A Test in Spontaneity

As expected, I flew in to Denver early on Saturday morning. We had two teenaged girls on the flight who had just been in an ATV accident the previous day, and one had a broken right leg and the other had a broken left leg. During the flight I noticed that the right leg girl was not looking so good - I ended up reseating her so that she had two seats...one for her and one for her leg to be propped up. I fashioned ice packs out of plastic ziploc bags and pillowcases, and tried to keep both of them as comfortable as possible.

My two classmates, who had been with me on the Jacksonville, FL overnight trip, called in to crew scheduling first. One had the rest of the morning off, but had an overnight trip scheduled to Louisville, KY. The other got released from duty to her days off...but had to stay by her phone until 1pm.

And then I called. Let's just say that being released is not what I heard! I was told that I was going to DCA (Washington, DC) and that I was leaving immediately! So off I go to the gate...the plane was already loaded with passengers, there was a ready reserve flight attendant holding my place, and the rest of the crew was in place and ready to go! I quickly stowed my luggage, did my security briefs, and tried to get into "the swing of things."

It took me a little while to relax and figure out what the heck I was doing...I'm not yet good at that spontaneity thing! I tried to convince the Captain to release me off the plane in DCA so that I could spend the night with my Mom, but he wasn't falling for it. So when we landed in DCA we had about 50 minutes...I called my Mom to say "Hi!" and prepared the cabin for our return flight.

The other two attendants were both pretty high in seniority, and they were actually fun gals! They both had great attitudes about their jobs, fully agreeing with me that we can't believe that we get paid to do this job! We had a great time discussing the "events of the day" according to US Weekly, People and OK magazines! Girls after my own hearts! It was fun...

When I got back to DIA, I again called crew scheduling. This time I heard those magic words "We are releasing you to your days off!" Yippee! Three days of rest, lunch with friends, and time to take down the Christmas decorations!!!