You can't be a photographer and a flight attendant.

kara & Shane Engagement

2010-06-01T22:46:00.002-05:00

Nolan/Johnston Wedding

2009-08-16T09:16:00.003-05:00

Vacation in Kentucky??

2009-05-19T10:04:00.007-05:00

Jennifer (another flight attendant) and I went on a Day/Night trip to Covington, KY. Why? Because there is a German town less than 3 blocks from the hotel we stay at when we overnight in Cincinnatti. MaiFest just happened to be going on, which is sort of like Oktoberfest, but in May.

We experienced trying to non-rev on an actual Delta flight for the first time, which was annoying but whatever. The gate agent bumped us up to first class :) Normally we would order a drink because they are free...but Jennifer was in her uniform (from just getting in from an overnight) and I am still sick, my eye would NOT stop watering! so I just ordered an orange juice. We flew over Chicago, that was pretty cool, I'd never seen it during the day from the sky.

We get to our hotel and its sunny and beautiful out! Then the clouds start coming in... and they are dark. We knew it was supposed to rain but we were just going to deal with it. It starts down pouring! Neither of us brought an umbrella so we are sitting in the hotel watching the rain, hoping it goes away. Then it finally does, turning out to be the perfect night.

Getting home sucked. We woke up at 6:58am. Our direct flight home was at 6:50am. Oops. We took a flight from Cincinnatti to Detroit thinking we would have a better chance of getting home. Every single flight to Minneapolis was oversold by 5 with 22 people in front of us on the standby list. We figured out that we had to fly to Sioux Falls, SD first, then take a plane to Minneapolis from there.

All in all I pretty much had the best night ever, we are planning on going back when MaiFest isn't going on so we can see the buildings better and check out the bars more.

Sick in Dayton

2009-05-19T09:53:00.003-05:00

Last Monday I was starting out a 4 day trip on the 200. My throat was hurting all day Monday but I didn't think anything of it. I drove the to airport earlier than I was supposed to so I wouldn't get stuck in traffic. Within two hours of leaving my house and sitting at the airport I got super sick. I flew to Dayton and knew I was done. My head felt like it weighed 400 pounds, I was hot, I had no voice, I don't know how my passengers even heard me, and I had the biggest headache in the world. We get to the hotel and I get a huge jug of orange juice to bring up to my room. I called my manager and told her I was sick, that lead to me having to get a list of doctors in the Dayton area, so I could go see one first thing in the morning.

I get to the urgent care in the morning and the doctor told me I can't fly until I've been on the medications for a whole day. So I was stuck in the hotel room until Wednesday. I deadheaded home, first to Detroit, then catching a flight from Detroit to Minneapolis. I thought my ears were going to blow up it hurt so bad. I probably shouldn't have been flying yet but I really wanted to get home.

"Watch your head on the way out."

2009-05-08T09:09:00.003-05:00

I knew a day in advance about this two day trip. Thursday I was so be at the airport at 3:55 pm. I get a phone call at 7:25 am and they give me an earlier round trip to Bismark. I had so much stuff planned that i had to do Thursday morning! Like pack for the cabin, go grocery shopping, work out ( even though I would have died cause my body is rejecting me.)

So I did the Bismark turn on the CRJ-200, it was fine I guess, pretty bumpy in the air coming back to mpls. Then I sat in the airport for two hours waiting for my next turn to Rochester, MN. The flight got downgraded from the 200 to the Saab. I like flying on the Saab, but the only thing that bugs me is I have to tell every single passenger to watch their head on the way in and on the way out. If I tell one person they duck, and you would think that the person behind them would hear so I skip them, and BAM they hit their head and IIIIIIII get the dirty look???? I can't tell you how many times I've hit my head, try having your headband dig into your scalp so bad you think your head is bleeding.

Coming back from Rochester we only had 9 passengers, and it's such a short flight I didn't have to do a service so I just sat in row one and looked at all the farms we flew over. I really liked my pilots for this turn. Richmond was the final flight for the day, I was back on the crj-200 for the flight, which means I had three different crews. For some reason I was in a really good mood on this flight, you think I wouldn't be because I had already been working for 10 hours. The flight was 1 hour and 56 minutes. Both of my 200 flights were on the new Delta Connection planes we just got. I like these ones better then the other 200's we have, the brake on the carts actually work! The service took almost an hour, I wanted it to take as much time as possible otherwise i'd be stuck up front bored with everyone watching me. I read for a half hour after that, I've started "Marshmallows for Breakfast." I'm just getting into it so I'm not sure if I like it yet, I can say that its a lot better than "The Lovely Bones" though.

The called about 35 minutes before we were to land and told me to sit for the next half hour because were going over a thunderstorm. I've never seen lightning while i've been in the air before and its breathtaking! I wanted to get out of my seat so bad so I could see more but I probably wouldn't be writing this right now if I did that.

Since I worked by myself all day I didn't take a picture of a flight attendant, and I left my camera at home so I didn't take a picture of the bedspread, but I've already shot this bedspread so it's not a big deal. We are staying at the double tree hotel in richmond, super nice hotel. We were given a warm cookie when we walked in! I would have to say that this bed might be the most comfortable one I've slept in so far. It beats Harrisburg for sure, and that one was nice!

Today we fly out of Richmond at 12:30. We go to Detroit so the flight won't be as along as Minneapolis. From there we go straight to Moline, and sit there for TWO hours. I'm going to search for a microwave so I can heat up my food, it will probably take up most of the time. From Moline we go to Minneapolis and I am free for the weekend!!!!

Amenities

2009-05-06T00:57:00.004-05:00

I got called in to work today to do any overnight in Green Bay. I wasn't even mad, I haven't flown in almost two weeks! It was a 40 minute flight and most of the passengers in first class were sleeping. I've decided to start a new series on flight attendants. Just portraits of them on the plane. Linda was my first shot. She started in December. When I told her what I was doing she told me that she's been a wedding/portrait photographer for the past twenty years!

I looked up the hotel we are staying at earlier today so I knew what to expect. So when everyone asked what the hotel was like I told the all of the amenities. I did a better job than the person at the front desk. So I get into my room, and realize that I don't have my phone. I look through every pocket of my bags and its not there. I then go to the front desk and its not there either. So I figure I left it in the cab...great. The guy at the front desk let me use the phone to call the driver. He pulls over on the side of the highway to see if my phone is in the back seat and there it was!

I fly back to Minneapolis around 12:30 tomorrow, hopefully they will send me on another trip but I want to get back by 7 so I can watch some softballs games.

Ready Reserve

2009-05-01T16:23:00.001-05:00

I sat in the airport today for 9 hours. 6am to 3pm. It was so boring, I only saw THREE people with face masks on. Come one people make my life more interesting. I watched across the universe and transporter. Read some from my book, and then stared at CNN for an hour. If they make me do this again I'm going to quit :(

Reserve...

2009-04-20T14:13:00.006-05:00

The entire month of April I'm on reserve (on call.) I've worked 6 days so far. Most of the flights have been a "there and back" trip so I haven't been spending night in hotels. I flown to Bismark, Fort Dodge, Mason City, Providence, Houston, Lincoln and Des Moines. Two of those were overnights, Houston and Des Moines. Both were super short overnights so basically I didn't sleep. Especially in Des Moines. There was a wedding reception going on at the hotel. My room was overlooking it. I wanted to cry. I have 4 days of reserve left for the month...I'm hoping to get a CDO line for the month of May (overnight flights.)

This is the view of the wedding reception i had from my window

Chicago from the sky = amazing

2009-04-20T14:07:00.003-05:00

This was my last four day for the month of March. Again, I don't have anything to write because I threw my paper away and I can't remember much. Our overnights were Lansing, Portland ME and Chicago. The only new bedspread is Chicago. The hotel was awful :/

In love with Dallas

2009-04-20T13:56:00.004-05:00

This trip was almost a month ago. The first night we stayed in Dallas, it was about a 22 hour layover. The hotel we stayed at was originally built for IBM, but something didn't work out so they turned it into the nicest hotel EVER. I spent a flight writing down the past 4 trips I've worked, then I put that piece of paper on my dresser, which ended up in the garbage when i cleaned my room...so there will be no stories. The overnights were Dallas, Boise & St. Louis. I've already put up the bedspread from St. Louis so it won't be on here. The picture of the pool is from the hotel in Dallas, I would do all of my flights to Dallas if I could.

it's been 6 months..

2009-04-11T00:03:00.004-05:00

I tagged along to a friends photoshoot today and he let me take some shots :) It's seriously been about 6 months since I've shot...

Colorado Springs

2009-04-07T15:56:00.011-05:00

Wine Tasting in Portland!

2009-04-07T15:21:00.008-05:00

For my mom's 50th birthday we took a little trip to Portland, Oregon to go wine tasting! We got to the airport pretty early on Wednesday and didn't make it on the first flight. The next flight my mom and I got on, but my dad didn't. He ended up getting out on the last flight of the night. So my mom and I went and picked up the rental van which had sweeeet back windows! they rolled down!! Thank God for the garmin, we would have been so lost without it, even though it sent us to the ghetto twice while we were trying to find a winery. We ended up just going to target to get some water bottles and then went to a cantina for some beer and chips. The cantina was in a building that looked like an old church. I'm pretty sure I fell asleep at 9pm that night, before my dad started snoring...yesssss!

The next morning we got up and moved to a different hotel. We went to Multnomah Falls (which I just noticed that it was in the movie twilight.)

It was super cold up there. I wanted to go on the bridge so we walked up there and some other people warned us that it was covered in ice, so my mom and dad watched me slip and slide trying not to fall. After we were done with that we went to two breweries. Widmer Brothers was the first one we went to, we got lunch there as well. The second one we went to was the eagle something, it was supposedly haunted, the beer i had there wasn't that good. We drove around for a while and went over a few cool bridges. We then went back to our hotel for free cocktails and snacks, we sat in the lobby area for about 3 hours playing Phase 10 waiting for my aunt and uncle to fly in. They were at the airport all day trying to fly out, they ended up having to take Alaska airlines to seattle, then hop on horizon airlines to portland. I think they got in at like..10pm or something.

We woke up early on Friday and got breakfast. This was the day we went to all of the wineries, i think we ended up going to about 7 or 8. I was SO sick of wine by the end of the day. All i wanted to do was go back to the cantina we were at on the first day. So we did, but it took us about 2 hours to get there because I typed in oregon on the GPS instead of washington....oooops?

Saturday afternoon we left and got on the flight back to Minneapolis, sat in first class :) so much nicer than coach!

2009-04-03T12:29:00.001-05:00

I don't want to write.

Meet Me In St. Louis :)

2009-03-08T19:48:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we we're supposed to deadhead to Detroit, and then work the flight to Portland, Maine. We showed up at the Lansing airport at 6:30pm and walked to the gate and the first thing the gate agents said to us was, "They didn't call you?" The plane hadn't left Detroit yet, they said it would be leaving in about a half hour. That half hour turned into 3 hours. Finally at 9:30 crew scheduling told us to go back to the hotel in Lansing and sleep there. We had to wake be at the airport at 6:30am to take the 7 am flight back to Minneapolis, to just sit at the airport for 3 hours. Saturday was the biggest waste of my life. Since we slept the entire day none of the crew could fall asleep that night, and since it was daylights savings time we even lost another hour. Today was crazy, I don't know how I'm still up. Once we got back to Minneapolis this morning Nikki and I found the comfortable chairs in the airport and sat there the entire time. We had a Fargo turn, there wasn't much to do, just a water and juice service since the flight was 40 minutes. A Pinnacle flight going out of Fargo had canceled earlier that day so we had 39 passengers from that flight that were supposed to be on a New Orleans flight at 1:30pm. We didn't get to the airport til about 2. The air was bumpy all day. We flew straight to St. Louis once we got back from Fargo. Nikki and I were getting ready for our service when the plane dipped to the right and everything shook. The captain called back and told us to stay in our seats and not do a service. I was not about to fall over and have coffee on me so I agreed. Nikki passed out drinks in first class after the first shake of the plane, as she was walking back, with a sierra mist, a mixed drink, and a bloody mary the plane dipped again. I have no idea how she managed to keep the drinks on her tray and spill nothing. It was magic I swear.We got into St. Louis around 5pm, waited for the shuttle for about a half hour, talking about the barbeque place we were planning on going to for dinner. We got to the hotel to find out the restaurant lost its power for 4 hours. We went to this place in the Marriott, it was alright, deff over priced. I plan on flying here again just so I can see the arch, we saw it from the plane it was sweet :) We have to wake up at 4am to get to the hotel tomorrow to fly back to Minneapolis. Then we do a O'Hare turn and should finish up at about 12:30. They have us on Time Available for 3 hours after that but I think we are just going to go home :)

"How could you be so heartless.."

2009-03-07T13:52:00.004-06:00

I'm finally getting trips on the 900 where I have another flight attendant with me woo! Our flight to Hartford was scheduled out at 1:05p yesterday. We get to the gate and it's delayed, weird. I didn't want to stand there for 45 minutes so Nikki (other fa) and I go sit in the crew room. The plane finally gets in. The four of us are waiting away from door so we don't get trampled by passengers. There is this one passenger, who is on our flight, standing by the desk. Nikki and I were both looking at him and he opens his mouth and sticks his tongue out at us really weird and we both had to turn around because we didn't want him to see us laughing, then she turns around and tells me he is standing right next to us. He starts talking to the pilot and we head up to the gate. I did my first meal service in first class today! It kinda sucked, I forgot about the rolls, so no one got those haha. We had turkey florentine sandwiches and cobb salad. There were two sandwiches left so we sat down after our service and ate them. The flight was...two hours long I believe. The door assist button on the plane was broken, so I had to have the ground people help close the door. If i was standing 4 inches closer the door would have knocked me out. They just slammed it! The flight back to Minneapolis was 3 hours and 7 minutes. We got so bored it was insane. I never realized how much people actually drink in first class when it's free. I went through all of my beer, my red wine, and 5 bottles of white wine. I don't know how many liquor mini's I went through. And people really like their sparkling water, I didn't know how popular it was. We served Fiesta Chicken and Italian Rigatini for dinner. This service went a bit smoother. There were two Fiesta Chicken dinners left and we let the pilots have them cause they didn't look that good.

By the time we got back to Minneapolis we were starving. We weren't serving a meal on the way to Lansing so we just got snacks. We both jumped for a twix bar and hid in the galley to eat it before we left. It was so good. We were still behind because of the delays from the day so we never did a pre departure service for first class. There were only 30 some people on the flight to lansing so it made it pretty easy. Once we got to Lansing we decided that we were going to the bar. After we got changed we all met in the lobby. We were waiting for the first officer and the shuttle drive was whistling "heartless" by Kanye West. I was going to start singing the song with him but then he started talking to a worker. 5 minutes later we got in the van and I told him he got the song stuck in my head. He just asked me what song? I told him Heartless and he freaked out. He told me he wasn't whistling the song 5 minutes ago but it was weird that i said that because he was thinking about it! I fought with him the entire way to the bar, and he told me that I read minds. No one else heard him whistling so they just made fun of me. I swear...he was whistling.

The driver said he would pick us up from the bar, but we decided to walk back, it actually wasn't that far from the hotel, I don't know why we didn't walk in the first place. It was pretty nice outside, and now it's raining. We have to deadhead to Detroit at 6pm tonight, then work the flight to Portland, Maine.

Representing the Northwest Suburbs..

2009-03-07T13:28:00.005-06:00

I had a 4 day on the CRJ-200 at the beginning of the month. I still don't like this plane. The first day of the trip was easy. We had to deadhead to Cincinnati and then work the flight from Cincinnati to Detroit. I sat next to this huge guy on the way to Cincinnati, he was tall huge, I don't know how he kept his legs out of the aisle, if he can do it anyone can. I read the entire time, and well as the 2 1/2 hour sit at the airport before we could leave for Detroit. I finished The Other Boleyn Girl by the time we got the Cincinnati, thankfully my mom had books in her room and I grabbed one before I left. The new one I'm reading is called True Betrayals. Once we got to Detroit, we waited for the shuttle for 45 minutes, to get to the hotel to find out that Mesaba didn't fax over the form to get us rooms, so we had to wait for another half hour. I couldn't get the internet to work, why can't all hotels just have wireless. I kept forgetting that we were an hour ahead of Minneapolis. The people in the hotel were super noisy, I swear the walls were paper thin. I decided to just blast my rainstorm and keep it repeat for the whole night. Breakfast only went til 9am, I set my alarm for 8:30, woke up, and went straight back to bed til Noon. There was no hot water. I hate Detroit.Leaving Detroit for Cleveland...The gate agent gave me the wrong passenger count and ran off. We ended up sitting at the gate for an hour trying to find her to come back and count herself. She said we had 50 adults and 1 baby. We had 46 adults, 2 children and 2 babies. Really. So all of the passengers were mad because of the delay and then there was a baby crying during the entire flight. The kid in 1c slept with his left eye open. It was creepy.We finally made up time once we got to Wassau/Steven's Point. We flew back to Cleveland that night, the plane was full again, I was happy it was only a twenty minute flight. We had to wait another half hour for the shuttle again. The heat in my hotel room didn't work, I called down to the front office and he told me it was on sensor and should turn on. It never did. I just took the comforter from the other bed and bundled up and froze for the night, no big deal. But it was the crowne plaza so the beds were amazing. I slept til Noon again. The next day we had to fly to Detroit. The plane coming in was delayed because of mechanical issues so we sat in the airport for an hour waiting. Kim, a lady I did my training with was the flight attendant so it was nice to see her! The passengers were cranky because of the delay but we got them to Detroit earlier than they were supposed to be there. From Detroit we went to Wassau/Steven's Point again and back to Detroit. Once we got back to Detroit, John (the fo) went back to Minneapolis and we got a new one (Joe.) John lives in Golden Valley and Joe lives in Robbinsdale. On our flight to Cleveland, this guy thanked us for the flight, and as he was walking down the stairs he said, "It's the stupidest thing in the world to make us wait to get off the plane." WHAT?? The fourth day of the trip we didn't have to fly into Detroit at all! I was so happy! The flight to Minneapolis was oversold by 6 I believe. The passengers boarded the plane like turtles. We had no cold cups so I gave everyone their pop in coffee cups haha. The flight was 1 hour and 52 minutes, thats way too long, and I couldn't even read so I just sat there and stared at people. We ended with a turn to Lincoln, NE and back. I was hoping that no one would buy and snacks or liquor so I wouldn't have to go to the crew room before heading to my car, but of course not. Everyone wanted snacks. There were only 9 passengers on the way back to Minneapolis. I did my service really quick and finally sat down in row one and read. It was a good way to end the trip.

The gate agent told me to ask you...20 times.

2009-03-07T13:08:00.002-06:00

I fell behind on blogging. oops.

This trip was February 18th-21st. My last 4 day on the Saab for a while. It was the same trip I did the week before so I don't have any bedspread pictures.

Once again we started off the trip with a Grand Forks/Devils Lake turn. Before we boarded, the gate agent came down and explained that there was an adult that was mentally challenged riding alone, and he though that we were flying him back to Florida where he just came from. We boarded him early so I could talk to him and tell him we weren't bringing him back to Florida. Everyone on the plane was really crabby, no one talked during the entire flight. I was still reading the other boleyn girl, but every flight we had was full so I didn't get to read much while we were flying.

Once we got to Devils Lake we had the airport make us burgers :) The first officer was talking about eating minnows right before we ate...it was so gross. I had an open pop in the cart, and when we landed it tipped over and went everywhere inside. On the way back to Minneapolis, I hit a guys knee with the cart and got the dirtiest look ever.

On our way up to Duluth, the plane was full (suprise.) We had 33 adults and a baby, the captain said he's never had such a full plane before. Also, all the the captain kept forgetting to give me the sterile flight deck chime, so I can tell people when they can use their ped's and I can start my service. I eventually just waited til we were in the air for 15 minutes, figured he'd forgot and then would get up.

During this entire trip, I've never had so many people walk up to me and ask if they can switch seats, at least 6 people a day. When we were about to leave for Dubuque, the gate agent came running down and told me that a passenger left his phone on the plane in the seat pocket. There was a girl sitting in the seat and we both check and found nothing. So she ran back and, and came back down saying that the guy was screaming at her and told her it was there. So the girl who was sitting in the seat actually found it wedged under the seat in between a metal bar and the wall. I only had 3 passengers on that flight. We had pretty bad weather in Minneapolis, I think that is why there were only 3 passengers because of connecting flights not getting in on time.

I joined the priority club at the holiday inn that night because the pilots told me to. I got two free drink tickets, and every time you go to dubuque you get one free drink. I met the pilots down at the bar, it was a pretty good time. The bartender made me try clamato juice, after I told him it sounded sick, but it was alright. On the way back to the cities the plane was full..again. There was a teenager in row 1 eating a box of peeps like it was going out of style.

To end this trip we had a duluth turn again. Full. There were 20 women who had just gotten back from Rome, who had to bring their roller bags on the plane because of the valuables they bought over there. I had at least half of them tell me that they weren't fitting in the overhead bins. Yes, I know they don't fit, thats why we can't bring them on the plane. The gate agent is supposed to tag the bags, but he told all of the women to ask me if they could bring them on, I was SO mad.

Frozen Feet

2009-02-20T15:51:00.002-06:00

February 13th - 15th, 2009

This is the first day of a three day trip. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Each morning we had to wake up before the sun had risen. Our first flight was to Appleton, WI. When we got in the air the sun was just starting to rise, one passenger decided to put his sunglasses on instead of closing the window shade. During the one hour long flight, I would say 4 out of the 23 passengers actually were awake.

Our next leg was to Houghton/Hancock, MI. I only had 13 passengers on this flight, so they were mostly sitting in the back of the plane. There was one passenger seated in the exit row that had the worst B.O. ever. I could smell it all the way up in the front of the plane. I felt bad for the passengers sitting right next to him. My parents came home from Florida right before I left for this trip. My aunt had given my mom a few books to read, and The Other Boleyn Girl was one of them. I went and saw the movie when it was out last year and really like it so I decided I could try to read it. It's harder to read than I thought and I keep getting the characters mixed up.

On the way back to Minneapolis from Houghton/Hancock, we were only supposed to have 10 passengers. But the flight on the CRJ-200 that was supposed to go out before us broke down, so we ended up taking all of their passengers. We ended up with 3o, and there were two love birds sitting in row one kissing the entire time.

Once we got back to Minneapolis we flew to St. Cloud to spend the night. Every single passenger was a world perks elite member, usually we only have about 6.

Saturday we flew back to Minneapolis at 5:30 in the morning. Our next leg was to fly to Appleton and back again. I walked out in the jet bridge to drop off some garbage, and when I walked back into the plane I hit my head so hard on the top of the door I actually thought I was bleeding. I can't believe i wasn't knocked unconscious. We flew up to Brainerd to spend the night, we were staying at The Lodge at Brainerd Lakes. The captain's kids and husband drove up and spent the rest of the day with her in the water park. The FO's wife flew up on our flight and spent the night and flew back the next morning. It was a really nice hotel, nice hotels usually have wireless internet in the rooms, but this one didn't. So after complaining to Mallory for about an hour I finally went down to the front desk to get an ethernet cord. It wouldn't work, so the maintenance guy came up and tried to fix it but that didn't work either. SO I gave up and went down to their "wireless internet" lobby. Didn't work. I went to the front desk to return my cord and they said they have been having trouble with it for days. If they would have told me that 2 hours ago I wouldn't have been so crabby. So I watched ABC Family for the rest of the day and fell asleep at 7pm.

When we got on the plane that next morning, the plane hadn't been heated at all overnight. It was frozen, I was scared to sit down on my jump seat fearing that I would get frostbite. When we got off the plane, the three of us were walking really weird, we couldn't feel our feet, it was like walking with cement bricks tied to our feet. I went to the Itasca Grill and ordered some hot chocolate and a hot breakfast to try to warm up, it never really happened. I had the chills for the rest of the day.

Ready Freddy?

2009-02-10T23:48:00.001-06:00

3 Day Trip.

I started out this trip with a flight to Houghton/Hancock Michigan on the CRJ-200. The plane I hate the most. I don't talk about trips I take on the 200.

Once I got on the Saab we just had to fly to Dubuque and spend the night. I was just there last week so you've already seen the bed spread. It's the same one as Peoria. While I was waiting in the plane for the passengers to come down, the gate agents walks down to the plane and said, "Ready Freddy?" Haha it was cute. Nothing exciting happened on the flight, I only had 14 passengers. Once we got in the shuttle to the hotel, the pilots were just talking to each other the entire time about farm equipment. So I just sat there and stared into the nothings of Iowa. I got caught up on watching Private Practice and was up til 2am. I didn't sleep much that night and ended up having the worst nightmares ever.

We planned on getting together for lunch the next day. It was really nice out, so we walked down to this restaurant called Cooper's Wagon. I got a Guacamole Burger and Fries. I pretty much stared out the window while the pilots talked about farms. sweet.

There was weather starting to form up in Minneapolis, and we got out of Dubuque just in time before it started pouring out. The clouds looked horrible from up in the sky. Turbulence was pretty bad. Once we got to Minneapolis, we had to do a Duluth turn and then go to Aberdeen for the night. The flight up to Duluth was packed. Once we got to Duluth there was freezing rain. I opened the door to the cockpit and all they said was, "We are going to be here for a while." It ended up only being for an hour though. I was walking back to shut the overhead bins and tripped over a guys leg and almost fell on my face. Later in the flight when I was doing my service I hit his knee with the cart and we called it even. I had to tell two guys to turn their laptop off 3 times. I would walk back and they would close it, then I would see them lit up in blue 2 second later.

The first officer was telling me all about these children books he reads to his nieces, he was so into it! Even doing the sound affects and voices! I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about! We had pretty bad turbulence the entire trip, so I was sitting in my jumpseat watching the passengers move with the plane, it was entertaining. On the flight to Aberdeen this guy got on the plane and asked me if he could go into the little girls room. I just sat there and stared at him for like 10 seconds until I figured out he was asking me if he could use the bathroom. It was weird.

Once we got to Aberdeen, my hotel room key didn't work. The captain walked down with me to the front desk, which was like walking through a maze. I got lost in the morning trying to find my way out. Once I finally got into the room, I opened up my suitcase to change. My soup exploded EVERYWHERE. It smelt awful. Luckily we got a free breakfast in the morning. I ordered biscuits and gravy, which came with hash browns and two eggs. I wasn't happy about waking up early because I stayed up again watching t.v. shows i had missed from the week before. But I had to eat breakfast because my lunch was all over my clothes. After breakfast I went back to sleep til 12.

On the shuttle to the airport the pilots kinda started talking to me and I told them I lived in Crystal. Turns out the First Officer's friend is the owner of Jet's Pizza (my love.) The ride back to Minneapolis, I swear i was going to get sick from the turbulence, every second we would just drop, and drop, and drop.

The trip to Waterloo and back was pretty uneventful. There was a guy from Germany that was sitting right across from me that was talking to me for a while. He is the spinning image of my friends boyfriend (when he turns 40.)

Weight & Balance

2009-02-04T23:45:00.003-06:00

Our day was short. We flew from St. Cloud to Minneapolis, then straight to Peoria to spend the night. I sat in my jumpseat the entire first flight because it was only 17 minutes. We had two hours between our flights and were switching planes so I grabbed my stuff and headed to our new gate. I sat and read the entire time. I said goodbye to Harry Potter and am on a new book. We boarded the plane, and were ready to go. We sat at the gate for an hour, while the pilots and the bag people were trying to figure out the weight and balance. The tail was sitting on the tail stand and wouldn't lift off of it, or something. After the hour of sitting on the plane, we finally deplaned everyone and got a new plane. All of the passengers were so nice! I didn't get yelled at once! At one point, a guy walked up to where I was standing and I was expecting for him to yell at me but he just asked for a ginger ale and told me that he was really happy that we were doing this for the safety of the passengers. I don't think that will ever happen to me again!

Once we got to the airport, we ended up waiting for our shuttle for about another hour. The Sky West crew decided to get in our shuttle instead of theirs. They didn't figure it out until they signed in to the Holiday Inn and realized they weren't supposed to be there. We got a coupon for a free breakfast! I am actually going to set my alarm to wake up at 9am so I can eat :) We go out tomorrow at 5pm. Goodnight!

Lean Mean Grilling Machine

2009-02-04T23:34:00.004-06:00

My 4 day trip started out yesterday at 11am.

Grand Forks, Devils Lake, Grand Forks, Minneapolis, Duluth, Minneapolis and St. Cloud.

I started out with Steve and T.J. They were only with me for the Grand Forks and Devils Lake turn. Once we got to Grank Forks they were getting giddy in the cockpit about the cheeseburgers the crew makes us when we get to Devils Lake. The last time I was supposed to go to Devils Lake we didn't land. I was getting excited! They make them on the George Foreman grill. We got a cheeseburger and a bag of chips for 2 dollars! Good deal!

I'm sick, so when we get up in the air my ears get clogged and I can't breathe, really uncomfortable, but at least the flights are short. I had 4 cans of orange juice and I think it just made me feel worse. We got into St. Cloud around 10:30. I went straight for my bed. At 5a.m. I woke up to the alarm clock that was going off in the room next to mine. It went off for an hour so i finally got up and called the front desk so they could shut it off. I woke up around 11. It felt so nice to sleep in! I went out to get more ice to keep my sandwich cold, and got locked out of my room. I had my key but since it was after check out time they changed the codes! SO...I had to walk down to the front desk, my hair was still wet and not brushed from taking a shower, ugh.

I met my friend Becky for lunch at the Green Mill that was attached to our hotel, we split a pepperoni pizza. She told me that she is going to the Holy Land for the entire month of May with a group of students from her school, she gets to go see the pyramids!

Goodbye Hawaii

2009-02-03T23:29:00.002-06:00

Saturday January 31st, 2009

We decided to wake up super early so we could get in as much sun as possible for our last day. We started packing alot of our things up so we wouldn't have as much to do later. Pat's fiance flew in Friday night and I wanted to meet her so I went down to the beach for a while and hung out with them, then met Hannah back up at the pool. We laid out for probably 4 hours, the most we did all week. We went back to our hotel around 1pm to finish packing and to get ready to leave for the airport, our plan was to go and see if we could get on the non stop at 5:45 or something around then.

While we were packing, Pam called and told us there was a flight leaving for Portland in an hour and a half and it was pretty much wide open. So we booked it to the airport and got there just in time. We each got out own row in the plane! So sitting coach for six hours wasn't that bad. They showed the movie The Duchess. I really liked it. I moved over to Hannah's row and we were flicking the screen off for most of the movie because we didn't understand why Keira Knightley would let that happen to her!

We were maybe 10 minutes out of Portland when the captain comes on over the P.A. and tells us that a Continental flight missed their landing due to the fog, so we missed ours to, and they sent us to Seattle. Whatever everyone was mad and we were already going to have to sit in the airport til 6 in the morning to get a flight to Minneapolis so who cares. But there was a red eye flight leaving from Seattle to Minneapolis so we just hopped on that. Then comes the morning and our bags being lost situation that I don't even want to talk about.

That's the end of my vacation.

It was nice :)

Picky Picky

2009-02-03T23:06:00.006-06:00

Friday January 30th, 2009

Hannah and I actually slept in a bit today, 9am! I think it's because we were out so late. We woke up to the sun again! We got ready and went to Pam's for breakfast. After we got done eating the four of us walked down to the international market square.

I really wanted to find a cool ring that had a turtle on it, but I wasn't impressed with the selection. I ended up getting a ring that is silver and rose gold and kind of has some engravings in it, hard to explain but i am in love with it. Hannah was looking for a charm that had three Hawaiian flowers on it, silver bronze and gold. After looking at 8 different ones she decided to go with a whale tale with flowers on it! It's stunning.

After we were finished with our shopping we went and laid out on the rec deck with Pam and John, finally getting some sun! We went to La Mariana Tiki Bar for dinner that night, SO COOL! We made it there for the sunset which was the first and last sunset we saw while we were there. We were tired (what's new) after dinner so we went back to our hotel and opened a bottle of champagne. Our beds are uncomfortable and our hands fall asleep while we are sleeping. It sucked

North Shore

2009-02-02T16:48:00.004-06:00

Thursday January 29th, 2009

Hannah and I decided to make turkey sandwiches around 7am for breakfast. We were going to go to the north shore today and it was actually sunny out! Before we went to the beach we stopped at La Mariana Tiki Bar to check it out to see if we wanted to go there for dinner one night. It was so cool! We couldn't walk inside because there was an inspection going on. After that we stopped at the storage place to pick up some chairs and another pop up tent for Pam and John's pro bowl party.

We set up at the beach on the north shore and laid out on the beach and tanned. Hannah didn't want to go in the water, so John came down and I went in with him. I went and go the boogie board and failed, went back to tanning. We grilled cheeseburgers and the leftover vegetables from the other day. We stayed at the beach until 4pm. One the way back to the hotel we stopped at the dole plantation and got ice cream, I think it was called pineapple whip.

My friend Pat from highschool is based in Hawaii for the Marine Corps. Him and his friend came out to Waikiki and went out with us. We hung out in the hotel room for about an hour then went to a place called Dukes for a few drinks. We sat out on their patio on the beach. After that we went to a place called the Big Kahuna. It was kareoke night and there were 3 guys next to us who screamed and whistled the entire time, we payed for our drinks the second we got them and left. We finally got to our final destination, Mai Tai. It was a bar in the mall but it was wide open and there were no windows, so the breeze felt really nice. It was packed with the locals, they don't like the guys in the marine corps so we were watching our backs the entire time, it was scary! We took a cab from Mai Tai to jack in the box so everyone could get food. While they were eating a local came up to the guys and asked them if they were in the marine corps, they said yes, and the guy put his hood up, and walked away to his friends, we walked out the back door at that point. It was around 3am at this point, the latest we stayed up during the entire trip.

Da Smokehouse

2009-02-02T16:31:00.004-06:00

Wednesday January 28th, 2009

We woke up again super early, opened the shades and saw...clouds. We were so unmotivated we stayed in our hotel until Noon watching Americas Best Dance Crew on MTV. The sun decided to pop out for 2 hours and we booked it to the beach. Hannah taught me how to tan correctly. We were laying about 50 feet in front of people who lived on the beach. I opened my eyes at one point and there was a guy walking into the ocean with his shoes and jeans on. He went out to a rock and did a cannon ball about 3 times and walked back up. I guess he was washing his clothes.

Once it got cloudy and cold we decided to walk around the shops and get some ice cream. Then went back to the hotel and got ready to go for dinner. We went over to Pam's to meet them and then went to The Elks Club for drinks and to watch the sunset (kind of.) For dinner we decided to go to Da Smokehouse. I can't say I've had a better barbeque chicken sandwich in my life!

I bring the rain wherever I go

2009-02-02T16:18:00.002-06:00

Tuesday January 27th, 2009

We got up pretty early again. On Tuesdays and Fridays there is a fruit and vegetable market a few blocks from the hotel. We met Pam and John down there and got some pineapple and potatoes and other vegetables to grill at the beach. After waiting in line for maybe an hour we went back up to Pam's and had breakfast sandwiches (so good.)

After breakfast we packed up and got ready to go to Sandy Beach. We made a few stops on the way to see some different views, and we stopped so we could look at the stairway to heaven, Hannah decided that she would not be climbing that. Then we stopped so we could see the blow hole and eternity beach, and saw a turtle swimming in the ocean. It was cloudy and sprinking the entire time :( Hannah and I both were wearing dresses and covered them up with a sweatshirt all day. Really attractive!

For lunch John grilled up some cheesy hot dogs for me and pam and steak for him and hannah. The vegetables were so so good! Hannah and I went and sat on the beach for a while after we ate and watched people attempt to surf. Yes, we are the girls on the beach talking about you.

Once we got back to the hotel we decided to pop open a bottle of wine and make some music videos on the balcony. Then walked around waikiki beach for a bit. That was pretty much it.

6am Wakeup

2009-02-02T16:02:00.004-06:00

Monday January 26th, 2009

We woke up pretty early. From our balcony we can see Pam and Johns condo. Pam put out a bright pink cover up (?) every morning when they got up so we could know if we could come over or not. Hannah and I sat out on the balcony for a bit and then went over to Pam and Johns for breakfast. We had scrambled eggs, sausage and croissants.

After breakfast they took us to Sams Club, Wal Mart and another grocery store so we could get everything we would need for the week. We bought way too much. Hannah grabbed a case of coors light, having never drank it before. But I didn't fight with her I just let her buy it. She didn't drink one until Thursday night, she took one sip and said gross. I hate coors.

After all of the shopping we went and hung out at waikiki beach for about an hour. We went back to the hotel room after that and just hung out on the balcony and had some champagne and croissants. We got ready for dinner and took off to Pam and Johns. We all went to the Yacht Club first so they could get a ticket, and we looked around. After that we went to Harbor Pub for some pizza. We had some pretty interesting conversations, especially getting out of the parking ramp. I think we got back to the hotel around 8:30 or 9 and went straight to bed.

This is Pam and Johns Bedspread.

A week of vacation

2009-02-02T15:45:00.003-06:00

I'm going to do this day by day, otherwise it might possibly be the longest blog in history.

Sunday January 25th, 2009

As a result of oversleeping, Hannah and I got the the airport security checkpoint two minutes after our first flight left. Then it took a little bit longer to get through and we missed another flight. We were both starving so we went to burger king, hoping that they had their breakfast burritos at the airport, but they didn't. Neither of us finished what we got. I think I ate 5 tater tots and through the rest of them away.

After sitting in the airport for almost 6 hours talking to Pam & John non stop about what to do next, we finally got on the 2:30 flight that went through Seattle. We were assigned our seats and were maybe 4 rows apart. We were going to ask people to switch seats with us but I ended up getting asked to move even farther back. Once I was in that seat, the lady next to me asked if i would go back and switch with her mom so she could sit next to her daughter. After walking back almost 20 rows I saw that I was going to be surrounded by the University of Alaska Fairbanks hockey team...no big deal.

I wanted to die. I hate sitting in coach, I was so crunched even sitting in the aisle seat. Who knew four hours to Seattle could be so painful. I put my feet out in the aisle, but with enough room for people to walk by my without tripping, but everyone managed to kick me as they went by. Finally the plane landed in Seattle, since Hannah was almost at the front of the plane she got off before me and headed straight to the gate agent to upgrade us to First Class for the rest of the trip, thank..god.

First we ordered a glass of champagne (drinks are free in first class.) Then all I wanted was the bloody mary mix on ice, then water, and orange juice. We also got dinner! There was a ceasar salad, a roll, strawberries, grapes, and a lasagna roll up that was really dry. For desert there was some chocolate cheesecake or something, but it was really good. The movie of the trip was Nights in Rodanthe. I had wanted to see it all summer and never did. I was so dissapointed.

We had taken our shoes off once we sat down, and when we had to put them back on we couldn't get our feet in because they were so swollen! Pam and John picked us up and the airport and they brought us lei's! Once we got the hotel all we wanted to do was pass out and sleep, and that is what we did.

I forgot my camera

2009-01-18T14:09:00.002-06:00

Last night at 8:01pm, after waiting all day long to get a phone call, I got one as I was about to go to a friends house. They were sending me on a high speed to Sioux City, IA. This is normally a CRJ-200 high speed but something was wrong with the plane so they upgraded to the 900 and needed another flight attendant. They told me I had an hour and a half to get there. I got there at 9:30, the plane was to go out at 9:40. Crew scheduling told me that the plane would be delayed because they had to call three crew members in. I was the last one there and they told me they weren't going to hold the plane and we had to go now.

We only had 14 passengers so it was pretty easy, and there was no first class. The trip was 39 minutes. The other flight attendant Kevin, graduated the month after I did so it was fun to have two new people working the 900.

I decided I would do the service on the way there and he would do it on the way back. Before I got to the last passenger the plane starting to go down at a pretty steep angle, I had a 150 pound cart with hot coffee in front of me... It was so hard to get it back to the galley! I was using all of my force to keep that cart from running me down in the aisle! Once we landing I asked the captain what he was doing and he said that we stayed up too high for too long so instead of making circles around the airport they decided to just go straight down for it. WHAT THE HECK!

In the shuttle on the way to the hotel, the driver told us that there was a big party going on and they had pizza's left, so when we got to the front desk they gave us a plate and told us to take whatever we wanted! I couldn't sleep when we got there so I started watching the end of Juno. Once that was over there was a Rachel Ray special on her trip to Oahu so I watched that until it was so boring I got tired. I tossed and turned all night so that kinda sucked. We had to wake up at 5:15 to get to the airport. Tonight I go to Watertown and Pierre, SD.

Welcome to Grand Forks! The local temp is NEGATIVE 35!

2009-01-15T11:38:00.005-06:00

I found out about this trip Monday night so when they called me Tuesday morning at 8am I wasn't mad :) Here is the trip:

MSP to Grand Forks (GFK), GFK to Devils Lake (DVL), DVL to GFK, GFK to MSP, MSP to Waterloo (ALO), ALO to MSP.

Knowing that is was going to be freaking cold I layered myself up. I had leggings, tall socks, leg warmers, my pants, a tank top, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, blazer, scarf, ear muffs, gloves, and my jackets. The only thing that ever got cold was my toes and my nose. We had an all female crew! Christina (captain) and Lisa (first officer) woo woo!

The plane was almost full with 29 passengers, packed with people in the air force. They listen to their music super loud! I had my ear plugs in (the plane is really loud) and I could hear their music still! It was funny when they got off the plane, they had been over seas for the past two years or something with 80 degree weather everyday and then they come back to freeze! The past two days I've worked Diet Pepsi has been the most popular drink of choice! It's funny when people ask for Coke and I tell them we only have Pepsi they immediately say Ginger Ale. I'm not a big fan of Pepsi either but whatev.

There was only one passenger that was left on the plane to go to Devils Lake. He came up to the front and said he had a car waiting for him in Grand Forks that was driving him to Devils Lake. That was weird. So I was all by myself in the cabin to Devils Lake :( It was kinda fun though. We missed our approach going into Devils Lake due to a faulty terrain warning so we just ended up flying back to Grand Forks. We had to leave 2 passengers in Devils Lake. Nothing happened on the way back to Minneapolis.

So we went on our way to Waterloo. It was a pretty short flight and everyone was pretty much sleeping. We boarded the three passengers I had to bring back to Minneapolis. Two pilots and a lady. They deiced us in Waterloo and by the time we got to the runway we had snow built up on the plane, so we had to have them come out to the runway and deice us again. The snow was coming down so hard that by the time they finished we already had snow all over the wings. They have really weak deicing fluid so the pilots were really mad. We had to bring the plane back to the gate and deplane everyone. We sat in the crew room for about 2 hours before dispatch told us they were canceling the flight and gave us a hotel.

We call the hotel to get the shuttle to the airport to get us, and they tell us that because of the weather they won't come get us. Just a joke. So Tammy (works at the airport) said she would drive us to the hotel. It was really bad out, the snow was just blowing everywhere! She was really cool, she said that if we ever come down on a saturday to call her and she would take us to the casino or go to the bars. Once we get to the hotel we are trying to figure out if they are going to shuttle us to the airport in the morning, and they say, "maybe, depends on the weather." So Christina called the airport and they said they would have someone pick us up in the morning or send a limo to get us.

Our call time in the morning was 7:30am so we couldn't even go out or anything. My room was toasty when I opened the door, I left it like that until I couldn't stand it anymore. It was only 10pm so I watched scrubs for about an hour then went to bed. We got down to the Lobby in the morning and find out that the 8am flight is canceled, they decided not to tell us. So we end up ferrying the plane back with no passengers. We didn't get the plane off the ground til 10 that morning. Sat in the crew room for another 2 hours doing nothing. I just wanted to be home, I wasn't even supposed to work on Wednesday it was my day off, so they gave me today off instead!

Yesterday I was Mal's first patient :) Here she is at her first appointment!

Bad Idea- The U.P. of Michigan in Winter

2009-01-15T11:14:00.004-06:00

Agh. OK.

The weather this week sucks, everywhere. I got called Monday morning at 4:40 am. Lucky for me I went to bed the night before around 9:30 pm. I was super confused when they called because I had no idea what time it was. He told me that I have a 6:10 show. I had to ask if it was am or pm haha just clueless. So my trip was to go to Sioux Falls to MSP, MSP to St Cloud, St Cloud to MSP, MSP to Bemidji and then back to MSP. Before we even took off to go to Sioux Falls crew scheduling called and changed out schedule. The flights to St Cloud and Bemidji had canceled because of the snow storm so they decided to send us to Houghton/Hancock Michigan!

On our way to Sioux Falls the flight was pretty boring, I only had thirteen passengers for about an hour flight. The only funny thing that happened was a passenger told me she has written to NWA about the reading lights and how the light doesn't hit her book right. So she asked me to tell someone about it. She always sits in the same seat every time she travels, I suggested a different seat. On the way back I had 25 passengers, over half were going to Honolulu!

We had about an hour break once we got back before we had to leave for Michigan. You think that an hour would be enough time for the plane to be fueled. But it wasn't, we waited with all the passengers in the plane for about an hour. Then we had to get deiced, which took even longer. So after being delayed about 2 hours we finally land in Michigan. I was blinded by how white it was there. You couldn't see 2 feet in front of you, or maybe there was just nothing to look at, but it was white and snowy. We board the new passengers going back to Minneapolis right away so we can get out and try to make up time for being so late. Once everyone is on, we get a call from dispatch telling us that they are doing a ground hold and we can't take it. So we had to deplane everyone and they were really mad because it was our fault that we couldn't leave obviously. We got off the plane and find out that they aren't letting us leave until 5:30. It was 3 at this point. We were going to sit in the airport in Houghton for 2 and a half hours!

It didn't bother me too much, I grabbed a sierra mist and my goldfish and went and sat with all the passengers and read some Harry Potter. I listened to all the passengers complaining for about an hour then that got old. There was a 2 year old running around and then decided to climb all over the chair next to me, real distracting. After the Pilots were fighting with dispatch forever we finally got the OK to go.

We got back and the weather was so bad, I think I sat in traffic for an hour and saw alot of cars in the ditches on the way home. I made it back to watch Gossip Girl and One tree Hill so it made out for a pretty good night! Mal and I decided to go work out at 10:30pm for some reason. The end of my Monday.

This isn't from this trip, it was when we were deadheading home from Omaha, I just didn't do a post.

I <3 La Quinta!

2009-01-09T22:23:00.005-06:00

So I'm sitting in my hotel bed at The La Quinta Hotel in Omaha, NE. enjoying my bag of popcorn, ginger ale and listening to the music from Across the Universe. This hotel room is three times the size of my bedroom! I have the choice of a King size bed, or four chairs to sit in!! I love La Quinta hotels! The beds are so comfortable. I invited Brian to the hotel to come swimming but the roads are really bad here so he couldn't make it. But that's ok cause we have to get on the shuttle to the airport at 6am tomorrow! We are deadheading back to mpls so I get to sleep!Two things I forgot to mention about my day yesterday. 1. I saw the Pittsburgh Steelers airplane at the Detroit airport. 2. A man in first class dropped his bag on top of Steven's head and didn't even apologize!

I really wanted to go sit in the hot tub at the hotel in Harrisburg. The elevator said it was on the second floor, so I found a staircase that said "stairs to the pool." I opened the door and it didn't tell me which way to go, and the stairs were super dark so I gave up on finding the pool real quick. The plane that we were taking out of Harrisburg was late departing from Detroit due to weather so we had to sit in the airport for a while. I managed to make it to chapter 5 in Harry Potter.

This one guy gets on the plane and said since it was overbooked that he was promised free drinks? He was on the plane, so I don't know why he would be mad about it being overbooked. He told me that he wanted a drink every time I walked by him saying, "don't forget about me, I'm the one in the ravens shirt (which reminds me how bad I want to watch One Tree Hill)" and there were at least eight other people on the plane who had ravens shirts on.

On the way to Omaha there was a Chris Brown look a like on the flight! I swear they could be twins. It wasn't him though because he wouldn't be sitting in coach. I was doing a walk through and a lady's cell phone was ringing really loud. I asked her to turn her phone off and she didn't understand me. She said her phone was off, but it was in her pocket and it was clearly ringing. Steven decided to walk through the main cabin and give out snacks to people who wanted them, such a good little flight attendant!

Nothing really exciting happened today since we only did two legs. Tomorrow we deadhead to Minneapolis and then fly to Milwaukee and back then we are done! I really hope crew scheduling doesn't send me anywhere else after we get back. Here's the bed spread for the La Quinta!

Please Remain Seated

2009-01-09T12:37:00.005-06:00

Thursday we flew from Pittsburgh to Detroit, Detroit to Lansing, Lansing to Detroit and Detroit to Harrisburg, PA. They were all pretty short flights, all under an hour. Once again, everyone got out of their seats before the seat belt sign was turned off at the gate. Steven and I got on the PA at the same time so we canceled each other out so no one heard us when we told them to sit down :( The captain said we could call him when it happens again so they can slam on the breaks so people fall over... just kidding, that would be bad.

The plane coming into Pittsburgh in the morning for us to take out came in about a half hour late because of an oxygen mask, so the first two flights we did were a little delayed. There was a flight attendant who was commuting to Detroit to work, she was pretty funny. The flight from Detroit to Lansing was supposed to be pretty empty, but then the flight was full! I was getting kind of crabby at this point because 2 passengers brought their bags that were supposed to be checked onto the plane, so I had to bring them back up to the front and it was so crowded, blah. Then I had 5 people in the back of the plane with me who didn't speak english, so they didn't understand a word I was saying to them. The girl in 20c kept falling asleep and almost tipped over on me! On this flight, we just took off the ground and a guy STOOD UP! I told him to sit down and he just kept walking towards me, he said he had to go to the bathroom, how was he going to get into the bathroom when i was sitting in front of the door? AH I was so irritated at this point. The flight was 20 minutes, I had water and orange juice to pass out but there was not time so I just walked up to the front and helped Steven pass out drinks in first class.

When we got back into Detroit we had an hour layover, Steven and I went and walked around, I wanted to see the light show in the tunnel so bad! Here is a video of it!

(It's not uploading the Video...will try later.)

We finally got to Harrisburg, totally wiped out from the day. I finally got a hotel where my wireless would work. I blogged wednesday last night and went to bed. The bed..so comfortable by the way! And they even put an extra blanket in the closet! We planned to get up at ten this morning to go do something. I woke up at 9:30 and called Steven and asked if we could change it to 11 and he agreed! Fell straight back asleep, had some weird dreams about going to the dentist before going to see Mallory on the 14th, which she told me not to do so I was freaking out haha. So I finally got up and got ready.

I met Steven down in the front lobby. The shuttle will only bring us to the airport so we decided to just walk to Target, I really needed toothpaste. We bared the cold, and it is really cold! We got to an intersection that wouldn't let us walk across, it wasn't the safest intersection to walk across I understand that, but we had no other way to get to Target. We stood there for a good five minutes thinking about what we should do, then there was a clearing and we ran across! On our walk back and ran into the Captain who was also walking to Target.

We got back to the Hotel and I heated up my soup and sat in the bar area and watched some TV show I've never heard of, it was pretty entertaining. I wanted to go sit in the hot tub so I walked to the second floor and opened the door that said "Stairway to Pool." It didn't tell me which way to go and it was kind of dark so I chickened out and went back to my room. That's about it, we get on the shuttle to the airport at 3:15pm today. All we have to do it go to Detroit and then to Omaha, pretty short day.

Bye Bye Bunny :'(

2009-01-08T22:52:00.008-06:00

We had to put Annie to sleep. I'm so sick of cancer taking everything away. She was the best dog ever. I miss her so much :(

Wednesday was the start of my four day trip. I walk up to the gate agent and she tells me that we have a high risk fugitive that was on the run with two law enforcement officers. Lucky me sat in between the two officers in the back. They found him up in Duluth and were bringing him to New Orleans. The LEO's were super nice, one of them talked to me for most of the trip when I wasn't busy. He lives in New Orleans, and he started talking about the hurricane. He said he couldn't find his wife for 3 days. He was working at the airport when the hurricane happened and when the city was getting a lot of people out on planes. He said that there were boxes full of guns and knives that people had on them, he also said they found prison jumpsuits in the garbages outside of the airport...(yikes.)Everyone knows that when the seat belt sign is illuminated, you are supposed to stay seated in your seat right? Well not the three flights we had on wednesday! We told everyone to sit down, and they just stared at us, then we said it again, and again. I don't understand. Also, I've never seen both bathrooms on a plane being used during the entire flight.

We have to have all of the overhead bins shut before we close the door, I had all of them shut except for row 14 over seats c and d. I couldn't get it shut, I had to have tried over 20 times. So I went and got Steven and asked if he could shut it for me, of course he gets in on the first try so all the passengers are laughing at me. I don't know what's wrong with me this trip but I'm having a hard time with the over head bins.Our trip on Wednesday was Minneapolis to New Orleans, New Orleans to Detroit, and Detroit to Pittsburgh. When we were flying over New Orleans all I could think about was when we went down this past March. I miss it so much. Once we got into Detroit it was snowing, the flakes were sticking to the windows when we were waiting for passengers to board and you could see every little detail in the flake.

I think we got to the Holiday Inn around 11 or 11:30pm. Here is the bed spread.

We were super hungry so Steven and I went to a place called Eat N'Park. It is kind of like a Perkins, open 24 hours, serves breakfast all day and night. I got a strawberry lemonade (so good) and a bacon cheese and eggs bagel with hash browns and toast. I probably could have gone with less food but it was yummy. We got back to the hotel around 1:50 am and it took me forever to fall asleep. We wanted to go explore downtown Pittsburgh in the morning so we got up at 7am and headed out at 8am. We took the shuttle to the airport and from there took the city bus downtown. It took about 40 minutes total to get where we wanted to. We went and saw the Heinz Historical Museum. We got there at 9am, and it didn't open until 10 so we went across the street and sat in the hotel lobby. The museum was pretty sweet. Here is my favorite picture from inside.

A New Year

2009-01-05T11:31:00.011-06:00

Happy New Years! 4 days late.

I've skipped out on writing for a few days so I have a lot to say.

I had the worst flight of my life. I was sent to Moline, IL on a high speed. It was on the CRJ-200. A plane I had never seen, or been in. So I get there early so I can go check it out, but of course the jet bridge isn't connected to it and the door isn't even open, so I'm just freaking out. Then the captain comes up to me and tells me both of the coffee makers are broken. We finally get into the plane and everything is so messed up, I hate the galley on the 200. The passengers board and everything and I start to make my announcements and thats all fine. Then I go to sit in my jump seat, guess who can't get the seat belt unhooked...me. So I'm just hanging out with the arm straps around me so I don't fall out of my seat on take off. I get up to make some more announcements and start to get my cart ready for service, turbulence hits and i'm trying to hold on for dear life. I mess up some more announcements and I get to row two and the guys are asking me if it's my first flight, that means i suck. The way back in the morning was better but I never want to go back on that plane again. I'm done talking about this now. Here is the bed spread from the hotel we stayed at.

Here are some pictures from my Holiday party I had on the 30th. I set up a photo booth in the laundry room, it was fun!

I got the pleasure of being scheduled to do an overnight on New Year's Eve. I flew to Hibbing and Thief River Falls. On the way there, I believe there were at least 5 people who brought canes on the plane with them, so boarding took a while. The flight went pretty smooth, nothing interesting happened. We got to the hotel (Seven Clans Casino) around 11:50. I ended up being on the floor above the pilots so I had to take the elevator up. I got in the elevator and there were two people SMOKING!!!! bleh it was so gross. The hotel reaked of smoke that night, i didn't know you could smoke in hotels but sick, it must be because its on an indian reservation.

I figured I should so something to celebrate the new year, but being in a hotel room by myself made that kind of hard. So I decided to jump on the bed. And then I documented it. The highest place to set my camera was on the t.v. and I cut my head off.

I was hoping that I wouldn't wake up and have dinner waiting for me on the front table, but we got the best sausage, egg and cheese 'mcmuffins'. They were huge! I couldn't even finish one!

On the way back to Minneapolis I had to unaccompanied minors, two little skater boys names Shade and Seven. They will be famous one day.

Now that It's January I'm on a new schedule. I'm on reserve for the entire month, they call me when they need me. Friday I did a quick turn to LaCrosse, WI and back. 27 minute flight. I think I was in my car to the airport longer than in the air to LaCrosse. Sunday I deadheaded to Aberdeen, SD and worked the flight back. Then worked it there and back once more. I thought deadheading would be fun because we just get to sit in the back on the plane and watch the other flight attendant work, but I was so bored! The flight was an hour and I left my book at home so the only thing I had to look at was the World Traveler magazine. When we got back to Minneapolis, the flight back to Aberdeen was supposed to leave right away, I had to switch planes, so I got to the gate and the plane wasn't even there yet, It had just left, so I sat on the bench and called my mom, neither of us had anything to talk about, we were both bored. Once we got on the plane, there were about 20 old people who were on a tour in Pasadena, CA. The first thing I told them was that it was -6 degrees in Aberdeen! Haha they were mad, but they were super nice and talked the entire flight so I had something to listen to. On the way home there were only 5 passengers, pretty quiet ride. Wassau

Now I have today off and back on reserve tomorrow til saturday. I just checked my schedule to see if they put anything up and they gave me a four day trip! I'm kind of excited for it, just not excited to pack food for four days!

Even more exciting news...Hannah and I are going to Hawaii at the end of the month!! My aunt and uncle will be down there so we are going to have a great time! If it rains this time I am never going back, that's it!

Another visit to Duane at the front desk

2008-12-26T16:08:00.005-06:00

I've decided that I will never get to fly to Canada. I got switched to Watertown/Pierre again last night. woop. I got to the airport way too early, and happened to have Harry Potter in my bag. Em won't start to read Twilight until I agreed that I would read Harry Potter so here we go.

Turbulence on the Saab isn't fun. Especially at take off and landing. I thought my stomach was going to jump out of my throat. I hate turbulence, especially having to act like its not affecting me so I don't freak out the 6 kids sitting in front of me, that was tough.

I wore my leg warmers, and let me tell you they are fantastic! Even though it was 25 degrees warmer last night and this morning that it was two nights ago, it still helped!

My crew was cool, Kim was the First Officer, super nice. And Jared was the Captain, he's orignally from England. He says that his favorite place to fly to is Kitchner because it reminds him of the place he grew up.

On the way home this morning, there was a kid crying the entire way back and I felt sick the entire time. I've decided that I can't drink Pepsi on the plane anymore, I go to bed with a huge headache and go home the next morning wanting to throw up.

I never knew that ironing boards could have cool covers. The Days Inn in Pierre has a different one for each room I swear! Since you've already seen the bed spread here are a few of the ironing boards for you!

I thought the sun would never rise

2008-12-25T18:25:00.005-06:00

Merry Christmas!!! Last night I flew to Hibbing and Thief River Falls. If I could take tips from people when they bought alcohol I would be a much happier person. It's so hard to give it back :/ Opening the door to let people out in Hibbing was cold, you know, just -16 out. This morning I thought my ankles were going to fall off they were so cold (but I got leg warmers for christmas woot!) We stay at the 7 Clans Casino when we get to TRF, I walked into my room and it was freezing. So I just blast the heat and wear my socks to bed. I wake up at 3am feeling like i'm on the beach in Mexico so I get up and turn the air on. I think I got 3 hours of sleep. This is also the hotel where we get a hot breakfast that is ready for us in a to-go box. Instead of getting two eggs, hasbrowns, toast and sausage patties..I open the box to find mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, peas and a ham sandwich. There was more food in that box that I could ever eat. It was 5am, I can't eat that early in the morning. The ride back was pretty normal. I was walking down the aisle picking up ( a squirrel just jumped off the roof and onto my deck and it scared the crap out of me) garbage, and a lady stopped me to ask what lake we just flew over. haha I had no idea where we were, and there were like 50 lakes below us. I thought it was funny.I sat in row 1 for about the last 15 minutes of the flight, staring at the sun, waiting for it to rise. It was just sitting there, it wouldn't rise, i swear i was staring at it the entire time and it was just hanging out below the horizon. So I got bored looking at it so I started to try to figure out where we were when I saw Cooper High School. The two awkward circles of the building. And then I saw the Lions sledding hill so we flew over my house!

High Speeds

2008-12-22T11:08:00.006-06:00

The month of December I was scheduled to do High Speeds, or CDO's (Continuous Duty Overnight.) This means, I fly out of Minneapolis between 9 and 10pm and get to my destination a little before Midnight. We stay in a hotel for 3-5 hours and then leave first thing in the morning. In Iowa we leave at 5am. I really don't mind doing these, I get to be home during the day and its nice since its Christmas Break for my friends so I always have something to do! I don't like working on friday and saturday nights though.

Here are the cities I have been to this month. Hibbing, Thief River Falls, Bemidji, Jamestown, Devils Lake, Mason City, Fort Dodge, Watertown, Pierre AND I have to go to Thunder Bay Canada three times this week. My favorite place to stay so far has to be Thief River Falls, they make you eggs and sausage in the morning!

It's been super cold and windy the past couple weeks, and when we fly to mason city and continue onto fort dodge to spend the night, there might be a passenger in row 1, where the door is. And I have to leave the door open for passengers to get out. So the passengers in row 1 tell me they are cold, but they aren't the ones standing in the doorway with a skirt on :) (i'm hoping for ankle warmers for christmas)

I flew to Pierre, SD twice this past week. On wednesday we had a lady who had a service dog on the plane with her. She looked just like annie just a little bit smaller. We get a crew car once we get to the airport, the Captain always drives it to the hotel. The one problem is the the trunk and doors were frozen shut. We finally got the doors open but the trunk wasn't going to open. We stay at the Days Inn. The pillows suck, the towels are scratchy, and there is a creeper at the front desk that doesn't talk but always has three chocolate chip cookies out for you ( we don't take them.) This is where my first bed spread picture is taken at.

Bed Spreads...

2008-12-18T16:41:00.001-06:00

I've decided...since I will be spending 20 out of the 30 days in a month, in a hotel bed, I'm doing a series on bed spreads. More to come..

They don't believe in hot water in Texas

2008-12-03T10:19:00.003-06:00

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.

Cedar Rapids..

2008-11-25T18:26:00.003-06:00

I'm on my overnight in Cedar Rapids, IA. There is absolutely nothing to do here. When we were driving to the hotel in the shuttle the drive was telling us all about the city when the flood happened. It honestly reminds me of New Orleans. All the houses are boarded up, you can see the water lines, and the businesses are empty. I wanted to go out and take pictures of the houses but my day got screwed up and I didn't get out. When i have another over night here I will be sure to take pictures and post them. We are staying at the Crowne Plaza tonight, I've never had an entire hotel room to myself! It's kinda scary? But it's a super nice hotel and I have two beds, which one to sleep in? I've been here since 12:30pm and now its...6:30 and I just figured out how to work the wireless. sweet.

The CRJ-900 was CRAZY this morning. The flight was 37 minutes. That means no time for me to know what the heck I am doing! Everyone boarded so fast. My instructor went over paperwork and other procedures with me here at the hotel once we got here. I'm hoping tomorrow goes better, I have three legs to figure out this plane! And the worst part is I won't even be back on it for at least another month!

I got my December schedule yesterday, thinking I was going to be on reserve because of my seniority being...young. Nope, I got a high speed line! AHH! That means, I am on continuous duty over night. Fly out of Minneapolis at 8pm, and get back to Minneapolis in the early morning. Don't know how I feel about this except...I get to be on the Saab the entire month!! YES! And I get to do two flights into Canada.

I have to wake up at 3:30am tomorrow so it's time for bed! Goodnight!

First Flight

2008-11-23T11:28:00.007-06:00

Friday I had my first OE (operating experience) on the Saab 340. It was my first time on a prop plane. We flew to Lacrosse, WI and then onto International Falls, MN later that day. The plane was pretty full on the way to Lacrosse with 26 people! The pilots though it would be funny to get on the PA and let every passenger know that it was my first day, I got a few claps haha. The flight into Lacrosse was smooth until we started to descend, then it got bumpy, scary. I thought it would be hard to do service during the flight but when i stood up it didn't even feel like we were flying.

We had about a half our layover in Lacrosse, the pilots came out of the flight deck and sat down with us in the cabin, they were super nice. I found out that the captain is a cousin of a girl I went to high-school with. He told me that there were about 9 things that were broken on the plane but we were still OK to fly, I wish he wouldn't have told me that. I guess a lot of the Saabs were broken that day, some flights were canceled because of it

After we flew back in Minneapolis we had a 2 hour layover before we left for International Falls. I just sat in the break room, nothing interesting happened. We switched onto a different Saab for this flight, and again, there was stuff that was broken. The gate agent told me that there were going to be 7 passengers, only 3 showed up and they all sat in the back. It was kind of fun only having three passengers, because they slept the entire time and we just hung out in row three drinking ginger ale.

Flying into International Falls was beautiful, the sun was starting to set! We were supposed to have another half hour layover in International Falls but the pilots wanted to go home so I had literally 5 minutes to do everything! It was insane. Once again we boarded on 3 passengers, who all sat in the back. This flight home I had to do everything by myself. At the start of our service we take out a anti bacterial wipe for our hands, not even looking, I grab a sugar packet instead ( thinking it was the wipe) tear it open and sugar goes EVERYWHERE! Thankfully no one saw.

Then we landed back in Minneapolis, finished some paper work and went home! I would say my first day was great and I was more prepared than I thought I was. Tuesday I do my OE on the CRJ-900. We fly to Cedar Rapids, IA and spend the night there, 16 hours in IOWA, what to do? We get up the next morning and fly to St. Louis and get back home pretty early, I'm nervous for it!

Here are a few pictures from the last day of training and Friday morning when we met in the parking ramp!

A Great Idea

2008-11-18T21:37:00.002-06:00

I went into school today to pick up the frames I was supposed to get two weeks ago (oops). Before I even got a foot into Colleens office she said, "What's this I hear about you being a flight attendant?" So I had to explain myself. I was in Business of Photography about a year ago, and a teacher had gone around the class and asked everyone what we wanted to do when we graduated. When it came around to be my turn I said, " I want to be a photographer, a flight attendant, and marry someone with a french accent." Pretty much all that was said back to me was, "You can't do that."

Well. I will.

Maybe not the whole marrying someone with a french accent, but someone who can fake one?

So Colleen came up with a great idea for me to do a blog about being a flight attendant and a photographer. Every where I'm sent, I'll take one picture and post it.