Pretty Family

May 31, 2008 6 Comments A+ a-





One of my beautiful daughters, Jennifer...holding down the fort while her husband, Liam, is serving in Iraq.



Liam and Jennifer





The Most Amazing Child on the Planet, Brendyn, checking out a caterpillar.




He is just precious!


No particular point to the post--just bragging! I love all three of them soooo much!

Who said it was glamorous???

May 31, 2008 2 Comments A+ a-

Disclaimer: I am groggy as I type this and am not responsible for the contents of this blog post this afternoon.

On Thursday night, I received a call from the Crew Desk, giving me an assignment--the next morning I had a 5:41 a.m. check in for a flight to LAX. Which meant I needed to high-tail it to sleep, so I could wake up in 4.5 hours to go to work the trans-con. And I did. Let me tell you that setting an alarm clock for 3 in the morning is just unnatural--and ugly.

Our flight was light--not a full one, and that was nice. I arrived in LAX 5 hours later around 9:30 a.m., and was the only crew member that was going to the hotel--everyone else was heading home (they were an LAX based crew.)

Once at the hotel, I relaxed and had to again work on going to sleep--because I had to work the redeye coming back that same night. This was the 11:30 p.m. departure that arrives in Washington around 7 o'clock in the morning. So I arrived in Los Angeles in the morning and left that same night.

So, off to sleep I go, this time around 2 p.m in the afternoon. Once again, an unnatural act. Trying to go to sleep in the middle of the afternoon, with the exception of naps, is tough to do. Fortunately, I was tired from the lack of sleep the night before, so it wasn't too difficult.

Left the hotel with enough time to grab something to eat--had the privilege of paying $3.09 for a regular sized bottle of Diet Coke at the airport taco joint. I only realized how much it cost when I looked at the receipt!

The flight back was uneventful, and the crew was very, very nice. Most people tried to get comfortable and slept. I was actually not sleep deprived and enjoyed working the flight because I wasn't so tired.
Once in my car and on my way home, tired hit me like a ton o' bricks. I had to get home and go to sleep--even though it was mid-morning.








I just woke up from my "nap" and hopefully will get back on a normal sleep schedule. My June schedule is ugly. Looks like this: 1 day off, 6 days on, 2 days off, 5 days on, 3 days off, 6 days on, and finally 5 days off, 2 days on.

Hopefully, there will be some Paris or Beijing in my June to make up for the ugliness of my schedule.

Hamster Dance

May 27, 2008 0 Comments A+ a-

Remember this song when it made the Internet rounds many years ago? It just makes me smile!

Dee da dee da doe doe.....

Paris, First Class, International--NOT!

May 25, 2008 2 Comments A+ a-

So.....last night around midnight, I received a call from the Crew Desk. "Got a trip for you." she says, "you're going to do an Aruba turn then overnight in Chicago, then the next night you'll work the Paris flight."

Omigawd, I am soooooo excited! Paris is my favorite city! Haven't been since last summer with Casey! I am stoked!

I finally fall asleep, only to have to wake up at 4:15 a.m. to arrive at the airport in time. Get there, brief with my crew, and get onboard the aircraft to Aruba. Start doing my safety checks when the phone on the jetbridge rings, and it's a call from the Crew Desk....I have been reassigned to a new trip! Seems the crew from Tampa misconnected, and I have to help cover a flight to Los Angeles.

So, my new trip is a LAX layover--20 hours, then a leg to San Francisco, then to Chicago, then a 16 hour layover in Des Moines, Iowa tomorrow night. Nothing against Des Moines, but it isn't Paris!!!!

The next day, I go from Des Moines to Denver, then to Washington, and will sleep in my own bed.

This is me, at LAX today. A "not Paris, fake smile--sorta."


This is part of the menu at the hotel I am staying at--ONE egg--just ONE is $6.25 plus and 18% room service charge---$7.50-ish for ONE egg!! No, thank you! I suppose I'll have a Starbucks for breakfast!!





I would gladly pay $7 for an egg in Paris. (okay, not really...I am just sulking....)

Au revoir!

Scourge of Flight Crews

May 19, 2008 1 Comments A+ a-



Hotel curtains that don't close all the way--allowing the sunlight in through the cracks--when you got in very late and need all the sleep you can get! Arrrgggghhh!!

In Denver for a couple of hours....

May 18, 2008 4 Comments A+ a-

Sitting in the domicile in Denver watching the country music awards before heading to Boise for the overnight. Damn, I love camera phones!

Bonehead Flight Attendant

May 15, 2008 1 Comments A+ a-

Couldn't he have called in sick?

FARGO, North Dakota (AP) -- A flight attendant angry about his work route smuggled a lighter aboard an airplane and set a fire in a bathroom, forcing an emergency landing, authorities said Thursday.

The Compass Airlines flight carrying 72 passengers and four crew members landed safely in Fargo on May 7 after smoke filled the back. No injuries were reported. The plane was flying from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan, authorities said.

Eder Rojas, 19, appeared in court Thursday, following his arrest a day earlier in Minneapolis, and was ordered held without bail, prosecutors said. The charge of setting fire aboard a civil aircraft carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

I'm baaaa-aack!!

May 15, 2008 6 Comments A+ a-

Finished up my first trip last night--and it was a good one to have for a first trip. Day One of my four Reserve days was spent at the airport on standby for four hours. The next day, the Crew Desk called at 11 a.m. and gave me a three day trip that started at 4 p.m.

This was all well and good, except I had just gotten out of the shower, and my hair was soaking wet. Just then, lightening hit a transformer and our whole area lost electrical power. I started panicking about how I was going to get my hair dried and curled without electricity--and I have the kind of hair that you can't just let it dry au natural. Called one of my classmates and she offered to let me come to her place to do my hair. I got everything done I needed to, but that was a hell of a way to start your first trip of a new job, though!

I flew with a couple of really nice girls...we did one leg down to Fort Lauderdale and a short overnight there. Bright and early, we worked a leg to Denver then to the overnight in Salt Lake City. On the third day, it was Salt Lake to San Francisco then back home to Washington. The last flight was on a wide body aircraft--a 767--and I worked the First Class galley. It was my first time, and thankfully, I had a great purser who pointed me in the right direction. (I'll be fine the next time I work that position--but the Business Galley, with so many passengers, will be a challenge!)

I very much like the galley position--and think that is where I'll want to be most of the time. Of course, being about 15th from the bottom in seniority of 16,000+ flight attendants gives me very little choice in what position I work!


Here is something else that is new that we didn't have flying at a regional airline: crew meals! Depending on how long a work day is, the company provides a meal. This was breakfast the other day: cheese, crackers, fruit, yogurt and cereal. It was more than I could eat.

So, I had a short Fort Lauderdale and a very long Salt Lake City for my first trip. Three of my classmates got Beijing for their first trip, four got Brussels, one got Mexico City. Cross your fingers for a really cool trip for me. (To the karma gods: Rome would be excellent...) I have tomorrow off, and am good for three days starting Saturday. On Tuesday, I am going to Chicago to get trained on the new 747--which wasn't available to us when I was in Boot Camp.



This was taken shortly before landing in Salt Lake City. Not a bad view from my office!

Okay, back with an edit...the truth. The whole story....

When I was panicking about my wet hair and no electricity, I had Norm on the phone with me while I was freaking out. This man was in a fairly high level meeting at his office in the Pentagon, saw that I was calling, and interrupted his meeting to see what I needed. He stayed with me on the phone while I came back to my senses to make sure I had everything I needed to start my new job off well. Later, as I was trying to press the button in the garage to make the automatic garage door open, I had a mini-freak out--I did not know how to open the garage door manually, without electricity. So, the friendly voice on the other end of the phone coached me through pulling that red rope thingee that hangs from the door to get it opened. He never lost his cool (unlike yours truly) and I would like to publicly thank him for this and the gazillion other things he does for me, on a regular basis, without being asked--he just does. Thank you, Norm!

Mother's Day

May 09, 2008 5 Comments A+ a-

With Mother's Day just around the corner, I've been thinking about my own Mom. She died in 1993 of colon cancer--after an almost five year fight against it. She was a most dignified woman, with a sense of elegance in the way she carried herself--and an awesome sense of humor!



This picture is of my Mom when she was 21 years old.





She was never much of a drinker--and one evening (when I was in my early twenties), she drank a glass or two of red wine. We were sitting at the kitchen table, when she folded her arms in front of her, and laid her head down--as if to take a nap. My teenaged brother Mike came into the kitchen and said, "Mom, what are you doing?" She barely lifted her head up and quietly replied "listening for buffalo!" and plopped her head back down!










Here she is with my Dad, shortly after she was diagnosed. (I think my Dad looks younger now than he was in this picture, more than 20 years ago...it's the hair, I'm sure!)




















This is my most favorite picture in the world. It is, obviously, not a particularly pretty photograph, but it is the one I would grab in case of a fire. (Thank you cousin Liz! She snapped this in 1990.) Mom was giving my brand new son, Chase a bath--check out the look on my baby's face!

The older I get, the more I miss my Mom! It never goes away! Every now and again, I find myself going for the phone to call her and share some tidbit--only to realize I can't!

Maybe she reads my blog??

She looks so good!

May 08, 2008 0 Comments A+ a-

Just did a little check on Baby Widline--she is the baby I helped bring to the US in February for surgeries. Looks like she has gained soooo much weight--which is awesome, because she was teeny-tiny when she was in my arms!

Bad Behavior on Airplanes--are YOU guilty??

May 08, 2008 2 Comments A+ a-

One of my online pleasures is Scott McCartney's column in the Wall Street Journal. Scott writes about air travel from many perspectives: the passenger, the pilot, the flight attendant, the investor, the airline, and the regulatory agency. His column this week hit very close to home for me.

Entitled "Flying Foul: Passengers Behaving Badly", Scott writes about some of the behaviors one sees on an airplane:

"You'll never look at, or reach into, an airline seat-back pocket the same after reading this.

Besides being a repository for magazines, newspapers, books, iPods and air-sickness bags, seatback pockets get stuffed with all kinds of disgusting trash, from toenail clippings to mushy meals.

People do things on airplanes that they would never do in other public settings. They pluck eyebrows, polish nails and pick noses. They stick chewed gum in places only other passengers will discover. They blow noses into blankets that get folded up for the next weary traveler. They prop bare feet up on bulkheads and seats. Sometimes they even engage in sex acts


I had to write Scott and tell him about a couple more bad behaviors I've seen:

" I see people at least every other week, contorted in their coach confines, clipping their toenails. Bing! Bing! The shrapnel flies about the cabin! I used to try to call attention to the bad behavior, and hand them a plastic cup to catch the "leavings" but it never really worked. Now, I just ask the passenger to stop.

Or, how about the people that get airsick into the "sick sack (aka barf bag)? They neatly fold over the top and "seal it"--then place it into the seat back pocket. Only to be discovered by me, when "tidying" the aircraft. Many people use the sick sack to store their garbage--banana peels, gum wrappers, etc.--so, I go to remove the full sick sack, not knowing what is in it, and it is still warm! Gross! Worse is when a little of the "contents" spills onto my hand.

I carry Clorox wipes with me, and when sitting as a passenger on an airplane, always wipe the top of the tray table off with one. People change their babies on the tray tables--and I generally don't catch it until they are finishing up. Please tell people that there is a big ol' baby changing table on most airplanes in the lavatory! Other people (usually teenagers) curl up into a weird position and put their bare feet on that table. It is nasty! (Another trick is to use the hot towel in First Class to wipe your tray table off, too. Less offensive stuff up there, but still, rarely cleaned!)

And, a less frequent behavior--but still inappropriate:
Important Flight Attendant Announcement."

Don't get me started on airplane blankets--unless it comes in a sealed plastic bag, it won't touch any part of me!

See? It is a glamorous life!



Airplane Hot Chocolate

May 06, 2008 1 Comments A+ a-

On our 13 hour flight to Narita recently, I learned how to make hot chocolate on the plane. (This is, of course, not for public consumption.) It does lend itself to a flight attendant's creativity, though!


So, I thought I'd share it with you!!


Take a coffee pot and "brew" hot water. Then, empty a club soda can, and put milk in the empty can. Put the milk-filled can into the hot water pot, and let it sit for about 10 minutes.






In the meantime, get a couple of Ghirardelli milk chocolate squares from Business Class, break them up, and drop into the bottom of a cup.




Stir in the hot milk, and voila! Hot chocolate!!

For Duncan

May 05, 2008 1 Comments A+ a-

Hope you're feelin' it from your readers...the sweat is drippin' down our collective faces a la KC...

Stewed Beef

No pressure or anything....

(Check out the pants...my gift to you!)

(YouTube is being screwy today...had to re-post the video as a link.)

Sweetest words...

May 04, 2008 0 Comments A+ a-

The sweetest words whispered to me today were, "Mimi, I want to stay with you forever."

Love me some Brendyn!






Welcome home and my redneck daughters!

May 02, 2008 2 Comments A+ a-

Got my wings yesterday--and put Chicago in my rearview mirror around 3 p.m. Got as far as Cleveland, and had to stop for the night. Drove home the rest of the way today--and it feels so good to be back in my house!
This is what greeted me when I pulled into the driveway today--Norm hung "welcome home" and "congratulations" signs on our garage door:


What a sweetie!

Tomorrow, I pick up Brendyn, the most amazing child on the planet, who will be spending the weekend with me. My daughter, Jennifer is going to the Richmond NASCAR race, and her husband is in Iraq. I'm not sure what fun things we'll be doing, but I am very much looking forward to seeing him.


My other daughter, Casey, will also be at the NASCAR race.

I just don't get the appeal of being at a loud racetrack all day long. But, I'm glad they do--because there is one precious grandbaby coming to spend time with his Mimi because of it!!