12.03.2008

They don't believe in hot water in Texas

Saturday, the one day I didn't want to work because of a friends going away party, I got called for a 2 day trip.  I was so upset I was moping around before I had to leave the house.  I got to the airport an hour earlier than I was supposed to. Still trying to figure out how long it takes for me to get to the crew room from my house.  On a Saturday at 4pm, it takes less than an hour.  
So I was obviously sitting in the crew room freaking out about the meal service in first class that I never got to do in training, hoping that the other flight attendant would want to do first class the entire time so I wouldn't have to worry about it, and to my luck it was true! I got to be the aft flight attendant the entire time! But I did watch what she did to make the meals so I knew what to do if i ever... had to do it.
The flight to Austin, TX left at 6:41pm.  It was a full flight, that means that I had 64 passengers staring at me doing my demo with the emergency equipment.  It was horrifying.  When you work the aft (back) of the plane your jumpseat is snug right between 20b and 20c. I had absolutely no arm room.  There was a mom to my left, and an 11 year old boy to my right, who had an anxiety of flying. I thought he was going to throw up on me!  And most of the time, when there are alot of kids on a plane, they stick the families in the back. So I also had 13 little kids SCREAMING through most of the flight. I hate kids.
Back to the meal service in First Class.  Since it was a later flight alot of the passengers in first class fell asleep, that means...they don't get their meal. So..there were 4 meals left, just..sitting in the oven.  We gave 2 of them to the pilots, and then, the other flight attendant and myself got to sit and enjoy a little meal! It was so good!  It was a steak teriyaki lo mein type dish, with salad and a dinner roll. And the desert was the best, it was cinnamon apple cheesecake.yummm.  One disappointment during the flight was that catering sucked and only put ONE can of ginger ale on the plane.  So I had to drink water. I went to the back of the plane to do my check and make sure everyone got off.  I can't tell you how many pringles were smashed into the carpet.
We got off the plane finally, it was almost a 3 hour flight, but it seemed like it was only a half hour.  We stayed at one of the Marriot Hotels in Austin.  It was pretty nice, we got their business class rooms or whatever they call them, which consists of a king bed ( i think, all i know it was huge) a couch and a desk. We also got balconies!  But since it was past 11pm but the time we got settled I went straight for the bed and started reading.  Twilight...I'm obsessed. Thanks mal!  My wake up call wasn't as early as the one for Cedar Rapids, this time I got to sleep in til 5:30am! Woo!
The plane ride back was pretty normal, we served breakfast..which i also got to eat. It was a cheese and bacon omelet with sausage and potatoes. The potatoes were pretty nasty so I left them on the plate. With a croissant and fresh fruit!  While I was sitting up in the galley eating my breakfast, hiding it behind a cart so the passengers couldn't see. I was staring out at them and the passenger in 3c was sleeping with his eyes open, it was the single most akward thing i'd experienced. I was creeped out by it! Again since it was an early flight alot of the passengers were sleeping, this made my service alot easier because i didn't have to make as many drinks. There were also about the same amount of little kids on this flight as there were on the way down there.  And the little girl sitting in 19a with her mother was throwing up the ENTIRE time.  It was gross but at least she got it in the bag each time.While i was crunched back in my jump seat, the lady to my left was saying that she had the Miley Cyrus's interior designer, design her daughters room. Her daughter was maybe 8 or 9. 



Once we got back to Minneapolis we had a schedule change.  We were supposed to fly to LaCrosse, WI and back and be done for the day.  Of course that didn't happen.  They sent us to Cedar Rapids and back instead, and me only me got called to do an extra trip to Eau Claire and back by myself.  It was snowing at this point so that meant an hour delay for everything.  At least we were pulled away from the gate so I was getting paid.  We just hid up in the galley by first class so the passengers couldn't yell at us.  There wasn't anything interesting about this flight, it was full, thats about it.  On the way back it wasn't full so I got to hang out in the back by my jumpseat but sit in a real seat during the flight and eat my lunch.  I think half the passengers on the plane were freaking out because they all had connections to make and they weren't going to make them. But we handled it pretty well.  We get to push most of that stuff on the gate agents.
So that got over and now it was time for me to fly to Eau Claire.  I raced to the gate because I was close to missing it because of all the delays, but don't worry the plane wasn't even landed yet. I think I stood there for 20 minute before it even came in.  A family of three walked into the gate area, all wearing green bay packers jerseys.  The teenage boy was yelling at his mom because she made him leave the bar area while there were still 15 seconds left in the game.  When they saw that the plane wasn't at the gate yet the mom just started flipping out. So excited to be stuck in a metal tube with them 10,000 feet in the air.  The packers lost, I heard so they were grumpy, great.  
Once the plane got in and all the passengers were off I went down the jetbridge to get on the plane.  The flight attendant told me that a passenger threw up when they landed. It smelt so bad, sooo bad.  The cleaning guy did a pretty good job at getting it all, but it still reaked.  I had 20 passengers on this flight, and I forgot how loud the Saab was.  When I made my first announcement in the air, about using cell phones and how the service was only going to be on demand since it was a 25 minute flight.  This guy half way back was giving me weird hand signals so I went back there.  He was saying that he couldn't hear what i said, he said, "what, was that an announcement telling us we were making an emergency landing." as he was smiling the entire time. I told him he could use his cell phone now and if he wanted anything to drink let me know. Then being all cocky he told me, "Actually it was the portable electronic device announcement, and we can use cell phones that aren't in a transmit mode."   He told me that he rides this plane all the time. I couldn't tell if he was making fun of me or not.
The plane ride back was pretty much the same but with 4 less passengers. I was super tired by this time and grateful that it was only going to take 20 minutes, I decided that I wasn't even going to get up and ask people if they wanted water. I was just going to sit in my jumpseat.  So there I was, just sitting in my jumpseat, i decided that i should look out the window and see if I could see Minneapolis, to know when to make the descending announcement.  I got up, forgetting that when you get out of a jumpseat the seat folds back up, and i sat back down, but landed on the floor.  I hit my arm on the seat when i was falling, I have two 4 inch lines of bruises on my arm, its gross.  It hurt so bad, I wanted to cry, so i just sat there.  Luckily the passengers were mostly seating in the back so no one saw me.  Even though it made a huge noise no one said anything.  I was so glad it was the end of my day.

1 comment:

  1. First of all I'm in love with this blog,it is so fun to read. Please keep telling tales of your new job! and add more pictures please!

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