Super Stews to the Rescue!

There I was, sitting on the couch at DIA minding my own business. I got there at 4PM, spent the first hour and a half visiting with my buddy Jenn, then a bit of time visiting with the other couch-sitters.

Then my cell phone rang...

It was crew scheduling. They were pulling all three of us off the couch and sending us to Dallas for an 18 HOUR LAYOVER. Score! It's warm and sunny in Dallas. It's cold and snowy in Denver. It was a tough choice, but I did what I needed to do.

Once again, I was needed. And I answered that call! :)

Lazy Days

Four days off in a row! What luxury. I had hoped to do lots of yard work...but that didn't happen because the weather decided to not cooperate. We've had rain, wind, snow, hail, tornados, and more wind.

I managed to keep busy anyway - I had lots of appointments crammed into three of the days - probably a good thing that the weather was bad. Tonight, we have a wedding reception to attend! That'll be a nice end to my days off. I'll try and get assigned to the later couch shifts tomorrow so that I don't have to get up so early.

I have spent lots of time on the computer in the past couple of days trying to rearrange my May schedule. I am currently about 41 from the bottom and got about half of the days off that I requested. Of course, the days I didn't get are weekend days - and one of the days is Mother's Day! Everyone I asked to trade said no, and just as I was giving up hope, someone traded that day with me! A co-worker just broke her foot and will be going on medical leave for the next two months or so - she offered to trade the day with me before they yanked her schedule...and it worked!

Now I'm working on getting one more day off - what's the big occasion? I'm going to try and non-rev to North Carolina to attend my niece's college graduation - Greg's already got the days marked off, and we've got the dogsitter all lined up. And right now, *knocks on wood* the flights look pretty good!

I've also got a block of weekdays off later in the month for when Jen comes home - we're going to visit several wedding venues here in Colorado Springs. It sure will be nice when I get a line, because instead of just 11 days off, I'll have maybe 11 days of duty with 20 days off! A girl can dream, huh?

Hooray for Days Off!

This past Friday I got to sit at home waiting for the phone to ring, and it never did. I bid for the Noon-6PM couch for Saturday (and got it), so that I could go to the Unemployement Bash 2010 held at Bar Louie in Denver. The soon-to-be-unemployed crew schedulers were throwing the party, and I wanted to at least stop in and show my support. So, at 6PM I headed over there and met my friend and co-worker, Jenn.

At the party, we FINALLY got to put faces with the names/voices! Bernie, Barb, Delease (sp?), Matt, Weston, Tischa, and Monte. And I got to put the name with the face for Bobby, the manager! We sat around telling stories, learning what their plans are, and thanking them for all their hard work. We also told stories about the strange stuff that the new crew schedulrs are doing - for instance, while we were at the party they called Jenn at 8PM telling her that she had a showtime of 8:10PM for a stand-up that night. The rules are that they have to give us 2 hours notice...10 minutes isn't quite 2 hours. And all this happened in front of Weston.

I'm sad to see them go, but I know it'll take a bit of time to get the new kids trained and on the same page as us. I sure hope it happens quickly!

On Sunday, I started a new three day trip. The first night was spent in Canton, OH and the second night was spent in Detroit. The sad thing is that we get a new Captain and First Officer every leg. I really don't like that, and I'm not sure why we are doing it this way. But we made the best of it! I had a nice crew going to CAK, and got to visit a bit with Amber, who is pregnant and recently lost her Mom. On my Detroit trip, I got to fly with Karen - she was in the class before mine and she is a nut. I didn't do anything at either hotel or city...just reading and relaxing. Both days our van show time was 5AM, and that's EASTERN time...so it was 3AM Denver time. I guess you could say I was a bit tired.

When I arrived in Denver this morning at around 7:45AM, they released me to my days off and I don't have duty again until Sunday! Yay! I've got alot of yard work waiting for me... :)

Back to the Couch!

Today is Thursday. And it's back on that sexy, black leather couch for me! Instead of leaving my future to fate, I bid on the 4PM-10PM shift first, and then the Noon-6PM shift second, figuring at least I'd have part of the day knowing that the phone will not ring. Today's my lucky day, because I got my first choice!

I came across a quote by Warren Beatty this morning that pretty much sums up why I'm doing what I'm doing.

You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play.

That's what I experience when I do this job. Yes...I've got lots of responsibilities, but mostly I just get to have fun! Whether it be on a plane or on the ground, in the crewroom or in a layover city. Sometimes I get to laugh continuously for hours! How cool is that?

But right now, it's kind of a sad couple of days at Frontier, because our crew scheduler jobs were moved to Indianapolis recently, and those employees who chose not move with the jobs are leaving the company today and tomorrow. A couple of us reserve flight attendants threw them a luncheon last month - I sent out a notice to all reserve flight attendants and collected money, another planned the meal and ordered the food, and another picked up the food and set up the luncheon. It was the least we could do to show them how much they've meant to us.

I think the worst job in the company is crew scheduling. They're the ones who get to call the reserves at 4AM telling them to be at the airport to take a flight at 6AM. They're the ones who tell us that we have to do an overnight after we've just finished an east coast turn. They're not usually a well-loved bunch of people. All you need to do is read comments on Facebook, or be within earshot of a flight attendant in the crewroom to hear what they really think of being sent out yet again.

But, crew scheduling also gets to call us and tell us that we're going to Costa Rica or Cancun for 24 hours, and sometimes they get to tell us the we're released to our days off when it's only 7:30 in the morning, thus giving us another almost full day off!

I can see where the job would be very fulfilling - being able to make things run like clockwork, using the reserves in the most effective way - and I figure that there's more of the good than the bad...otherwise why would people keep doing the job?

Anyway, only two crew schedulers decided to make the move - so now it's our job to break in the new hires and hope that they'll be as much fun, playful, serious, accurate, and kind as the last batch.

You will be missed! See you in the skies!

The Future of Frontier!

Before I catch you up on the last 10 days, I have to tell you about today's exciting news! Several months ago, our company was purchased by Republic Airways Holdings (RAH), who had also purchased Midwest Airlines. Things have been a bit rocky - we took over several of Midwest's flights, becaues their planes were returned to the manufacturer and their flight crews were furloughed. The gate crews aren't always the nicest to us, because they think we responsible for the Midwest crews being out of jobs...but the fact is, that Midwest does not exist.

Anyway, an announcement was made today that starting today, the Frontier/Midwest routes, flights, etc. will be called FRONTIER! We get to keep the animals on our tails and winglets, and we will serve fresh chocolate chip cookies (a Midwest staple) on all Frontier flights starting this summer. The most exciting thing, I think, is that the focus will be on GROWTH. I love that word. Because if we grow, then we'll need more Denver-based flight attendants. And when we add new flight attendants, my seniority will go up and I will no longer be on reserve! Wahoo! I just hope it happens SOON.

Now back to this last block of six duty days - I drove almost 800 miles to/from work! Last Wednesday I sat the 4PM to 10PM couch at DIA, and then at 9PM I got a call to go to a gate and get on a flight to Los Angeles! I had enough time to text Jen to tell her I was going, and while I was in the air, she contacted her future mother-in-law and gave her my cell number and the name of my hotel. I called Deniece when I landed and we made plans to meet for brunch on Thursday!

I am happy to say, that not only am I gaining a son-in-law, but I'm also gaining a friend! We had a lot to talk about, and a lot in common! We spent a couple of hours at a nearby Denny's, eating and talking. I look forward to seeing her again the next time I am in Los Angeles.

On Friday, I got to sit the couch (again), but this time from Noon until 6PM. There were lots of fun people to talk to and the time pretty much flew by! Then on Saturday, I got to stay home until around 6PM, when I got a call assigning me to an Oklahoma City stand-up (a flight where we're on the ground less than 7 hours - you go to a hotel, but it's not a good night's sleep...it's more of a nap). We waited and waited and waited, and then found out that we had no CPT, and the flight was cancelled at 11PM. Lovely. I got to drive back home. The bad thing is, is that I'm paid only when I fly or sit the couch. So...my trip to/from DIA was for free!

On Sunday at around noon, I got a call assigning me to another stand-up - this time to Seattle. This time, the flight was delayed for 2 hours! So we got to the hotel at 1:30AM and the van was picking us up at 5AM. There was no rest for the weary. The good news is that I was released to my days off when I returned to DIA, so I got an additional 1/2 day off. Yahoo!

That leads me to today - I've been getting all kinds of errands run - that's what usually happens when I have days off. Eye doctor, computer guru, grocery store, post office. Tomorrow holds more of the same! Then it's back to work on Thursday for another block of six duty days.

On the Go!

Here are a few of the photos that I took in Costa Rica...

The view off of my hotel room balcony.

The courtyard at the hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Another view of the courtyard - with its big tree - at the hotel.

The swimming pool in the courtyard.

Another view of the beautiful courtyard.

A cow in the courtyard!

The cow in front of Denny's.

The turn to DCA that I did on Tuesday was long, but I had a fun crew so it went by very quickly. However, I was EXHAUSTED. When I turned my phone on in DEN at 3:45PM there was a voicemail waiting for me...I had been assigned to a Tampa overnight leaving at 4:30PM. My entire body turned to mush. There is no way that I could muster the strength and energy to walk to another gate and fly for another several hours! So I called crew scheduling back and told them something that I've never said before...I am FATIGUED. Now my schedule shows "FAT" on it...I'm still wondering if I should take that personally. I had to talk with a manager and then submit an online report - but had I done that trip, it would have brought me up to a 13 hr 35 min duty day. Normally, I'd be able to handle that, but seeing as how I was still sleep deprived from my SJO trip, I decided that I just couldn't do it.

I drove home, pretty much said hello to Greg and then went to bed! I slept for ELEVEN hours. Something tells me that I really was tired. Those eleven hours were unaided by drugs and alcohol. That was my body telling me something.

I spent the rest of Wednesday hanging out at home, getting little projects done, and gradually going further and further away from home running errands. I was still on call, so I figured I'd be called in to do a turn...but the phone never rang. :) Thursday was my day off, and now it's Friday and I'm back on duty until midnight on Saturday night. Last night, crew scheduling assigned me to an overnight in San Francisco that has a show time tonight of 8:15PM. We'll have a 10 hour layover in SFO, then a 2 hour sit in DEN, and then a turn to Las Vegas. I'll get back to DEN at around 10PM, and it'll be midnight by the time I get home.

I am off Easter Sunday for the first time in 3 years! I invited the Littlewoods over for lunch/dinner - we used to get together with them every single year for Thanksgiving and Easter, but stopped when we started traveling on the holidays and when I took this job. Greg still gets to see them, but it's been a long time since I've sit and visited with them. So I look forward to seeing them at our home.

I took the easy way out for Easter dinner - I went to the Honey Baked Ham store and picked up a boneless ham and a couple of side dishes. I'll make one more before they come over on Sunday. By doing this, I have greatly reduced the stress in my life over having company over for a holiday!

Cougar vs. Puma

We had an awesome time in Costa Rica!

Our flight arrived at around 5AM - most of the passengers slept the entire way...so it was a pretty easy flight, and the other flight attendants helped to make the time go by rather quickly. When we arrive, I took "a nap" until about noon, then ventured outside to visit the grocery store next door. During my first visit to CR in January of 2008, I discovered a "salsa" called Lizano - it's delicious on potatoes, steak, and maybe rice & beans. I bought several bottles on that first trip, and when I ran out, I bought several bottles online at a much higher cost! So I was delighted to be able to "stock up" again.

The grocery store is located next door to the hotel - it's always fun to look around and see familiar products with "different" packaging...after buying my salsa, I headed across the street from the hotel to pick up some lunch at "Subway" - it was fun ordering in Spanish, but not-so-fun knowing that there was a security guard outside the door. In fact, most all the businesses and parking lots around the hotel had security guards. Not an environment that encourages walking around!

I brought my lunch back to the hotel, put on my suit and new cover-up (which I bought in Ft. Lauderdale), and sat poolside for a few hours. Very nice. The hotel was full of kids - some sort of soccer tournament as well as a large group of high school violinists. But by this time, they'd all gone to their games/concerts, so it was nice and quiet at the pool. I saw the FO in the computer room before I headed out to the pool, and one of the other flight attendants, Sandy, came out to the pool after I'd been there for a couple hours.

It clouded over, so I headed back to the room and started to update my Flight Attendant Manual...not the most exciting thing, and I ended up falling asleep and taking another nap! But I woke up in time to go to the "Happy Hour" at the hotel bar - from 5PM until 6PM they give out free beer and a few other type drinks - as usual, I could not keep up with the FO and Sandy...in fact, I didn't even try! A guy named Dave came over to our table and started to hit on me and Sandy - he was with his friend Jack, who was sitting at a nearby table with an aging "hooker" (or at least that's what we thought) - she was about 10 years older than me, had on a really short skirt, high heels and a low cut blouse with big boobs. OMG. But Dave came over to us because he was tired of looking at her boobs, but not being able to understand her!

Afterwards, we headed to a restaurant next door to the grocery store. As we left the hotel, Dave went up to Sandy (who is also tall) and told her "I've always wanted to be with a tall woman..." Puleeze! Couldn't he come up with a more original line?

At the restaurant, I ordered paella - a seafood/rice mixture (it was so delicious!!!) and the FO and Sandy and I continued our conversation. I looked up, and there was Dave and Jack walking into the restaurant to join us. Hmmmm. Dave's story started changing from what he originally had said - but both he and Jack are Vietnam Vets who meet other Vets once or twice a year somewhere in the world. Both of them live in Ft. Lauderdale - Jack is an entertainer and Dave supposedly owns a flight training school.

The conversation was very animated. That's where the title of this blog comes into play - we discussed how old men can pick up young girls, but not be given a name. But an older woman picks up a younger man and she's called a cougar! Then I learned that a married older woman who picks up (or stalks) a younger man is called a puma! Stealthy, sleek and quiet. Hahaha! Sandy was single, but she's engaged, so at first, we called her a puma-in-training. Then we decided that since she has silver hair, she should be called a silver fox!

We had an enjoyable dinner, that is, until I came across a little leg several inches long in my meal...and it had suckers on it - octopus! Yech. So I buried it under the rice and continued to eat the other items! By this time, it was around 7:30PM, and we decided we'd better call it a night since we had an early van the next morning...as we left the restaurant, we ran into the CPT and the other flight attendant, Kelly - they had gone ATVing to a waterfall! What fun!!! I wish that they had told the rest of us about that, cause we would've all gone. Oh well...next time!

The flight home was looooooooong. Over five hours. But that's the way it goes. I don't remember much after I got home - cause I fell asleep on the couch at home on/off for a couple hours. I looked at the computer every once in awhile to take a peek at my schedule - and finally at around 8PM I saw that I was given a turn to DCA for Tuesday. Oh oh. I ended up repacking a little bit and then hitting the hay! No rest for the weary, huh?

SCORE!!!

I got a call at 6:15pm telling me that I was going to San Jose, Costa Rica for a 23 hour layover. Woo hoo!

The only thing wrong with that, is that it is a redeye trip and I won't have enough time to take a nap before I go...but I will survive!

We'll get there at around 5am, I'll sleep for a few hours, then maybe have a massage or hang out by the pool. It'll be awesome...tropical and relaxing.

Adios!

Mindless Wonderings

I've not got much to say today. I'm at home, in a nice warm house. My hubby and dogs are in Breckenridge in our nice warm cabin. Well...actually, the hubby is skiing on the slopes of Keystone right now, so he's probably a bit cold.

Anyway, I don't have much to say - I'm waiting for crew scheduling to assign me to a trip. Today is day 2 of 6, so I know I'm going somewhere sometime. But who knows when. In the meantime, I have some random thoughts I'd like to share...

1. Why were my toenail clippers confiscated by TSA at the Phoenix Airport on Wednesday morning? Granted, they had a couple slide-out attachments - one looked like a bottle opener, and the other was a blade...but I am almost 100% certain that it was a dull blade, meant to clean out the gunk under your toenails. But no...it was a lethal weapon that was taken from me after a young kid searched through my toiletry bag, my make-up bag, and my miscellaneous personal items bag. It was thoroughly embarrassing. I requested a supervisor and she said just because I'd "gotten away" with carrying these for the past 2 1/2 years doesn't make it legal. I guess I'll now use my toenails to overtake an unsuspecting flight deck crew when they least expect it. Oh...and one other question...if my toenail clippers are so dangerous, why are knitting needles allowed on planes? Betcha can't answer that one!

2. Why is it that when I pass a vehicle on the highway, that the vehicle speeds up to my speed, thus forcing me to increase my speed so that I can pass them and return to the right lane? Is it a macho thing that guys have about not wanting women to be faster than them?

3. Why is it, that every single time I go into any of the lavatories on the aircraft, that there are paper towels partway pushed into the trash? Is there some reason that they aren't pushed all the way into the trash bin? Will you get all kinds of germs on your hands if you actually touch the lid of the trash bin so that the paper towel goes all the way into the bin before the lid swings shut?

4. Why is it that people ignore someone greeting them as they enter an aircraft? I am now to the point where if I'm the A flight attendant (in the front), I will tap them on the shoulder if they do not respond to the greeting. I especially enjoy doing this to teenagers (and their parents enjoy it, too).

5. Why are those pants worn so low? Does the person really think that I care whether they're wearing boxers or briefs? Do they think they look sexy as they shuffle along as their pants go lower and lower as they walk? And why do they get upset when I tell them to pull their pants up before they sit on my airplane seat? Honestly...what would their grandma think about them showing their undies in public?

6. When will the Colorado State Patrol start enforcing the "Slower Traffic Must Use the Right Lane" state law? Lately, I've noticed several more signs with this message - does this mean that a "crackdown" is nearing? And why is it that people feel entitled to stay in the left lane ALL the time? I am religious about moving over to the right lane after I've passed - when I lived in Germany and drove 95mph in a Subaru Justy on the autobahns, I was rarely in the left lane. Mainly because you could end up with a Porsche or BMW ramming into your tailpipe at 120mph if you didn't get out of that lane! Maybe we should hire some Germans to come out here and use those same techniques to teach Americans how to abide by the law.

Well...I guess that's it for now. I have tons of things that I SHOULD be doing as I wait for crew scheduling to call me and give me a couch assignment, a trip to someplace exotic, or a turn to/from a location in Florida where we'll need 20 wheelchairs upon arrival. So, until next time...

Home, Sweet, Snow-Covered Home

I got home Wednesday evening after spending an enjoyable morning at iHop (not Denny's as I had originally thought - shows how observant that I am) with the Captain and First Officer. I even took a nap after brunch and was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and ready to head back to Denver.

The flight back to Denver was one of the best ones that I've experienced yet in my 2 1/2 years! Everything just clicked. I got along great with the crew, the passengers were super friendly, complimentary, calm, understanding - it was so much fun! I was laughing, cracking jokes, and having a grand time. THIS is why I do what I do!

Thursday was my lone day off, and I packed all kinds of errands into it - the bank, the grocery store, the eye doctor's glasses clinic, Target, etc. etc. etc. I figured that I'd get the 6AM couch for today, so I needed to get everything done.

And sure enough, I got that 6AM couch! But at 8AM this morning, they pulled me and Pedro off the couch and sent us on a turn to Seattle. It turns out that the original crew was stuck in Kansas City with a broken airplane. The third 6AM couch sitter got sent out at 7:30AM to do a DCA turn. That left them with no ready reserves from 8AM until Noon. Ouch!

The turn to Seattle was very uneventful and laidback. Everyone was so nice and calm - no drama. Pedro is one of my favorite flight attendants (he's from Puerto Rico), and he's the nicest guy. I didn't really get to talk to the CPT or FO very much - they rushed onto the plane and off we went!

And now I've been released from duty until 1AM. Unfortunately, it is snowing AGAIN. I am so sad and over snow! I'm watching it come down as "popcorn" snow now, and it's actually accumulating on the grass. Yech. I sure hope that crew scheduling doesn't call me any time soon! All I want to do right now is SLEEP! I started falling asleep behind the wheel (never good), and now I'm falling asleep at the computer. Maybe I'll take a nap...