Flat Stanley goes to Miami

So for the past few weeks I have been hosting Flat Stanley. I am doing this on behalf of Brendan Minick, the son of my friend Vanessa (a old friend from Hillsborough High School). I am supposed to take him on adventures and document it with pictures. At the end of January I will return Flat Stanley to Brendan who will present it to his class. I also created a web link so he can track everywhere Flat Stanley is traveling too... http://my.flightmemory.com/flatstan

Flat Stanley got to go to Miami this weekend. It's a sweet trip. One leg down, a long layover, and one leg home. Doesn't get easier than that. A lot of my friends were on the trip, some I had not seen in a while, so it was fun to catch up. We all arranged to bring food and drink, so when we got to the hotel we went down to the pool for a little cocktail hour.

Sunday I went to a new Sushi restaurant that opened up next to the hotel. I was supposed to meet up with a friend from UNF who lives there now, but it fell thru, so I had to day to relax and do my own thing. On the flight home we set up the back galley with our snacks and continued eating. Eat eat eat.... it's all we do.

This is my last post for 2007 s0 Happy New Year!

Cast-Away

I thought this would be an appropriate title for this entry. Earlier this week I met a little girl on my plane named Peyton. She was returning from a family vacation in the Bahamas. I noticed she had a cast on, the old fashioned kind that you could actually sign. I asked if I could sign her cast, but we needed a marker. I made a page over the PA system and luckily a passenger had a Sharpie, and I was able to sign my name in the last spot that still had wasn't signed.

She gets it off on Thursday though, but at least my name will be on it for a couple of days.

Friend's @ 50

Spent Friday afternoon helping my friend Patti (seen here holding a box of condoms)celebrate her 50th birthday. There were about 20-30 people from the 777 mafia there, some of whom I had not seen in a while. Mind you most of these women are old enough to be my mother, but they have taken me under their protective wing at work, and I am fortunate to have friends like them.

Spent the afternoon drinking wine, some sort of champagne punch with cranberries, and eating good food.

Food is always a major part of everything I do it seems. Perhaps that is why I am shaped like a pear.

AC/DC

Not really sure what the title has to do with anything but it was the only catchy thing I could come up with for Washington, D.C.

We had a celebrity the other night on the way to Washington. Her name was Omarosa and she was on The Apprentice. She had a "reputation" on the show, and apparently she had one on the plane too. I was working in Steerage, so I had no contact with her really. She made her mother sit in Coach though.

We had a kid sitting behind her blow chunks all over his seat after dinner, and it must have grossed her a bit because she got up and went to sit back by her mother.

After getting to DC, we settled into our rooms. Apparently, the clock radio was set an hour fast, so thinking I was getting up at 5:30am this morning, imagine my surprise when stepping out of the shower, and noticing my cell phone said 4:45am. Once I got over having a pity party for myself, I finished getting ready and went to a diner next to the hotel for a big greasy breakfast.

We had an absent minded passenger today. She checked her bag and then was not there when the flight closed out. So they start to search luggage, searching for her bag in the belly when she shows up. She was sitting at the wrong gate (duh!). Then we have her on our next flight home and I'll be damned if she didn't leave her fancy pashmina scarf in her seat. I think the poor thing would lose her head if it wasn't connected.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I'll be celebrating with my family tomorrow. This will be our first Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving in more than 10 years.

Gobble Gobble!

Phoenix.... ho hum.

November is National Blogger Month (so my friend Jessica told me on my last trip) so I am trying to write more in the blog even if it isn't that exciting. This would be one of those entries. I am on a 3 day trip and tonight we are in Phoenix. We got here this afternoon, and it is in the 90's (but it's a dry heat). The whole crew slam-clicked (meaning they stayed in their rooms) so I did my own thing. I went and had a good workout. Then went across the street to a restaurant called "The Matador" and had a beer at the bar while I waited for my take out. There was a woman there complaining about her flight in this afternoon and how terrible the airlines are, and then of course she asks me what I am in town for, so I told her I was here for a Watch convention. I grabbed my order of seafood enchiladas and went back to my room. All in all, an uneventful, but boring day.

Viva Las Vegas.... Leaving Las Vegas

I picked up a 2-day Las Vegas trip for $50 from another flight attendant. At first I was pretty psyched about it because the stew I would be working with up in First was Jessica, and I had not seen her in years. The last time we flew together she was like a thousand months pregnant and now her son is 2 years old!

However, a gentle reminder to all of you.... Leaving for Las Vegas on a Friday night is like taking 170 people for try outs on the Jerry Springer show. It was a rough group, both in appearance and temperament. The highlight being the 80 lb. woman with her new husband (who was easily twice her age). She was dressed in this bright pink, almost neon-like outfit and she was already making a scene out in the departure lounge. She and her new hubby were on their way to LAS for their honeymoon. She walks onto the airplane and blows kisses to the FO. I try to go back to talk to her about her behavior, but the husband won't let her answer. She's in "party mode" he tells me. In the end, we had a Passenger Service supervisor talk to her on the jetbridge. The next thing we know, she is screaming at him and then comes back on the plane and tries to get into the cockpit so they can "call the police". Needless to say, they did not make flight with us. The last we saw of her, she was trying to walk up the jetbridge back into the terminal.

The flight was just full of loons though. Jessica is one of those people I just click with at work, so we had fun with ourselves yet were speedy and efficient. I think our folks in First enjoyed that except for a couple that had a temper tantrum because we ran out of sparkling wine. They told us our food was "disgusting" and refused service from us for the rest of the flight (we were just devastated, don't you know).

--Funny side story, as we were landing, we found the other sparkling wine splits we forgot we had..... oh well :)

After a short layover, it was up early to fly home, then turn around back to LAS, before going home again. We did have an interesting passenger on the way home. He was quite possibly the tallest man I have ever had on the airplane, coming in at 6'11. To give you an idea of his size, I took his picture standing next to Jessica, who is average in height for a woman. A cool guy, and he did not ever mind that I took his picture. Luckily they gave him the exit row by the 2L door.

McAllen Redux

As my reserve month winds down, I of course am glad it is almost over. No one likes being on call. Yesterday they called me in the afternoon with a three day trip. One leg to MFE (McAllen), 32 hour layover, three legs home on Monday.

Well, you would think that 32 hours in McAllen would be right up there with some of the other places like Birmingham and Omaha, but it actually proved to be quite enjoyable. This is my second layover here in as many months. The hotel is quaint and charming. It's actually a historic building and has lots of character. Of course I won't mention it by name for crew security reasons, but while part of a chain, it's not like your regular chain hotel.

I had a very pleasant day. There happened to be a Presbyterian church around the corner so I went there this morning for Sunday services. It's Reformation Sunday, so we sang lots of hymns from John Calvin (Father of Presbyterianism) and Martin Luther. It was a rather geriatric crowd but everyone was real friendly and made me feel welcome.

-Side note.... McAllen is primarily a retiree area....known for fantastic shopping..... Muchos mexicanos come across the border to shop here. There are more malls than you can shake a stick at. Given the close proximity to the border (8 miles) it's blossomed into a major retail area.

I came back to the hotel and spent some time on line. You just can't beat free High Speed Internet connections. I watched a Netflix movie I brought along.... "Madea's Family Reunion". It was OK.... not as good as "Diary of a Mad Black Woman". I got in a nice work out at the fitness center and then met my coworker Cindy and went to what has to be the best Mexican restaurant in the whole world, Costa Messa. I ate here for the first time in September on a layover and loved it. They bring out three different types of salsa and seasoned chips. For the main course, I had Enchiladas Suizas. There was no need to have the plate washed, because I all but licked it clean. Washed it down with a couple of Sol cervezas, and I was about as happy as you can get.

So now it's off to sleep. We have an early departure tomorrow. I will be glad when this reserve month is over, but what with this trip and the Tampa trip last week, I really cannot complain about the quality of trips I have gotten.

Last Minute Tampa Fun

So like I said before, I am on reserve this month which means that I just have days that I am available, and then days that I am off. On Friday afternoon I went and had my attorney friend Tricia draft my Last Will and Testament. Afterwards, we met up with her husband Mark (previously mentioned in the September blog about A Prairie Home Companion) and went to dinner. We had every intention of watching a movie after we got our pizza, but when I called in I had a trip assigned for the next day, and it signed in at 0500, which if I had a choice I would rather eat my own foot than get up at 3:00am to go to work. However, there was some good news in all of this, and that was the 19 hour layover in Tampa. I called my friend Jonathan and left a message that I would be coming to town and hoping we could get together.

The main reason I was so glad to get a Tampa trip was because I have been wanting to go and see my friend Bruce. He had an accident and broke his ankle, fibula, and tibia, on top of artery damage. Bruce's doctor described the injury as catastrophic and that he came close to having to amputate the foot. I've been quite worried.

I arrived in Tampa around 1pm and Jonathan picked me up at the airport. He and his wife Wendy were kind enough to let me stay with them, so I did not bother checking in to the hotel. We drove right out to Riverview to see Bruce and his wife Jen (who is pregnant). I was a little taken aback when I saw Bruce's leg. I had seen pictures, but to see it in person was quite intense. He has steel rods in his leg and foot to keep everything in place.

We sat and visited for a while. They have a bird named Houdini that lets himself out of his cage and flies around the house (which freaked me and Jonathan out) and then when he is done, he lets himself back in to the cage.

Bruce is going back in for more surgery tomorrow to do the final repair work on his foot. After that he has 8-12 weeks of recovery before he will be able to walk unassisted again. I am of course keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes well tomorrow.

When we were done with out visit, we stopped for tacos and then went to Davis Island, where Jon's in-laws live. They have a flat panel HDTV so we went there to watch the FSU-Miami football game. (I commented that it was 13 years ago this month that I drove down to Miami to go to the football game with Jonathan, during our freshman year of college - gosh, I am old.)

His friend Justin came over (former college roommate) as well as Jon's wife Wendy, their kids, and another friend, Brenda.

When the game was over (FSU gave it up to Miami at the very end - 38-29) we headed back to Jon and Wendy's house to cook out. Since I was going to be sleeping in their son Jake's room, they sent him to Jon's parents house so I got to have a quick visit with Mr. and Mrs. Brill as well. For dinner we had steaks, baked potatoes and veggies. It was pleasant enough so we sat outside. All in all, I thought it was a nice way to end the day.

Of course since I had been up since 3:00am, I was exhausted so I slept like a log. This morning Jonathan took me to the airport and after a flight to New York and then Nashville, I finally made it home.

As much as I complain and b!tch about my reserve months, every now and then you get a fantastic trip like this one.

And finally, a shout out to my friend Brucie. He finally made mention into the blog! I just wish it wasn't because of a catastrophic foot injury.

Stoned

So yesterday I had a car accident. It was the first accident I have had with a car since the spring of 1993 (15 frickin' years ago) when I backed into a concrete pillar at the Radisson Hotel Marco Island at an Interact convention.

I had to go to Starbucks that morning to meet with a young woman who wanted to get her Girl Scout troop linked up with the volunteer agency I am a part of. After leaving the meeting, I had to go to the airport to get a bid sheet because it is the time of the month where we put our trip requests in for the coming month.

I am driving down the road when this guy on a side street pulls out in front of me. I slam on the breaks, but it's too late in the game and I run right in to him.

He can't get out of the car because when I hit him, the driver side door was pinned shut. He backed up to the side street and I pulled off the road. He climed out of his mini-van from the passenger side door. Mr. Jones (the names have been changed to protect the innocent) looked like he was one of the folks who was at Woodstock. He managed to tie back what little graying hair that he had in a pony tail. He said he didn't see me coming (duh?!) and that he normally looks left, then right, then left again, but in this case he forgot.

So I got his insurance information and we exchanged phone numbers. As I am getting ready to leave, he starts talking to me about important points in ones life, and he reaches into his pocket. At this point, I am thinking this guy is going to pull out a gun or shoot me. He pulls out a handful of polished stones and says that he carries them around to remember when events like this happen. He hands me a black polished stone so I when I look at it, I will always remember the day he pulled out in front of me.

So not only did I have a car accident yesterday, but I also got stoned.

Thongs

The other day I was going to Atlanta and I was flying the #1 position, which works in First Class. We are full and late because of some severe weather from earlier in the day and everyone is anxious to get going. The agent is getting ready to close the door and this young girl, (I'm guessing mid-20s) comes up with a HUGE roller board suitcase. She has unzipped the extended part of the bag so that it is just bursting and as a result it will not fit in the overhead bin.

We explain that she will need to check her bag and the agent explains that because it is at departure time, it will have to go on the next flight. The young girl proceeds to have a temper tantrum right in the galley, so I tell the agent to just go ahead and close the door and we'll help her take some stuff out of the suitcase and get it to fit.

I hand the passenger one of our trash bags that we use for picking up after the service and tell her we need to take as much out of her bag as possible and place it in the trash bag. Once we reduce the volume of her bag, we can zip up the extended part and it should fit just fine. Of course she proceeded to tell me that it fits just fine the way it is on Air Tran, and I rather quickly replied without thinking that this is NOT Air Tran. I was doing my best to help her and she was being obnoxious.

So we open up her bag and it is literally filled with what must be a hundred pieces of thong underwear. I'm talkin' every color imaginable! So she transfers as much of her thong underwear into the trash bag and as she gets up to go back with her luggage, she leans over to pick up her stuff and I get a view of her butt crack. The chic is wearing NO underwear.

I'm guessing she doesn't like to wear it, but just lugs it around the country in overstuffed suitcases.

Go figure!

Armadillo Destruction

My yard is being torn to shreds by an armadillo. I have seen him a few times in my backyard. The other night I was putting some letters in the mailbox and I saw him digging in my neighbor's front yard. I chased him with a broom and hit him a few times, which kind of bothered me because I am an animal lover.

Well I'll be damned if he didn't show up in my backyard about 20 minutes later. I took his picture, which in the middle of the night must have blinded him because he took off running and kept banging into things.

Hopefully with the cooler weather that is coming, he will go into hybernation or something. This would be year three that I have had armadillo damage, so I am sure he will show up again.

It's very frustrating.

An Old Friend in San Francisco

This month I am on reserve, which generally blows because I have no set schedule. I am at the beck and call of the airline and basically wait to be given a trip. My first trip I was assigned this month was a three day trip with layovers in Austin and San Francisco. The worst part of the whole deal was that the last flight was an all night red-eye from SFO back home. The best part was that I had the whole afternoon and evening in SFO on a Saturday. I emailed the two people I know who live there, both friends from high school back in Florida: Ingrid and Virali. Ingrid was out of town in Seattle because she was presenting at a medical conference. Virali, however, was in town and so we made plans to meet up.

Because we arrived into SFO in the late morning and were leaving that same night on the red eye, we were at a short layover hotel near the airport. Virali came and picked me up and we went out for South Indian cuisine at a restaurant called Annapoora. It was good, although aside from the curry and chutney, I had no idea what I was really eating. It kind of reminded me of the Indian food I had in Malaysia when I would go and visit my friends Carla and Steven.

Since it was still more than 8 hours "bottle to throttle" we decided to go to a place Virali had seen on the way to the hotel called the Elephant Bar for a cocktail. We got lost trying to get back towards the area of the hotel because there was construction everywhere. Things were a mess.

We finally found the bar after wandering through the winding streets of Burlingame. It sat right on the water with a beautiful view of the city, but unfortunately, the bar had no outside seating. I ordered a gin martini (with pearl onions) and Virali ordered a Becks. All in all a nice way to spend the afternoon.

She dropped me back at the hotel in the mid afternoon, and I fell right to sleep. I woke up at 11pm and got showered and dressed and around midnight we headed for the airport for the all night flight home. The passengers are great on these flights because they sleep. The hard part is trying to keep yourself awake. I had brought a TAB (remember TAB diet cola) energy drink with me, but it somehow managed to explode in my lunch tote the day before, so I chugged a Diet Dr. Pepper and rode the caffeine wave the whole way home.

A Prairie Home Companion

For the past few years I have enjoyed listening to A Prairie Home Companion. It's modeled after an old time radio show and is recorded each week by Garrison Keilor, http://prairiehome.publicradio.org , for National Public Radio (NPR). I was able to convince my buddy Mark, a native North Dakotan and former resident of the "Frozen Tundra" to accompany me to St. Paul, MN this weekend to attend a live broadcast.

We flew up early Saturday morning. The flight was wide open and we both landed ourselves nice seats in First Class. We arrived at the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport, hopped in a rental car (which had North Dakota plates, we figured it was a sign) and drove to our hotel to drop our things off and then headed for St. Paul.
It was a gorgeous day. Temperatures were in the mid 70's and it was the perfect weather to be outside. We started out on Grand Avenue. It's kind of a yuppie section of St. Paul with lots of restored houses and small shops, organic groceries, etc. Mark had located a little restaurant called The Italian Pie Shoppe, that the Internet had reported was the maker of Rhubarb pie (in keeping it a true Prairie Home Companion weekend we wanted to try Beep-bop-a-ree-bop Rhubarb pie) but we soon discovered that this restaurant was not a place to get said pie. (We never did get to find a place that served it). We walked up and down Grand Ave. Mark found a place called The Northern Brewer, a store that specializes in things one needs to home brew your own beer (his hobby) and I stumbled across a place called Northern Lights Tea, where I got some great new loose teas to try.


Next we headed for downtown St. Paul. Half the streets were closed for repaving, so we kind of had a hard time finding a place to park. We wanted to park close to the restaurant called The Liffey, a Irish pub where we would be meeting some of his friends after the show, but for the life of us we could not figure out where to park. We finally settled on a parking garage connected to the Holiday Inn, which ironically was also the home to The Liffey, so we couldn't had that work out better. We walked across downtown St. Paul for the Fitzgerald Theater, where APHC was recorded. We got to the theater no problem but still had some time to kill so we went in search of beer. We must of walked over half of downtown but for the life of us we could not find a place. The bars we did find did not open until 4, and it was more like 2:30 - 3:00. We did manage to find a fancy hotel called The Saint Paul, and sure enough they had a bar. It was actually quite nice, and had a nice collection of Single Malt Scotch (but I stuck to beer). We had a few brewskies and enjoyed talking with the bartender. He even cracked a joke about The Christmas Story, which is one of my favorite movies, and had me on stitches.


On our way back to the Fitzgerald Theater, we stumbled across some Peanuts statues. St. Paul was the home of Charles Schultz. After some creative posing, we made our way to the "Fitz". We stopped at Mickey's diner on the way, but still no Rhubarb Pie.



We arrived at the theater and Mark saw they had Grainbelt, which is some sort of beer you can only get in this area and he grew nostalgic so he had one. I tasted it and it was nothing special, but he was so excited to see they had it, so I was happy for him.

Our seats were 2nd Balcony, 2nd row, so we had a great view of the stage (albeit a little higher than we would have liked, but fine nonetheless). In addition to Garrison Keilor and his normal repertoire of radio actors, the special guests featured a singer/song writer from Montana, Stephanie Davis; country singer Becky Schlegel, master fiddler Stuart Duncan, and this man who could play all sorts of instruments, Mike Seeger. The show started a few minutes before 5pm with Garrison and Becky Schlegel singing a song. The show went live at 5pm sharp and Garrison started off with a joke about Fidel Castro, saying that in a recent interview Fidel proved that not only is he alive, but that he intends to outlive the Bush Administration.... just like all of us. The theater erupted in thunderous laughter! (Mr. Keilor is a huge liberal, perhaps why I am such a fan). In addition to some great music and the weekly "News from Lake Wobegon", we got to listen to skits involving perennial characters like Ken, the starving artist; The Lives of the Cowboys with Dusty and Lefty, and a particularly funny episode of Guy Noir, Private Eye, involving a stint working for the TSA; and the Powdermilk Biscuits song (Heavens! They're tasty and expeditious)

The show came to end around 7pm and we made our way down from the nosebleed section. I stopped at the gift stand and got a Dusty and Lefty T-shirt and an American Duct Tape Council cap, and we made our way back across downtown to meet up with Mark's friends Lisa and Ryan (her husband) at the Liffey. Mark and Lisa grew up together in Partial, ND (pop. 900) and went to UND together, but had not seen each other in 10 years, so he was real excited to see them. They had a good time catching up about their old friends from back home, and it was interesting to hear them talk about life growing up in a small town in literally the middle of nowhere. The food was fantastic. Mark had been talking about having a Walleye sandwich since before we left Dallas, which he did. I had Corned beef and Cabbage. We all sat on the terrace up on the roof. The weather was still quite nice. We got to see a white trash bride and her white trash friends. Colorful people always make the evenings more fun.

Around 10pm, we said out goodbyes and headed back to our little Residence Inn at the MSP Airport. We were both exhausted and we slept pretty well. The alarm rang pretty early at 6am. I had taken my laptop and got us put on the standby list and we headed down to the lobby for breakfast. We returned the car no problem and got thru security just fine. At that point the easiness of the day came to a halt when a Hockey team of 25 that was confirmed on the 5:30pm departure that evening decided to standby for the 9:15am flight we were on. They gobbled up all the open seats. To make matters worse, the rest of the flights that day up until the 5:30pm flight were full. I of course could have taken the jumpseat, but since Mark was on a buddy pass, he was at a lower priority, and I didn't want to abandon him. At one point he was #35 on the list! We ended up sitting at the airport all day, watching all the flights go out full. We did enjoy a nice lunch at the Rock Bottom brewery (I had a nice unfiltered Wheat beer) and towards the end of our ordeal, did some stress eating at Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.

Of course the 5:30 flight was wide open now (and Mark had graduated to #4 on the list) since the schmucks from the Hockey Team had gotten the earlier flight, so we got the bulkhead seats in the first row of coach and the flight home was uneventful.

All in all a great trip (minus the non rev drama). The show was fantastic. Watching it live was just like I imagined it would be when I listen to the show on the radio each week.

Mid Life Crisis in El Paso

I had an El Paso layover last night. As we were checking in to the hotel, a group of girls walk by and they are all wearing UNF T-shirts. I was a little shocked because El Paso Texas is not the place I imagine to see the UNF Girls Soccer Team. I get all excited and tell them "Go Ospreys!" (our mascot) which catches them off guard. They asked me how I had heard of their tiny little state school and I told them I was an alumn. One girl in particular had a T-shirt from her 2007 Honors Orientation. I told her I had the same shirt from the 1994 Honors Orientation, to which she replied, "I was in kindergarden then..."

This will no doubt be the turning point in my life that I will remember as when I offically started getting old.

I called my friend Crystal today to tell her about it, and she remarked how it just feels like a couple of years ago, when in reality we started college 13 years ago.

It's all downhill from here... This incident gave me a whole new bunch of gray hairs.

My 31st year begins....

Last Monday, I started my 31st year of life. I really don't feel like I should be 31, but for some reason, I find myself getting older. I think I look the same, although the gray is more noticeable than it used to be, and my waistline is bigger than it used to be.

I spent Sunday night playing cards at my friend Vicki's place. A bunch of flight attendants got together and played a game called "99". It was loads of fun and I was hoarse from yelling so much. Each player put 20 bucks in the pot and the last player standing wins the whole amount. I was the first one out, but it was still fun. In the end, Frankie (Vicki's 84 year old mother) took home the pot.

We had cake for my birthday.... the beginning of a week of eating like crap.

Surprisingly, I had Labor Day (my actual birthday)off and spent the afternoon with my sister helping her buy a laptop and then we went over to my parents house for birthday dinner and the FSU/Clemson game. My mom and dad had some friends from the GTE days over also.

I ended up picking up a trip on Tuesday. There was a lady dropping it for 100 bucks, so I took it off her hands for a little extra cash and hours. I had three hours of sit time in St. Louis so my Aunt Carol came to the airport and visited with me on my layover. We played cards and she stopped at a deli on the way and brought us sandwiches.

Incidentally, my next door neighbor's sister was on the trip with me so it was nice to fly with someone I know. We layed over in McAllen, Texas, along the border with Mexico. It's a sleepy little town, but great food. We went to a great place called the Costa Mesa for dinner. I had Enchiladas Suizas and I ate my weight in chips and salsas. They had three different types of salsas and all were fantastic.

We got up this morning and flew back to Dallas and then on to Dayton, Ohio and back. We got held up with the rain this morning and sat on the runway in Dallas for about an hour due to ATC flow control problems. It was real light onboard so the passengers behaved, and we picked up an hour in extra time on the ground stoppage.

Mexico.... more like Mexi-NO

So I was all excited because I had a carryover trip from August into September that had a two day layover in Mexico City. I have been there a lot, but never with that much time, so I was excited that I would have a complete day to do something on my own. I went online and booked a tour to Teotihuacan, the Aztec pyramids, and the Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the most visited religious site in all of Latin America.

We were scheduled to fly to Mexico City on Thursday, then head back to base, and then back into Mexico City for the layover. We started out fine. The loads were light and we even commented on how something was bound to go wrong. Well, go wrong it did.

We arrived back to base only to encounter massive delays. The earlier flight to Mexico City had cancelled, so we went from a light booking to full full full.

We boarded our plane, with no air conditioning mind you, and no pilots. With the pilots nowhere in sight, we got a mechanic to come out to the plane and turn on the APU so at least we had some air conditioning. Me and my coach flying partner, John, served juice and water and most people were pretty cool about everything. There was a rather obnoxious lady in 7D who would repeatedly ring her call light for minutes at a time, and then yell at us that this was part of some conspiracy.

Well, in the end they found us some pilots, but they had to be wheels up (in the air) by 2336. We pushed back from the gate and were about to take off when they went illegal, so back to the gate we went. At this point we had a mini revolution on our hands. In the end the flight was cancelled, and we were sent to a local hotel to layover over and deadhead the next day.

I of course missed out on my tour and after contacting the tour company, was told they would not issue a refund or credit, so it was a total loss.

I did have some chicken fajitas for dinner last night along with Montijo, my new favorite Mexican beer. We did have some cool passengers on our last leg home today from SLC, including a little Jewish bubby named Bebe. She was a stitch and we were joking around with her. She was standing in the galley as we put the carts away and we ended up putting my apron on her and she took the trash cart out with us and picked up the garbage. She enjoyed schmoozing with the passengers and she said when she was a girl she always wanted to be a stewardess, so she got to live a little of her dream.

Vancouver

I traded onto what was supposed to be an easy Vancouver trip. One leg up, decent overnight, three legs home. Thanks to weather at home, we were stuck on at the gate for an hour with the passengers. Lightening closed the ramp, so we couldn't go anywhere.

I was hoping to get in with enough time to go try out a local Irish pub called the "Foggy Bottom". No better way to end the day than with a wee pint. As it turns out, we arrived so late, we made the company required 8 hours behind the door rule, meaning we just made the 8 hour minimum for crew rest. And you know what they say..... Put down the bottle eight hours to throttle! That was the end of my Vancouver fun.

The one thing that always gets me is that when you arrive at YVR, you always walk underneath this huge eskimo bird that looks like it is ready to swoop down and eat you. Now that I am on the look out for good blog material, I carry the digital camera so I snapped a photo.


The highlight of the next morning was the catering mistake that resulted in us getting Delta Air Lines ice and soda (see #5 and #32 from the 8/8/07 posting... "You know you're Cabin Crew if..."


So Vancouver was kind of a bust. The temps were nice though. I enjoyed getting out of the heat for a while. Tomorrow I am off on a three day to Monterrey, Mexico and Washington DC.

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

I just got back from another Airline Ambassadors trip. This time I escorted nine year old Kelin Artica from Tegucigalpa (TGU), Honduras to St. Louis, Missouri. This is the second time I escorted Kelin. I actually brought her out of Honduras last June. She went home at the beginning of the summer to renew her VISA, and now was ready to go back for her second trip. Kelin was born with a severe form of scoliosis, which left untreated would have resulted in organ failure, paralysis, and possible death. Healing the Children Missouri (HTCMO) arranged for her donated medical care.

My day started at 3am on Tuesday when I woke up and began my trek to the airport. I'm generally a night owl, so you can imagine how tired I was when I woke up at 3am, having gone to bed at 12:30! Of course the good news was no traffic.

Normally, Airline Ambassadors arranges for a positive space ticket for the escort when the flights are full. The flight to Miami had over 30 open seats, and just as many non-revenue passengers who had listed. We can check in from home now on the computer to put ourselves on the standby list, but when you have a segment that involves international travel, you have to present your passport and travel documents to an agent at the airport. Therefore I stood to lose a top spot on the list since I could not get up at 2am and add myself to the list like all the other nonrevs would do. So we arranged for a positive space ticket. I trumped all the standby passengers and was able to snag 6F, the last row in First. Likewise, I was able to secure 4F on the flight to TGU. I slept like a log on both flights.

Now for anyone who is familiar with TGU and it's airport, you know it sits up in the mountains and any pilot will tell you it is a difficult approach. In fact, you can see a landing on YouTube if you follow this link http://youtube.com/watch?v=zR1GLi8Cr8o .

We got the gate and I hustled off to clear immigration and customs and meet with Kelin and her parents, and Elisabeth, the coordinator with Cadena de Amor, the children's clinic in TGU. I just brought a backpack because I did not want to bother checking anything, and I could fit my dop kit, travel documents, a clean undershirt and undies inside with no problem.

I got checked in and Kelin and her parents, Edith and Emetrio, her aunt, and Elisabeth, were waiting for me. I kind of felt bad because last year Kelin's mom, Edith, was pregnant and I remember we were all telling Kelin when she came back she would have a new brother or sister. Well, I remarked in Spanish how I remember the mom was pregnant last year and I asked where the baby was? The mom replied that she miscarried, and I was kind of at a loss! I certainly wasn't expecting that! (I later found out when I arrived in STL, that not only did she miscarry, but she also had an emergency hysterectomy!). Open mouth, insert foot. I felt terrible.

Last year, I was escorting another child in addition to Kelin, so I think it made the goodbye a little easier, but this time it really tore her up and she started crying when it was time to go, which of course makes everyone else cry!

Going thru security, the inspector must not have heard of the crew member exemption on liquids, gels, and aerosols, because they tried to take my Suave deoderant, my face wash, toothpaste and cologne, but being the smooth talker that I am, I convinced them that I was exempt (which I am!).

We got the the gate and waited to board. Kelin was still sad, but we talked a little and I showed her some pictures from my digital camera. She liked the ones of my dog. She spoke no English last year, but after a year in STL, she does quite well. I always bring the kids a gift, so I got her a "rana" or frog that she could connect to her belt loop and a coloring book with crayons. I did not look at the crayon box because I noticed I ended up buying her these dark shade crayons so all of her Disney princesses were in black, browns, oranges. Oops!

The outbound crew was the same crew I flew in with, and the purser has arranged for us to sit in 4A and 4B in First, so we had a little more room. Kelin did not want to eat, but I was pretty much starving at this point so I wolfed down a salad and lasagna.

Arrival in Miami was the usual chaos! It is important to note that my name matches a name on the No Fly list, so I always have issues clearing immigration upon returning to the United States. This trip proved to be no exception. We got to go in the Special Services line, which helped us expedite the clearing process, but when we got to customs, sure enough I was flagged for secondary screening. They were a little confused about the situation, and they thought it was awkward that grown man would be traveling with a small child he was not related to, and at first they tried to separate me from Kelin, but I stood firm that she be allowed to follow me because she was traveling with me and no one else and I was responsible. Luckily, HTCMO supplies me with an Authorization Letter that clearly explains the situation.

So after 20 minutes of sitting in the penalty box and starting to worry about our connection, another customs official comes over and talks to me. Since I was in my crew uniform, I caught his eye. I explained what was going on, and he immediately got it fixed and five minutes later we were on our way.


We exited the customs hall and re-entered security. I used the employee lane, so we sped thru, avoiding the mass of humanity going thru the regular lines. Early evening is the busiest time at MIA because of the Europe and South American departures, and everything is chaotic.

I was worried about the connection, but as it turns out, the flight to STL was late arriving from Panama City, so we ended up leaving about 30 minutes late. We sat in seats 14B and 14C. There was a Hispanic woman in 14A, so I guess everyone thought Kelin was with her! Kelin finally started feeling a little more comfortable and we talked about her STL family and the things she likes to do there and about her family in TGU. She actually lives with her Aunt because her parents are farmers in the mountains, so she only sees the occasionally. When we got to STL a little after 9pm, she had a huge gathering of folks waiting for her with signs and balloons. She ran up and gave her foster mom a hug and all the kids were gathered around her, so it was a happy reunion.


We took some photos and said our goodbyes and I went to a local airport hotel to sleep. I took a 6am flight out the next day.

For Kelin, the hard part begins. She will spend the next 4 months at St. Louis Children's Hospital where she will be hooked up to a Halo device and put in traction to start to stretch out her spine. When she has been sufficiently stretched, she will then have major surgery to "de-tether" her spine and hopefully fix her scoliosis. This will be followed by physical therapy before she returns home to TGU next summer.

I know that she is fortunate that she has this medical care provided for her, but it still breaks my heart to know what she will have to go thru, all the while being away from her family. She is fortunate that she has a host family that she has really bonded with, so I know that will make the next year easier for her.

You know you're Cabin Crew if...

You know you're Cabin Crew if ...........
1. You never unpack
2. You look to the ceiling when your doorbell goes off
3. You wish you had jet engines mounted in your bedroom so you could fall asleep faster
4. You don't ever write a full city name anymore (bugs your non airline friends) DTW MCO FCO BOM ORD DFW etc.
5. You get excited over certain types of ice.
6. You curse every "Bose headset wearing moron" --Yes, the electronic device announcement means YOU.
7. You know how to look fresh in 5 day old clothes
8. No matter how many times you clean out your suitcase you still find ancient hidden treasures in there.
9. You HATE boarding;
10. You LOVE deplaning.
11. Turbulence is not caused by clouds but caused by the initial movement of all meal carts..
12. You can't believe you've never been in a hotel van accident
13. You loathe your CEO.
14. Businessmen on cell phones rank up there with the CEO.
15. You remember the passengers with great manners (that's sad).
16. You LOVE the Nicoderm commercial. (if you have not seen it go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXl0nTjcrzs
17. You can't remember when UM's actually became bigger than you
18. You love foreigners because they can't adequately complain in English.
19. You despise foreigners because they can't communicate effectively.
20. You secretly cheer when another flight attendant has to deal with the medical emergency
21. You HATE on board duty free.
22. You can't stand the frequent flyer who says"I fly more than you..."
23. You hate seeing passengers at your layover hotel
24. #$%^ tray stackers
25. You hate when drinkers start calling you by name(don't buddy up to me loser)
26. You long for the days when it was easy to rig the TV for free movies
27. You want to smack the nail clipping --finger nail polishing-- nose picking--snoring idiots
28. You want no passengers talking to you while nonreving.
29. You travel in uniform for the liquids creams and gel exemption.
30. If passengers can't find the flush to the toilet---they should stay in there till they do!
31. No I don't have a pen!!
32. You are excited to find a can of different soda that is not supposed to be on your airline.
33. You never imagined you could fart all the way across the Atlantic
34. You know every "sights and sounds of..." from CNN
35. You LOVE to sleep
36. You hate early morning departures---Who in the hell HAS to fly at 6 a.m.
37. You wish your manager actually WAS a f/a at one point in their life
38. You can't believe your senior f/a is in her 80's.
39. You try not to go the bathroom on the plane but you sure can catch a good nap in there
40. You hate that they think they can hear you without taking off there headsets
41. You curse the day that bassinettes were ever invented.
42. You are glad there are no hidden cameras in the galley
43. Your friends truly don't get the commuting part--- so you have to fly when your trip starts where??
44. YES, remain seated for the duration of our flight DOES mean YOU
45. There is one person at the airline you can't stand to fly with.
46. You can't figure out why your manager is not held accountable for the same things you are.
47. Your jumpseat partner knows more about you than friends or family
48. You have at least 6 of your own you could add to this list.

Olé for Molé

I just got back from an overnight in Mexico City. I was excited because we had a 14 hour and 45 minute layover and I figured we would be at the long layover location, but it turns out you need to be scheduled for 15 hours or more for a long layover, so we were at the short layover location at the airport.

The entire crew was on the same layover which is a rarity these days, so we all went and did a quick work out at the roof top gym (and doing 30 minutes of cardio at 7,000 feet elevation is not an easy task). We then decided to go out for authentic Mexican food. The hotel is nice but surrounded by a pretty shady neighborhood. We risked it and walked thru the shady part to a place called El Barzón. It was pretty authentic, as we were the only "gringos" there.

We started out with chips and salsa. I tried a Mexican beer I had never had before. It was called Montijo and is a pale beer that comes from Yucatan. Normally I drink Pacifico, a beer from Matzatlan. The girls ordered Azteca soup (think really Mexican tortilla soup). The pilots and I all ordered the Filete Tampiqueña. It came with an enchilada with molé which was muy picante (that means very hot).

The highlight of the evening was listening to folks singing karaoke from the "Paginas del Pasado" CD. We got to listen to ABBA, The Mamas and the Papas, and some real one hit wonders I have never even heard of before.

All in all it was good times. It's rare for the whole crew to go out and do something, so this was nice. I of course got to use my Spanish skills since no one in the establishment spoke any English.

Alaska

Well, after six hours of serving the drunks, we landed in Anchorage. We were a little late leaving because the plane had come from the hangar where it had been sitting all day in the heat so when it arrived at the gate it was blazing..... This is a real geriatric crowd, old and hard drinking and they ran our butts off. You get the "cruise ship" people this time of year. Certainly a more demanding crowd. Top that off with the cockroaches that were coming out of the galley in First Class and it was just plain crappy.

The crew was a bunch of slam-clickers (as in slam the door, click the lock) so I knew I was going to be on my own. The weather wasn't all that great; basically intermittant rain. I ended up going to Humpy's (http://www.humpys.com/) with the pilots. They were actually pretty cool. This is an awesome ale house and they have more selections of beer than you can shake a stick at. I started with a Pyramid Hefewiezen and had an Alaskan Amber for round two. For dinner I had crab nuggets with this awesome garlic dipping sauce. So it was good times.

This time of year, it never really gets dark in Anchorage. We walked back to the hotel around 11:30pm and it looked like it was early evening.

I slept like a log of course because at midnight in Anchorage, it is 3am back home. We are finally at a nice hotel again. We only fly this route for a few months out of the year and for the last few years we stayed at this dump that used to be a nursing home for old Alaskans. Thankfully we are back at a nice place that is closer to town.

Tuesday it was still rainy and dull so I kind of stayed close to the hotel. I walked down to the Downtown Deli http://travel.yahoo.com/p-travelguide-2806728-downtown_deli_anchorage-i;_ylc=X3oDMTFka28zOGNuBF9TAzI3NjY2NzkEX3MDOTY5NTUzMjUEc2VjA3NzcC1kZXN0BHNsawN0aXRsZQ-- This place is known for it's Sourdough Pancakes, so that is what I ordered, but did not like them at all. I did enjoy the Reindeer Sausage though. The place I usually go to, the Kodiak Cafe, went out of business. This place was ok, but not as good.

I wanted to rent a bike and ride the Tony Knowles trail along the coast, but the weather was just too iffy. I walked around town a bit and then it started to rain again, so I went back to the hotel and watched this funny movie called "Waiting...". I had brought my DVD player along in case the weather was "iffy". It was crude, lude, and pretty funny. Sometimes you need to watch something mindless.

I ended up going back to Humpy's for an early lunch. I just love that place. It was early enough to still have a wee pint, so I tried the Moose Head Rasberry Wheat Ale. It was ok, but a little sweet. Enjoyed it with a nice Halibut burger and some steamed rice with Teryiaki sauce.

Got back to the hotel to try to nap for a few hours. Pick up was pushed back until 920 because the plane was late downline. It actually arrived at 10pm so we sat at the airport for a while. The red-eye home is pretty easy as most people sleep. Of course we were full, but it wasn't too bad.

The thing that really stuck out this trip was the pretty flowers. The colors are so vibrant and so intense. All the public squares and common areas had such amazing landscaping. Nothing like that would make it in the heat back home. They also had these Salmon Statues everywhere (like the cows in Chicago) http://www.wildsalmononparade.com/ . My favorite was the one in my hotel..... Marilyn Mon-ROE





Finally, props to my good friend Jonathan for giving me the idea of starting a blog.