Sunday, August 30, 2009

A Bit of This and That

I am sitting in my hotel room in Chicago, trying to remember what I did since my last post...I wonder if other professions have this problem of not remembering where they were and what they did?

Let's see...on Tuesday, I spent 45 minutes in Tampa. The other flight attendants were kind of senior - it was interesting how on certain things they'd follow the rules to the "T", but in other things they did their own thing. Go figure how they determined what was worth risking an FAA fine and what wasn't worth it.

I had Wednesday and Thursday off, so I crammed everything I could into those two days. Lunch with friends, dog grooming, laundry, paperwork, phone calls, etc.

On Friday, I was assigned to the B shift on the couch. On the way to the airport, I saw my life flash before my eyes. A half of a house was being towed on I-25, and it had a guide car with it. At one point, the house and the guide car swerved into the left lane of traffic to avoid hitting a state cop on the right shoulder who had pulled over a speeder. The problem was that they cut off a semi and several cars that were in the left hand lane. All I saw was lots of black smoke from the semi's brakes, and lots of brake lights. I was pretty far back, but we were all going 80 MPH, and I slammed on my brakes, wondering if I was going to slam into the back of that nice mustang in front of me. Fortunately, I was able to stop, and then watched as the SUV behind me tried not to hit my rear end. I swerved into the right lane in front of the truck (which was now stopped, as I'm sure he was checking his underwear). No one was hit, but everyone woke up, I'm sure!

After I finally got to Denver, I ended up being pulled off the couch after about an hour or so - a flight attendant did not show up for her trip to Kansas City, so I, being the ready reserve with the lowest hours, got to go! The crew was delightful (have I ever used that word before to describe the crew?). When we arrived at the hotel, another flight attendant and I went to the hotel gym. She started running on the treadmill while I walked...after two miles of walking, I called it a day. Especially since I hadn't attempted any serious form of exercise in quite awhile. No sense in overdoing it. Also, the CPT came into the gym carrying a bucket of beer, just to tempt us. It worked for me! After a solid 1/2 hour of exercise, I went and sat poolside with the FO and CPT and enjoyed a nice cold beverage and some good conversation.

When I went to my room to settle in for the night and get ready for an early showtime in the morning, I saw that crew scheduling put me on ten hours rest after my arrival in Denver, and then had me assigned to a Chicago overnight. Hmmmmm. I had never seen that before. In trying to decide whether to stay in Denver for my 10 hours rest or return back home, I realized that I needed to go home. I have the ability to remotely access my home computer from my laptop, but it wasn't working. So I decided to drive back home during my 10 hours rest and fix my computer. (Greg and the boys were in Ft. Collins flying R/C planes this weekend, so I couldn't ask him to fix it...) While at home, I decided to take a nap, do a bit of laundry and just hang out.

Before I knew it, it was time to head back to DIA. I got there a bit early, and was able to visit with some of my classmates - Kelly K, Pat, LuEllen and Sherri. Time well spent! Then I reported to my gate, where the rest of my crew was flying in from somewhere and I joined them for the Chicago overnight. Had we had a longer layover, I'd be spending time with relatives, but it's a short one and I needed sleep. As it was, I slept for NINE hours. Unheard of.

Soon, it'll be back to Denver and wondering what's next in store for me... I am still on duty tomorrow, but there are NO TRIPS listed on the trip board. Hmmmm. Maybe it'll be a quiet day at home!

No comments: