Winter Craziness

I had a very nice couple of days visiting with Jen, James and Liza before they headed back to NYC. However, on their last night, crew scheduling struck again...

There was a Spokane stand-up that needed a crew - it was scheduled to leave Sunday night at 8PM. I received a call in the afternoon from crew scheduling trying to junior assign me to the trip. If I had answered the phone, I would HAVE to take the trip. I didn't want to leave on my day off, even though it would have been at overtime pay. So I let voice mail pick up the message.

A few hours later, I get another call from crew scheduling. This time they're telling me that I've been assigned to a Spokane turn, with a show time of 2:00AM. Are they kidding me? My duty start time is 12:01AM, and they're wanting me to hop in my car, drive to DIA, and work a flight? Huh? To fully understand, I call the Inflight Manager on Duty. Let's just say that I didn't hear what I wanted to hear.

So I kissed my family goodbye and headed to DIA. The other two flight attendants were just as bad off as I was. The flight was just a little more than half full - when we got to Spokane and all the passengers deplaned, we turned off the lights and set up little beds for ourselves for a quick hour's nap.

I was woken up by crew scheduling calling me. They said that when I was back in DEN, I was being assigned to a PHX overnight. Let's just say that they kept giving me trips, taking them away, and then giving me others. Finally, I was given a PHX overnight. For real. For sure. No more changing it.

Once in PHX, I get another call from crew scheduling - by this time, I had been awake for 36 hours, aside from the hour's nap that I took on the plane. This time they told me that I was going to do a CUN turn when I got back to DIA. Are they kidding me?!?!? I tried to get them to give it to someone else, but no luck. So I waited until I saw how I felt the next morning, and THEN I called in FAT. Otherwise known as "fatigued."

On Monday, I worked a 13.5 hour day, and they were wanting me to do the same for Tuesday. What am I? A super hero or something? Ha!

I already had Tuesday scheduled off, and then managed to get assigned to the C couch on Thursday (4PM until 10PM). While sitting the couch, I found out that I was awarded a 4-day trip that I'm currently working now - at first we did a turn to ATL, then we had a layover in SLC. Yesterday, we left SLC and flew back to DEN. After that, we went on to San Diego for the night. And now we are in Indianapolis! I surely get around.

The crew I am working with is good, and I'm enjoying getting to know them. But I'm also hoping to be released when I return to Denver tomorrow morning at 7:30AM. HA! I laugh because it is snowing in Denver as I write this. And it's supposed to be snowing when I leave here in the morning.

Before I sign off, I do have to say that my ATL-DEN flight on Friday was weird. Totally weird. There were at least 50 Auburn fans - Auburn is playing Oregon on Monday in the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix, AZ. These people were crazy!

And there was a family of 4 that acted weird, too. Of course, they were not seated together and the gate agents were letting us take care of the situation. There were two young girls, a younger boy and their mom. I settled the boy and mom together in one row, and the two girls in another row a couple rows back. Well...those little girls were probably the worst behaved girls I have seen in quite awhile! They were in jammies, were barefoot (even when going to the bathroom), and each and every time I walked by (especially when my hands arms were full). They wanted headphones, they didn't want to sit there, they wanted to know how long the flight was going to be...and the last time I "serviced them" I was collecting trash. One of the girls asked for, "Ice cold water" and I told her to wait until  I was done. I was in the back when I finished and stayed to chat for a few minutes. Then the little girl shows up, tells me I had promised her a nice ice cold glass of water....Sheesh! Unfortunately, my employer does not look too kindly on employees drop-kicking children back to their seats.   :)