You gotta pay to play

I am just coming off of 25 days of working straight with only one calendar day off during that time. A calendar day and a 24 hour period are two completely different things in the airline world and probably a lot of worlds. And no, I didn't plan that. What could have been twelve days turned in to 25, but each day for two weeks it all could have changed.

It all started when schedules came out on the 19th of February. I get my schedule and think okay, cool, not bad. But then I pour myself a glass of wine and think back to the last six months and remember that I haven't really worked all that much. I need to break down and work! Of course you think you can handle it after one or two glasses of wine. So I go in and pick up two trips. Plus we actually had a non stop every day from PVR to ATL so the commute is no problem. I pick up an 18 hour two day trip, which is unheard of and a 8 hour turn the next day, so essentially I am flying 25 hours in three days This is like flying to Lagos, Nigeria and back but that trip is a four day. So, I scored! I am thinking that if I get burned out then I will just drop my Cancun turn and my Paris and come home. So off I go, mentally ready to do this. Even if I don't drop Cancun and Paris that is not so bad I will be home on April 3. It is still a lot of days but Paris wont be so bad. I can do this.

LALALA, life is good, I can do this, UNTIL schedules come out on the 19th of March. I need to explain the schedules coming out thing. So you bid for what you want to work, days off, trips, report times etc every month. It goes in seniority order. We have around 20,000 flight attendants, the oldest being 89 or 90 by now (yes, that is years old), so you see what it does for peons of my ripe young age of 42. Nadda! So I get my schedule. SCREWED!!! I have reserve days on April 5-7, when I was planning on going back April 3 or sooner, and don't have to work again until April 20. Okay, not only did I bid for those days off, and bid to avoid having reserve days at that time because when you have reserve days you cannot do ANYTHING to manipulate your schedule to get the time off you want, especially when those days are a weekend and when the final four is in Atlanta!

So I try to swap, drop, anything and no one is biting. I hem and haw for weeks as to what to do. If I cannot get rid of my reserve days then I might as well pick up a trip because I have two days off between Paris and my reserve days. I am here in Atlanta, make money, right? So I do it. I have a choice of flying A line (flight attendant in charge)  to Venezuela or non A line to Panama. I pick non A line to Panama. I am mentally fried at this point. I flew A line up until Cancun and at that point I knew that I need to be an Indian. So this is how I worked 25 days in a row with one calendar day off.

The funny part is, that what got me into this craziness in the first place, wine, is what I decided to give up during this working stint. I knew that I had to stay healthy and sleep well to make it through. I tried to eat well (as well as you can when living in tubes, hotels and airports)  and sleep a lot, which I love to do anyway. Actually I had no choice, my body would not let me do anything else on most layovers. I learned to become invisible while being physically present. Meaning I was a robot. Just smile, and don't loose your job. I also learned how to walk away from a fight. I think the exhaustion saved me this time because I usually like a good fight with a passenger, especially when I know I am right, but this time I threw in the towel walked away and no longer interacted with this particular asshole. My crew members were awesome! They got me through it with their laid back mentality, and support of my weaknesses and forgetfulness and just being there and drama free. I missed my family so much, I would often take a long moment and go inside myself and hug and smell my children. It really helped. As did Face time. Thank you Apple computers and grandparents!!! I eventually had to get back on the juice (wine), but in very small doses.

I am finally back at home, sitting on my couch,  watching the ocean, surfing, sleeping and most importantly loving my wonderful children. Cuddling and smelling them, looking at them and thinking how wonderful they are and how well they adapt to me being gone and what a wonderful job Ozzy does with them when I am gone. He has raised some pretty incredible kids. I have to add that the usual happened, if you have read other posts, the car started acting up, but somehow fixed itself, Dillon got worms, and the kids had a three week vacation in which Ozzy had to entertain them all day without help. Luckily the water to the house continued to work!

My 25 days in pictures:

This is how it started. Snow, snow, snow, cold, cold, cold flying around the northeast. Isn't it Spring yet?

Brr, I think I was in Wisconsin between two lakes thinking how awesome this place would be in the summer

Ahh, St. Martin,  I was great to be back by the water in warm weather.  I want to stay, nope gotta go back north to...

Next stop, Maine, and back to the cold. Had all intentions on venturing out and seeing Portland, the water, boats, but it was cooold. Decided to stay in the hotel with the crew and eat lobsters. The whole crew, pilots and f/a's did dinner, for four hours. Ate a wonderful lobster roll.

The lobster roll was so good even the lobster  that my co worker ordered wanted to eat it

Next I was supposed to have a 17 hour layover in Charleston, SC.  I was looking so forward to it, getting back to my roots, walking around, we actually stay at the same hotel where my brother got married. I desperately needed to buy a pair of work shoes, (I depend on layovers to do my shopping because I just can't get what I need in Mexico), and I was looking so forward to eating at my favorite sandwich shop, Grouchos. I could already taste it and I was going to buy two. As I am dreaming of this wonderful layover I am about to have I hear ding dong. Ding Dong has the potential of being one of the most dreaded sounds to a F/A on the airplane. It usually means that the pilots are trying to contact you, and depending on what phase of flight you are in the dreaded ding dong means different things. This particular ding dong was to tell us we had a reroute, in other words we were not going to Charleston anymore.  My dreams were crushed and I actually think my mouth started to cry. Oh well, next time I guess.  My next trip has a layover in Salt Lake, which I bid for so I could get my mail and visit with Carrie.  I have to get to SLC! As you can see, my layovers are very important for me to take care of my north of the border business.  Sitting in MSP waiting to go to SLC, all right I am going to get my mail. Oh no, why is there a mechanic on board?  Plane is grounded, not going anywhere.  Are they going to cancel the flight? reroute us? we just have to sit and wait, as my dreams of mail are slowly  getting beaten down.  Luckily they found another plane, oh but it is not going to be here for another two hours.  So my 13 hour layover just turned in to maybe 9 hours if we are lucky.  So Carrie and I just switched our plans to have coffee in the morning.  Luckily she is in the airline biz as well so she completely understands.  It is always great to see Carrie, though being in Salt Lake was a little strange for me this time. I lived here, I have a house here, I was based here for 15 years, I know this place. I really wanted to jump in my car, drive to Park City and see my husband and kids. Even a we walked off of the plane I knew the crew that was very unhappily standing there waiting for our very delayed flight at 12:30 in the morning, because they needed our plane to fly to Portland, OR.  I am glad I am not them!! I had to pinch myself and remember that I live somewhere else now. I am based in Atlanta and live in Mexico, but I am back in SLC.   It was bitter sweet.  And yes, I got my mail.  Once again, thank you Carrie!!

Next up, Cancun, not much to say here. It was good to be back in Mexico for 50 minutes but it doesn't feel like Mexico.

That water is beautiful

Finally Paris!  I knew that if I could get this far I was on the home stretch.

Obviously me in at the Eiffel Tower

 Awesome trip, awesome crew. Haven't been to Paris since the mid 90's. We hit the ground running. Walked the city and visited the Eiffel Tower which was just a few blocks from our hotel. Were headed to the Notre Dame but exhaustion kicked in so we took the train back to the hotel, got some wine and cheese, chilled and crashed, HARD.

France's Statue of Liberty taken from my hotel room

Arc de Triomphe.  We drove right past it on our way back to the airport.  Nothing like doing your sight seeing to and from the airport. 

And then Panama.  The quick two day to kill time.  The only comments from here is that the hotel we stay at has a really good inexpensive breakfast.

My last trip, the reserve days that turned what could have been 12 days into 25 days.  Wonderful crew, nothing too exciting except that when we were flying out of Newark I just happened to look out of my little window to get a perfect view of our Statue of Liberty.  Wow, I think to myself,  I have really gotten around these last 25 days.

You know, the job is hard, tiring and trying, we miss our children's milestones, birthday's, holidays and everything else in between.  Our families adapt because they know no difference.  The husbands are the primary caregivers, the children are very well behaved and well mannered, they are worldly, independent and patient. It is a job that pays pretty well, has benefits, tons of freedom and flexibility, if you can work it, and you don't take it home with you. I am so grateful for technology so I can communicate with and see my children in real time and for windows so I can see the world as I am flying around it.

I don't ever want to do 25 days again but YOU GOTTA PAY TO PLAY!