Living the Dream

I thought I'd give you a little taste of my Flight Attendant Life.

Day One-February 13, 2010.
I start out cranky.
It was to be an easy day-2 flights.
Fly from CVG (Cincinnati) to ORD (Chicago O'Hare) then from ORD to JFK (New York and you may have heard me refer to JFK differently-but I'll keep in family friendly).

Our airplane was late coming in so we knew we would be a little late going out. What we didn't know was that a passenger had gotten very sick and had proceeded to vomit all over Seats 19C, 19D, 20C and 20D. The seats and the carpeting would now need to be replaced and the Aft flight attendant jumpseat was now unusable. We named the plane the "Vomit Comet".

Have you ever wonder why your flight is delayed when the weather seems fine? The answers are too numerous and for the most part, you really don't want to know.

It would seem like a great time to get some knitting done while we waited-but NO. I just picked up my Bid Packet. The Bid Packet is the Flight Attendants' only chance to plan for the upcoming month and ask for days off, specific trips and so on. The packet comes out on a Wednesday (it's now Saturday) and the bids must be submitted by Monday at Noon. I don't have the mental energy or the time to go through the whole packet which lists in detail all 1300 possible trips.

I usually cross off the days I want off, then I cross off the trips that start too early or end too late. I also cross off trips that involve Canada (too much hassle with customs and paperwork), and the list goes on and on. I touch base with my friend Nancy, we try to fly together as much as possible but sometimes are schedules are too hard to coordinate. I want March 6th off for the Free Form Purse Class and I want the 19th-22nd off for a possible road trip. With those dates crossed off, I do some quick math and realize that it will not be possible to build my March schedule with those days off. Back to the drawing board-I may need to put Canada back into play :-(

After an hour and a half delay, we were ready to board. The passengers are all concerned about making their connecting flights. We try to address their concerns but we have concerns of our own. We only have a little over an hour to provide a full service to a full plane with a full first class cabin-we'll have to move fast. Luckily, I'm flying with Miss Beverly and she's easy to work with and delightful.

We make it to Chicago and quickly try to get the plane ready for the next flight to make up some time. Luckily, the plane is only half full. During our rushing around, I somehow broke my "Wings", my flight attendant name badge thing that sits over my left chest area. The protective backing of one of the prongs has partially broken off and the sharp point is exposed. I can neither get the pin off or cover the sharp exposed point. Needless to say, I spend the next two hours trying not to play with my chest. Good thing we're only half full and its dark!

We get to JFK and were now only an hour late. It is bitter cold and we wait over 30 minutes for the hotel van to pick us up. I'm now crankier, colder and suffering from multiple stab wounds. Once we get on the van, it proceeds to make three more stops to pick up more cold and cranky guests. I get my room key, my DoubleTree Chocolate chip cookie (the best part of the day) and head straight for bed.