Laviators!

Reserve dreams do come true!

Saturday, I was out in the city with my bff J and managed to pick up a Shannon trip using my phone; a rare occasion indeed. Yesterday, J had alert that began about two hours before my check in and texted me asking if I had been drafted. Scheduling hadn't contacted me and I was due to leave my apartment in 20 minutes. I popped on the computer to find I was removed from Shannon, and given a domestic pairing. One leg to LAX, 18 hrs, one leg to HONOLULU for 22 hours, red eye back to LA, nap over, and one leg home getting back after 10 on day 4.

Winning.

At the moment, I'm lounging in bed gathering up the discipline and desire to go work out here in Los Angeles. This is wonderful. I was kind of glad to have been drafted even though I do love Ireland; lately work has lost it's luster. Company morale is so low, and I'm beginning to find myself feeling homesick out on the road. Being given this trip has to be one of the better things that's happened to me on reserve, and for that I'm thankful.

Snap shots of Waikiki beach to come!!!

Via iPhone

Irish Bikini Win!

Here's a snap shot of the bikini I bought in Dublin, with the bottoms that were a touch too big along with the solution - red/pink bottoms from the good old Target that match just enough and fit perfectly for intense aquatic activity. Now I have cute lounging bottoms and beach volleyball approved bottoms :)

Peter Pan and Londontown

To announce on The Book that I was headed to London, I decided to used a quote from Hook. "Lost, lost, lost. I've lost my marbles." I love all things Peter Pan - the Disney classic, Hook, Finding Neverland. Now that I have a Kindle, I've downloaded some classics and I'll let you guess which was first.

I only picked up this London trip because I couldn't get on the Dublin I wanted. I was pleasantly greeted by a flight attendant who's been on cola and leaves for the past three years - she remembered me. In conversation about what she's been up to for the last three years, I was granted quite the reality check. What is it that I've been doing for the past three years? One thing's for sure - I haven't been hiding in Neverland. I've been flying international since April 2008; I began my German journey January 2009; I was hired by the training dept in October 2010 and moved into my own place the next month. I'm quite pleased with where I am in life and my career - after all, what else is there to do besides collect seniority? I can see where I want to end up next, and I can begin to make little moves in preparation. Most importantly, I have these blissful moments of clarity when stop and smell the roses, to enjoy the where and when of now.

Old People Are Cool

This passenger is holding up his
flight log book containing his lifetime of flights. He had asked our captain to sign it where he had listed EWR - GLA B757, and he was happy to do so. The captain spent quite a bit of time reading through it and was amazed to see all the cool destinations and HRM Air Force missions he had flown during WWII. What a treat on Memorial Day.

Love, Lovers, and the Lack Thereof

The following is an excerpt from "Are You Somebody?" by Nuala O'Faolain:

What can I do but take my chances? I was thinking incoherently, coming out of the chapel into the midday light. And what else can I do? Look after my teeth, listen to all the music I can, and keep going. Keep working on my escape tunnels out of the past. Keep hoping to break through to the here-and-now. To be just myself, like the cat, which is so perfectly and unself-consciously a cat and does not know it will perish. What can I do, when everything is so various and so beyond me, but cling on, and thank the God I don't believe in for the miracles showered on me?

This final passage in her book moved me to tears. Here's this stunningly beautiful woman who's lived - and it still living - a life so full of passion, travel, education and learnedness yet her heart cries out for something more. She knows this, she knows she should be thankful and fulfilled, grateful for this life and all her experiences - good, bad, ugly, indifferent. And yet. That's just it - yet. Her heart cries out for something more and it pains me so.

Dirty

Yesterday was my last day of vacation. I stayed in my pajamas for most of it, watched a movie in the middle of the day, went for a walk, and then had a friend over. Still unshowered and mildly stinky. And it was glorious. That's how you know who your true friends are - the level of stank they'll tolerate.

So now I'm all clean and ready to go back to work. I'm flying with my best friend, we're off to Edinburgh, Scotland.

Then I'm off for two days - one of which will be a dirty day. Sigh :)