they were "short a crew member" (aka me.) I almost flipped out on her. If I had any strength left in my body I would have puked whatever was left in me on her face! I'm just trying not to die and she's trying to make money off of me. Unbelievable! I told my flight leader and she said not to worry cause she won't let that get approved... she will fight so that load factor wont get an extra dime.

As we go through customs and all I felt pretty good. We get outside and one of my crew members lights a cigarette. I thought I would die... My stomach hated her. I stayed strong and held in my cookies (obviously figuratively) but all the while searching for a plan b in case my iron jaw plan didn't pan out the way i thought it would... We get in the van and the flight leader pulls out a bottle of "crew juice". Try to not laugh please. I've heard rumors of this crew juice... but I've never actually seen it done. It is an empty bottle of 1.5 liter water with red wine, champagne, oj, cranapple juice and vodka. One smell of that and I was frantically searching for another plan B. The mere thought of any of that mixed together made my stomach churn... but the smell... oh gosh.

If you have ever ridden in a taxi cab in NY you might have an idea of what riding around in a van in Mexico City feels like. I was counting the seconds before I puked... I should have sat in the front seat. It was the longest van ride ever. I started getting hot and clammy all of a sudden... so I asked for the gray bag that my alcoholic flight leader had stored her crew juice in... So I've already been named Pukey. Excellent. So how embarrassing that I'm puking in a gray bag in front of strangers that are my coworkers and I'm sitting next to the van drivers 5 year old son.

We finally made it to the hotel... Holy Moly. AMAZING! My room... gorgeous. It over looks Mexico City... which is not so gorgeous... and my bathroom was to die for. Biggest bathtub EVER. I didn't care about any of that. I made some hot tea and sipped on that and dodged for the bed. I passed out for 4 hours and just felt so week when I woke up. So I know I have to work on my myspaces... I go down to pay for internet in my room and get some gatorade and pretzels and a sprite... all the remedies my mom would have given me if she were here... So it's been an hour since I ate the pretzels and gatorade. They stayed in place where I put them so far... in my belly! Good news. :)

The view from my 9th story room was blah. I mean... well the city is dirty and smoggy. And its night time out right now... I've never seen such a big city so dark before... no street lights and barely any building lights. Its very odd. Anyways... I have to wake up at 4am to work tomorrow... 3 trips... so I better be in tip top shape. Heading in the direction of the big bath tub now and sleep... Sorry for the graffic-ness of my blog today. :)

I'm heading back to the US tomorrow... then back to Mexico City the day after... I hope there is less drama and less of everything else... I'd like to actually go out with my crew to dinner and enjoy the city on the street level this time.

Sleep good my dear myspace friends. All my love...

Atlanta: Day One

Current mood: animated

So today was my first day being a flight attendant in my new base of Atlanta. I felt like it was my first day of school and I was in the wrong grade. Atlanta is a pretty senior base. The oldest flight attendant that still flies is based in Atlanta... I believe that she is 80 years old! Um. Hello! Do YOU feel safe having an 80 year old flight attendant?! She just got her 50 something Delta pin. Let me put this in perspective for you. My seniority number is 14,055. And even after me there have been at least 500 more people following me. All these double digit flight attendants are based in Atlanta. So needless to say I was a very young looking flight attendant compared to my co-workers.

So I trek across the concourse back and forth figuring out where the heck I am supposed to go... I have about 2 hours of sleep under my belt and I grabbed the 5:40am flight out of San Antonio this morning to make my flight. I thought I might get a nap in... but I had to do my hair and make-up once I figured out where I was going so I didn't scare the passengers. I know I was lookin pretty rough this morning. I go into my briefing room and I am the only girl on the crew... not only the only girl... I am the only person who doesn't know what the 50's & 60's were like first hand. They were very nice though... and very understanding that this was going to be my first Atlanta flight and my very first International flight. As I walked through the concourse with one of my crew members, he would point out the old flight attendants and just laugh and point which ones just needed to give up and retire. That was a fun concourse game. We were Mexico City bound and I was excited. Keyword... "was".

We were first heading up to Raleigh/ Durham and back again on the B757... after that we were going to Mexico City. Well in the middle of the second flight we get rerouted. Welcome to Atlanta... the home of the reroute. They tell us that instead of going to Mexico that we are going to Orlando. Have I ever told you how much I hate Florida flights? But I saw we got a 20 hour layover... this is good. The flight wasn't bad at all... in fact it was so fast. So we got to Orlando.

Let me tell you about our hotel. It's a resort that is 14,000 acres... or something like that. It's very big. So it is late and I order room service that I cannot really afford but I'm hungry. And I plan on working out tomorrow and swimming so I need my energy. :) Well I needed to get cash so I called for the golf cart to come pick me up to take me to the ATM... yes... this place is that big. I get cash and rush back to beat my food to my door and I tried giving my friendly little golf cart driver chueffer a tip... he wouldn't take it... even after multiple attempts... so I finally thanked him and left... I got my delicious dinner and watched a movie and worked on my myspaces and texted my favorite person... life is good. I hear a knock at the door... I look out the peephole and it's my little golf cart driver.

Normally I wouldn't open... or I'd just keep the lock on... but he seemed harmless enough and I pride myself in having the best judgment of people... haha ok... so that is DEFINITELY a joke... being a divorcee at 23 and choosing the best friends who steal from me when I am not looking.... or try to sleep with my husband or end up being involved with witchcraft... so yea. I have great people judgement. :)
ANYWAYS... I opened the door and golf cart guy has a plate and bottle water. He just hands it to me and tells me in his broken English that since we as flight attendants take care of them that they should take care of us. I promise you that I was just thinking about what kinda crap I could buy outta the vending machine for breakfast. :) So I now have a lovely plate of rasberries, blueberries, a banana, banana nut bread loaf, and bottled water. All of my favorite things. How amazing is that?!

Besides the fact that my 3 wise men crew is so fun and my dreaded Florida flight ended up pretty great... I get to tan and swim and work out in the morning and then fly only one single flight back to Atlanta tomorrow. THEN! Then I am supposed to go to Mexico City again. We shall see. I have to get used to being rerouted now... being that Atlanta is my new base... Sometimes I am not very flexible... but I will learn I'm sure. The best part of Atlanta besides having better flights is that I can go home to Nashville more and sleep in my "own bed"... and I can go to San Antonio more often to the city that is determined to not leave me alone... what a crazy thing.

the "r" word with a dash of the "c" word.

Current mood: catalyzed
Category: Life
The Question of Today:
How much do you need to compromise in a committed relationship before it is unhealthy?

I know this much...
I know that a relationship that is healthy requires compromise from both parties.
I know that relationships are give and take otherwise you will always be butting heads.
I know that if you care enough about another person that compromising isn't always as hard as you thought it would be.

Here's my little story... I've only had 2 real romantic relationships. The man I married and my boyfriend of 8 months years after my divorce... I mean... I had a lot of non-relationships in between... but those two were my only real serious ones... because I am not counting my boyfriend when I lived in Chile... that was only trouble... and I was 15.

I compromised a lot in my first "real" relationship... I didn't compromise ANYTHING in my second relationship because I thought I had "learned my lesson".
If my ex husband said the sky was green... I said okay. I knew he was wrong... but I'd rather not fight about it and I figured that was his sad perspective... so in our relationship I knew that the sky was blue and sometimes orange and red and purple but for our sake it was always green. Obviously that is only an example... I'm pretty sure he really didn't think it was green... well who knows? He was an odd one.

In my second relationship I think I might have been a little more close minded because I was bound and determined not to let a boy alter my perspective ever again.

I believe there is a fine line of compromise... I believe it is a blend of vanilla and chocolate to make a mocha and create something new and fresh that neither of you had thought of before. It's the sunsets of purple, orange, red, blue and yellow that have a streak of green in them that will blow your mind... who knew?

Why are relationships so hard now days where marriages end so abruptly but a dating relationship can last for years? Is it because in the back of our mind we still have an out in a dating relationship? Is it because things are at our fingertips in this day and age and we can have anything we want at any time with a dial of just a few buttons? Are we so much about instant gratification that we forgot what is worth fighting for... that the things that are most worth while do not come so easy?

I flinch at the thought of my sister getting married in September. Don't get me wrong I am sooo happy for her. They are the most perfect couple... but yeah. I'm scared for her. I do know that if anyone can make it work... they can. Why? Because they are two amazing christian people who put God first before themselves and each other.

Makes me raise my standards 100 par. Why waste time with someone who you cannot see yourself marrying? When you do find this person though... who is a "maybe one day" guy... it is hard because you each have your own lives. Different jobs that schedules don't match... different cities... different plans... someone has to compromise... or do both compromise? Does love mean giving up your vanilla to make mocha-chocolatay? :)

Anyways... relationship is a scary word to me. the concept is even worse. but sometimes you just find someone that changes your mind... that flips your life upside down and consumes your thoughts and feelings... and the things you thought you wanted get blurred and you forget what your dreams were until later... do you resent that person years down the road? I didn't even realize how unhappy i was in my marriage until it was taken away from me. I realized how much I had given up and how little he had. I realized that I lost who I was. what a long recovery road it has been... and how much more I still have to go.

So for discussion purposes... how much compromise is okay before you cross the line to being just completely whipped?

crashpads

Current mood: grumpy
so here are my thoughts on crashpads.
they are not bad... for the most part when things runs smoothly.
most everyone is very nice.
i've made more lifelong friends. i
've seen some old friends.
i've taught my ways and learned theirs.
i do not like sharing a bathroom with so many people... especially one toilet.
i do not like the water pressure in a shower that is too small for me.
its a good thing i am not bigger... because my toes wouldnt be washd cause you can barely reach your toes its so small in there.
i also don't like when the power goes out for at least 6 hours.
i don't like sharing a mirror with 4 girls that have to go to work and are already late.
i don't like pretending im asleep at 5am when people are getting ready to work and i've only been home for an hour.
i don't like not having a key and having to wake someone up to let me in at night.
i don't like people in the morning. i am not a morning person... my delta smile is not so fresh in the morning...and im not a very nice person in the morning.
i dont like when people take out the trash and make you feel bad cause you aren't doing it... even when they have someone that they pay to do that already.
i don't know how these girls have been doing this for so long... i like the bed and the food...
thats for sure. i'm pretty excited about my atlanta transfer so i can go home now instead of sleeping in weird places. that's pretty friggin great!
you will be seeing me more in nashville and san antonio... not much though cause im keepin a low profile... but i'll be around when you least expect it.

New York Adventures

Current mood: electric
I left texas reluctantly. I had so much fun there!

I did the double commute to JFK where I have been waiting to get my passport forever.... but haven't flown outta there in forever so I couldnt. I get to the lounge and get my lovely passport and run into one of my previous classmates. he tells me that he got his atlanta transfer approved... I told him I had put in for one... but didnt know if i got it... so he showed me how to check... LOW and BEHOLD! I got the friggin transfer!!! Why do I want to be based out of Hotlanta instead of the big apple? well as much as I love new york... I hate sleeping in airports... and its a double commute to get to nashville... which is where I pay for my apartment and car and all my utilities but dont ever get to sleep there... which is dumb. I have a lease until november. Apparently Atlanta is a hard city to get into because its such a senior city... but they asked for spanish speakers specifically and I got in! now this is only a temporary transfer... as soon as my lease is up in november... Im hoping to have some money saved up so I can move to new york and start flying out of here again. but until then... atlanta will help me be able to go home more often and to go to san antonio more frequently to be with my sister who is about to get married... now I can perform my maid of honor duties with ease. ;)

so here i am in new york. i was on call for 3 days... so i decided to rent a bed at a crashpad... its kinda like a hostel. well since i was sure i was gonna get called out to work... i only rented the bed for 2 nights... the lady put me in the main house in the basement by the laundry room... thats fine... whatever. i'll sleep anywhere really... it was very comfortable. the first night i fell asleep around midnight i guess... and supposedly there was some other guy going to sleep down there... since there are 3 beds... well i guess he did sleep there but was gone by 7am to do the AIDS walk... which i wish i knew about... cause i would love to do that... if i were more motivated. well the crashpad lady made a HUGE breakfast on sunday morning... so delicious! strawberry pancakes and bacon and sausage and eggs and oj. yum.

i kinda chilled all day... watched an amazing movie... "the diving bell and the butterfly".. and then decided to take an adventure into the city alone and see randall shreve play. i made it down there and was so impressed with my navigational skills of the transportation system. Randall played at Valhalla... which is a very cool little place on 9th between 54th and 53rd. I made a whole bunch of friends. I even got my own magic show played for me.

I stayed out quite late... and when we left around... 3ish or so... i was sure I could just reverse my transportation skills and make it home... well... the train station on 8th and 50th was closed... and i couldnt remember where the next station was... and by following word of mouth i tried to find it to no avail. so i had to suck it up and take a cab to jamaica/queens from manhattan. sucks. put me out almost $50! I get to the crashpad around 4am... everything is closed... locked up... dang. it's so cold outside and im wearing a tshirt, sweater, small leather jacket and a scarf... so I start thinking of how to make myself warm by sleeping in a corner outside the crashpad because surely someone has a 5am flight and will be coming out soon. I didnt want to wake the main lady up... around 4:30am.. I was cold, pissed at myself for not knowing what time the doors locked... pissed cause i was paying for a nice warm bed downstairs and contemplating sleeping like a homeless person with newspapers for a blanket. so I sent a text message to the main lady... i didnt want to call her cause i didnt want to wake her... but a text is a softer ring and maybe she would hear it or somethin.... well she did! and she scolded me for not calling her earlier. so that's good. nice warm bed. obviously after that adventure i decided to skip breakfast and sleep in.

Well my friend Breann stays at this crashpad too... so we decided that we were gonna go into town for an adventure monday afternoon. we are all starving hardcore... so we head into manhattan while running to the bus stop in the rain... excellent.

We were hungry but we had our priorities straight... so we headed straight to h&m first. :) I spent zero dollars and was quite proud of myself. We headed over to chipotle for ungodly sized burritos... yum! then over to the movies to see chronicles of narnia... well we had to go buy some provisions for the movie and we found a place names burgers and cupcakes... even though we couldnt fathom eating another bite of food... cupcakes always sound amazing. so we each picked out one... well the guy keeps trying to get us to try the other ones... so we finally agree to 2 cupcakes each... and then he just starts pulling cupcakes and makes it a dozen and charged us for one cupcake. suweet!

so provisions in hand, we head back to the movies to watch chronicles of narnia 2. After that we had heard that i had made a good impression on valhalla so we went back. :)

we had so many cupcakes that we started giving them away to strangers and making new friends. i gave a cupcake away to the sore loosers of new orleans... and being a spurs fan myself i decided they needed a cupcake. :)

someone ordered a pizza and the driver had one extra pizza leftover so we got a free pizza... excellent!

around 3am we decide its time to try and get home again... breann and i head to the station and its closed again. this time i have enough energy and sense to remember my pocket subway map and trace out where the next E station is...
i love new york at 3am.... its so peaceful and beautiful... so we did a little sight seeing at the same time.

and finally made it to lexington and 53rd, kinda a far walk but totally worth it. the E train was not running as normal... so it dropped us off somewhere weird... but closer to jamaica/queens so a cab wouldnt be so expensive. well it was like a deserted island... cause there were no cabs to be found... finally one stops and we run and get in... he is so old... and we tell him the cross streets of where we needed to go... he had no idea... but between breann and i we somehow directed him there... we were SOOO proud of ourselves. We are definitely honorary new yorkers now... says me anyways...

We got back into the house at around 4:30am and someone was coming out to go to work so we got in... excellent. :)
well the crashpad lady moved me to the second house since I had to rent the bed for a few more days since i didnt get called out on any assignments... so I am sitting on the top bunk of a bed in a room with about 20 other beds and one bathroom... there is a curtain all the way around my bed so im sitting in a fabric box. its so weird. SO weird.
Well I have 2 more nights here before I fly out to San Francisco. I can't wait for that trip! I dunno what kinda adventure we will run into tonight... but I cannot wait! :)


Ps. this is DC last week... the White House at 2am

The Shuttle

Current mood: sleepy
May 10... almost May 11 (officially)

Today was my little sisters graduation from UTSA. I couldn't have been prouder of her. She deserves it more than anyone I know. So we watched her cross the stage and screamed when she went across and took all of our pictures... Then to her house to get ready for the BBQ celebration. I had to pack and get in uniform since I had to fly out at 3:50 which was the last flight of the day and that's kinda risky but I didn't feel like I had a choice since I really wanted to be at the graduation.

We took all of our pictures together and my friend came to take me to the airport... We made it just in time! San Antonio is so bad about their construction and just closing areas down with no warning so we did a few loopy-rounds until we finally got there. I rushed in to get through security and San Antonio is laid out where crew members cut the main line of people and go to the first class line... and then we are allowed to cut in front of people so we don't miss flights. So I apologized to the people as I cut them... cause I really do feel bad about cutting... and I guess the guy behind me didn't hear... and threw a 3rd grade hissy fit. I'm obviously in uniform and obviously in hurry... I probably delayed him maybe 30 seconds... and he says... "Excuse me, you just cut."
I said, "Yes sir, I did. I'm crew and I have to get to work."
So he pouts and tells the TSA lady (which is Security) that I cut in front of him and starts looking around at the people behind him like he's gonna try and gather up a gang or something.
TSA just told him, "Yessir, she is crew. She is allowed to cut."
What a jerk that guy is. Heck. He was probably there 2 hours early for his flight anyways.

So I made my flight barely and read half of my very good book and fought to stay awake so I could sleep good tonight. We were on a really small plane so I had to carry all my bags up and down the stairs because there was no jetway... and mostly people helped me because I was obviously having issues. Well on my way out of the plane stairs and up to the airport I fell down the stairs... the guy behind me helped me up. SO embarrassing! I tried to regain some dignity but its kind of hard after something like that... especially when you stick out for being in uniform. So I head to my next gate in Atlanta to catch my next flight to LaGuardia... The airport was FULL of army boys. Entire flights of just army boys! Sweet. Anyways... back to the story... The one flight of all army boys was about to be shipped out to somewhere overseas and there were enjoying their last moments in America... and the gate agent announced that their flight would be delayed a few hours. I've never heard soo many people cheer and clap so loud and be so happy about a delay. Very funny.

I made my flight... got first class and again, fought to not sleep so I read some more... and here I am at LaGuardia... This is my least favorite airport for sleeping in... They have about 6 chairs to sit in and its cold and the lights are on and people are coming in and out and the door is open and you can hear the cleaning people and the ground people coming in and out and talking all night. Plus you have to be awake by about 4:30am because people start checking in at that time for their next flights. Well I TRULY hate it today because all the chairs are taken. What the heck?!
So this is it. I'm getting a freaking crashpad. I can't handle this anymore. My friend has space in her crashpad and I'm gonna bite the bullet. I need my rest before a 12 hour work day tomorrow and I cant freaking rest.

May 11

So I got a chair... well a mini couch thing that your feet have to go up and over... smaller than a bathtub. So I slept there for 3 hours before people started coming in and being rude and loud to check in. I woke up and changed into uniform in the bathroom but not before getting verbally sexually harassed by the ground control workers. You know when you think that something bad is going to happen but you have confidence that it wont... and then when you actually get very scared that something very bad could happen to you? Yeah. Mine was the second... The guy was screaming down the hall because I hadn't told him "hi"... even though I didn't hear him the first time and then after that he got so belligerent that I ignored him. Even after I was in the women's bathroom I could hear him yelling and I hid. For about 5-10 minutes I actually feared he would follow me in there and do bad things... I did nothing but sit and listen for footsteps and for the door to open. Again. I'm getting a freaking crashpad.

I head over to the Marina Terminal around 5am since TSA is opened over there and I can sleep for about 2 and a half more hours before check-in time. It was the best sleep ever in the lazy boy chair. I wish they didn't close down that Terminal at night... because I would totally live there, which I guess is why they close it. I had 5 flights to do that day... My crew was very nice and very new. The weather was great so we kept getting in early so we would have like 20 minutes to sit on the plane and eat or sleep or make calls before we started boarding again... which was nice... I got a couple of quick naps in.. on the 4th flight we got to come back to LaGuardia and sit for 2 hours.. which means we all got an hour and a half nap in the comfy lounge and then headed to our last flight to Washington DC. I was pretty excited about DC because I have a friend there and I have never been and never seen the capitol!
We had a VERY scary landing because of weather in DC.
So I got in late and showered and ate dinner... It was SO cold and rainy! So we just snapped a quick picture of the White House and left. Let me tell you that I thought it would be WAY bigger and more far away from everything. But its smaller than in my mind's eye and right in the middle of it all.
BUT now I can say I've seen it. :)
I was very happy to sleep in a real bed and have a hot shower.

May 12

Today is my sisters birthday. She is 23 now.
I only have 3 flights today. Which is still more than I prefer to do in one day... especially such short flights. We don't have to check in until 1pm so we get to sleep in. Happy day. The weather is ugly today and Im concerned for delays and cancellations. My hotel room tv doesn't work so I cannot check the news but at least I have the internet to check the weather in NY.
Our first flight was easy... about 20 something people on it... and then we hear we are getting rerouted. Our minds can only race to where Delta will send us... All of us are off tomorrow so we pray they don't extend the trip into our off day... or maybe we will just get our flights cancelled... we have no idea... All we know is that we are going to be deadheading back to DC... which means that we don't work the flight... we just sit and sleep and still get paid for it. Not bad... but we don't know what is going to happen to us once we get to DC... will we stay there? will go to atlanta or salt lake? we don't know.
luckily we just had the one cancellation and we go back to our regular schedule to work that 7:30 flight back to New York which is scheduled to arrive at 8:45. I book a flight in good faith on the 9pm Atlanta flight and pray I get on it... Of course we got delayed on the runway and of course the bus didnt come pick us up for 30 minutes... so I missed the flight.

Here I am in LaGuardia again. I encountered another true lounge rat like me... I've seen him before in JFK and suspected he was like me... and I was right. So we compared tricks of the trade... and I learned a couple of new secrets. Heck Yes. But I do intend on getting a crashpad as soon as money permits.
Meanwhile "Lounge Rat" makes for some good adventures and stories to tell the kids one day... I meet alot of interesting people... and I get to tell you all my stories... whether you believe them or not. :)
The plan for tomorrow is to take the 6am Atlanta flight... Chill in Atlanta with my friend and run some errands... visit my favorite bar/restaurant and take the 8pm flight to San Antonio to see my family for 3 days for the last time for awhile... Then the rest of the month I fly NON-stop. I can't wait! I LOVE this job. I love being a nomadic fancy hobo... I won't be able to stand the hobo part too much longer I'm afraid... but everything else is good. I just get worn out since i don't have a steady place to sleep when I get to New York without feeling like I'm putting anyone out. So I think an investment into a crashpad will help that a lot. Anyways... Im gonna try and sleep for 3 hours before the lounge gets loud again. I claimed my chair for the night already... peace out hobos.

"Leave"

"It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it? It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.
I want to repeat one word for you:

'Leave.'

Roll the word on your tongue for abit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted it to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed."
-Donald Miller (excerpt from "Through Painted Deserts")

I've been back in Texas for almost a week. I've been burnt out, depressed and stressed. I knew seeing my family would be helpful but I didn't even know how much I needed this. I honestly didn't even know how much healing I have yet to go through. I've conquered so much in the last few years. I have so much more to accomplish.

If you DON'T know me AT ALL... then let me do a VERY quick recap.
Hi. I'm Julie, I'm a 25 year old divorcee, missionary kid from Chile. I am not divorced because I'm a bad person or because I did anything wrong... My husband just kinda flipped a switch when he changed careers and decided he didn't love me anymore... almost overnight. I went through everything I could to save what I could... I went through hell and back and got persecuted along the way. I am not a hero. I'm a ragged survivor, I suppose. Only the people closest to me know what I went through. I stayed pretty silent through it all since it was no one's business but my own. Some people thought differently. I lived through the single hardest year of my life here in Texas and finally moved away. It was the best thing I ever did. Those close to me hated it but eventually understood why. I would relive that year if it meant I would be able to help another person through it. I prefer not to relive it so I published a book of poetry that I wrote in that time frame to help other people going through a similar situation.

That being said... It is very hard for me to come back to this city. As dramatic as you may think I am... This is the area where I made my happiest moments... where I dated, married and lived for 2 and a half happy years of marriage... This is the area where I also lived my worse moments... the last 6 months of my marriage and the 6 months afterwards.

I've known how important my family was to me... but now I can truly say that I would not be where I am if it weren't for them or my closest friends... Emily & Kara. Only these 6 people can vouch for the circumstances... Only these 6 people would I feel completely comfortable representing my case while I wasn't looking. These people know me well enough to back me up no matter what rumors go around... They are the only people who love me enough to be honest with me and express their concerns and their moments of pride with me. I love them and appreciate them more than they will ever know.

I've survived part one of the healing and I know that part 2 is more of a personal thing than anything and it is learning to be comfortable in my own skin. To this point, I have never felt more comfortable or loved myself more than now... which is kind of scary because I still have a very long ways to go.

I say all of this because I am in the process of cutting off communication with people that need to go. I will always be here as a friend for anyone who needs me. I will be a shoulder to cry on or a life of a party to celebrate with... But my ties are getting tighter with the ones I care about most and share with my most personal things. Don't feel bad if I don't respond to messages, texts, e-mails or phone calls. I'm taking time to know what I want... to love myself enough that I won't need romantic relationships to feel loved... to save myself for the best thing to come, whatever that may be.

I know that my life has many great things to come in store... but I'm tired of being a Jonah... I'm tired of not caring enough... I'm tired of being selfish and selfless all in the same sentence. I cannot even explain everything right now that I am in search for... and I don't expect you to even begin to understand... and that is ok. Just know that I am simplifying my life. Plain and simple.

I'm not "going" anywhere... just making changes where they are needed. Some of you won't even know I'm letting go because our relationship is healthy... some of you will take it harder than others... but just know that it is best for everyone. I love my friends... that means you. I'll be "here"... just not 24 hours everyday.
I hope you can understand,
it's time to move on...
it's time to leave.

so here I am...

I was heading on my way to New York from Nashville on May 2 to fly a 5am rotation for that next morning. Well we had a crazy night the night before... and I'm not even going to go into that story... but definitely top 10 in the weirdest nights in my life... so we fell asleep very late... very short sleep and I had to fly out at 1:50 to New York with a 40 minute stop over in Cinci-Nasty. Of course by noon I hadnt showered or even packed or eaten anything... I barely made the flight.

I've been trying to drop that rotation for 3 weeks... It was just a fast turn and I'd only get paid for about 3 hours of work and it was going to consume all my time... but no one would pick up that trip. So I get to Cinci and grab some nasty pizza really quick and my phone rings...

It's In-Flight Scheduling.

They tell me that my trip just got dropped. I was like YES! No LaGuardia sleeptime for me tonight!
but why couldn't they have called just one hour earlier when I was still at home in Nashville?

Well you know and I know that my life has no 'point b'. So I quickly cancel my flight from Cinci to LGA and try and figure out a few options.

1) Head straight to San Antonio early and I can go to church on Sunday with my parents.
2) Head home to Nashville, get some sleep catch my friend 27 and friends for another night out, and clean my house then head to San Antonio
3) Head to Austin and drive into San Antonio the next morning and surprise my parents at church
4) Head to Atlanta and get halfway to Texas and see my GA friends...

Well I missed the last flight out to SA by like 5 minutes.
and the flights to nashville were full... and my friends in atlanta had plans... and i couldnt get ahold of my girl in Austin... so I temporarily freaked out.

Finally I heard from Lynn and she was down for pickin me up in Austin and driving me down to SA the next morning..
Suweet.
I got first class down to Texas and slept for a minute. Lynn dropped me off at 1604 and 281 starbucks and my other friend picked me up to take me to church.

So I do have a point B... it's just never a normal things like everyone else's.

My mom was so surprised that she cried. That was pretty cool to surprise her. I was not so excited to step foot back in that church again... which is why I brought the moral support of my friend... I conquered it head on and saw all the people that most hurt me in the last 3 years (they were all sitting behind me)... My hands were all shaky and sweaty and we did our fake smiles like nothing has ever happened between us... I'm so not a fan of fake. I'd rather tackle things caveman style cause I'm not good at expressing myself verbally either... only by writing... which is why i text and aim...

So now I am just chilling, working on myspaces, visiting my parents, visiting friends and that's nice. I'm lookin forward to getting back to work and fly my butt of for 2 weeks straight... probably more... im sure... but we shall see what is gonna happen. I'm trying to take things one step at a time... and trust that God is going to take care of me and all my bills...
my very wise friend told me that God wouldnt have brought me this far... I believe him.

she ain't nothin but a gold digga

so.

i got my second delta paycheck and it was the same as the other one... and i'm upset, depressed, and confused. i think delta started making fun of me too because they sent me a package in the mail today about the delta savings plan. are you kidding me right now? i wish that were even an option. how about the delta poverty plan? when do i start to get packages in the mail about that?

i tried to sell my car today... i couldnt even do that. i owe too much money.

i have three options to make my life work until the money starts to get better...

1) Give up. put everything in storage, give my cats away and just not pay rent anymore and let them re-po my car... i mean my credit cant get much more worse.

2) Give it away. Anyone feel like moving to nashville and taking over a fully furnished apartment with a car? It's fairly affordable to someone who has a real job.

3) Get married. The tax benefits would be better, he can pay the rent and have a real job and i'll never be home and he can take care of my cats... hey! and you can fly for free too! soo... any takers? I've gotten quite a few marriage proposals since i started this job but none that can afford me. Its the perfect relationship... we'd never see eachother and you can fly anywhere you want for free!


so... if you were in my shoes, what would you do?

my life... is this for real?

My friend texted me today to tell me he felt like me when he was standing on a corner of a bus stop waiting for his ride that never came.

Bad luck?
Bad Kharma?
I dunno.

"everything is a test"
that's what we told ourselves every day in Delta training.

I'm almost one month into flying and I'm not sure how many more tests I can take.

Anything that could happen to you... well, it probably already happened to me... twice.

I'm wearing 2 different socks because I lost the other pairs of both socks along the way.

Hi. My name is Julie... and here is my violin.
Can I play it for you?


It's 2:30am at the Newark International Airport in New Jersey. This has been one of my new homes. I am learning all the secret corridors in these places. Again... here I am eating my overpriced ramen noodles for dinner and waiting for my 6am flight.
I get to go home tomorrow! I'm pretty excited. I think that most of my... let's call it a mini depression... is coming from being home sick... not having a steady schedule... being malnutritioned and dehydrated (that's all according to my wise friend as well).
The rest of my reason for my "depression" is money. It's the biggest portion.

Did you know flight attendants don't make any money?
Did you know that I qualify for FOOD STAMPS?!
Did you know that there are flight attendants who are already on these food stamps?
holy crap.

I get paid every two weeks... now granted my whole time in training we got paid minimum wage... that's $5.85 an hour I believe... so my last check was part training and part flying... I think... I hope that it never looks like that again... Let's just say... It didnt even cover my cell phone bill. So without getting technical on my money problems, let me tell you that the $300 check went towards transportation and food... for 2 weeks... cause its expensive in New York. So... who wants to pay my rent, cell phone, car, car insurance, water, cable, electric, and buy me new luggage? I'm pretty sure no one does... I don't even want to.

Now here's the irony... the part where the situation actually has my bad luck sealed in my name...
I have $15 in my account. You can't pull $15 out of an account unless you are at a bank. I have $5 in my pocket. Tomorrow I get into Nashville and to get from the airport to my house is a $15 cab ride. What the crap?! So I'm either hitchhiking or walking. It's probably only 15 miles away anyways... Then I know that there is a check in my mailbox waiting for me... everything is fine after that. But to get from point A to point C you need point B. My life always misses out on point B.

Another example of my irony.
I needed to get from the LaGuardia aiport to Jersey City, New Jersey at 1am. There are 3 trains involved. I actually had the money this time... so where is the irony in this point B? My wheel fell off of my suitcase. I had to catch the M60 bus to get to the N train to go to 34th street. Walk to 33rd street and catch the path train and walk about 6 blocks to my friends house dragging a suitcase minus a wheel that sounded like I was being followed by a freight train.

Do you think that this gets me down? Nope.
I'm laughing right now... on the inside of course because I have to be quiet cause everyone around me is sleeping...
but I laugh because I know it will all work out in some weird way that is my life...
I will somehow get a ride home tomorrow and have a crazy story to tell you... like how I hitchhiked on a motorcycle and towed my wheel-less luggage behind me... or how I just parachuted from the plane a few minutes early to land on my front porch... shoot. I dunno... but that's my life!

I tell all my friends... I cannot offer you much in life... but I can promise you this... if you hang with me... there will be adventure. I make that an oath... There will never be a dull day with me.
If you have ever driven in a car with me... or gone to the grocery store... or even parked my car with me... it won't be boring. Thats for sure!

One day I will write a book about all my missing Point B's... or all the adventures that you didnt expect to have with me... like the time I actually did hitchhike on a motorcycle with 2 other friends and 2 other motorcycles... or the day where I was supposed to drive Kevin Max to a show and I couldnt parallel park so we had to get out and trade seats so he could park my car at his own show in front of the line of fans waiting to get in... or the time when I slept at an airport but didnt really sleep... oh wait... that's right now.

Well... wish me luck on my travels home... and if my cell phone is shut off between now and who knows when... well... send me an e-mail. :)

xxoo
JulieKristine