Aim for "Work"

It’s been said “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”…  In a week I return to flying.  It has been, hands down, my favorite job ever!  Each day is different.  You meet people, and you see places you wouldn’t have seen.  Yes, there are bad days, such is life in ANY occupation…  I simply love being a Flight Attendant.  It’s my own private party.  I talk to everyone.  I love to get to know their stories.  I “pick on” someone on each flight and make them entertain me.  Someone told me once I never have met a stranger in my life.  It’s true.  I like to meet people.  Even on the worst days, passengers hug me as they walk off the plane.

This is a job I wanted to do when I was 12 years old.  I even took a United Wing Scout Class...  Life got in the way.  When I finally decided to do it at 40 people told me I was crazy.  But now they GET it.  I’m a great Flight Attendant.  I make people smile.  When I found I was going to be taken off line for two years to be a Union Rep, I actually teared up on my last flight.  I knew I’d miss it terribly.   After one of our recent snow storms the Company asked if I could help out by flying a day or two.  I told them I wasn't allowed to but I stared at the flights available in our "open time".  I was chomping at the bit to do it.  I ogled at those trips like they were a box of chocolates just out of reach.  I yearned for a flight.  God listened to my heart and wanted it to sing again.

Next weekend I go back to the job I love doing.  This weekend I’m escaping to family and friends back “home” in SF where I grew up.  I want a break between being a Fighting Machinist and the Hostess with the Mostest Flight Attendant.  As I’m flying to SF I’m grinning my ass off.  I MISS this gig and I know I’m going “home” again next weekend.  Home to the skies I love.  Home to the friends that I DO have at work.  Home to working again with the love of my life, taking 50 people at a time to the place they really wanted to get to.

Next weekend is as good for me as much as going back to Half Moon Bay is today.  Next weekend is all about finding my joy again.  Returning to everything I love.  I am so blissfully happy and excited I’m going to make people puke with my saccharine sweetness.

A quick sidebar...  My mother has me subscribed to a few of my old favorites magazines... They stack up on my ottoman until I have a lazy day or I fly somewhere for fun.  I bring the stacks of magazines on these flights and do my best to get through one or two and give them to the Flight Attendants.  I know they scour People and the other junk magazines when they have downtime between flights.  Thus I do my best to hand them magazines like “Country Living”, “Martha Stewart's Living”, and “This Old House”, knowing it’s like being handed a steak instead of ground beef.  Those magazines are rarely found on planes.  So my non-Flight Attendant friends… when you’re in the airport and choosing a magazine… Choose one of these or Bon Appetit or Gourmet Magazine.  It’s as much of a treat as a box of chocolates… Granted you can hand your friendly Flight Attendant Godiva too…

I’ve made some of the best friendships flying.  We talk when everyone is asleep.  We spend 3-4 days together at a time and get to know each other.  Why do Pilots and Flight Attendants hook up?  It’s like speed dating… You fly with one crew for 4 days.  Then another crew for 4 days… then another…  The odds are sooner or later talking on the aircraft and/or doing dinner with a crew you’re going to meet a friend or a significant other just because you find people with common interests.  You end up doing things outside of work; Running, art festivals, dinners/lunches.  We are a different breed.  Not everyone can live sleep deprived for 4 days, working 14 hour shifts and then return 3 days later.  Most of the people I know have a problem with jet lag after ONE flight in one day.  We do 18 in 4… and we thrive on it.  It’s hard to date someone outside of the industry.  They don’t understand that when you’re home you need to 1)  sleep until you’re alive again, 2) don’t want to leave the house… and 3) may not get home for hours after you were scheduled to because flights aren't always on time.   Especially when it’s important to you.  Some crews are truly a joy to work with… when you have one of those magical crews the customers glow… and you laugh at anything that goes wrong... because of the people you are with.

I met the love of my life flying.  I know I’ve blogged about it over the years…. It’s been a few so I can afford to do a minor repeat…   We flew three days together way back in 2008.  By the end of the three days together we were already in a plastic bubble where no one else existed.  I RAN off of his plane after the last flight because my whole being was screaming “danger danger escape escape!!!”… and he found me cowering in a corner in our old lounge desperately trying to get released so I could run home and hide… He came up to me with a “WTF?” look on his face… I looked in his baby blues and I looked away from him and then back to him… multiple times… Then I looked up in the air and thought “My life will never be the same”…. And gave him my number.  I was right, he was danger… he was trouble… he was drama… and my life will never be the same… and yet today, I couldn’t be happier that he’s in it.  

I’ve met celebrities… (Shawn Mullins, Mike Epps, congressmen & women , misc pro wrestlers and football players…) I’ve met amazing individuals (one man sticks out who had no lower arms and no legs and yet he jumped off a wheelchair in a jet bridge and jumped up into his seat before I could blink... Made me think ‘handicaps’ are all in the mind)…

I’ve woken up in Canada one morning and on a beach in FL the next.  Where do you get that in a 9-5 job?  You go to work daily and if Lois is complaining about life every single day in her cubicle you can’t get away from it or make her STFU.  My job, if someone is complaining, I try to make them happy… if I can’t… in 2 hours I’ll never see them again.  

Every day is an adventure.  And… maybe that’s the secret to our breed… We love the adventure.

Aim for Dead Growth

With the exception of the holidays, I really hate winter.  It's cold.  In Atlanta everything becomes grey and trees drop their leaves... Our grass goes dormant... It's just ugly and miserable to be outside... Then along comes late February and we get teased between ice storms and snow storms about what is to come... In the past week the ornamental plums and magnolias started to bloom and green leaves began to sprout from the ground... can Spring finally be here?  Piedmont Park fills with people on days where it reaches 70'.  We all feel excitement for the potential of Winters breath to finally be gone again.  As I run through the streets I see the buds on the trees and fields starting to sprout with the bulbs planted so optimistically in the Fall.  It brings warmth to my heart and soul.  I AM happy.

I spent the morning purging the dead growth of the last 1.5 years.  It was the albatross that kept my soul dormant this past year.  I purged everything in my office and on my downstairs desk.  There is a distinct lack of clutter everywhere.  I went and shipped my boxes with a big grin on my face.  I AM free.

I spent this afternoon in my garden with the 70' sun on my face and shoulders.  I cleared a small section of the garden in the time I had.  In clearing all of winter's dead growth I found all the bulbs that are beginning to grow.  I felt pure joy in deadheading the winter away...  (See the stack of dead leaves in front of the newly mulched section of my garden above)

A new acquaintance said to me recently "I really dig your peaches"... and I laughed...  Today in my garden I kept finding myself singing

"You're the cutest thing that I ever did see
I really love your peaches, want to shake your tree
Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time
Oee baby, I'll sure show you a good time

'Cause I'm a picker, I'm a grinner
I'm a lover and I'm a sinner
I play my music in the sun"...

I thought to myself in my moment of bliss...  I really dig my peaches too... I dig myself... I AM a good person... and it's so nice to have the time to reflect upon that.  My joie de vivre is returning and I AM feeling really good...  The dead growth around me has disappeared over the last two weeks... I AM feeling really optimistic about the future.  As I took away the dead growth of the garden I found my first daffodil of 2014 and grinned even larger.  Daffodils are Gods message to you that life is eternal and love is ever lasting.  Even when things are looking dismal all you have to do is sit, wait and pray/reflect on your life and Spring will return to your life again.

"Birds flying high you know how I feel

Sun in the sky you know how I feel

Breeze driftin' on by you know how I feel

It's a new dawn
It's a new day
It's a new life
For me
And I'm feeling good"...

 

Aim for Stress

My blog rises from the ashes to be dusted off and resumed...

I have spent the last week counting my blessings.  Over and over I have seen how God gives things to you as you can handle them.  Things happen for a reason and when they happen there is a purpose in His message.

A year and a half ago I took on the task of fighting for the coworkers I love.  For those of you that know me well you know that I love with my heart and trust more than I should... I care about things too much Mark says... I don't know how not to care.  I spent a year and a half of sleepless nights waking up at two in the morning trying to solve the worlds problems while being beat up from all sides.  I loved being able to help my friends, yet the stress was eating me up.  I didn't have time to run and gained 20 lbs.  I worked 24/7 and slept little.  I haven't had a true vacation in two years as my downtime has been at UMass getting my Masters Degree.  My stress was affecting everyone in my life, yet I'm not a quitter so I fought on to keep doing the job to the best of my abilities... each morning taking one step forward.  Last week I was told my position was over 6 months early due to lack of funds.  I slept that night and every night since.  I've run 5 miles a day and have lost 13 pounds.  I am happy again.  To whomever thought they were hurting me by pulling those funds... Thank you.  While I'm disturbed that my group has lost representation at the negotiations table, I am at peace and have found myself again.  So again.  Thank you for the blessing of peace.

I am blessed because during that year of stress I met one of my closest girlfriends.  She of the "Don't let the Maybelline fool ya" claim to fame.  She's strong, and beautiful inside and out and tells it like it is so you better be tough enough to listen to the truth.  Her and Mammache are what I take away from the year and I am incredibly thankful.

I am blessed because I'm surrounded by many amazing women here in GA.  They are all strong and ferociously loyal.  What would my life be without Mormons and New Yorkers?  Empty that's for sure.  Love you guys.

I am blessed because I am loved.  I see it and feel it daily. I know what love is and I know it's not always easy.

I am blessed because my children are happy and healthy. I'd be a little more blessed if the lil cyclones of dirty clothes and dishes learned to clean up after themselves just a wee bit more... ;)

Because I count my blessings I volunteer for charity when I can... whether it's fundraising for a run, a walk, or any other charity events, I believe in giving back as much as possible.  Thus I was happy as a pig in mud last night when I was able to doll up and join the volunteers for the Red Dress Party raising money for the American Heart Association.  An amazing event put on by a small group of people.  I'm thankful to have been allowed to be a part of it.  I've been smiling ear to ear all day looking at the pictures of the event.

I am blessed that because I was at the event I ran into a friend I haven't seen in a few years... she mentioned that she used to read my blogs all the time.... and I realized, hey, I'm not in my position any longer... I can write til my little heart bursts with happiness... I so miss writing... So today I start again... and I'm grateful.

Now because I know
God listens... I'm going to go take my blessings and count them in a hot bath with a glass of wine and savor the moment... and because I can't sit anywhere without my mind a racing, I'm going to talk to God about how I can increase my blessings by finding enough spare cash to have a matching SLO cuff to go with my amazing SLO necklace that I rocked on the red carpet last night with my Maybelline Queens.  Sisters in SLO baby...

Life... is... good.  Peace out!