This last week has been interesting. I've told you about the murderer, Colonel Sanders, Ricky Schroeder, and the alcohol testing. All that happened in 2 days. I'm on day 7 away from home. I was expecting to only be gone for 5 days. So I have 5 days of food and clothes packed with me. I'm trying so hard to eat healthy and on a budget and working out of an airport makes that very difficult. After I got back from Panama I had a trip that I thought would be SO easy. I thought I'd just take one flight to Detroit, layover for 17 hours, One flight back to Atlanta, sit, one flight to San Diego sleep for 13 hours and boom back to Atlanta where I would then hop on a flight to San Antonio, do my laundry, kiss my boyfriend, grab more food and head back to work. Of course in my life nothing ever goes as planned.
Here's what really went down. I got back from Panama and headed to the training center where when available there are rooms for free for flight attendants. It's first come first serve and you get a bed and a shower for FREE. Score. So I got a room and didn't even have to check out early since it was the weekend. So I slept in until about 11 am which was just what my body needed. Little did I know I should have stayed in bed a few more hours. That morning there was tornado warnings for Georgia and some snow alerts for the next day. When I get to work they had already started canceling flights before the first snowflake was even formed.
Our schedule was showing our flight back from Detroit the next day was cancelled. So we didn't know if we were going to get stuck in Detroit or not go at all. As we go into briefing we get our re-route. It says that INSTEAD of our nice long 17 hour layover in a very nice hotel you get to sit in the airport for 5 hours and 50 minutes and deadhead on the first and only plane leaving Detroit that day. We don't have a lounge in Detroit and 5 hours and 50 minutes happened to be overnight which happens to be really annoying. So our Flight Leader called scheduling and begged for a hotel for us. Luckily they gave us one. It was going to be a very short stay but better to be warm and out of the airport than cold in the airport. So we were grateful at least for that. Well the night was already going to be long or short depending on your perspective. Immigration decides to put a 2 hour hold on the line so no one can leave and we unfortunately have 60 passengers that are supposed to be on our flight coming in from Aruba and St. Thomas. If they don't get on this plane then they don't fly home for a couple of days. So we wait for awhile. Slowly but surely they trickled on the airplane. It was finally decided that we couldn't wait anymore and we took off. This delayed us enough that now we only get 3 hours at our hotel room in Detroit. I know that I cannot sleep for such little time when I am exhausted already so I planned to stay awake until we got back to Atlanta where I would then sleep like a baby during the day at our domicile layover before our San Diego turn. I felt like death.
I made it to the Atlanta hotel at 9am and finally went to sleep around 10am. This was 23 hours that I had not slept. Maybe if I had the stamina of a 16 year old I could do this... but this old lady requires sleep. You'd think that I slept like a baby... no. I slept about 5 hours and my body just wouldn't let me stay down. I opened the curtains and it was snowing like crazy outside. So pretty. Pretty from far away. :) I hate snow... it hurts my body... I told you I was old. So I worked online and watched old movies and watched my podcasts and headed to the airport for my next flight to San Diego. It was delayed about an hour and a half. We were crossing out fingers for it to be cancelled. No such luck.
When we got to San Diego we were all tired and grouchy. We got in around midnight California time which would be 3am Atlanta time. Yuck! We got our rooms and I popped 2 melatonins so I could have a nice uninterrupted sleep...
As soon as I had finally nodded off the ice machine that neighbored my room started rumbling and it scared me so I sat straight up and I swear I saw a shadow of a person in my room. (I learned later that melatonin can give you horrible vivd nightmares.) I finally convinced myself no one was in the room with me and passed out.
8am I hear housekeeping banging on the door. Before I could even figure out where I was or what my name was they came busting in and broke the chain off the door. I guess they realized someone was in there by then and closed the door. I could NOT fall asleep after that. Around 11 I am getting dressed to go to work and they bang on the door again. I was so annoyed so I complained to the front desk so that would never happen again to a flight attendant and also they wouldn't charge me for the broken lock on the door. I head to work and we are delayed again. It takes a few days to get back on schedule after snow.
On the flight I got put to sit up front with the flight leader to work first class. Little did I know that he would make this the longest 4 hour flight. Before we even take off he starts looking at me weird. He tells me in Spanish, "Si supieras cuanto te amo." (If only you knew how much I love you). I said, "Umm... You don't know me." He said, "Oh you speak Spanish!" "yea." So then he starts talking to me in French. I told him that I didn't understand french but if what he was saying had anything to do with his previous statement that he was crazy because he didn't know me. So he's already a creeper. I mentioned later on that I was cold and he rushed over to try and warm me up. I get up and move. I try not to make this situation even more awkward because I know he is a co-worker and I know that I will have to see him again later. I tried to keep busy and moving around him at all times so that he couldn't try to touch me. He kept trying to rub my back and shoulders. As I was standing in front of the cockpit door blocking for the pilots to come out to use the bathrooms he grabs my hand to hold it. I was in such shock. Luckily the cockpit door opened and I quickly got inside. The rest of the flight I stayed in the back of the plane. I mentioned to the other flight attendant what had happened and how I just kept talking about my boyfriend and tried not to make things awkward. She said he had done the same thing last night on the way down to her. She said he had done the same as me and talked about her boyfriend and kept moving around so he couldn't catch her. haha So I was nervous to be up there alone with him. When we landed he kept trying to hug me. All the first class passengers had exited and so had the pilots so I just had a feeling that this guy was bold enough to try and kiss me or something in there so I quickly moved to the middle of the plane and said goodbye to all the passengers... (more witnesses, right?) I turned around and he was right there and he tried to grab my hand again in front of everyone. I just pretended it didn't happen and told him I needed to get my bags. He told me that he would wait for me to see if I got on my flight. I told him no thank you. He said he wanted to take me to dinner and that he would pay for my hotel. Yea, right. No thanks! So I made it off the plane before him and hid behind some passengers and waited for him to pass. whew!
I was crossing my fingers that I could get on a flight back to San Antonio that night but there was only one very small plane left to go home and it was so full. So I got stuck in Atlanta and again headed over to the Training Center. Tuesday was my day off (the next day) so I wasn't too happy about being stuck in Atlanta. Luckily I can do my laundry at the Training Center. I had to wait to see what was put on my schedule for Wednesday since I was on-call. If I got a late sign in there was still a chance I could go home for the day and even the night.... no such luck. Posted on my schedule was a 5:30 am standby. Oh Joy. So check out at the training Center is 9AM and check in time is at 4PM. So for those few hours I was lost on what to do. I found a little lobby in the training center with comfy couches and a tv with cable but no internet connection. boo. It was so cold in there and I didn't bring my jacket since I figured I'd just be in Panama and San Diego anyways... So I had my hoodie on over my head and my hands tucked in the sleeves, it was so cold. I fell asleep on the couch and was awakened by a maintenance man who handed me a blanket. I was so grateful! I wondered if they even thought I belonged there or if I was just some homeless girl. When I woke up again there was another flight attendant waiting for a room too. Finally it was 4pm and we got our rooms again. Oh Joy. By 4:30 pm I took my chances again with the melatonin, put in my earplugs and put on my eye mask and set my alarm for 3am.
At 5PM, my phone rang and I shouldn't have answered but I did. It was a sneaky, rude, arrogant bill collector who was bullying me and telling me that he was going to wage garnish my paychecks and how I had to pay him all this money up front. I offered him what I had and he told me no. I got so nervous that they were really going to start taking 25% out of my paychecks to pay this bill from so many years ago. So, being the tired, emotional girl that I am I started crying. Luckily I have he best support system. I texted my boyfriend and he assured me that the guy was just trying to scare me. I called my sister and she knows all the rules and told me that he cannot do that and that it is illegal for him not to take the money that I offered to him to pay my debt. So she called him as my representation and let him have it. He totally lied to her and to me and she cornered him and told him to never contact me again. Awesome! I'm glad I know someone who knows the law and knows how to fight.
At 6PM I had calmed down enough to realize that I hadn't eaten in almost 24 hours and that sick feeling in my stomach was more than just an uneasy feeling about an unpaid bill. So I ate yet another peanut butter and honey sandwich. I'm not quite sure how many more of those I can eat. I attempted sleep again and passed out until about 10:30PM. I couldn't fall back asleep again. So I watched old shows and just relaxed until the alarm went off at 3AM. I think I dozed off again around 2AM which made 3AM even worse. I called a cab and bared the cold and headed to work.
This is where I am right now. On standby. I'm stuck here until 9:30 I think. If I don't get called then I have to wait again until 4pm to get yet ANOTHER training Center room and hope that they don't call me out early. I have 11 hours from the time I get released until the time that they can call me again. I HATE being on call. HATE it. So I'm watching the flight attendants slowly trickle in and listening to my nemesis snore on the couch. I swear I've contemplated punching her to get her to shut up, putting food in her mouth, putting an alarm by her head... anything. It's so annoying. All the flight attendants are just looking around for who it is. I don't even have to look. I already know who it is ... I've named her the orgasmic farter. She's crazy.
Anyways... I have 3 more on call days, then I am going to head down to Nashville for my friend Jess' wedding and then restock on food and head BACK to atlanta for SIX more on call days... I miss my boyfriend so much. I'm so over being on call.
And oh dang, the creeper flight leader just showed up. Well wish me luck. I'm grumpy enough today for some confrontation. Should be interesting
Showing posts with label texas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label texas. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Yesterday
Current mood: adventurous
I was twittering most of what happened yesterday but I thought I
might connect the dots for you. It was quite eventful. So I was flying
in from Panama. The flight itself was pretty uneventful. When we landed
I had this super strong feeling that I was going to be chosen for the
random drug testing. I don't know why. I just had this feeling.
So we land and as soon as the plane door opens there were customs
people and apparently fbi guys waiting on the jetway to check
everyone's passports. That never happens.... or at least I've never
seen it happen. So I was at the back of the plane just chilling and
waiting for the longest deplaning in history and missed most of the
action. Apparently they were searching for a specific gender and race
and letting everyone else pass. The girls picked the next "passport
suspect" in line and he didn't look nervous because he couldn't see
what was going on. Once they found him they threw him against the
jetway wall took his coat off him and handcuffed him and took him away.
Everyone was so confused. Even us. We had no idea what was going on. So
we all go to clear customs and immigration ourselves but the one flight
attendant stayed behind to help a passenger get her cellphone back that
she had left on the plane.
After I clear customs and immigration there is a Delta person waiting
for me to be random alcohol tested. So crazy. I think I have ESPN. :)
So I head to the A concourse to go blow in a machine to prove I hadn't
been drinking before 10am. haha As I'm waiting for the elevator I see
Colonel Sanders... I am not joking. He was wearing the suit, the tie,
the glasses, the cane, and the KFC pin. His wife was in a wheelchair
and he was walking slow with her down the concourse. Everyone was
shouting, "Colonel Sanders!" And he was waving. Now my mouth was
dropped open and I just stared. I had thought he died. I wiki-ed it on
my phone and he did die. So who is this old man walking around the
airport impersonating the KFC guy? It was like seeing the ghost of
Elvis. :)
I get into the elevator with one flight attendant and I was telling her
how this had been the weirdest day of my life and it was just starting.
She laughed. Now when we get into the elevator to take us to our Flight
Attendant lounge, we have to swipe our badges and punch in a code to
take us there. Well I thought there were only 3 levels to the
airport... um no. The elevator this time opened to some part of the
airport abyss with pipes and a worker singing "Welcome to the jungle"
to us. So crazy.
I finally make it to the drug testing area and I blow in the machine
and told the lady of all my events of the day. She was laughing so
hard. Obviously I passed the test. I went to grab some food but the
flight attendant who had stayed behind to help the cellphone lady found
me in the lounge and told me she has asked the customs guys what had
happened and why that guy was arrested. He told her that the man was
wanted for murder. woah.
Anyways... my day was pretty much uneventful after that. I was going to
try and go to TX before my flight the next day but all the planes were
back up due to weather so I stayed the night in Atlanta at the Delta
dorms. Not bad because now they have wi-fi. I wish they had that when I
was in training, would have saved me a lot of money. Tonight I'm
heading to Detroit then to San Diego. Nice long layover... enough to
work out and sleep a lot. Hopefully they won't be as action packed.
Ps. the day before yesterday I had Ricky Schroder on my flight from San
Antonio to Atlanta. The one flight attendant went crazy over him. Guess
she grew up watching Silver Spoons. :)
I was twittering most of what happened yesterday but I thought I
might connect the dots for you. It was quite eventful. So I was flying
in from Panama. The flight itself was pretty uneventful. When we landed
I had this super strong feeling that I was going to be chosen for the
random drug testing. I don't know why. I just had this feeling.
So we land and as soon as the plane door opens there were customs
people and apparently fbi guys waiting on the jetway to check
everyone's passports. That never happens.... or at least I've never
seen it happen. So I was at the back of the plane just chilling and
waiting for the longest deplaning in history and missed most of the
action. Apparently they were searching for a specific gender and race
and letting everyone else pass. The girls picked the next "passport
suspect" in line and he didn't look nervous because he couldn't see
what was going on. Once they found him they threw him against the
jetway wall took his coat off him and handcuffed him and took him away.
Everyone was so confused. Even us. We had no idea what was going on. So
we all go to clear customs and immigration ourselves but the one flight
attendant stayed behind to help a passenger get her cellphone back that
she had left on the plane.
After I clear customs and immigration there is a Delta person waiting
for me to be random alcohol tested. So crazy. I think I have ESPN. :)
So I head to the A concourse to go blow in a machine to prove I hadn't
been drinking before 10am. haha As I'm waiting for the elevator I see
Colonel Sanders... I am not joking. He was wearing the suit, the tie,
the glasses, the cane, and the KFC pin. His wife was in a wheelchair
and he was walking slow with her down the concourse. Everyone was
shouting, "Colonel Sanders!" And he was waving. Now my mouth was
dropped open and I just stared. I had thought he died. I wiki-ed it on
my phone and he did die. So who is this old man walking around the
airport impersonating the KFC guy? It was like seeing the ghost of
Elvis. :)
I get into the elevator with one flight attendant and I was telling her
how this had been the weirdest day of my life and it was just starting.
She laughed. Now when we get into the elevator to take us to our Flight
Attendant lounge, we have to swipe our badges and punch in a code to
take us there. Well I thought there were only 3 levels to the
airport... um no. The elevator this time opened to some part of the
airport abyss with pipes and a worker singing "Welcome to the jungle"
to us. So crazy.
I finally make it to the drug testing area and I blow in the machine
and told the lady of all my events of the day. She was laughing so
hard. Obviously I passed the test. I went to grab some food but the
flight attendant who had stayed behind to help the cellphone lady found
me in the lounge and told me she has asked the customs guys what had
happened and why that guy was arrested. He told her that the man was
wanted for murder. woah.
Anyways... my day was pretty much uneventful after that. I was going to
try and go to TX before my flight the next day but all the planes were
back up due to weather so I stayed the night in Atlanta at the Delta
dorms. Not bad because now they have wi-fi. I wish they had that when I
was in training, would have saved me a lot of money. Tonight I'm
heading to Detroit then to San Diego. Nice long layover... enough to
work out and sleep a lot. Hopefully they won't be as action packed.
Ps. the day before yesterday I had Ricky Schroder on my flight from San
Antonio to Atlanta. The one flight attendant went crazy over him. Guess
she grew up watching Silver Spoons. :)
Sunday, January 4, 2009
T.G.L.F.A.B.
Current mood: cooky/wacky
(The Glamorous Life of a Flight Attendant Blog)
So starting on Christmas day...
(first things first... you must know that as an Atlanta flight attendant we have 6 "A days".. which is on call days... they can send you anywhere at any time for 6 days)
... So ok, Christmas Day. I was on my first A day and I got scheduled standby for 4 hours until 11pm. So I got there in the morning from TX and chilled all day... I watched movies on Netflix, crocheted some scarves, finished my Mandela biography, and chatted with friends. I didn't get called out for anything. So day one was over and I checked my schedule for the next day and it said I had standby again for day 2. I was irritated but whatever. So I slept in the lounge in a smelly little room... by little I mean maybe 5 ft x 5 ft with 2 small plastic reclining chairs in them. They smell weird and they are creepy. But I slept in there until about 9 or 10 am... not very comfortably... but better than the couch. I wake up, do my airport beauty routine put on some jeans and check my schedule again. It tells me I have standby on day 2 and day 3. I check open time (which tells us which trips need to be covered for the day) and it shows all these amazing trips. I called scheduling and asked them for one of those good trips. The guy tells me I can't have any of those trips because I am the only flight attendant in the lounge that can be used for more than 4 days... I kinda didn't believe him... and I let him know that I was on to him. I told him I commuted from Texas so I needed a bed and shower at the hotels... he asked me if I had considered moving to Atlanta... I told him I had a family. haha whatever. It is not his business where I live. So then I told him that if I was on standby for one more day then I would start to smell soon because I needed a shower and I cannot afford a hotel every night I have A days. He didn't care about my body odor.
So I'm sitting around in my jeans and t-shirt watching Netflix... and the Hartsfield Jackson International Airport kicks me off the internet. I call them. I pay for that internet... I should be able to use it anyway I want. Here is basically my conversation with the internet tech guy after we established introductions.
Me: "So I have a boingo account and your internet keeps kicking me off, and I pay for it and I need to have it urgently."
Guy: "ok lemme check a couple things... ok here you are, I see your screenname"
Me: "Listen, I really need y'all to stop kicking me off. I'm here all the time and the internet is the only thing that keeps me sane... for the safety of my passengers, I need the internet back."
Guy: "Where are you?"
Me: "Downstairs"
Guy: "um... why? where?"
Me: "A concourse, Flight attendant lounge. I am a flight attendant sitting on stand by and my only contact with the outside world is your internet. I need it. Please give it back."
Guy: "ok, lemme see what I can do"
Me: "Listen, I don't have windows down here, I don't even know if the suns out... I need the weather bug back, I need my netflix back. I am going crazy."
Guy: "hahaha ok, your back on, reboot and your good to go"
Me: "Thank you so much sir, my future passengers thank you too."
So then around 1pm (3 hours before sign in) I hear over the loud speaker that scheduling has already used all of their standbys and are asking for volunteers. I walk to the front desk to see what I can do. They tell me that I might need to put on my uniform cause things are a little crazy... understatement of the day.
3 hours before sign in scheduling started to call me to help them board airplanes because some flight attendants hadnt come in yet. So I walk in 3 inch heals with al my bags to the other side of the airport. Do you think anyone called me to let me know that the Flight attendant had shown up already before I had gotten there? No. So I trekked across the airport just to go straight back down to the lounge. Then they call me to send me a on a crappy domestic rotation for 3 days. I told the guy (with a little bit of attitude) that I was told earlier that I was the ONLY person in atlanta that could fly for more than 4 days, and I was sure that they could find someone for a 3 day trip. :) They said they couldnt and I fought some more but he told me I was definitely going to Indianapolis... sigh... so I go to find my crew... then I hear my name on the loud speaker... scheduling wants me to call them... they say that they changed their minds and want me back on standby. I snort out a laugh and try not to say 'I told you so'.... but I go back to my couch to not loose my place in the lounge.
Now to save you the reading and exhaustion I will tell you that over the next 8 house I was sent out on over 5 different assignments and taken off these assignments. I was being put through phsycological testing and I lost. I was so tired and fought for my rights. I probably spend one solid hour on the phone just with scheduling alone off and on. Ridiculous! To make a long story short, I ended up with a long layover in San Diego that night. I slept for about 15 out of 22 hours. I needed it after that day.
This is a VERY long story... so I'm trying to cut it short...
We had a medical emergency on the red eye from san diego to atlanta... got in at 5:30 am and then slept for about 2 hours in the lounge then got sent out on a 3 day domestic trip.... with a short layover in new orleans and a short layover in raleigh, nc... unfortunately i'd never been to any of those places and I didn't have enough time there to go explore... so I will have to go back. Finally after all my 6 days were up and scheduling couldn't physically use me any more I got to go to TX.
On the plane back to TX, I was sitting in the back of the airplane on the jumpseat... just tired as anything.... and a passenger in the last row looks at me and tells me... "I dunno who's bag this is, but its in my spot." I told her it was my bag. She said oh. Then muttered something about supposing she'd just put her bag under her chair. Note to YOU as future flyers... the compartment over your head does not have your name on it... You can put your bag anywhere past first class if your flying coach... just as long as the bins close... but really someone should be enforcing the bag size... it used to be only the size of a briefcase... people are bringing on body bags... and 2 or 3 of them. So that spot in front of your legs... yea that is yours for luggage... you can fight for that spot... but the overhead... its supposed to only be for overflowing luggage... in a perfect world. :)
I was so happy to be over with it all and to have new years off! I got to spend New years with my man in san antonio and with some good friends. Definitely a good way to start off the year... and with rockband 2. :)
So my next set of A days started on the 3rd... and my birthday is the 4th. I had International standby on the 3rd but didn't get called anywhere... They already assigned me a trip on the 4th... which is now... to Managua, Nicaragua... so we shall see what is to come... I still have 3 more days after that to come... who knows what will happen.
(The Glamorous Life of a Flight Attendant Blog)
So starting on Christmas day...
(first things first... you must know that as an Atlanta flight attendant we have 6 "A days".. which is on call days... they can send you anywhere at any time for 6 days)
... So ok, Christmas Day. I was on my first A day and I got scheduled standby for 4 hours until 11pm. So I got there in the morning from TX and chilled all day... I watched movies on Netflix, crocheted some scarves, finished my Mandela biography, and chatted with friends. I didn't get called out for anything. So day one was over and I checked my schedule for the next day and it said I had standby again for day 2. I was irritated but whatever. So I slept in the lounge in a smelly little room... by little I mean maybe 5 ft x 5 ft with 2 small plastic reclining chairs in them. They smell weird and they are creepy. But I slept in there until about 9 or 10 am... not very comfortably... but better than the couch. I wake up, do my airport beauty routine put on some jeans and check my schedule again. It tells me I have standby on day 2 and day 3. I check open time (which tells us which trips need to be covered for the day) and it shows all these amazing trips. I called scheduling and asked them for one of those good trips. The guy tells me I can't have any of those trips because I am the only flight attendant in the lounge that can be used for more than 4 days... I kinda didn't believe him... and I let him know that I was on to him. I told him I commuted from Texas so I needed a bed and shower at the hotels... he asked me if I had considered moving to Atlanta... I told him I had a family. haha whatever. It is not his business where I live. So then I told him that if I was on standby for one more day then I would start to smell soon because I needed a shower and I cannot afford a hotel every night I have A days. He didn't care about my body odor.
So I'm sitting around in my jeans and t-shirt watching Netflix... and the Hartsfield Jackson International Airport kicks me off the internet. I call them. I pay for that internet... I should be able to use it anyway I want. Here is basically my conversation with the internet tech guy after we established introductions.
Me: "So I have a boingo account and your internet keeps kicking me off, and I pay for it and I need to have it urgently."
Guy: "ok lemme check a couple things... ok here you are, I see your screenname"
Me: "Listen, I really need y'all to stop kicking me off. I'm here all the time and the internet is the only thing that keeps me sane... for the safety of my passengers, I need the internet back."
Guy: "Where are you?"
Me: "Downstairs"
Guy: "um... why? where?"
Me: "A concourse, Flight attendant lounge. I am a flight attendant sitting on stand by and my only contact with the outside world is your internet. I need it. Please give it back."
Guy: "ok, lemme see what I can do"
Me: "Listen, I don't have windows down here, I don't even know if the suns out... I need the weather bug back, I need my netflix back. I am going crazy."
Guy: "hahaha ok, your back on, reboot and your good to go"
Me: "Thank you so much sir, my future passengers thank you too."
So then around 1pm (3 hours before sign in) I hear over the loud speaker that scheduling has already used all of their standbys and are asking for volunteers. I walk to the front desk to see what I can do. They tell me that I might need to put on my uniform cause things are a little crazy... understatement of the day.
3 hours before sign in scheduling started to call me to help them board airplanes because some flight attendants hadnt come in yet. So I walk in 3 inch heals with al my bags to the other side of the airport. Do you think anyone called me to let me know that the Flight attendant had shown up already before I had gotten there? No. So I trekked across the airport just to go straight back down to the lounge. Then they call me to send me a on a crappy domestic rotation for 3 days. I told the guy (with a little bit of attitude) that I was told earlier that I was the ONLY person in atlanta that could fly for more than 4 days, and I was sure that they could find someone for a 3 day trip. :) They said they couldnt and I fought some more but he told me I was definitely going to Indianapolis... sigh... so I go to find my crew... then I hear my name on the loud speaker... scheduling wants me to call them... they say that they changed their minds and want me back on standby. I snort out a laugh and try not to say 'I told you so'.... but I go back to my couch to not loose my place in the lounge.
Now to save you the reading and exhaustion I will tell you that over the next 8 house I was sent out on over 5 different assignments and taken off these assignments. I was being put through phsycological testing and I lost. I was so tired and fought for my rights. I probably spend one solid hour on the phone just with scheduling alone off and on. Ridiculous! To make a long story short, I ended up with a long layover in San Diego that night. I slept for about 15 out of 22 hours. I needed it after that day.
This is a VERY long story... so I'm trying to cut it short...
We had a medical emergency on the red eye from san diego to atlanta... got in at 5:30 am and then slept for about 2 hours in the lounge then got sent out on a 3 day domestic trip.... with a short layover in new orleans and a short layover in raleigh, nc... unfortunately i'd never been to any of those places and I didn't have enough time there to go explore... so I will have to go back. Finally after all my 6 days were up and scheduling couldn't physically use me any more I got to go to TX.
On the plane back to TX, I was sitting in the back of the airplane on the jumpseat... just tired as anything.... and a passenger in the last row looks at me and tells me... "I dunno who's bag this is, but its in my spot." I told her it was my bag. She said oh. Then muttered something about supposing she'd just put her bag under her chair. Note to YOU as future flyers... the compartment over your head does not have your name on it... You can put your bag anywhere past first class if your flying coach... just as long as the bins close... but really someone should be enforcing the bag size... it used to be only the size of a briefcase... people are bringing on body bags... and 2 or 3 of them. So that spot in front of your legs... yea that is yours for luggage... you can fight for that spot... but the overhead... its supposed to only be for overflowing luggage... in a perfect world. :)
I was so happy to be over with it all and to have new years off! I got to spend New years with my man in san antonio and with some good friends. Definitely a good way to start off the year... and with rockband 2. :)
So my next set of A days started on the 3rd... and my birthday is the 4th. I had International standby on the 3rd but didn't get called anywhere... They already assigned me a trip on the 4th... which is now... to Managua, Nicaragua... so we shall see what is to come... I still have 3 more days after that to come... who knows what will happen.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
my run in with apple... and what you can do to protect yourself.
Current mood: betrayed
So if you didn't know, the window of my mustang was smashed in and my macbook stolen. If you know me then you know 2 things: 1) all of my belongings are in my car & 2) my macbook is my single most important material belonging.
I made a police report. They need the serial number. This is very informative to owners of all electronic devices to pay attention. I don't have my serial numbers being as I live in the air and on the road. All of my other belongings are in a storage unit in Nashville. So yea. This story is filled with a lot of bitterness but I promise you that it is an informative blog and also serves the purpose of entertaining.
I called the famous 1-800-MY-APPLE to retrieve my serial number. I was told and have always been under the understanding that MAC is very customer service minded. Today my opinion has been changed. The following is the non-quoted dialogue that went on between me and my apple service care agent.
MAC: Thank you for calling My Apple, Technical Support. How can I help you?
ME: Yes, my macbook was purchased online about 2 years ago and was recently stolen out of my car and the police officers are asking for the serial number on it so they can look for it. How do I go about getting that?
(She verifies my name)
MAC: One moment please...
(static music)
MAC: Ma'am? Apple policy states that we cannot give out any customer information. So there is no way I can help you.
ME: What? Um... I have to get the serial number. The police are asking for it. Do I need to get a warrant for it? I am here, I can verify who I am. I paid almost $2,000 for that serial number. I want it. It's mine.
MAC: Apple Policy says we cannot give out customer information. There is nothing I can do.
ME: Can I speak to your supervisor?
MAC: One moment please...
(static music)
MAC: Ma'am. There is nothing I can do. I'm sorry for your loss.
ME: I understand customer privacy, but your policy doesn't make sense. When I worked at a bank we had very strict policies as well but if a person can verify who they are then that information is theirs. Now I paid $2,000 for my serial number. I am not asking for someone else's serial number. I am asking for the one I paid for. I don't know if you go home and write your serial numbers down for your tv and computer but I don't... and you have it. I want it.
MAC: Maybe the police officer can call on your behalf and get the information?
ME: The officer didn't pay $2,000 for the number. I did.
MAC: Just have the officer call our security number.
ME: Is there a specific number I should give him to call?
MAC: No ma'am. Just have him call this number you called and he will be connected to the proper people.
ME: So, you are telling me to have SAPD call a 1-800 number and go through all the automated options to get a serial number that I paid for?!
MAC: Yes ma'am.
ME: Unbelievable. I feel like I'm dealing with a third world country.
MAC: Again, I am sorry for your loss. Have a good day.
So, I called the detective on my case. He was as flabbergasted as I was about the whole conversation. He called them and then called me back. He told me that they directed him to an automated response giving him an e-mail address to contact. So he e-mailed it and no lie it told him that they would get back to him in SEVERAL days!
This isn't even a joke. So I urge you to take pictures of everything you own and write the serial numbers on it and put it in a very safe place. Get renters insurance.
My own personal theory is that Apple just wants everyone to have the newest of everything. I had just been eyeballing the new eco-friendly mac. It's so beautiful. and BAM my computer is gone... that's a little ironic, don't you think?
I'm attaching 3 cartoons that prove my theory. Yes, a cartoon can prove my theory
So if you didn't know, the window of my mustang was smashed in and my macbook stolen. If you know me then you know 2 things: 1) all of my belongings are in my car & 2) my macbook is my single most important material belonging.
I made a police report. They need the serial number. This is very informative to owners of all electronic devices to pay attention. I don't have my serial numbers being as I live in the air and on the road. All of my other belongings are in a storage unit in Nashville. So yea. This story is filled with a lot of bitterness but I promise you that it is an informative blog and also serves the purpose of entertaining.
I called the famous 1-800-MY-APPLE to retrieve my serial number. I was told and have always been under the understanding that MAC is very customer service minded. Today my opinion has been changed. The following is the non-quoted dialogue that went on between me and my apple service care agent.
MAC: Thank you for calling My Apple, Technical Support. How can I help you?
ME: Yes, my macbook was purchased online about 2 years ago and was recently stolen out of my car and the police officers are asking for the serial number on it so they can look for it. How do I go about getting that?
(She verifies my name)
MAC: One moment please...
(static music)
MAC: Ma'am? Apple policy states that we cannot give out any customer information. So there is no way I can help you.
ME: What? Um... I have to get the serial number. The police are asking for it. Do I need to get a warrant for it? I am here, I can verify who I am. I paid almost $2,000 for that serial number. I want it. It's mine.
MAC: Apple Policy says we cannot give out customer information. There is nothing I can do.
ME: Can I speak to your supervisor?
MAC: One moment please...
(static music)
MAC: Ma'am. There is nothing I can do. I'm sorry for your loss.
ME: I understand customer privacy, but your policy doesn't make sense. When I worked at a bank we had very strict policies as well but if a person can verify who they are then that information is theirs. Now I paid $2,000 for my serial number. I am not asking for someone else's serial number. I am asking for the one I paid for. I don't know if you go home and write your serial numbers down for your tv and computer but I don't... and you have it. I want it.
MAC: Maybe the police officer can call on your behalf and get the information?
ME: The officer didn't pay $2,000 for the number. I did.
MAC: Just have the officer call our security number.
ME: Is there a specific number I should give him to call?
MAC: No ma'am. Just have him call this number you called and he will be connected to the proper people.
ME: So, you are telling me to have SAPD call a 1-800 number and go through all the automated options to get a serial number that I paid for?!
MAC: Yes ma'am.
ME: Unbelievable. I feel like I'm dealing with a third world country.
MAC: Again, I am sorry for your loss. Have a good day.
So, I called the detective on my case. He was as flabbergasted as I was about the whole conversation. He called them and then called me back. He told me that they directed him to an automated response giving him an e-mail address to contact. So he e-mailed it and no lie it told him that they would get back to him in SEVERAL days!
This isn't even a joke. So I urge you to take pictures of everything you own and write the serial numbers on it and put it in a very safe place. Get renters insurance.
My own personal theory is that Apple just wants everyone to have the newest of everything. I had just been eyeballing the new eco-friendly mac. It's so beautiful. and BAM my computer is gone... that's a little ironic, don't you think?
I'm attaching 3 cartoons that prove my theory. Yes, a cartoon can prove my theory
Friday, November 28, 2008
A Technomadic Thanksgiving Story
Current mood: adventurous
So on Tuesday, November 25th the Abates (that's my family in case you didn't know I had a last name... my dear myspace friends), The Babcocks (that's my sister's new last name and her husbands always last name), The Breeden (that's my boyfriend), The Snavely & the future Mrs. Snavely (that would be my boyfriends best friend and his new fiancee) & JoAnn... sorry I don't know your last name (that's my little brother's girlfriend), we all met at my sister's house for an early Turkey day celebration.
We all work and we are very busy people... so we ordered the turkey from Grady's BBQ... :) Let me tell you that if the Abate/Babcock sisters decided to make a turkey (as we have done before in the past) it would be awesome... and it was! So to save time this year, we bought a delicious one. Then I ordered a delicious pumpkin cheesecake pie. Oh gosh. Yum. I made sweet potato casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, green been casserole, pumpkin bread muffins, some pre-made rolls and some canned cranberry sauce... and yea... ta-DA! We had a FEAST! I wish our parents could have been there to see us... they would have been proud of us.... minus the christmas tree. They might be proud of it next year when it's my sisters turn to decorate it. :) Sorry Jer! :)
Jeremiah (my brother) & JoAnn (his girl) cleaned up the kitchen like nobodies business... and we sat by the fire (with the door open, cause it was hot) and watched a Christmas movie... not THE Christmas Story though... but there is still plenty of time for that. Anyways... we had an amazing pre-Thanksgiving.
Jeremiah (my brother) & JoAnn are heading to Dallas to spend it with her family, Bethany (my sister) & Jer are heading to Colorado to spend it with his Grandma, & Steve & Mere (the future mr & mrs) are heading to Arizona I think it was to spend it with her family... meanwhile the mister and I are both stuck working. Guess you can't beat everything.
So I flew out of San Antonio on Wednesday, November 26. I finally got my SA parking pass so I can drive myself to the airport now. I'm such a grown up... I know. :) Then I got a first class seat to Atlanta. My friends were all in Atlanta because we are all newer, so yuck. So we watched the news about the Mumbai hostage situation and hoped our flight attendants got out since it was the same hotel that we stay at when we layover there. Luckily they have all been contacted and accounted for. So yet another thing to be grateful for on Thanksgiving.
So I slept on the couch in Atlanta and woke up at 5am from the loud flight attendants... but whatever. My sign in was at 7:30am... first stop Philadelphia. Now it was surprising to me that we were so full on all of our flights... but I found out why later. So the first flight was pretty easy... everyone was surprisingly drinking a lot... which I found odd considering it was 8am. I had a couple of first time flyers on board who were sweating profusely from being so nervous. There were TONS of kids on board. I would have thought we were flying the plane directly on magic mountain.
On the way back to Atlanta we had more first time flyers and a lot more drinkers and WAY more kids... it's like they were multiplying. These people haven't been flying at all or in a long time because mid-flight they asked if their kids could go sit in the cockpit with the captain. I informed him politely that we haven't done that since 9/11 and that on their way out they can say goodbye to the pilots and maybe take a picture with them in the cockpit. whew.
I can normally finish a beverage service pretty fast... like 30 minutes for 130 people. That's with 2 flight attendants. But with all these kids and first time flyers and drinkers it took me 3 times as long!
Every kid wanted apple juice, which we didn't have... so the parents weren't sure if they would like cranapple... so I'd have to pour a taste sampler for each kid... wait a minute for them to swish it around in their little mouths and wait for them to decide if they wanted a full cup of the juice. It was like a wine tasting for kids and instead of me being at a fancy restaurant... I was on an airplane... and my clients weren't paying me or ordering fancy named wines... it was cranapple juice to 5 year olds. sigh.
On my way down the aisle with the 100 plus pound cart I get stopped by who I like to call the "two toothless wanders" who wanted to put their drink order in before everyone else... I told them I'd be right back and get to them in order. So by the time I get to the aisle in front of them and next to them and they are yelling out their drink order to me... I was being patient and helping out everyone in order then I got to them. The first guy asked for a Gin on the rocks. I told him it was $7. He looked at his friend and asked him why he had to pay for it if he was in first class (mind you that they were sitting behind the exit rows in the middle of the airplane). I got the giggles and so did everyone around him. His friend informed him that it wasn't first class. He said "oh, well then make it a double and then whatever my friend wants." So I make their drinks then he yells to his friend who is 5 rows in front of him if she wanted a drink to. I PROMISE you that he yelled 5 rows, "Hey! Betsie! Do you wanna drink too?" As he holds up his drink on the rocks proudly. She yells back that she does indeed want a drink and to make it a rum. I was almost in tears holding in the laughter. I've never quite seen anything like that in my plane. So I deliver her the drink.
Before we had taken off there was a girl near the back who had been sick in the bathroom... she was sitting next to her husband and new baby. Right before we land she was right back in the bathroom again... After we land she was in there again. They were the last people off the flight. I had given her sprite and checked on her through the flight. I finally asked her husband if she was ok... he just laughed and said yes that she was just hung over. I felt a little less sorry for her after that. The whole time I had been concentrating on not breathing when she walked by in case she had the flu. ugh.
All that and the endless amount of men flyers that I saw just wearing cut off tank tops and wife beaters... I knew there was something up.
Then I found out that our company had run a $79 special to fly on Thanksgiving. Oh Ok. Now I understand. :)
So I grab my food and head to the next gate... I'm DC bound. At the gate I encounter way more children under the age of five. At this point I've come to realize that America has been procreating excessively for the last 5 years... only starting 5 years ago. I hadn't seen any kids over the age of 5. I've also come to the conclusion that there must be a lot of disfunctional families in America so people are pre-drinking in order to deal with them. So that's my conclusions. :)
As I was sitting there I overhear a conversation between 2 young mothers about the recent politics. The one Caucasian momma is from where else but ALASKA! What are the odds... and the African American momma is from Boston. The Boston momma brings up Palin to the Alaskan momma. I flinch. I watch out of the corner of my eye.
Boston: "So your girl Palin is from Alaska"
Alaska: "yup! She's my girl!"
(I roll my eyes at the idiocracy of it all)
Then they end up in deep conversation of the candidates and neither one of them is well informed. I had to leave.
So here I am in DC. I've watched 2 movies and 2 episodes of Friends... this is pretty much what I'd be doing on Thanksgiving anywhere... I ordered room service and worked on my computer... the world is at peace. :)
I hope we have just as interesting of a day tomorrow as we did today. It was so funny and entertaining.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
So on Tuesday, November 25th the Abates (that's my family in case you didn't know I had a last name... my dear myspace friends), The Babcocks (that's my sister's new last name and her husbands always last name), The Breeden (that's my boyfriend), The Snavely & the future Mrs. Snavely (that would be my boyfriends best friend and his new fiancee) & JoAnn... sorry I don't know your last name (that's my little brother's girlfriend), we all met at my sister's house for an early Turkey day celebration.
We all work and we are very busy people... so we ordered the turkey from Grady's BBQ... :) Let me tell you that if the Abate/Babcock sisters decided to make a turkey (as we have done before in the past) it would be awesome... and it was! So to save time this year, we bought a delicious one. Then I ordered a delicious pumpkin cheesecake pie. Oh gosh. Yum. I made sweet potato casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, green been casserole, pumpkin bread muffins, some pre-made rolls and some canned cranberry sauce... and yea... ta-DA! We had a FEAST! I wish our parents could have been there to see us... they would have been proud of us.... minus the christmas tree. They might be proud of it next year when it's my sisters turn to decorate it. :) Sorry Jer! :)
Jeremiah (my brother) & JoAnn (his girl) cleaned up the kitchen like nobodies business... and we sat by the fire (with the door open, cause it was hot) and watched a Christmas movie... not THE Christmas Story though... but there is still plenty of time for that. Anyways... we had an amazing pre-Thanksgiving.
Jeremiah (my brother) & JoAnn are heading to Dallas to spend it with her family, Bethany (my sister) & Jer are heading to Colorado to spend it with his Grandma, & Steve & Mere (the future mr & mrs) are heading to Arizona I think it was to spend it with her family... meanwhile the mister and I are both stuck working. Guess you can't beat everything.
So I flew out of San Antonio on Wednesday, November 26. I finally got my SA parking pass so I can drive myself to the airport now. I'm such a grown up... I know. :) Then I got a first class seat to Atlanta. My friends were all in Atlanta because we are all newer, so yuck. So we watched the news about the Mumbai hostage situation and hoped our flight attendants got out since it was the same hotel that we stay at when we layover there. Luckily they have all been contacted and accounted for. So yet another thing to be grateful for on Thanksgiving.
So I slept on the couch in Atlanta and woke up at 5am from the loud flight attendants... but whatever. My sign in was at 7:30am... first stop Philadelphia. Now it was surprising to me that we were so full on all of our flights... but I found out why later. So the first flight was pretty easy... everyone was surprisingly drinking a lot... which I found odd considering it was 8am. I had a couple of first time flyers on board who were sweating profusely from being so nervous. There were TONS of kids on board. I would have thought we were flying the plane directly on magic mountain.
On the way back to Atlanta we had more first time flyers and a lot more drinkers and WAY more kids... it's like they were multiplying. These people haven't been flying at all or in a long time because mid-flight they asked if their kids could go sit in the cockpit with the captain. I informed him politely that we haven't done that since 9/11 and that on their way out they can say goodbye to the pilots and maybe take a picture with them in the cockpit. whew.
I can normally finish a beverage service pretty fast... like 30 minutes for 130 people. That's with 2 flight attendants. But with all these kids and first time flyers and drinkers it took me 3 times as long!
Every kid wanted apple juice, which we didn't have... so the parents weren't sure if they would like cranapple... so I'd have to pour a taste sampler for each kid... wait a minute for them to swish it around in their little mouths and wait for them to decide if they wanted a full cup of the juice. It was like a wine tasting for kids and instead of me being at a fancy restaurant... I was on an airplane... and my clients weren't paying me or ordering fancy named wines... it was cranapple juice to 5 year olds. sigh.
On my way down the aisle with the 100 plus pound cart I get stopped by who I like to call the "two toothless wanders" who wanted to put their drink order in before everyone else... I told them I'd be right back and get to them in order. So by the time I get to the aisle in front of them and next to them and they are yelling out their drink order to me... I was being patient and helping out everyone in order then I got to them. The first guy asked for a Gin on the rocks. I told him it was $7. He looked at his friend and asked him why he had to pay for it if he was in first class (mind you that they were sitting behind the exit rows in the middle of the airplane). I got the giggles and so did everyone around him. His friend informed him that it wasn't first class. He said "oh, well then make it a double and then whatever my friend wants." So I make their drinks then he yells to his friend who is 5 rows in front of him if she wanted a drink to. I PROMISE you that he yelled 5 rows, "Hey! Betsie! Do you wanna drink too?" As he holds up his drink on the rocks proudly. She yells back that she does indeed want a drink and to make it a rum. I was almost in tears holding in the laughter. I've never quite seen anything like that in my plane. So I deliver her the drink.
Before we had taken off there was a girl near the back who had been sick in the bathroom... she was sitting next to her husband and new baby. Right before we land she was right back in the bathroom again... After we land she was in there again. They were the last people off the flight. I had given her sprite and checked on her through the flight. I finally asked her husband if she was ok... he just laughed and said yes that she was just hung over. I felt a little less sorry for her after that. The whole time I had been concentrating on not breathing when she walked by in case she had the flu. ugh.
All that and the endless amount of men flyers that I saw just wearing cut off tank tops and wife beaters... I knew there was something up.
Then I found out that our company had run a $79 special to fly on Thanksgiving. Oh Ok. Now I understand. :)
So I grab my food and head to the next gate... I'm DC bound. At the gate I encounter way more children under the age of five. At this point I've come to realize that America has been procreating excessively for the last 5 years... only starting 5 years ago. I hadn't seen any kids over the age of 5. I've also come to the conclusion that there must be a lot of disfunctional families in America so people are pre-drinking in order to deal with them. So that's my conclusions. :)
As I was sitting there I overhear a conversation between 2 young mothers about the recent politics. The one Caucasian momma is from where else but ALASKA! What are the odds... and the African American momma is from Boston. The Boston momma brings up Palin to the Alaskan momma. I flinch. I watch out of the corner of my eye.
Boston: "So your girl Palin is from Alaska"
Alaska: "yup! She's my girl!"
(I roll my eyes at the idiocracy of it all)
Then they end up in deep conversation of the candidates and neither one of them is well informed. I had to leave.
So here I am in DC. I've watched 2 movies and 2 episodes of Friends... this is pretty much what I'd be doing on Thanksgiving anywhere... I ordered room service and worked on my computer... the world is at peace. :)
I hope we have just as interesting of a day tomorrow as we did today. It was so funny and entertaining.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
passion
I was sitting on the plane the other day... I had just finished the biography of Che Guevara & was starting the biography of Nelson Mandela. As much as I am not a communist I do love the way Guevara & Mandela led people. They had so much passion that it was contagious to people around them causing the people to follow them. That's a quality I want.
Back to the part where I was sitting on the plane... I was thinking how to apply my new literature to my life and how I could volunteer my time to help others. I am shady about donating money to charities because they are required by law to only use a percentage to their charity & they get to keep the rest. Then I was wondering where I could volunteer my time... but no charities in San Antonio struck my interest. So I was thinking about what my passions are. Music.
I love music. I love being backstage. I love organizing. Everything about a live show is amazing to me. It makes me happy. So I was thinking how I could put the three things together. Music, charity, & leadership. That's when my idea hit me. It hit me so hard that all the ideas in my head flooded to life and I almost couldn't contain it. I just needed to call people and let it flow.
I've always thought I had some amazingly talented friends. I've thought about starting a company with all of them... but money and work and friends doesn't always work out. So what if everything was one hundred percent non-profit? No money was involved. No paychecks, no greed. What if everyone just donated a little bit of their time for one common purpose?
This is where the Underground Music Revolution was born... on an airplane heading to Texas sometime in October of this year.
I have lived in Nashville & been around the music scene for about the last 2 and a half years. I've seen the most talented people get looked over by major labels and I've seen the worst bands ever get signed. My personal belief is that labels are only good for financial support and for who they know. The rest of what they do is bad. They front money to bands who have never seen that much money & get them all excited. The young bands sign papers and don't even have a clue that they just sold themselves to the devil.
See, after a label signs a band the label gets a say in the artistic side, they can change an artists appearance, name, sound, etc. Then do you think after the artist has made it bigger that they see much more money? Nope. Some bands can get as little as 6 percent of profit from gross sales. Do you remember how they fronted the band that advance in the beginning? Well now its time for them to repay it too. It's an ugly thing those greedy corporations. They forgot their passion of music and now their only "passion" is counting zeros on their paychecks.
one source: http://www.futureofmusic.org/contractcrit.cfm
So what can we do? I believe that we can work without labels. I have a few friends, and my friends have friends, etc. We all know people... just like the labels. We all have money... not anything near what the corporations have, but if some of that money goes to graphic designers, photographers, wardrobe, hair & make up, music attorneys, managers, promoters, etc. Well heck! I know all those same people too... People that still have a passion. An old fashion romance for what music could be. People that are tired of listening to the radio & hearing the same awful 40 songs over & over.
Passion is contagious.
So where do you come in? Everyone is a dire necessity for this revolution to work. Anyone can do something whether you are a part of the "music business" or not. Whether you hold fundraisers or donate your talent... you are needed... you are appreciated... and we support you too.
Our goals are to help artists who are talented but have been looked over. Artists who have passion just like us & good character that would repay the revolution tenfold when the time comes around. An artist who just needs a push and will explode when people hear. You don't have to like the music of our artist that we happen to be working for at the time. You just have to like what we do enough to support us and spread the word... maybe you will want to host your own fundraiser... or make a donation.
Personally I organize people. I make things happen. I also collect the tops of soda cans. I have other flight attendants that do it for me as well. It's something small but it's worth more than just recycled money. It raises awareness to every person who asks me why I'm collecting a tab... and it gets about $8/lb. It isn't much but its something. There is nothing too small.
Our revolution surpasses politics, race, religion & genre.
Back to the part where I was sitting on the plane... I was thinking how to apply my new literature to my life and how I could volunteer my time to help others. I am shady about donating money to charities because they are required by law to only use a percentage to their charity & they get to keep the rest. Then I was wondering where I could volunteer my time... but no charities in San Antonio struck my interest. So I was thinking about what my passions are. Music.
I love music. I love being backstage. I love organizing. Everything about a live show is amazing to me. It makes me happy. So I was thinking how I could put the three things together. Music, charity, & leadership. That's when my idea hit me. It hit me so hard that all the ideas in my head flooded to life and I almost couldn't contain it. I just needed to call people and let it flow.
I've always thought I had some amazingly talented friends. I've thought about starting a company with all of them... but money and work and friends doesn't always work out. So what if everything was one hundred percent non-profit? No money was involved. No paychecks, no greed. What if everyone just donated a little bit of their time for one common purpose?
This is where the Underground Music Revolution was born... on an airplane heading to Texas sometime in October of this year.
I have lived in Nashville & been around the music scene for about the last 2 and a half years. I've seen the most talented people get looked over by major labels and I've seen the worst bands ever get signed. My personal belief is that labels are only good for financial support and for who they know. The rest of what they do is bad. They front money to bands who have never seen that much money & get them all excited. The young bands sign papers and don't even have a clue that they just sold themselves to the devil.
See, after a label signs a band the label gets a say in the artistic side, they can change an artists appearance, name, sound, etc. Then do you think after the artist has made it bigger that they see much more money? Nope. Some bands can get as little as 6 percent of profit from gross sales. Do you remember how they fronted the band that advance in the beginning? Well now its time for them to repay it too. It's an ugly thing those greedy corporations. They forgot their passion of music and now their only "passion" is counting zeros on their paychecks.
one source: http://www.futureofmusic.org/contractcrit.cfm
So what can we do? I believe that we can work without labels. I have a few friends, and my friends have friends, etc. We all know people... just like the labels. We all have money... not anything near what the corporations have, but if some of that money goes to graphic designers, photographers, wardrobe, hair & make up, music attorneys, managers, promoters, etc. Well heck! I know all those same people too... People that still have a passion. An old fashion romance for what music could be. People that are tired of listening to the radio & hearing the same awful 40 songs over & over.
Passion is contagious.
So where do you come in? Everyone is a dire necessity for this revolution to work. Anyone can do something whether you are a part of the "music business" or not. Whether you hold fundraisers or donate your talent... you are needed... you are appreciated... and we support you too.
Our goals are to help artists who are talented but have been looked over. Artists who have passion just like us & good character that would repay the revolution tenfold when the time comes around. An artist who just needs a push and will explode when people hear. You don't have to like the music of our artist that we happen to be working for at the time. You just have to like what we do enough to support us and spread the word... maybe you will want to host your own fundraiser... or make a donation.
Personally I organize people. I make things happen. I also collect the tops of soda cans. I have other flight attendants that do it for me as well. It's something small but it's worth more than just recycled money. It raises awareness to every person who asks me why I'm collecting a tab... and it gets about $8/lb. It isn't much but its something. There is nothing too small.
Our revolution surpasses politics, race, religion & genre.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Dakar, Senegal & Johannesburg, South Africa
Current mood: exhausted
Dakar, Senegal
09.29.08
09.30.08
I got to briefing and my crew was pretty junior... the most senior person had been flying for 15 years i think... that's not a lot in the airline industry. I was the only person that hadn't done this trip before though. They were all very friendly and everything went well. The flight to Africa was pretty empty & pretty easy. We had a few Muslims on board who couldn't eat until sundown because of Ramadah.
We got into Dakar at 4am which was about midnight Atlanta time. It was a through flight which means that only about half of the passengers got off in Dakar & the other half were heading straight to Johannesburg, South Africa. So we had to wait until the other crew came to relieve us since we cannot leave a plane full of people without a crew. So we waited by the door halfway between the air conditioner and halfway between the humidity of the night sky in Africa. As we finally started going through the airport there were a lot of people who were begging for stuff and following us. No shoes, skinny, tall, dark people with missing teeth and friendly faces. They call everyone sister and love to practice their English. It was about a 30 minute drive to the hotel and I was trying to get a feel for the city, the country & continent but it was so hard since it was so dark outside. The crew told me that the road we were on is new... it used to be a dirt road. The hotel is pretty nice.
We checked in and I came up to my room but my door was already open. So I peak in and whisper hello and wait for a response. The pilot sees me and comes in and checks under my bed, curtains, closet and other small dark spaces to make sure that no one is in there... luckily there wasn't. So I talked on the phone to my boyfriend for a minute then I couldn't sleep so I walked down to the crew room and there were probably 3 other crews from our same airlines there as well. So it was cool talking to everyone... A lot of the people knew each other cause they always do this trip. We walked outside and watched the sun come up as the kids were running up the stairs in training for soccer and marathons. I finally headed upstairs to sleep. I was told that we were going to meet at 1:30 in the lobby to go to Goree Island (the slave trade island) or to the market. I was soo tired and was happy when they told me that they weren't going to go until later... so I slept in till about 2pm... Which was a nice 8 hour sleep. So I put on my swimsuit and headed down to the pool. It was soo nice! The pool is right on the beach and all the crews were out there.
We decided to go to Goree Island on Thursday when we come back... and go to the Market later that same day. All we knew is that we wanted to be back in the hotel by sundown because today is the last day of Ramadah and we were told that today everyone was to slaughter a sheep at sundown and we sure didn't want to see that. So our driver who is a friend of all the crews came to pick us up around 4pm to go to the market. I exchanged my dollars for Francs CFA and we headed on our way.
The market smelled of body odor, urine, rotten eggs and human feces. It was horrible but once you start walking you don't notice it as much. The ground was muddy and dirty and everyone is yelling "sister!" at you trying to get you to look at their stuff. We were told to barter about half of what they were asking for and our driver told us he would translate but wouldn't barter for us because he didn't want the people to feel like he was betraying them with Americans. So we shopped around and I got some cute necklaces for my best friends for a pretty good deal. There was a hut where they had the most amazing paintings and apparently one of our flight attendants married the painter awhile back and now he lives in the US but still has his painting hut at the market.
I kept seeing these little mahogany hippos that were so cute. There was tons of alligator purses, shoes and tons of ivory jewelry. It was all beautiful but sad. So I go to this one place and see the hippo again and the guy tells me 30,000 francs... I told him that the guy down the street was selling the same one for 10,000 francs so his was too expensive. So he tells me he will sell it to me for 20,000... I told him again that the guys' was 10,000. So he asked me if my final price was 10,000 and I told him no because that guys starting price was 10K and I knew I could get it down over there... so I got it for 8,000 francs. Not bad at all ! :) You can buy masks for any kind of luck you want and bracelets made of elephant hair. There are little cute kittens everywhere and people following you so you buy whatever they are selling. We made it back to the car unscathed. Our driver told us that tonight is not the night for slaughtering the sheep... He said that some people do it for good luck but it is mandatory for all Muslims to slaughter a sheep exactly 2 months from today. So on December 1 every Muslim must slaughter a sheep as a sacrifice. Any man that has more than one wife must sacrifice a sheep for each wife. If you aren't married you must still sacrifice a sheep because you have a job with an income. That's what I understood from it all at least. Very interesting. So it is 8pm now and I must wake up at 2:30am for a 4am pick up and we head to Johannesburg, South Africa... another 8 hour flight and 24 hour layover. I'm excited!
Johannesburg, South Africa
10.01.08
10.02.08
Jo-burg was very nice! The part where we stayed was modern and clean but I was told that the appearance is very deceiving because it is the rape and murder capitol of the world. They rape women for sport. I was also told to keep the stuff even in my room locked in the safe because a lot of people have gotten robbed from their room. How horrible because it is a very very beautiful hotel. The weather was perfect and it reminded me of Southern California. We got in at 4pm and headed to dinner at this place that flight crews always go to and they know us there. They take good care of the crews there. We had steak but they also serve ostrich & gazelle. I didn't have the heart to try it. I was so tired so I passed out in the most comfortable bed and woke up at 6:30 am. I didn't sleep well in Dakar & worked all night so I could have probably slept my entire layover away but I had big plans for the morning so I forced myself out of bed and into the shower.
I met the captain and one other flight attendant and 2 other hotel guests in the lobby and we hopped in a van where they took us to a wildlife reserve park to go on a open aired jeep safari. That is hands down one of the coolest things I have ever done. I had a cheesy grin on my face for 4 hours. If you didn't know... I LOVE animals... when I was little my dad would bring home stray animals and we raised ducks, turkeys, rabbits, parakeets, chickens, doves, quails, a dog that lasted only 2 days. My dad brought home an egg one time when I was little and we hatched it in the incubator. It was an alligator. I named her Princess. I was 5. We also ended up with a fruit bat for a week, a seagull for about a month and a few other random animals that we were always healing and taking care of. So I love to go to the zoo. I could go everyday and watch the animals. I LOVE the zoo. So ANYWAYS... I was excited to go to the safari and see a lion! The reserve is 1500 acres. We hopped in the open aired jeep and right away saw monkies running across the road playing before we even got halfway own the road to the entrance.
We bounced down a paved little road and off the in the distance we saw 2 giraffes. I was thinking that my day couldn't get better than seeing a giraffe in the distance in its natural habitat. Then the driver zoomed off the road and up the hill so we were within 20 feet of the giraffes. Pretty much the coolest thing EVER. He told us some interesting giraffe facts and we zoomed off again. We saw some deer looking things all different kinds some with horns some with none. Then we saw a gate inside the reserve and he pointed and told us that the lion pride lived inside there. We saw signs to roll up your windows and close your doors... seeing that we had none of those I got very nervous. I was told that a few months ago the owner of the reserve had a stroke and fell out of his car and the lions ate him. You think I'm kidding but it is true! Usually when a lion eats a person they kill the lion but they did an autopsy on the remains and found out he had the stroke so the wife of the man let the lion live but they moved the lions to a different reserve since it had the taste of human on him.
So as I am looking through the gate searching for a lion the driver takes us inside the gate. I was so nervous! After driving awhile we see them! They only feed the lions on Sundays... luckily it wasn't Saturday. :) I didn't think we would get to go very close to the lions seeing that they eat animals as big as me but we did! We drove right up to the big daddy lion and his 3 lionesses. We were so close I could have reached down and touched them if I thought it worth while to loose an arm. Our guide would make a noise with his mouth and then they would get up and move. I was almost shaking I was so scared... but the whole time just grinning. My jeep mates just laughed at me like I was a little kid... but I felt like a little kid all giddy to see a lion. We stayed there awhile then took off and saw some smaller cages where they had 4 more lions who were younger and he was training them to be a pride to let them go in the other reserve. He can’t have two prides in one park because they would kill each other. Farther down the road there was another cage with 3 lions... very young. They were white lions with blue eyes. They were gorgeous! The male didn't even have his mane just a little mohawk which made him the coolest lion EVER. They came right up to the fence when the guide called them and they seemed very playful. I really wish I could have played with them.
Farther down we saw wildebeasts and birds and more deer things and gazelles and impalas (not the car). Then we drove down and saw the rhinos! I thought they would charge at us because they got up and never let their backs be at us... they followed us for a while and made me quite nervous. They were cute though... in a rhino kind of way. We saw some zebras and ostriches and another giraffe who came right up to us. It took about 4 hours total and it was the best 4 hours of my life. A lot of the animals are pregnant and they said that the babies will all be born in November or December. I want to come back in December on a Sunday to see the babies and watch the feeding!
We headed back to the city. It was about an hours drive from Joburg to Keugorsdorf where the reserve was. But on the way it was nice to see more of South Africa. It was so modernized and its about 50-50 white and black people. The city itself is huge and there are a lot of very nice homes, a lot of prefabricated homes and on the other side of the road were just slums... I mean MILES of houses made of tin and sticks. Very sad. It was just so diverse the rich and the poor... they live side by side but so very differently.
When we got back to the hotel I went for dinner with the captain who I had flown with to Alaska a couple of months ago. We had a burger then headed upstairs and we had to leave at 3:15 to go back to work. The flight was full and we had a group of 70 people from the same company who had been given a company cruise to Jamaica. They had a LONG way to travel. See we fly from Joburg to Dakar and we get off the plane but the passengers stay on because they get a new crew to Atlanta. So each flight is 8 hours... not in including the 2 hours they sit on the ground in Dakar for refueling and new crew and fresh food. Then most of them have connections in Atlanta. So they easily have well over 24 hours of traveling. Some of the people in the group had never flown before. We had a lot of heavy drinkers on the plane and had to cut quite a few of them off. They ran us ragged. Well right in the middle of crew breaks I was in the back galley and just walked in the bathroom when I hear very loud pounding knocks on the door. I was like what the heck!? I JUST got in here! So I open it and apparently a passenger passed out with her eyes rolled in the back of her head and the flight attendant helped catch her so she didn't hit her head on the door. Well it took her about 5 minutes to come to and were all scared but we are well trained and we asked her all the necessary questions and she ate a cookie drank some water and OJ just in case her sugar level was low or she was dehydrated. Then she started puking. So we called for a doctor on board and luckily we had 2. They came back and we gave the our medical kit and they took her blood pressure and everything and finally she was ok. She was so very pale. We don't really know what happened to her but she was fine after awhile. Very nerve racking.
We finally landed and we were so happy to be done with that flight. It was 1 am but the night was FAR from being over.
Dakar, Senegal
10.03.08
10.04.08
I'm just gonna say what happens in Africa stays in Africa. I was the only person who was in my right mind so I was baby sitting all morning long as people were "relaxing" after a hard flight... which was interesting because it was like taking care of my parents since they were all in their 40s and 50s. We met up with the New York crew and hung out in the captains room then decided it was a good idea to go swimming at night. It was the best idea ever... for the most part... until someone slipped and fell. We stayed up past 6am I'm sure and then finally passed out once everyone was tucked in bed safely and alone! :) My boyfriend texted me and told me my storage unit had been broken into in Nashville which just makes me angry because that is everything I own. They think nothing was stolen but now I have to fly to Nashville to go check! So I dropped my Copenhagen trip because I have to take care of that and have time to rest before my next trip.
I woke up around noon when my phone rang and my crew was calling to wake me up to go to the pool. I fell back asleep until almost 2 I think and then headed to the pool to sleep. It was overcast but breezy and very nice. Our crew and the NY crew was out there and we laughed about the night before and ordered food to our poolside & oceanside lawn chairs... aww what a life. :) We stayed there all day. I wanted to go to Goree Island but couldn't get any more recruits and I sure as anything won't be going anywhere alone in Africa... especially on Friday which is the day of prayer for Muslims and they are all in the streets walking in lines to I don't even know where. So the pool was a good alternative for me anyways. I'm going to have to do this trip again because there is so much more to do and it is sooo fun... as long as you have a good crew anyways...
Now I'm just chilling and waiting until midnight tonight which is our pickup time and we have one last flight back to Atlanta... I keep hearing that this is the hardest flight to do because people are tired and grumpy after 16 hours of flight. We get in at 8am tomorrow and I have a lot of calls to return and I have to go to Nashville to check on my stuff... but luckily I get to see my best friend... so that's cool :) Anyways... Africa was fun. I had a blast! I'm ready to be home for sure. 6 days with limited internet and expensive phone service is rough for me. :) Sorry for all of you who texted and called while I was gone. I know it rang but I can't afford to talk to you while I’m here. I'll call you back. I promise. :)
Dakar, Senegal
09.29.08
09.30.08
I got to briefing and my crew was pretty junior... the most senior person had been flying for 15 years i think... that's not a lot in the airline industry. I was the only person that hadn't done this trip before though. They were all very friendly and everything went well. The flight to Africa was pretty empty & pretty easy. We had a few Muslims on board who couldn't eat until sundown because of Ramadah.
We got into Dakar at 4am which was about midnight Atlanta time. It was a through flight which means that only about half of the passengers got off in Dakar & the other half were heading straight to Johannesburg, South Africa. So we had to wait until the other crew came to relieve us since we cannot leave a plane full of people without a crew. So we waited by the door halfway between the air conditioner and halfway between the humidity of the night sky in Africa. As we finally started going through the airport there were a lot of people who were begging for stuff and following us. No shoes, skinny, tall, dark people with missing teeth and friendly faces. They call everyone sister and love to practice their English. It was about a 30 minute drive to the hotel and I was trying to get a feel for the city, the country & continent but it was so hard since it was so dark outside. The crew told me that the road we were on is new... it used to be a dirt road. The hotel is pretty nice.
We checked in and I came up to my room but my door was already open. So I peak in and whisper hello and wait for a response. The pilot sees me and comes in and checks under my bed, curtains, closet and other small dark spaces to make sure that no one is in there... luckily there wasn't. So I talked on the phone to my boyfriend for a minute then I couldn't sleep so I walked down to the crew room and there were probably 3 other crews from our same airlines there as well. So it was cool talking to everyone... A lot of the people knew each other cause they always do this trip. We walked outside and watched the sun come up as the kids were running up the stairs in training for soccer and marathons. I finally headed upstairs to sleep. I was told that we were going to meet at 1:30 in the lobby to go to Goree Island (the slave trade island) or to the market. I was soo tired and was happy when they told me that they weren't going to go until later... so I slept in till about 2pm... Which was a nice 8 hour sleep. So I put on my swimsuit and headed down to the pool. It was soo nice! The pool is right on the beach and all the crews were out there.
We decided to go to Goree Island on Thursday when we come back... and go to the Market later that same day. All we knew is that we wanted to be back in the hotel by sundown because today is the last day of Ramadah and we were told that today everyone was to slaughter a sheep at sundown and we sure didn't want to see that. So our driver who is a friend of all the crews came to pick us up around 4pm to go to the market. I exchanged my dollars for Francs CFA and we headed on our way.
The market smelled of body odor, urine, rotten eggs and human feces. It was horrible but once you start walking you don't notice it as much. The ground was muddy and dirty and everyone is yelling "sister!" at you trying to get you to look at their stuff. We were told to barter about half of what they were asking for and our driver told us he would translate but wouldn't barter for us because he didn't want the people to feel like he was betraying them with Americans. So we shopped around and I got some cute necklaces for my best friends for a pretty good deal. There was a hut where they had the most amazing paintings and apparently one of our flight attendants married the painter awhile back and now he lives in the US but still has his painting hut at the market.
I kept seeing these little mahogany hippos that were so cute. There was tons of alligator purses, shoes and tons of ivory jewelry. It was all beautiful but sad. So I go to this one place and see the hippo again and the guy tells me 30,000 francs... I told him that the guy down the street was selling the same one for 10,000 francs so his was too expensive. So he tells me he will sell it to me for 20,000... I told him again that the guys' was 10,000. So he asked me if my final price was 10,000 and I told him no because that guys starting price was 10K and I knew I could get it down over there... so I got it for 8,000 francs. Not bad at all ! :) You can buy masks for any kind of luck you want and bracelets made of elephant hair. There are little cute kittens everywhere and people following you so you buy whatever they are selling. We made it back to the car unscathed. Our driver told us that tonight is not the night for slaughtering the sheep... He said that some people do it for good luck but it is mandatory for all Muslims to slaughter a sheep exactly 2 months from today. So on December 1 every Muslim must slaughter a sheep as a sacrifice. Any man that has more than one wife must sacrifice a sheep for each wife. If you aren't married you must still sacrifice a sheep because you have a job with an income. That's what I understood from it all at least. Very interesting. So it is 8pm now and I must wake up at 2:30am for a 4am pick up and we head to Johannesburg, South Africa... another 8 hour flight and 24 hour layover. I'm excited!
Johannesburg, South Africa
10.01.08
10.02.08
Jo-burg was very nice! The part where we stayed was modern and clean but I was told that the appearance is very deceiving because it is the rape and murder capitol of the world. They rape women for sport. I was also told to keep the stuff even in my room locked in the safe because a lot of people have gotten robbed from their room. How horrible because it is a very very beautiful hotel. The weather was perfect and it reminded me of Southern California. We got in at 4pm and headed to dinner at this place that flight crews always go to and they know us there. They take good care of the crews there. We had steak but they also serve ostrich & gazelle. I didn't have the heart to try it. I was so tired so I passed out in the most comfortable bed and woke up at 6:30 am. I didn't sleep well in Dakar & worked all night so I could have probably slept my entire layover away but I had big plans for the morning so I forced myself out of bed and into the shower.
I met the captain and one other flight attendant and 2 other hotel guests in the lobby and we hopped in a van where they took us to a wildlife reserve park to go on a open aired jeep safari. That is hands down one of the coolest things I have ever done. I had a cheesy grin on my face for 4 hours. If you didn't know... I LOVE animals... when I was little my dad would bring home stray animals and we raised ducks, turkeys, rabbits, parakeets, chickens, doves, quails, a dog that lasted only 2 days. My dad brought home an egg one time when I was little and we hatched it in the incubator. It was an alligator. I named her Princess. I was 5. We also ended up with a fruit bat for a week, a seagull for about a month and a few other random animals that we were always healing and taking care of. So I love to go to the zoo. I could go everyday and watch the animals. I LOVE the zoo. So ANYWAYS... I was excited to go to the safari and see a lion! The reserve is 1500 acres. We hopped in the open aired jeep and right away saw monkies running across the road playing before we even got halfway own the road to the entrance.
We bounced down a paved little road and off the in the distance we saw 2 giraffes. I was thinking that my day couldn't get better than seeing a giraffe in the distance in its natural habitat. Then the driver zoomed off the road and up the hill so we were within 20 feet of the giraffes. Pretty much the coolest thing EVER. He told us some interesting giraffe facts and we zoomed off again. We saw some deer looking things all different kinds some with horns some with none. Then we saw a gate inside the reserve and he pointed and told us that the lion pride lived inside there. We saw signs to roll up your windows and close your doors... seeing that we had none of those I got very nervous. I was told that a few months ago the owner of the reserve had a stroke and fell out of his car and the lions ate him. You think I'm kidding but it is true! Usually when a lion eats a person they kill the lion but they did an autopsy on the remains and found out he had the stroke so the wife of the man let the lion live but they moved the lions to a different reserve since it had the taste of human on him.
So as I am looking through the gate searching for a lion the driver takes us inside the gate. I was so nervous! After driving awhile we see them! They only feed the lions on Sundays... luckily it wasn't Saturday. :) I didn't think we would get to go very close to the lions seeing that they eat animals as big as me but we did! We drove right up to the big daddy lion and his 3 lionesses. We were so close I could have reached down and touched them if I thought it worth while to loose an arm. Our guide would make a noise with his mouth and then they would get up and move. I was almost shaking I was so scared... but the whole time just grinning. My jeep mates just laughed at me like I was a little kid... but I felt like a little kid all giddy to see a lion. We stayed there awhile then took off and saw some smaller cages where they had 4 more lions who were younger and he was training them to be a pride to let them go in the other reserve. He can’t have two prides in one park because they would kill each other. Farther down the road there was another cage with 3 lions... very young. They were white lions with blue eyes. They were gorgeous! The male didn't even have his mane just a little mohawk which made him the coolest lion EVER. They came right up to the fence when the guide called them and they seemed very playful. I really wish I could have played with them.
Farther down we saw wildebeasts and birds and more deer things and gazelles and impalas (not the car). Then we drove down and saw the rhinos! I thought they would charge at us because they got up and never let their backs be at us... they followed us for a while and made me quite nervous. They were cute though... in a rhino kind of way. We saw some zebras and ostriches and another giraffe who came right up to us. It took about 4 hours total and it was the best 4 hours of my life. A lot of the animals are pregnant and they said that the babies will all be born in November or December. I want to come back in December on a Sunday to see the babies and watch the feeding!
We headed back to the city. It was about an hours drive from Joburg to Keugorsdorf where the reserve was. But on the way it was nice to see more of South Africa. It was so modernized and its about 50-50 white and black people. The city itself is huge and there are a lot of very nice homes, a lot of prefabricated homes and on the other side of the road were just slums... I mean MILES of houses made of tin and sticks. Very sad. It was just so diverse the rich and the poor... they live side by side but so very differently.
When we got back to the hotel I went for dinner with the captain who I had flown with to Alaska a couple of months ago. We had a burger then headed upstairs and we had to leave at 3:15 to go back to work. The flight was full and we had a group of 70 people from the same company who had been given a company cruise to Jamaica. They had a LONG way to travel. See we fly from Joburg to Dakar and we get off the plane but the passengers stay on because they get a new crew to Atlanta. So each flight is 8 hours... not in including the 2 hours they sit on the ground in Dakar for refueling and new crew and fresh food. Then most of them have connections in Atlanta. So they easily have well over 24 hours of traveling. Some of the people in the group had never flown before. We had a lot of heavy drinkers on the plane and had to cut quite a few of them off. They ran us ragged. Well right in the middle of crew breaks I was in the back galley and just walked in the bathroom when I hear very loud pounding knocks on the door. I was like what the heck!? I JUST got in here! So I open it and apparently a passenger passed out with her eyes rolled in the back of her head and the flight attendant helped catch her so she didn't hit her head on the door. Well it took her about 5 minutes to come to and were all scared but we are well trained and we asked her all the necessary questions and she ate a cookie drank some water and OJ just in case her sugar level was low or she was dehydrated. Then she started puking. So we called for a doctor on board and luckily we had 2. They came back and we gave the our medical kit and they took her blood pressure and everything and finally she was ok. She was so very pale. We don't really know what happened to her but she was fine after awhile. Very nerve racking.
We finally landed and we were so happy to be done with that flight. It was 1 am but the night was FAR from being over.
Dakar, Senegal
10.03.08
10.04.08
I'm just gonna say what happens in Africa stays in Africa. I was the only person who was in my right mind so I was baby sitting all morning long as people were "relaxing" after a hard flight... which was interesting because it was like taking care of my parents since they were all in their 40s and 50s. We met up with the New York crew and hung out in the captains room then decided it was a good idea to go swimming at night. It was the best idea ever... for the most part... until someone slipped and fell. We stayed up past 6am I'm sure and then finally passed out once everyone was tucked in bed safely and alone! :) My boyfriend texted me and told me my storage unit had been broken into in Nashville which just makes me angry because that is everything I own. They think nothing was stolen but now I have to fly to Nashville to go check! So I dropped my Copenhagen trip because I have to take care of that and have time to rest before my next trip.
I woke up around noon when my phone rang and my crew was calling to wake me up to go to the pool. I fell back asleep until almost 2 I think and then headed to the pool to sleep. It was overcast but breezy and very nice. Our crew and the NY crew was out there and we laughed about the night before and ordered food to our poolside & oceanside lawn chairs... aww what a life. :) We stayed there all day. I wanted to go to Goree Island but couldn't get any more recruits and I sure as anything won't be going anywhere alone in Africa... especially on Friday which is the day of prayer for Muslims and they are all in the streets walking in lines to I don't even know where. So the pool was a good alternative for me anyways. I'm going to have to do this trip again because there is so much more to do and it is sooo fun... as long as you have a good crew anyways...
Now I'm just chilling and waiting until midnight tonight which is our pickup time and we have one last flight back to Atlanta... I keep hearing that this is the hardest flight to do because people are tired and grumpy after 16 hours of flight. We get in at 8am tomorrow and I have a lot of calls to return and I have to go to Nashville to check on my stuff... but luckily I get to see my best friend... so that's cool :) Anyways... Africa was fun. I had a blast! I'm ready to be home for sure. 6 days with limited internet and expensive phone service is rough for me. :) Sorry for all of you who texted and called while I was gone. I know it rang but I can't afford to talk to you while I’m here. I'll call you back. I promise. :)
Saturday, September 20, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Vienna, Austria
Monday, August 04, 2008
Current mood: accomplished
So on the 31st of July I left San Antonio very early in the morning and headed to Atlanta. I was supposed to go to Pensacola, FL and back and then over to Guadalajara, Mexico. I signed in at 12:15. Well weather has been bad in Atlanta lately... We get to Pensacola and got delayed 2 hours. We finally left Pensacola and crossed our fingers that our Mexico trip would be cancelled. In Atlanta we showed the flight was still on... but that it was leaving at 9:00 pm so it was delayed 2 hours. We sit in the lounge and just watch the screens and cross our fingers... no such luck. We get up to the gate for a now 10pm departure and we eventually start boarding at 10:30. We are now at a 10 hour duty day plus 4 hours of flight... so that's 14 hours of duty... we are still ok to fly... we become illegal to fly at 16 hours... They stopped boarding midway and the tower said that the airport in Guadalajara was closed until 4am... so that put the flight going out at 2:45. So then we were definitely illegal. After having to get all the people off board... some people were soo nice about it... cause obviously its not our fault... one lady was just a rude mean woman and screamed in my face about what she was supposed to do about her 80 year old parents... heck if I know! So I called scheduling to figure out what I’m supposed to do. The lady was so rude. She said that if I left the airport without putting myself on availability then I wouldn't get paid for any of my trip. I yelled at her at told her that I didn't plan on leaving to anywhere because I cannot afford to get a hotel on what they pay me and I do not live in Atlanta. I told her I didn’t think it was fair to put myself on availability. She didn’t care. So I go to sleep in the lounge... again. I was mad because I was supposed to get a hotel and now I'm sleeping on a couch. I just really wanted a shower and good sleep since my day started at 5am.
I woke up stiff and mad and irritated. They made an announcement that they were understaffed so that anyone that picked up a trip in open time would get an additional 4 hours of pay. So I figured I’d go take a look and see if there was anything worth picking up before they called me out and placed me on the worst trip. That's when I saw Vienna! I've always wanted to go to Austria... always. So I called scheduling and fought for it... AND I GOT IT! So I had a few hours to kill before I flew out... its a 10 hour flight so I knew I needed food and sleep.
I get to briefing and everyone was much older than me... as expected. The flight leader had more work done on her face than my car has under its hood in a lifetime. Apparently she's been flying to Lima... which is the joke that flight attendants go there to get "work" done. I am always the new girl so I try to be nice and quiet and just listen in briefing. One flight attendant said she was gonna try and work in business class with the F.L. (flight leader) on the way back but wasn't familiar with everything so she might need help. The F.L. said so nicely that she was in good hands because she had taught International Business for 10 years in the training hub. I just tried to make friendly conversation and mentioned how nice that was. She turned her head so sharply at me that I thought her facelift might distort even more. :)
She said, "I did teach for 10 years but I DO NOT teach anymore because EVERYONE should already know their job." Yikes! She already didn't like me for some reason. On the plane she asks me if I know what I'm doing. I told her I'd only done that Business Elite to Europe once but that I’d figure it out. The federal air marshals knew the one flight attendant that I was working with and they said that they had fIown with the F.L. before and that she was a lesbian and the lady working in the back was her "partner". AHA! No wonder she was a miserable soul... I only have inappropriate jokes after this...so I'll stop. Even being that I have friends who are lesbians but they seem to not be as miserable in life as this 60 something year old lesbian.
The flight went well... I just tried to be extra nice to the F.L. and her "partner". We got to Vienna at about 10am and went back to the hotel. I showered and laid down for a nap. I agreed to meet one of the flight attendants in the lobby at 3 to do the city tour on the bus... I overslept in my comfy bed and got a wake up call at 3:30. We did the tour... Here are some of the pics of the bus tour... I don't remember all the names of the places or events... but a lot of this has to do with Mozart.... I do remember that. :)
After the BUS tour we had drinks in the hotel lobby with the partners and some of the other flight attendants... the girl I had done the bus tour with kept talking about going to this city hall where there was restaurant stands and big screens. So I agreed to go with her... little did I know what I was getting into. She acted like she knew where we were going... I swear.
I figured I was in trouble when she asked directions in the subway to some German guy and yelled at me to come over... She said that this guy wanted to sell us his subway tickets which were good until midnight... He only wanted 2 euros for each ticket. I looked at her and told her that it sounded like a scam. Straight faced she looked at the guy and asked him, "is this a scam?" he said no. I swear she looked at me and said, "see? He's not scamming us." So I spent the 2 euros to shut her up. Luckily in Vienna no one ever checks your tickets on subway, buses or trams.
3 hours of circles later and her talking loudly in English to Austrians and asking them where the City Hall was... we made it to what they thought was the city hall.. Stadt Halle.... this is not where we wanted to go... we ended up in the Ghetto... which is still waaay nicer than any ghetto in the US. At this point I am so hungry and so tired. I kid you not 3 hours after torture... she decides at this point to pull out a MAP! A freaking MAP! I said... "you have a MAP!?!", she said... "Well, I'm not very good at reading maps."
I told her to take the U6 back to the U3 and then get on the U2 and we'd be there... She said she wasn't getting back on the subway so she would follow the English speaking Arab at the corner grocery store's advice and take the 49 tram to the N station and walk 2 blocks. I was so angry. The only thing I could do to vent was text my boyfriend in the U.S. to vent it out. Some nice girl that spoke English again helped us to get from the 49 tram to the U2 subway and we finally made it to this place which was the Rathaus... the film festival was going on... that's what she had been talking about this entire time!!! And yes it was worth all the waiting. There was booths from restaurants of any food you could possible want served on real plates with real cups. That would never be in the U.S. we'd break out our paper plates and dixie cups :)
I had so much fun in Vienna... I saw so much... and apparently we won't be flying there after October so I got a real once in a lifetime opportunity for that trip until I transfer back to New York. Anyways... here is the view of the sunrise form my hotel.
I woke up at 7:30 am Vienna time which is 1:30 am Atlanta time... pick up was at 9:55 but I wanted a chance to walk around the hotel a bit more.
The flight was going ok until I swear I spotted a big bottle of alcohol sitting on someone's tray table. I asked the other girl to take a look and see if I saw what I thought I saw... she comes back with a huge half empty bottle of wine that someone had bought from duty free and had been chugging in the first hour of the flight. Obviously we took it away from them and finished drinking it for them... haha just kidding... we threw it out. So then this lady that was sitting next to them came in the back and told us that they were telling her to shut the F up and using profanity loudly. The more manly of the "partners" went over to them and told them that they weren't allowed any more alcohol and if we as much as heard a peep out of them then we'd have authorities waiting for them at the end of the flight or worse. After that they were all about yes ma'am and no ma'am. :)
I got back to Atlanta at 4:30 pm and ran to make the 5:20 flight to San Antonio and barely made it on... I was soo tired. Anyways. I'm "home" happy and safe. :) Until the next adventure. :)
Current mood: accomplished
So on the 31st of July I left San Antonio very early in the morning and headed to Atlanta. I was supposed to go to Pensacola, FL and back and then over to Guadalajara, Mexico. I signed in at 12:15. Well weather has been bad in Atlanta lately... We get to Pensacola and got delayed 2 hours. We finally left Pensacola and crossed our fingers that our Mexico trip would be cancelled. In Atlanta we showed the flight was still on... but that it was leaving at 9:00 pm so it was delayed 2 hours. We sit in the lounge and just watch the screens and cross our fingers... no such luck. We get up to the gate for a now 10pm departure and we eventually start boarding at 10:30. We are now at a 10 hour duty day plus 4 hours of flight... so that's 14 hours of duty... we are still ok to fly... we become illegal to fly at 16 hours... They stopped boarding midway and the tower said that the airport in Guadalajara was closed until 4am... so that put the flight going out at 2:45. So then we were definitely illegal. After having to get all the people off board... some people were soo nice about it... cause obviously its not our fault... one lady was just a rude mean woman and screamed in my face about what she was supposed to do about her 80 year old parents... heck if I know! So I called scheduling to figure out what I’m supposed to do. The lady was so rude. She said that if I left the airport without putting myself on availability then I wouldn't get paid for any of my trip. I yelled at her at told her that I didn't plan on leaving to anywhere because I cannot afford to get a hotel on what they pay me and I do not live in Atlanta. I told her I didn’t think it was fair to put myself on availability. She didn’t care. So I go to sleep in the lounge... again. I was mad because I was supposed to get a hotel and now I'm sleeping on a couch. I just really wanted a shower and good sleep since my day started at 5am.
I woke up stiff and mad and irritated. They made an announcement that they were understaffed so that anyone that picked up a trip in open time would get an additional 4 hours of pay. So I figured I’d go take a look and see if there was anything worth picking up before they called me out and placed me on the worst trip. That's when I saw Vienna! I've always wanted to go to Austria... always. So I called scheduling and fought for it... AND I GOT IT! So I had a few hours to kill before I flew out... its a 10 hour flight so I knew I needed food and sleep.
I get to briefing and everyone was much older than me... as expected. The flight leader had more work done on her face than my car has under its hood in a lifetime. Apparently she's been flying to Lima... which is the joke that flight attendants go there to get "work" done. I am always the new girl so I try to be nice and quiet and just listen in briefing. One flight attendant said she was gonna try and work in business class with the F.L. (flight leader) on the way back but wasn't familiar with everything so she might need help. The F.L. said so nicely that she was in good hands because she had taught International Business for 10 years in the training hub. I just tried to make friendly conversation and mentioned how nice that was. She turned her head so sharply at me that I thought her facelift might distort even more. :)
She said, "I did teach for 10 years but I DO NOT teach anymore because EVERYONE should already know their job." Yikes! She already didn't like me for some reason. On the plane she asks me if I know what I'm doing. I told her I'd only done that Business Elite to Europe once but that I’d figure it out. The federal air marshals knew the one flight attendant that I was working with and they said that they had fIown with the F.L. before and that she was a lesbian and the lady working in the back was her "partner". AHA! No wonder she was a miserable soul... I only have inappropriate jokes after this...so I'll stop. Even being that I have friends who are lesbians but they seem to not be as miserable in life as this 60 something year old lesbian.
The flight went well... I just tried to be extra nice to the F.L. and her "partner". We got to Vienna at about 10am and went back to the hotel. I showered and laid down for a nap. I agreed to meet one of the flight attendants in the lobby at 3 to do the city tour on the bus... I overslept in my comfy bed and got a wake up call at 3:30. We did the tour... Here are some of the pics of the bus tour... I don't remember all the names of the places or events... but a lot of this has to do with Mozart.... I do remember that. :)
After the BUS tour we had drinks in the hotel lobby with the partners and some of the other flight attendants... the girl I had done the bus tour with kept talking about going to this city hall where there was restaurant stands and big screens. So I agreed to go with her... little did I know what I was getting into. She acted like she knew where we were going... I swear.
I figured I was in trouble when she asked directions in the subway to some German guy and yelled at me to come over... She said that this guy wanted to sell us his subway tickets which were good until midnight... He only wanted 2 euros for each ticket. I looked at her and told her that it sounded like a scam. Straight faced she looked at the guy and asked him, "is this a scam?" he said no. I swear she looked at me and said, "see? He's not scamming us." So I spent the 2 euros to shut her up. Luckily in Vienna no one ever checks your tickets on subway, buses or trams.
3 hours of circles later and her talking loudly in English to Austrians and asking them where the City Hall was... we made it to what they thought was the city hall.. Stadt Halle.... this is not where we wanted to go... we ended up in the Ghetto... which is still waaay nicer than any ghetto in the US. At this point I am so hungry and so tired. I kid you not 3 hours after torture... she decides at this point to pull out a MAP! A freaking MAP! I said... "you have a MAP!?!", she said... "Well, I'm not very good at reading maps."
I told her to take the U6 back to the U3 and then get on the U2 and we'd be there... She said she wasn't getting back on the subway so she would follow the English speaking Arab at the corner grocery store's advice and take the 49 tram to the N station and walk 2 blocks. I was so angry. The only thing I could do to vent was text my boyfriend in the U.S. to vent it out. Some nice girl that spoke English again helped us to get from the 49 tram to the U2 subway and we finally made it to this place which was the Rathaus... the film festival was going on... that's what she had been talking about this entire time!!! And yes it was worth all the waiting. There was booths from restaurants of any food you could possible want served on real plates with real cups. That would never be in the U.S. we'd break out our paper plates and dixie cups :)
I had so much fun in Vienna... I saw so much... and apparently we won't be flying there after October so I got a real once in a lifetime opportunity for that trip until I transfer back to New York. Anyways... here is the view of the sunrise form my hotel.
I woke up at 7:30 am Vienna time which is 1:30 am Atlanta time... pick up was at 9:55 but I wanted a chance to walk around the hotel a bit more.
The flight was going ok until I swear I spotted a big bottle of alcohol sitting on someone's tray table. I asked the other girl to take a look and see if I saw what I thought I saw... she comes back with a huge half empty bottle of wine that someone had bought from duty free and had been chugging in the first hour of the flight. Obviously we took it away from them and finished drinking it for them... haha just kidding... we threw it out. So then this lady that was sitting next to them came in the back and told us that they were telling her to shut the F up and using profanity loudly. The more manly of the "partners" went over to them and told them that they weren't allowed any more alcohol and if we as much as heard a peep out of them then we'd have authorities waiting for them at the end of the flight or worse. After that they were all about yes ma'am and no ma'am. :)
I got back to Atlanta at 4:30 pm and ran to make the 5:20 flight to San Antonio and barely made it on... I was soo tired. Anyways. I'm "home" happy and safe. :) Until the next adventure. :)
Saturday, July 26, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, July 21, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
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!
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!
Monday, June 30, 2008
can you keep up?
Current mood: refreshed
]
so... where did I last leave off?
a silly little sleepy london video as i recall. ok. so I didn't do a stinking thing in london. I passed out for almost 20 hours on the 24 hour layover. i was so tired. and whoever said you cannot catch up on sleep never had the chance to try because you CAN!
As soon as i was done with london i came to texas for a 9 hour visit to see my boyfriend...
what are the odds that i get on my plane to texas and the same fat flight attendant that broke the jumpseat with me on it last week was on this same flight and we were sharing the SAME seat!?! awkward!
it didnt break this time because as we landed i lifted up against the headreast to keep my body weight off the already strained little jumpseat. :)
rick and i headed to the olive garden because im addicted to that soup and salad thingy.. and what are the odds that the SAME waitress from last week waited on us.. she used to work for American Airlines.. and she forgot my soup... again... she's slow... i KNOW she didnt work for delta. haha just kidding.
we didn't even sleep a wink. at 2am we hit up chachos and took food to my little brother who was stuck working a night shift at his security job. poor boy. at 4:45am Rick dropped me off at the airport again... i think he should start getting some frequent flyer miles from the airport since he is there almost everyday dropping me off and picking me up at the craziest hours. well he already has a few points stocked up with me but the SA airport should definitely do something for him too. :)
I get to the atlanta airport and pass out for 2 hours on the couch. best sleep ever. :) i meet my flight leader and he's from brazil... those brazilian men are the craziest people. he kept telling me how hot i was and how i had a good butt and good legs... but he talked just like borat so i couldnt take him very seriously... so i just laughed him off. :) we sat in orlando for 3 hours and then headed to mexico... we only had 7 hours behind the door and i felt like death when i woke up... so sleepy. i went in the crew lounge at the hotel to check my email and i drank some oj in there... well it tasted good but different and i think it had mango in it... because i started to get all itchy in my throat... so i popped a benadryl and it made me soo sleepy that i kept falling asleep on the jumpseat. it was horrible! but we had a 4 hour sit in orlando again so i slept for 3 hours... :)
then back to atlanta then to hop a plane to san antonio and got in at midnight.. ugh. again my poor boyfriend had to come out and pick me up again. he had the best surprise for me! a painting by genevieve that i had commented about over a month ago that wasn't for sell. it's HUGE! it's called "the burn" you should go check it out. www.artmajeur.com/genevieve she has the best stuff. anyways... that was an amazing surprise. :)
my friend gregg from south south of texas who painted me an amazing picture is coming into town today so i get to meet him for dinner and kmax and ecole come into town on wednesday so that will be fun... i leave here on thursday morning to go to nicaragua. so i get a few days off in texas... much needed days of sleep and catching up on myspace work.... and sitting by the pool with the best people in texas. :)
also... music im addicted to this month and you should definitely check out is justin nozuka... sooo good! enjoy.
]
so... where did I last leave off?
a silly little sleepy london video as i recall. ok. so I didn't do a stinking thing in london. I passed out for almost 20 hours on the 24 hour layover. i was so tired. and whoever said you cannot catch up on sleep never had the chance to try because you CAN!
As soon as i was done with london i came to texas for a 9 hour visit to see my boyfriend...
what are the odds that i get on my plane to texas and the same fat flight attendant that broke the jumpseat with me on it last week was on this same flight and we were sharing the SAME seat!?! awkward!
it didnt break this time because as we landed i lifted up against the headreast to keep my body weight off the already strained little jumpseat. :)
rick and i headed to the olive garden because im addicted to that soup and salad thingy.. and what are the odds that the SAME waitress from last week waited on us.. she used to work for American Airlines.. and she forgot my soup... again... she's slow... i KNOW she didnt work for delta. haha just kidding.
we didn't even sleep a wink. at 2am we hit up chachos and took food to my little brother who was stuck working a night shift at his security job. poor boy. at 4:45am Rick dropped me off at the airport again... i think he should start getting some frequent flyer miles from the airport since he is there almost everyday dropping me off and picking me up at the craziest hours. well he already has a few points stocked up with me but the SA airport should definitely do something for him too. :)
I get to the atlanta airport and pass out for 2 hours on the couch. best sleep ever. :) i meet my flight leader and he's from brazil... those brazilian men are the craziest people. he kept telling me how hot i was and how i had a good butt and good legs... but he talked just like borat so i couldnt take him very seriously... so i just laughed him off. :) we sat in orlando for 3 hours and then headed to mexico... we only had 7 hours behind the door and i felt like death when i woke up... so sleepy. i went in the crew lounge at the hotel to check my email and i drank some oj in there... well it tasted good but different and i think it had mango in it... because i started to get all itchy in my throat... so i popped a benadryl and it made me soo sleepy that i kept falling asleep on the jumpseat. it was horrible! but we had a 4 hour sit in orlando again so i slept for 3 hours... :)
then back to atlanta then to hop a plane to san antonio and got in at midnight.. ugh. again my poor boyfriend had to come out and pick me up again. he had the best surprise for me! a painting by genevieve that i had commented about over a month ago that wasn't for sell. it's HUGE! it's called "the burn" you should go check it out. www.artmajeur.com/genevieve she has the best stuff. anyways... that was an amazing surprise. :)
my friend gregg from south south of texas who painted me an amazing picture is coming into town today so i get to meet him for dinner and kmax and ecole come into town on wednesday so that will be fun... i leave here on thursday morning to go to nicaragua. so i get a few days off in texas... much needed days of sleep and catching up on myspace work.... and sitting by the pool with the best people in texas. :)
also... music im addicted to this month and you should definitely check out is justin nozuka... sooo good! enjoy.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
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
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
Friday, May 9, 2008
"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.
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.
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