Day 7 of 9

Oh! This girl is EXHAUSTED. As the title states, today is day 7 of flying straight in a row! Two more to go after todays single flight from MSP to MEM. Sadly though, I will only have two days off before heading out for a 5 day trip.

I did a two day trip with Rachel (also a flight attendant whom was in the same class with me) in which we flew into LAX on a earlier flight in order to enjoy some down time at Venice Beach. We got home the following night around 11 PM. Unfortunately, I had picked up an additional 3 day that started at 7:45 AM the following morning. Which meant by the time I got home around 12, spent some time with Josh and preparing my bag, I didn't get to bed until 1AM. I was back up at 6 AM to get ready. Another snow storm had hit overnight leaving me little time to drive to the airport safely. I was going 15 mph on I-215. It was soo slick and Utah had not prepared the roads at all. That was not the worst. It continued to snow ALL day long causing serious delays. Our initial flight was late due to it taking FOREVER to push back from the gate and the long line to de-ice the aircraft. Once we were on our way we were an hour behind. We knew this was going to cause some possible missed connections for the passengers coming back into SLC with us. Well, of course other variables had to show thier ugly faces that day. Our back lavatory broke. That meant we had to have our maintenance team come out and look at the lavatory to make sure that our aicraft was still safe to fly. Let's add some more to that. The Vice President of Inflight was on our aircraft and sitting in my first class cabin. I was certain to follow all P's and Q's even more than I normally do. it was awful that we were now even another hour delayed. We had definite missed connections. I did walk through the cabin a lot answering what questions I could and reassuring passengers of how they would get to thier destinations. When there is weather the airline is never responsible. They'll try to do all they can to help but we don't control the weather! That's a hard concept for some people. Most people realize this and just go with the flow. Sometimes that's all you can do.  However, one lady had had an issue with us from the very begining. Intially it started with her having to gate check her bag. Which means it goes under a different part of the aircraft and it's returned to you immediately as you deplaned. I reassured her that even with her tight connection she would stil lreceive her bag. Then, I couldn't believe what she did next! She actually complained verbally to us about the passenger she was sitting next to, stating that she didn't feel safe and was very nervous because he was of Indian descent. I was appalled at her ignorance and disrespect. Even the people around her were shocked. The only open seat we had was the exit row and with behavior like that and her nervousness WE didn't feel safe with her sitting there. I felt bad for the passenger  sitting next to her. You can't group all of them together like that. Awful....some people just don't THINK! (she did miss her connection with absolutely no sympthy from me!)

Once we landed in SLC we were over 2 hours late. And we still had one more flight to go! A 3 hour flight at that! No time to eat and barely any time to go in and use a real restroom we hurried to get on our way knowing that we were still going to have to de-ice yet agtain. It was still snowing and hadn't let up at all. We did make it to our overnight in IAH that evening but 2.5 hours late. That day wore me out and it was only day 3. Our next day was jsut two long flights and when we arrived in SAT at 2 PM I went straight to bed. I even skipped out on dinner with my crew. I just couldn't do it. I needed the rest. We got home the following morning around 8 AM. Unfortuanately, it took me 45 minutes just to scrape a foot of snow nad ice off of my car. It was only 10 degrees that morning as well and with no gloves. . . . I wasn't a happy person doing that. To make it worse, the gas light came on while trying to warm up a car that the heat element is going out on. EERRRGGGG!!!!! Off to the gas station I went. Finally got home around 10 AM and had a full day.

I got to spend a little time with Josh before he headed off to work. I went to the grocery store, went to the hospital to have my blood work done to try to rule out possibilities for the hot flashes (I got the results today and need to see and endocrinologist), went to the chiropractor's office and Dr. Frogley had no choice but to release me from care due to the accident back in September. Now I am on my own to have my insurance pay for the continued care I need to continue my spinal manipulation to fix things. I'm okay with that though since I have great insurance right now. Although it is costly but cheap for me with all the things going on currently. I cleaned the apartment and did all the laundry. Then, I made a beef stew in the new crockpot and cooked a turley breast since it travels soo well in my lunch bag. Nothing is better than turkey sandwhiches. Talk about a full day!

I started a 4 day yesterday. I did NOT want to go to work. I wanted to stay home soo much. I'm just tired of being gone. i miss being home. I was also a bit concerned because my flight attendant was switched at the last minute and I was now flying with a brand new flight attendant who has only been here for about 3 months. So since she hasn't flown a 700 or 900 aircraft, needless to say she learned a lot from me yesterday! It seems to be a very communicative trip though. I've been careful about the way that I suggest things to her so that I don't come off offensive. She seems responsive to a lot of it though.

One of our flights yesterday was amazing. It was our first flight. I had a family of four in the back with me. There was a little 2 year old namde Jase. I sat and played with him while we were boarding. He was getting a bit antsy during the service so I asked for permission from the parents to take him with me to the front of the cabin. Kids LOVE to push the carts. They feel soo important when they get to help us. I try to do that when I see kids struggling. I picked up the trash and he got to push the cart. Everyone loved watching him and commented on how adorable (and he was!) he was, and helpful, etc. When we got to mom and dad in the back he didn't want to sit with them. He wanted me. He turned to me, put his arms up and asked me to pick him up. I ended up holding him and playing for over half of the flight! He played with my heair, earrings, and necklace. He talked and talked and talked. He made my day. I hated to see them get off the plane! The other two flights went well as well. I've given the other f/a ideas on packing her lunch bag and how I keep my stuff cold so we took a trip to Target since there is one 2 blocks from the hotel here in MSP to get the things she needed for her bags. Plus we NEEDED gloves! Two more days! I can't wait to be home Saturday. I need some rest time! Really I want a nice hot bubble bath! I even got up this morning and worked out for 45 minutes! Go ME!!!