The Only Constant is Change

Well it's been a while since my last post, but things have been kind of crazy! I transferred from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City, and although I'm loving SLC I still find myself missing MSP a lot! I'm glad I missed out on the terrible heat wave though.

Being back in Utah was kind of an adjustment strangely enough. I froze for the first 2 weeks I think, and when people would complain about it being humid and hot I just had to laugh. The thing I miss most is my Minneapolis flight attendant family. Living in a hotel for a month with a lot of people had its challenges, but I think it's something I will always fondly remember. It's strange to come home from work and not have your friends waiting to talk about your crazy trip filled with strange delays, you're awesome announcement bloopers, weirdo passengers or flying with the most attractive pilot you have ever laid eyes on! I learned so much from all of them, and miss them terribly! In a way, being a flight attendant isn't quite the same.

On a happier note, I still love every minute of this job! Every day is a new adventure with new people. I've only really flown with one other crew member that I didn't particularly get along with. We had a nice little disagreement in front of passengers where she ended up making an entire family move (even though I told her they didn't need to). After basically telling me off in front of them, she later told me that I was right and we didn't need to move them after all...crazy lady! She did make up for it later though when we had another puker, and she offered to handle it after realizing my stomach was a little to weak for it.

My first trip out of Salt Lake was awesome. I had overnights in Phoenix, Kansas City and San Francisco for the 4th of July. Unfortunately, mid-trip the flight attendant who previously dropped the trip took it back over, and I was stranded in Houston. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone that day working out what base I needed to be sent back to since I was still technically based in MSP. It was quite a mess, but strangely enough I ran into another MSP, recently transferred to SLC, flight attendant friend in the same exact situation. It was a crazy coincidence, but ended up being so great. We both got to stay at the same hotel in Houston, and we met up with another one of our friends who is based there! We kept with the Southern Style and had a classy dinner at Church's Chicken. The neighborhood was pretty sketch, and when we got our order of strawberry shortcake they brought it out saying, "we ain't got no whip cream", oh well...it was still great. I spent the morning of the 4th of July relaxing poolside in Houston, flying home in 1st Class, and getting to spend the night at the fireworks with my family. I couldn't have asked for a better day!

Nearly dying of heat stroke!

Since then I've been flying quite a bit. I endured the mid-west heat wave in Oklahoma City and ended up underestimating the weather and getting heat stroke. I was exploring along the river walk without bottled water (super bad idea in a very humid, hot place). I really wanted to reach this one point and hopefully see some of the city so I kept going even though I was super dehydrated and tired. The way back was pure hell and took me forever. I had to stop and sit down in the shade like every 5 minutes. Pretty soon I was throwing up and had the worst headache ever. I could see a hotel not too far and figured they would have a store with bottled water. With eyes fixed on the hotel I slowly made my way. A few times I was worried I was going to have to call the ambulance to come rescue me or fall in the river and float away and never be found...how embarrassing. Eventually I made it to the field right next to the hotel (I swear it was the longest most pointless piece of land on this earth). It was like the final stretch of a marathon, but I finally drug myself into the hotel, grabbed a bottled water and handed the clerk my card without even being able to speak. I chugged the water and sat in the lobby watching tv for a minute (pretending I was a guest at their hotel of course). When I finally had enough energy I finished my journey back to the right hotel. What a day!

After Oklahoma City, it was on to St Louis. Fortunately it was a lot cooler! The hotel was nice with kind of a cottage style. They had a pond with cute baby ducks right outside my balcony. I really liked Missouri. It was really pretty. It was crazy though, you could see the path of their recent tornado, and the damage at the airport was still pretty evident.

St Louis Hotel

I've met so many passengers this month! Really nice and awesome people, and of course there are the people who are always memorable. One flight we had a little gas problem. This terrible smell kept making it's way into the galley from the first row, eventually the pilots called and asked what the smell was. "Sick, I know, I have no idea who it is, but it's disgusting!" I said. They laughed and said they had been blaming it on each other, and then they decided to blame it on me...haha gross! Every time it would creep up again I would look back at the passengers and try to distinguish who looked like the guilty party, but I could never figure it out.

On another flight, I was sitting in my jump seat when I noticed a male passenger with painted toenails. They were painted with cute polka dots even. As I was sitting there trying to figure out excuses for him I decided that maybe someone played a joke on him, but then I concluded that wasn't the case because he was wearing sandals! He had to know, and he was cool with it. I was trying to think of a polite and professional way to talk to him about this and figure out the story, but I decided it was best to just make up my own stories.

Many sweet passengers have provided me with gifts.  I met a nice couple who owned an embroidery company and left me their card if I ever had any embroidery needs. Another man, came into the galley and gave me and the other flight attendant pieces of chocolate. They were even xo chocolates...how sweet. Poor guy almost got his head knocked off by the other flight attendant though (sometimes when people catch us off guard we go into auto defense mode, and she was ready with the self-defense moves). We had a good laugh about that!

As far as my recent embarrassing moments, I'm sure I couldn't even write a list. It would be far too long, but that's the joys of learning something new. The other day I left my bags in a first class seat, and forgot to put them away after being so rushed to board.  A few minutes into boarding, a passenger stopped me and said, "excuse do you know whose these are...this is my seat." I looked down at my bags..."Oh my gosh I'm so sorry those are mine" He looked at me, shook his head and said, "Ma'am all carry on items need to be properly stowed in an overhead compartment or completely underneath the seat!!!" Everyone in first class was laughing! He told me he couldn't resist. Laughing myself, I told him that I just wanted to trade spots with him and sit in his nice first class seat and he could work this flight. He decided that he was doing pretty good so far, but he didn't wanna spill drinks all over everyone so probably not...funny people.

So sorry it's been a while. Hopefully I can keep more on top of my blogging! I really do enjoy remembering these stories, and hope you all enjoy reading them! I appreciate all of your support. Safe flying!!!