I had a really fun day off - even though I actually drove up to Denver! Three of the flight attendants from the class ahead of me are pregnant and are all due in September, and we held a triple baby shower for them - it was SO NICE to hang out with some of my FA friends outside of work. The girls are all so beautiful!
Also, I heard back from the CEO of my company regarding my concerns about being worked to death. He actually said that NO ONE ELSE had contacted him regarding the reserves being worked nonstop. I had told him that as a result, I was now sick, and was probably going to add to the understaffing problem. So I sent out the word to the other reserve FAs to contact the CEO and let him know that what we're going through is wrong.
At 3:30PM on the day of the shower, I aggressively bid on a three-day trip, and even though I have TONS of hours already, and I didn't bid until 2 1/2 hours after the bidding opened, I got awarded the trip! Go figure.
So off I went on Saturday afternoon to DIA - and as I've come to expect, the drive to DEN was horrendous. I've learned that I have to leave extra time for my commute - but this time the highway was BEAUTIFUL until I got north of Castle Rock. After that, the traffic came to a standstill. Unfortunately, the roads in the area had been built since my map had been published...so I had no idea how to get from point A to point B. But I did it anyway! I followed cars as they left the highway by going up the entrance ramp and then heading west. Then I headed north. I figured that as long as I kept the mountains to my left, I should eventually get to where I needed to go...and it worked! In the process, I saw some beautiful homes in the Castle Pines area. Nice!
Eventually, I made it to DIA, with about a 1/2 hour to spare. It sure is a good thing that I give myself extra time! When I checked in, I saw that the A flight attendant had changed since I was awarded the trip - I was disappointed, because I wanted to chat with her about her habit of calling in sick so close to the show time. But she had called in sick again! Hmmmmm. Maybe this is one of the ladies that should think about retiring... Instead, I got to fly with Jon - a really nice guy in the class ahead of me.
As I prepared for our departure, I saw that I missed a call from the Director of Inflight. She left me her cellphone number and said that I should call her if I wanted to talk...it'd have to wait until we arrived in Tucson for the night!
I had a great crew, the time flew by fast, and before we knew it, we were in our hotel rooms and I made "the call." All is well. Rosie called me to let me vent, and to let me know that she's seen my schedule and it really is horrible. She gave me some insight - it turns out that our new parent company likes to keep the staffing levels fairly low, so junior assigning is a very common thing (where crew scheduling calls you, and if you answer the phone, you HAVE to take the trip - so we've learned to NEVER answer our phones if we don't recognize the number). Knowing this new situation makes me sad...
We had an early show this morning to fly back to DEN, with only 37 passengers. Then we switched planes and flew a full boatload to St. Louis for the night. We got in in the early afternoon, and I got to go up to Bandanas, a nice BBQ restaurant up the street from our hotel. They have an awesome baked potato topped with BBQ...so good!
Then I went back to my room and pretty much passed out!!! But now it's time to put my jammies on and go to bed! We have another early show in the morning when we go back to DEN and then on to Orange County, CA for a 45 minute layover. I'm hoping that when I get back to DEN in the early afternoon, that I will be told those magic words, "You are released to your days off!" Woo hoo! Rest and relaxation, here I come!
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