Wordless Wednesdays: Card Shark

The Call

Every member of the airline industry has had to deal with crew scheduling many, many times during their career. They generally get a bad rep for simply doing their job. Now that I’m removed from it I can see it. Not that there weren’t those that were completely uncooperative and rude but that’s also probably from dealing with 2,000 pissed off flight attendants every day. I tried to be nice and cooperative. After all, they controlled my fate all but 11 days of every month. I wanted them on my side. Most of them fade into the background as general crew desk but there were two that stood out. One who I loved, and one who made me want to grind my teeth in hatred.

As a flight attendant it was very hard for me to regulate my sleep schedule. One day I could be on a 5am flight across the country, be expected to sleep all day and then work the red eye home later that night. The next I could be on a plane to Europe and the next on an afternoon flight somewhere. You never could tell. This translated to my sleep schedule being seriously whacked out and staying up half or all night most nights. All the while dreading the call.

The worst was when crew scheduling would call me for a early morning check in in the middle of the night and I was still up. Sally always worked the middle of the night shift and for that I hated her. I’m sure she’s a perfectly wonderful person but since she never gave me good news (ie. a late check-in to somewhere exotic) I got all stabby whenever it was Sally on the other end of the phone.

The conversation usually went something like this.

*crew desk ring tone* (to this day I cringe whenever I hear that tone)

Me- ::siiiiigh:: Hello?

Sally- Hi this is Sally from the crew desk calling for Abigail. Sorry to wake you.

Me- ::in my most sullen voice:: This is her

Sally- I have an id for you. Let me know when you’re ready to write it down.

Usually by this point I was already on my computer looking at the craptastic trip she was assigning me.

Me- I’m ready.

Sally- ID blah blah blah, checking in at ridiculously-early-o’clock, to Somewhere Incredibly Dull.

Me- Ok ::through gritted teeth:: thank you.

The part of that conversation that irked me the most was the sorry to wake you. Generally she wasn’t waking me anyway. I want to think she probably knew that. In my head she took a very sick pleasure in interrupting my sleep to give me a trip that she knew I’d hate. She loved giving out the awful trips. Looking back I realize I might have been a little bit crazy thinking that and she probably was trying to be nice. She also probably hated staying up all night long giving out trips that flight attendants were less than nice about accepting. Poor Sally.

Matt at the crew desk, on the other hand, was my favorite. For the same reasons I hated Sally, I loved Matt. He worked the day shift and always gave me the best trips. Everything from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Narita, Japan to Rome, Italy. You could almost hear the giddiness in his voice when he was assigning those trips. Matt is lucky it’s not possible to jump through the phone because there were multiple occasions I wanted to kiss him right on the lips (Sorry, Joel). Actually Matt assigned me my very last trip out of DC before I transferred to Chicago.

That conversation went something like this:

*Crew Desk ring tone*

Me- ::siiiigh::Hello?

Matt- Hi, this is Matt from the Crew Desk calling for Abigail.

Me- Oh, hi Matt! How are you?

Matt- Just fine. I have an ID for you when you’re ready.

Me- I’m ready.

Matt- (totally stalling for added suspense) By the way I see you’ve had quite the month here so far. First Brussels, then Zurich and now… ID blah blah blah, checking in at some-nice-time-in-the-evening-o’clock to…. Rome!

Me- AH! Are you serious?! I’ve wanted to go there so badly!

Matt- Good! I decided to give you all the best trips this month so you kick yourself for transferring to Chicago.

(Chicago in my airline? Not so much known for awesome trips)

Me- Har, har…

Matt- Well have a great trip.

Do you see why I loved Matt?! I mean, night and day. Literally. Poor Sally really got the short end of the stick and probably became all mean and sadistic as a result of getting bitched out for the hundredth time for a trip she had to give. People aren’t usually their best at 3am when you’re telling them they have to be at work in a few hours to go somewhere they’d rather not go.

Once I transferred to Chicago I didn’t hear from Sally or Matt on a regular basis anymore. I bid a different kind of reserve where I was assigned my trips via computer the night before. I don’t miss talking to anyone at the crew desk really. When I’m assigned a crappy trip I like to have time to seethe and sulk without pretending to be nice to anyone. (I’m not proud of that. It’s just how it is, OK?! Don’t judge me) I did have to talk to Sally once but I don’t think she remembered me. I’m ok with that. I probably wasn’t ever very nice to her anyway.

**Names have been changed. Also? No hard feelings, Sally.**

Cuteness En Masse

Once a month there is a papillon play group at the dog training facility I take Phoebe to. She always has such a blast and comes home exhausted (bonus!). I’m fairly certain there is nothing cuter than a herd of papillons. They’re so fun to watch. See for yourself.

Running Between Tweets

You all know I’ve talked about doing C25K several times. I started right before I got my wisdom teeth out which was duuumb because I had to stop a week into it. I’ve meant to start several times since then but since I’m the queen of procrastination I haven’t gotten around to it.

The procrastination is officially over. Why? Because I have a group of fabulous Twitter friends to kick my butt into gear. For real this time. In order to keep each other accountable we’ve started Running Between Tweets. It’s a compilation blog so we can all chart our journeys together.

The site is very much a work in progress. As are most things I do, it was done on an impulse. I will constantly be updating and changing it. The point right now is we’re motivated and ready to go. No putting it off any longer.

I’ll be blogging along side some really amazing bloggers (which, I’m not going to lie, intimidates me a little) so this journey should be interesting. I hope you’re excited as I am. Running starts tomorrow

Battle wounds

Yesterday night I had a soccer game and I got beat up. The team we played against was rough and mean. Especially the girls. I mean, I’m competitive and play hard but they were practically growling. Plus, the elbowing and tripping were not necessary. It’s just for fun people! There is no prize! (or at least I don’t think there’s one) Anyway, the extreme aggression is just pointless.

Because of the over zealousness of the other team I ended up taking several falls and am quite sore today. I also ended up with some pretty decent marks and bruises. Most of them are boring scrapes and such, but one I am actually pretty proud of. I’m impressed with it mostly because it came from an awesome block on my part, if I do say so myself. A guy took a shot at the goal and I saved it with my knee. It stung like crazy! Enough that the dude asked if I was ok. It was a hard hit. I was fine but when I got home I took a better look.

Yes, that is an imprint of the soccer ball on my knee. Jealous?

I’m sorry but that? Is a pretty cool bruise. It’s more than 24 hours later and it’s still there in the same shape although it’s faded a little. Not exactly the sexiest thing around but I think Joel is impressed and that’s what really matters.

If you see me I won’t be rocking shorts for the next couple of weeks until these marks start to go away. Right now it’s very obvious that I got in a fight with a soccer ball… and it won.