Bucket list item #7 is to attend a Beth Hart concert. I know I’ve posted about her before, but I’m slightly obsessed. The first song I ever heard her sing was L.A. Song. I love the unique tremolo in her voice. *WARNING: THIS SONG HAS SOME HARSH LANGUAGE*
Here is a video of Beth singing my favorite song of hers, a song that haunts me, My California:
One winter night when I was living in Logan, Utah, I was on the Utah State University campus and after an evening class, I walked outside. I noticed that there was an odd red hue to the sky. I found some friends outside and was discussing what this might be. My guess was that for some reason, we could see part of the northern lights or the Aurora Borealis. I had never heard of the lights being seen this far south, but the next morning while listening to the radio, the news confirmed that that’s exactly what we were seeing in the sky.
I would love to see those lights in all their glory. I think it would be amazing to see that colorful dance in the sky. Even though I can say that I have seen the northern lights now, I’ve decided to add this to my bucket list. Bucket list item #4: I’d love to see the Aurora Borealis in all it’s glory!
When I lived in Logan, Utah, before my flight attendant career was underway, I got to know “Mom and Dad Johnson”. They are the parents of my good friend and former roommate, Joel Johnson. Joel, who seems to have fallen off the face of the earth, was one of the original members of the vocal group Voice Male and while we were roommates, we decided that we needed to get our own A Capella group going. After throwing around a few names, we came up with the group name “2by4″, since the group consisted of two girls and four boys.
Practices were often in the Johnson home, and this meant that Mom and Dad Johnson were forced to listen to endless hours of our singing. Over time, I really came to love Joel’s parents. There were times when they acted as if they actually were my parents and they even gave me some valuable help and advice that I sorely needed. My real parents were still living in southeastern Arizona at the time, so it was great to have this extra set to get advice from, on occasion.
This morning, during boarding of my work flight from Salt Lake City to Denver, I was welcoming passengers in the forward part of the aircraft and all of a sudden I heard a familiar voice call out, “Finally!!! After ten years of waiting- I finally have you as my flight attendant!” I was very surprised and extremely excited to see Mom Johnson boarding my flight! I can’t even explain how amazing this woman is, and how great it was to see her and hug her!
I wish we would have had more time to talk and catch up, but I had work to do. When we finished up in Denver, I had my ride waiting for me, and I believe she had another plane to catch. Still, It was amazing to visit with her, even if only for a few minutes. I hope I can visit Cache Valley sometime soon and have a proper visit with the Johnsons’.
I’m sitting at the crashpad, chatting with Victor, one of our newly hired flight attendants. The boy talks a lot, but he passes the test since he seems to be very kind. This is his second month at the airline, and he was just telling me about his hellish commute from Oakland to Denver last night. The poor boy almost got stranded at LAX. Even though he didn’t land until the wee hours of the morning, he still made it.
His stories brought back many memories from just over 10 years ago when I too was new to this world of traveling for a living. I am the first one in my family to travel for a living and it’s been a great ride. It was new, fun and exciting, but nothing compares to what it is now. Like any job, after awhile the longer you’re a flight attendant, the better things can be. That is the case if you love what you’re doing. As great as it was, I wouldn’t go back to those first days for anything.
<Home | 05:41>
I can’t sleep. My body woke up somewhere around 04:30 even though I was up until almost midnight getting things together- there is no sleep left in me. Megan isn’t going to come to pick me up for another six hours but I’m done sleeping. Maybe this is a good thing since my flight doesn’t leave Los Angeles until 23:45 tonight. Maybe that means I’ll actually sleep on the plane. I should drug myself.
<Los Angeles, California | 17:53>
Megan showed up right at 09:30 and I grabbed my two bags (one to check and one to carry-on) and threw them in the trunk of her car. We had to make a stop at Walmart so I could grab a few things. Arron commanded me to bring Hostess pies and butterscotch pudding for him. What I really mean is that he asked me if I’d bring some for him- I knew that if I did, they would get smashed in my checked bag, and he’d need to eat his treats with a fork or a spoon. I guess these are some things that they just don’t have in Australia. I ran into Walmart and found a little plastic box to put them in. I hope this keeps the treats uncrushed until I see Arron in about twenty-two hours.
Since I still had about 10 hours until I could check in for my flight, I walked down to get some lunch at In-N-Out Burger, near LAX.
After ordering my #1, animal style, a gal who was also waiting for her order started chatting with me. Her name is Roxie and she just so happens to be one of my coworkers, based in Baltimore. After being an operations agent in Raleigh for I-don’t-remember-how-many years (close to thirty years, if I recall) she finally decided a couple years ago that she was going to transfer to inflight and start to see the country. We had a great chat!
We talked about our experiences in flight attendant training and the fact that her 30-year-old son is going through the exact same training in Dallas at this very moment. We remembered all the stress and head games that we had to live through to earn our wings. Those memories came flooding back! I think I had tried to block most of them out. It was quite common in training for you to get close to someone, thinking they’d become a life-long friend and coworker, only to find out the next day that they’d been sent home for failing a test or for one of a million other reasons. I remember that our training class started with 136, and I think only 84 made it to graduation. Roxie told me that from one test alone (passing of the P.A.s) they lost about 11. Mind games. Stress. Tears. Sleepless nights, pacing the hotel hallways studying because you really, really wanted to be a flight attendant.
I remembered there was a boy named Edwin in my training class. The day before our graduation, Edwin went out to celebrate his twenty-first birthday. The next morning, we all showed up to the shuttle and were very excited because this was our big day. We were getting our class picture taken and going over some last-minute career training and then we were going to “get pinned” (receive our wings) in a ceremony later in the afternoon. Edwin never showed up that day because he partied too hard and slept through his alarm or wakeup call. Instead of allowing him to join us later in the day (he had already passed all of his exams), they put him on a flight home. They told us from our very first day in training that we always had to be on-time to class, because they had to trust us to show up to the plane when we were supposed to be there. Edwin would have made a great flight attendant. I wonder what he’s doing now.
After a quick visit to the CVS so that I could pick up some generic Zzzquil and some generic Gas-x, just in case, we walked back together until it came time for me to turn right, heading to the terminal and Roxie turned left, heading back to her layover hotel. She’s a very cool gal and we exchanged our info so that we will hopefully keep in touch.
I grabbed my bags and lugged them all the way to the L.A.X. international terminal. Up to this point, I’ve only experienced terminal 1 because this is the only terminal that we fly out of for work. The international terminal or terminal 4 is a long hike, especially carrying a bag the size of the one I packed for this trip. Next time I’ll fork out the $5 to rent one of those easy cart thingies. I felt like I was going to pass out, lugging it the whole way.
<18:39>
I stepped up to the Qantas ticket counter, wondering if it was too early for me to check in for a plane that wasn’t supposed to leave for hours. The agent told me that it was indeed possible and that many other passengers had already checked in. She took my passport and told me that she wouldn’t even need my confirmation number. She scanned it through the groove on her keyboard, checked the screen and asked me if I had any bags to check to Charlotte this evening. “Okay, first of all, I didn’t even know that Qantas flew to Charlotte. Secondly,” I told her, “I am actually going the opposite direction and flying to Brisbane tonight.” She scratched her head and I pulled my confirmation number out of my bag. She scanned my passport again and this time it had me going to Brisbane. Much better! Although Charlotte, North Carolina is lovely!
Once I was through the security line (which was basically nonexistent for me since I happened to be in a flight attendant uniform- awesome benefit!) and a pitstop to the men’s room, I set out to find some chocolate. It is a well-known fact that you should always bring chocolate for the flight crew. Now that you know this, never fly without bringing some! Please don’t get the cheap, waxy kind of chocolate either. I was glad to find a See’s Candies shop in the terminal and grabbed a couple boxes of truffles. I hope the crew is grateful for the gesture.
I called up my cousin Megan to find out what her schedule is like this week. I don’t want to park my truck in a public parking lot for an entire month so I was hoping to park at her house in Kaysville and get a ride to the airport. She told me that she probably didn’t have the room to park my big truck, but said that she was off of work for spring break and she’d come out to the house to pick me up. This is so helpful! I was going to have to get an expensive taxi. Megan will be my driving service.
I just got the most amusing email from Virgin Australia since I’ve booked my flights around Australia on them. I think they are desperate to fill those first class or business class seats because they’re open to the highest bidder! I checked the site out and it looks like the starting bid is AU$150, and even with that bid, the site told me that there was a very low probability that my bid would be chosen. I think I’m going to stick with my original plan of bringing chocolate and flirting with the flight attendants. We’ll see how far that gets me to the front of the plane.
Washington Camping Adventure: Day 1
Last night when I arrived in Salt Lake City, my cousin Megan was there to give me a ride to my folks’ house. We were both hungry, so we stopped in Layton at a really great sushi restaurant called Osaka (something-or-rather). This was both our first time eating here, as one of Megan’s friends told her to try it out. I must say this sushi was incredible!
On the drive, I asked Megan if she wanted to go camping with me. To my surprise and delight, she said yes! When I go on these adventures, it’s not that I want to necessarily go alone, it’s just that I’m so used to hearing friends and family tell me that they can’t or don’t want to go. Rather than wait and plan a trip around somebody else’s schedule, I tend to just go ahead and have a great time without anybody. When I get to a new place I’m pretty good at chatting up strangers and making new friends- that sort of thing, so I’m really not alone for very long. Up until right before I had asked her to join me, the idea hadn’t really dawned on me. This trip alone will now turn into some family bonding time.
When I get to a new place I’m pretty good at chatting up strangers and making new friends- that sort of thing, so I’m really not alone for very long. Up until right before I had asked her to join me, the idea hadn’t really dawned on me. This trip alone will now turn into some family bonding time.
DavTravels 