We're All Engineers

This is just like my job. The hours are the same, the pay's better, but the destinations are a bit closer to home. Any takers? I'm sure you're qualified.

Missing In Action? Or just MIA?

Today, I did a turn to Miami. That means I went there and back. For free, because I have a lovely pay guarentee. Every time I land at the end of my duty day, I have to call scheduling and tonight they told me I had another turn to GSO. I started to get all mad about working for free again until I realized that I was deadheading down there, spending the night, and working the first flight out in the morning. Woo hoo. Payed to do no work all day tomorrow and one easy leg in the am. That means I win.

Until I get back from GSO (which is Greensboro, NC for all you non-airline people) and have to call crew scheduling again to see what lovely North American destination is next on my list. A turn to DC? If only we could all be so lucky. Perhaps then I really will go MIA :)

The Sound of Settling

Thus far, I have been out on two trips; one intense 3 day, including layovers in TUS and LGA, and a turn to Ponce (meaning there and back). Even though we were delayed 5 hours getting out of EWR and delayed for the rest of the 3 day, every minute was amazing. I simply love it. Every crew that I've worked with and all the people that I've met have been so friendly and willing to show me the ropes. My favorite part is making the announcements. I also like to babysit the pilots when one of them has to go to the bathroom (there must be two people in the flight deck at all times). The whole time during my first trip I was just so amazed that this is my job now. I get paid to spend my days in planes and the airport; who could ask for anything more?

Sorry I don't have any overly exciting stories to tell. Well, unless you count a lady who was drinking red wine and Miller Lite, together at the same time, and had three sets of them. She was really nice, just a bit nervous to fly. It was my very first customer I had to cut off.

So now I'm off til Saturday, and I'll be good to go for another five days. By then I won't be second to last in seniority at my base either; we're getting new hires! I'm sure as I continue to get settled in to this new career and crazy lifestyle, there are most definately some good stories on the horizon headed my way!

And I haven't even started flying yet!

Here are two things that I am having a difficult time coping with:
1. Crash pads are like your college dorm room only smaller and with more people who care even less than your average pampered 18 yr old.
2. Unless you live in NYC or the Europe, you must have a car in order to be independent.

The only good thing about said crash pad is that my real house is about an hour and a half away, straight down the turnpike. It's also cheap, which will enable me to buy a car hopefully by my birthday. Which is May 12 - please, mark your calendars.

I'm disappointed because this is my first "big kid" job and I wanted to be someplace where I didn't have to have a car. Everywhere in the States, regardless of whether its blue or red, you have to have a car to be independent. I have no qualms about being dependent on mass transit; however, I cannot afford to live in New York. Penn Station is about 15 minutes away from the airport. Hopefully by the time I'm a senior mama (that's what we call the ladies who've been flying for 30+ years and trust me, there are more of them out there than you think) I just might be able to afford that deluxe apartment in the sky, complete with NO ROOMMATES. It's not my fault that cities in Jersey are holes in the suburban fabric that makes the Garden State the wealthiest in the union. Maybe someday I'll be in a position to make choices to change that. Until then, I'll be sucking down gas at $2.49 a gallon, spending $4.45 in tolls transversing the state from airport to home.

Crash Pad 101

In this industry, many people commute to work. People live in places like FL or LA and commute up to NYC or ORD and are based out of airports that are far from home. Having left their real houses behind, people in the airline industry rent out what is known as a "crash pad" which is exactly as it sounds. A two bedroom apartment with one bathroom that's 10 minutes away from the airport for 8 people at $300 a month, give or take depending on the housing market. Being that my house (okay, my parents house) is two hours from the airport, I too have joined the 1000s of airline employees who have a crash pad. Due to my proximity to the crash pad, I went yesterday to move some things in and check it out as to report back to my other pad mates.

Rule #1 - Management should tell current tennants that new tennants are moving in.

The current flight attendants who live there HAD NO IDEA that we were coming; only one was home and the others were out on trips. She was nice to me, but I could tell that she was not exactly excited to add four more girls to her comfortable living situation. I felt really bad for her but then again, its not my fault.

Rule #2 - Public space is public space. Keep your shit to yourself.

My room at home in my hosue is a mess. It's my room, my mess, and no one is forced to deal with it or live in it. Public spaces, like the kitchen or bathroom, are just that. Public. These are areas that need to be cleaned regularly and space needs to be shared. Rest assured that while this may not be the situation in my new place at the moment, you can be damned sure that it soon will be. If your mother wouldn't let you keep your teddy bear in the kitchen, then perhaps you should put him away in your own room. Not where pots and pans go.

Rule #3 - If you can carry it, then bring it.

As soon as I saw how cramped our bedroom was, I called my roommates and told them to bring their flight bags, uniforms, and ONE large roller. Detriot had one roller for her shoes. Picture your college dorm freshman year, that you were forced to share with another person. Imagine a slightly smaller room, and three roommates. Get the picture yet?


I'm not quite sure what to make of this whole crash pad thing yet. Its going to suck with the four of us there all week for base orientation; at least the other girls are out flying. I'm sure that once we start flying things will settle down and we will rarely be there at the same time. I'm also curious to see what NorCal thinks of the whole thing; she's a bit more mature and is used to living in her own house with multiple bathrooms. I'll keep you posted on how things go, and hopefully once I start flying I'll have some better stories about crazy people on a plane. I bet they're more exciting than snakes too.

Yay for Hep A!

The first Friday night we were all here, twenty of us flight attendant wanna-be's went to a TexMex chain resturant. Good margaritas, good food, good times.

A week later, it was announced that one of these resturants had a server that was infected, and contagious, with hepititis A. And of course this was the location that us wanna be's ate at. Fortunately, hep A has a four week incubation period; therefore, we were eligible to receive a free vaccine from the city's health department to ward off any possible hep A symptoms.

I think my favorite part was when my mom tried to yell at me for possibly contracting hep A. As if it was something I could control.

For all you servers out there, please wash your hands before you leave the bathroom. Thanks.



p.s. I graduate tomorrow! PHL tomorrow!