December Recap

For the month of December, I "bumped back" to the domestic operation.  With the reduction of some seasonal flying on the international side, the junior kids get the axe.  I planned accordingly and ended up holding my first bid, which were 24 hour layovers in San Francisco.  The trips were not worth very much time, only about 12 hours for three days, but they were easy and the layover was great.  After a Tucson turn, we flew to San Francisco for a 24 hour layover and then fly the red-eye home.  The schedule had 7 of these trips on the line.

I ended up having to drop and trade a few so I could participate in the Snowball Express (blog to be forthcoming) and add a little time to the schedule, but for the most part, my trips were pretty fun.  We had good weather for the most part, although it was cold on some trips.

One of the highlights was the Grace Cathedral Christmas Concert.  I love this Cathedral.  They have a labyrinth in the front of the church that I find very peaceful to walk thru.  While walking the labyrinth on my first visit, I saw a sign for their upcoming Christmas Concert which happened to coincide with a trip later in the month.  The Cathedral boasts one of a handful of Boy's and Men's Choirs in the United States, modeled after the traditional Anglican choirs.  The acoustics were incredible, and even though I was seated towards the back (in the cheap section) I was still blown away by the music.  They even had a couple of sing-a-longs, where the audience was invited to join in.  I sat next to a nice lesbian couple from San Jose.

It's also the only church in America that has a stained glass window dedicated to a Jewish scientist.  Any guesses? :)

We stay down by Union Square, the main shopping district in the city, which was decorated for the holidays. I tried to take a picture at night, but the picture was too underexposed to see the Christmas lights.

I also discovered a great organization called City Guides (http://sfcityguides.org) which offers free neighborhood walking tours around the city.  My co-worker Beth went with me and we did a walking tour of Nob Hill, where the wealthy Railroad and Mining tycoons lived before everything was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

The tour ended by the Brocklbank apartments (where the exteriors for the film Vertigo were shot) and we had an encounter with a beautiful rainbow!

Down in North Beach, the historically Italian neighborhood near the Wharf, I stumbled upon a Christmas sign from my brothers in the International Longshoreman Worker's Union.  You would never see anything like that in Texas, where "Union" in considered a dirty word, unfortunately.

For the Christmas season, our hotel had the lobby decorated for the holidays, including a beautiful gingerbread village made by their resident expert, Chef Chong.  It featured 75 pounds of confectionary sugar, 25 pounds of gingerbread dough, 30 pounds of white chocolate, 1500 assorted sweets, and a track complete with Cable Car!

I spent several trips just walking around the city and letting myself wander.  Beth and I went down to the Wharf for dinner at Scoma's on one of the trips.  This place is my favorite seafood restaurant!  I broke with tradition and had the lobster bisque instead of the chowder and it was "outstanding"!  While down near the Golden Gate, I stumbled upon a chowder festival on one of the trips and was able to sample different varieties of chowder.  I discovered I do not like Manhattan style Clam Chowder.  Yuck!

I also had a chance to attend services at Old First Presbyterian Church.  It's the oldest Protestant Church in California, established during the Gold Rush in 1849.  The congregation was an interesting mix of affluent yuppies, older gay and lesbian couples, and about 20 or so homeless people.  Interesting to see all these people coming together under the same roof to worship.

The month wasn't without it's drama though.  I traded one trip for more time and we had a long layover in McLean, Virginia, near Dulles airport.  I was sound asleep when the fire alarm went off at the hotel.  When I called down to see if the alarm was legit, the answer was "maybe".  So I had to get all bundled up in and go wait in the freezing and snowy weather before the firemen gave us the "all clear".  I did get to spend part of the layover visiting my old friend Cheryl, a former co-worker I had not seen in 7 years.  We had fun catching up.

And of course we had the random crazy people.  They seem to gravitate towards the red-eye flights.  This month I was given the wonderful opportunity to encounter an ornery obese woman who got mad at one of our ticket agents and flashed her boobies for the whole world to see; an angry father who had a temper tantrum because I would not let his 14 year old son sit in the exit row, and a rather pompous frequent flier who got upset when I asked him for the fifth time to turn off his cell phone.  'Tis the season!

For the past few months I have been playing a little game with my friend Melissa.  We have been hiding lockseals from our carts in eachother's bags, personal belongings, etc.  When I signed in for my Christmas trip, she had left me a wreath made out of green lock seals.  I hung it up on the cabin divider curtain during the flights.  I would say she definitely won the game!