Idaho Falls

Idaho Falls:

I've been here soo many times but have never ventured out around the hotel very much. Our hotel is right on the falls. Last night when we were here you could hear the water tumbling over the rocks. Amazing sound. Especially when you're ready to go to sleep. It's soothing. Tonight we have longer here and this gave me an opportunity to walk around a bit. So here it is:

A Possible End

I've been searching for jobs in Austin for quite a while now. I haven't been too aggressive but things are changing.

I've gotten to the point where I'm realizing how much more I want to be at home. I want to be home every night. I want to have regular meals every day. I want control over where I sleep, when I get up, etc. I want the stability of a routine.

I have applied for 26 positions with Progressive Insurance. Josh was originally hired with them after we moved as a backup. They have amazing benefits and it would have been a good opportunity. I have gotten frustrated because applying that many times and not ever getting an opportunity to pre-test or interview for any of those positions. I have also applied for several positions with Farmer's Insurance Group as well. While I'm still under consideration for a position with Farmer's I was still hoping for an opportunity with Progressive.

Over the past couple of months I even had Josh look over my resume' and even allowed him to make changes (yeah, that was hard for me). I knew he had my best interest in mind and at heart. Still, I wasn't being selected. Big Sigh.

I recently applied for 4 more positions. Again, within just days, I was NOT selected. I have every requirement they are asking for plus some. I finally came to the realization that my pay rate was probably high for the computer and it was kicking me out. My pay rate at nearly 5 years with my airline is $24.48 but it evens out to be about half of that when it comes to our annual salary. Josh luckily had some contact information from before and I called yesterday and left a voicemail for two different people.

I was really upset last night. I was having a hard time with being gone after being home a week. It hits me really hard sometimes. Then this morning.....aaahhhhhhh!!!!!

Here I was looking on the computer in the crew lounge in SLC, just minding my business when my phone rang with some odd number. It's loud and disruptive and then I hear it's a call from Progressive!

WWWWWWOOOOOOHHHHHHOOOOOO!!!!!!

I was so stinking excited. They did confirm that it was my pay rate and missing credentials that were found by hand in my resume' that weren't noted in other areas of the application are what caused me to not be selected soo many times. Kind of frustrating. But I am sooo thankful for this, especially after being soo upset last night. I have a pre-test to take and then it goes from there. But I'm hoping that with lots of good thoughts, prayers, and lots of criss crossed fingers and toes that this will work out!

I'll keep everyone updated!

Trash N Dash

There is a phrase that we use in the airlines industry called trash and dash. For us this is simply when we have a late aircraft arrival and there is a crew swap (where one crew gets off and another gets onboard to take the plane somewhere else). Once an aircraft has landed and everyone is deplaned we usually pick up all the trash-

YES, YOUR FLIGHT ATTENDANTS DO THIS!!!

along with placing the passenger safety card in the front of the all the other goodies in your seatback pocket, close the window shades, and cross seatbelts. Obviously when we are short on time and are late in somewhere this can't all be done without further delays. This is where this phrase comes in. We simply pick up the trash and get off QUICK!

However, this phrase does NOT ever refer or should refer to passengers. I recently had a flight from LAX-LAS on our Delta carrier. This is a no service flight in coach because it's a quick 30 minute flight. We do a service in first class and that's all. I'm pretty good about keeping an eye out on the rest of the cabin with frequent walk throughs to monitor. Nothing, I mean absolutely nothing was abnormal. We weren't even half full. So you're talking maybe 35 adults on this flight going into Las Vegas and this is what was left on our aircraft:

UUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They shredded a newspaper into tiny little pieces and left in all over the floor. Then that little bottle of water that is in the seat...see that? Yup, dumped all over the seat. They DUMPED it ALL over the damn seat! Are you a 5 year old?!

This was soo frustrating. It's soo disrespectful. We work under very different conditions and it's part of of the job and part of the industry but it doesn't change the fact that you would not want someone to come into your "office" and leave a mess like that! It's sad what our species has become. We are lazy and ungrateful. we are coming soon to the terms where there will be an app for everything. There is not one for personal cleaners.

Hello Gorgeous! I've started a new adventure along with flying. I'm hoping that with this I can stop flying so much for income and can really start to enjoy it again. So what's my plan?

MARY KAY

Yup, Ladies. I've rejoined the wonderful world of Mary Kay. I did this about 11 years ago. I was fresh out of high school and didn't take it too seriously. Imagine if I had though?! what a different place I would be in! Although, this has been a journey that has taught me more that I can appreciate.

I'm excited about this new adventure and am deeply DETERMINED to be successful. I know I have the support that I need and am happy to have a new opportunity.

Soon I'll be able to stop flying so much, be home in Austin more, more quality time with family and work on my new own business!

If  you would like to check out the website click on the ling below!

Courtney's Mary Kay Link

I look forward to seeing all the new customer orders!!! Remember the holidays are around the corner!!!

Japan Meets Dallas TX

The hardest part of flying sometimes is something as simple as language. Being in the travel industry means coming across those that do not speak any English at all....period. There are a few routes that this is to be expected on. Dallas/Forth Worth is not one of them, unfortunately. We were going from Los Angeles to Dallas/Forth Worth and had a small load of passengers. Not even first class was full. It was was a long flight where we arrived at nearly midnight. The other flight attendant had family in the Dallas area and wasn't staying at the hotel with the rest of the crew. When we got off the aircraft there was a little Japanese man running around yelling at us in JAPANESE, which neither of us speak. We figured out that he was looking for baggage claim and since we walk through there to get to our hotel shuttle I escorted him there. He didn't understand the concept still of where his bag was going to come from. The pilots were still tip-toeing their way out of the airport behind me leaving me to manage on my own (they're always just a TON of help, HA!). I finally had found an airport employee to help assist him and wait with him for his bag. I felt good that I had helped him out or at least found someone that could assist him further so I could meet back up with my crew. Oh boy, I wasn't out the woods. He got his bag rather quickly and if only that hotel shuttle had been just 2 minutes earlier. He spotted me and made a bee-line for me and me only. I was the face he was associating help with. Me and me ALONE. He was looking for his ride. I still do not know if it was a hotel or someone personally. Everything in his bag was in Japanese. There was one single phone number and I tried calling it, until I realized that he was a digit short. I was falling short, too. I couldn't help him. There was my crew with additional passengers in the hotel shuttle waiting on me. Everyone was starring at us, just waiting to see how I was going to assist this man. I did the only thing I knew to do at the time. This was the last shuttle to the from the airport to the hotel and I didn't have a lot of options. I sent him back upstairs with the guy that assisted him before. I still feel guilty that I couldn't help him myself. I guess that comes with the territory. You're not ALWAYS going to be able to help. It's still frustrating for us though to not be able to manage small tasks like these on our own. I'm hoping he made his way to where he was going.

Show Me Kansas City

I just had an amzing overnight in Kansas City! It was 27.22 hours long! When we got there and started driving to the hotel I was ssooo excited. Driving towards downtown just gave me this wierd feeling. All of these memories came flooding back. The good and the bad. I thought we stayed at the Crowne Plaza hotel on the Plaza but I was wrong. We were literally 3 blocks from my old apartment and my old office building. That was even more wierd! I could see my apartment from my hotel room!

Once I got settled in my room I had to wait for my microfridge to be brought up. I found that there was an AMC theather only one block away that was playing The Help so that was certainly on my to-do list. I walked around the Power & Light district. It's new to the downtown area and I've never been down there since. There are soo many new restuarants! i was soo jealous that none of that was there when I lived there. However, I have to think that if it had all been there I may not have ever moved to SLC. Because, my goodness there is a Chipotle and we know how much I LLLLOOOVVEEE Chipotle!

After walking around I headed to the AMC theather. This theather has the Cinema Suites! OMG! It's awesome. It's like sitting in a restuarant while watching your movie in a nice compfy recliner. I could have fallen asleep! Just needed a blanket and a pillow! The armrest even moves up to cuddle with your companion. But I was alone :-( I need to find one of these in Austin for us to go to!

SWEET SUITE HUH?!

The next morning I went walking again and found my old apartment building and my old office building. Great memories! Looking forward to coming back to see some old coworkers next time!!!

Lost in Flight

Well, this last flying adventure was CRAZY!

My renuin was on Saturday August 13th. So I had planned for us to fly to Salt Lake City on Thursday when Josh got off of work. This was going to give us the opportunity to hang out with Sara and Rachel and have a light dinner with a few drinks. That part worked out well and although we didn't get first class we still managed to have a few cocktails and play a little scrabble. We wanted to have sushi at our favorite sushi restuarant but that didn't work out so well with the time we were left with once landing and getting to the car. So we hit up the Bayou for the night.

Originally the flights looked great. I even thought we would be able to get first class. Somehow in the middle of the night things went bad. We got to the airport Friday morning to find out that all flights for the day to Kansas City (MCI) were oversold. I looked at all other airlines and we had no hope. Frustrating!! I looked at flights for Saturday morning and it was a completely different story. Everything looked great all day long! SERIOUSLY??? I wanted us to get there Friday because we were going to go to the Missouri State Fair since Josh had never been to a state fair. I was excited for us to be going especially since I hadn't been in soo long. Needless to say we didn't make it on the flights. We went back to Rachel's and took long naps before heading out for our sushi. YUP at least we got that!!! Oh I can still taste it! We then decided to go to a triple A baseball game there in SLC. It turned out to be a decent night for being stuck in SLC an additional night.

Saturday we made it on the first flight into MCI and in first class. It was all about sleeping for us. Mom and Hannah picked us up and we stopped at On the Border for a late lunch before heading into Sedalia. We did make a short stop in Warrensburg to see Brittany and Ethan too. Once we got into Sedalia we started getting ready for the reunion. For certain reasons I'm deciding to not speak of this event. We ended up leaving earlier than planned and picked up Hannah and went to the fair. An old time photo, a ferris wheel ride and a lot of people watching made for an interesting but fun night. We got back to the house around 1 AM. Sad thing: we were leaving Sedalia at 3:30 in the morning! We weren't even there for 36 hours :-(

We headed up to Kansas City to the airport and were way ahead of schedule for our 6:20 AM flight to SLC.  Ha, doesn't end there though. Every single access to I-435 North was closed!!! I knew 435 went in a circle from living there for 4-5 years and we ended up going the long way. Troy didn't think that we would make it there in time. I checked us in online but was still going to have to check us in on the kiosk inside the airport to get Josh a boarding ticket to get through security.  Well that options shuts down 30 minutes prior to the flight. Lucky for me there were some extremely nice Delta agents willing to asisst me ahead of the long line of customers waiting to get us through. We had already been assigned seats in first class too. We were running which we have never had to do and made it to security when Josh then declined the new scanners and got a pat down. We still made it but whew it was close!

It was a long short trip if that makes any sense. All of that traveling for a mere 36 hours in Missouri. Hopefully we'll make it back soon!