#laterpost

Written on the 25th...posted on the 30th...oh well, at least you are reading!! haha...

July the 25th.... a day that I will never forget.  It was the gloomy day that I left Paris last year.  I remember getting up around 4 am, with no sleep.  I couldn't sleep that night tossing and turning wondering whether I was making the right decision.  Whether leaving my wonderful Paris was the right thing for me or not.  What was I going to do when I returned stateside?? Where would I go?? What kind of job was I going to get?? I was full of questions, externally you couldn't tell...but internally my stomach was twisted in knots.  

One hell of a year later, I can say that I am fully content with where I am.  Do I wish I was still in Paris?  Every day.  Do I love being here around my family and being able to see them often?  Absolutely.  Do I wish I could be in two places at once?  Of course.  Could I be in Paris and the States at the same time?  I wish...and only in a perfect world.  

The good news is...is that I am trying to potentially get to Paris next month!! Well, moreso Provence than Paris....but since my job makes it easy to pop over to France I figured why not?!!  Now if only I can get my mother to come along as well!  

It is wonderful and so welcoming that they would even invite me to come and stay with them in Maillane.  I am so grateful and so fortunate to have found such a wonderful family....how many times have you heard that??  And how many more times will you hear that??? Probably countless.  

I Think I Will Move To Australia.

I'm having Alexander's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  Ugh.  I am so over today!  I got called this morning around 5:30am for an 11:00am Washington DC turn.  A DC turn from JFK is about a 35 minute flight, so this turn should have taken maximum 2 1/2 hours...start to finish.  (Nevermind the fact that I appreciate the 5 hour heads up...but crew scheduling couldn't have just let me sleep in til 7???)

I arrived at the airport like a good reserve FA at 10 am for my sign in which is always one hour prior to departure time.  The flights delayed until 12.  I go down to the crew room and luckily I score a recliner and try to take a quick nap, setting my alarm in time to get up.  Delayed til 12:30.  Delayed til 1.  Delayed til 1:18.  Delayed til 1:44.  Delayed til 2:05.  

I should have already been home by now.  

Finally the plane arrives due to a staffing issue they had in Columbus this morning, which is where the plane was coming from.  I quickly try and grab a bite to eat....some soup that I have had in my bag for forever-because heaven forbid I pay for overpriced airport food.  I spill the soup down my shirt (thanks granny for that lovely trait).  I had my Tide pen (which I swear by).  I tripped going into the plane.  Catering did not give us enough ice or water.  We sit on the tarmac another 30 minutes waiting on ice.  There were 3 babies and about 14 children who couldn't speak English.  The oxygen mask came apart when I did my safety demo.  The pilots were Chicago crew and not very good at communicating.  We had bad turbulence and I spilled water all over a passenger being jostled around (yet another reason why you should wear your seatbelt).  My fellow flight attendant was a HOT MESS.  She was messy and lazy and didn't help at all.  She spilled a coke on the floor and failed to clean it up!!! HELLO STICKY GALLEY?!  

We arrived in DC to a ton of angry angry passengers wanting to board and get to New York.  Many of them making 6 pm international connections, per usual.  By this time we were working on 4:45pm and I wasn't so sure they were going to make it.  We waited another 15 minutes for the fuel tank to be refilled because DC couldn't get their act together.  We closed the door and were ready for departure and had to sit on the tarmac another 23 minutes because of a ground stop at JFK.  The man beside me in row 18 was getting heated....taking his frustrations out on me. 

What was I suppose to do??? Nothing.  I just listen to their frustrations, try to make up some bs excuse, and just nod my head.  Because I don't want to be here and I hate delays just as  much as you do!!!!!!!!!! That's what I really wanted to tell him.  "I should have taken Delta."  Well then WHYYYYYY didn't you take Delta??? It is a GROUND STOP.  No plane anywhere in the continental United States is getting in or out of JFK airport if there is a ground stop!  "Is my checked luggage going to make it???"  I don't have a tracking device on your luggage, lady.  I don't know! People don't realize that flight attendants know just as much as you do as the passenger.  In fact, you may know more.  Yes, we can guide you safely through an emergency situation and serve 15 drinks at one time, but as far as operations, and baggage, and connections....you know just as much as I do.  We finally pulled into JFK around 6:30....crazy, tired, angry passengers in tow.  

I stepped in a giant puddle on my way to the bus home and my metro card I just put $40 on yesterday fell out of my pocket somewhere between JFK and home.  

I think I'll move to Australia.  

JFK Connections

So most of the time I don't do things that weigh heavily on my conscience.  I just don't put myself in situations that require it.  But here lately, I can't get something that happened about a month ago off my mind.  

I worked a flight into JFK airport from Raleigh, NC.  There were a TON of kids on the flight....so many in fact my captain asked me if I had fun babysitting.  Included on the flight was an asian family of 2 adults and 5 children.  I noticed them during the flight, but most of them were sleeping so I didn't pay much attention.  We arrived at JFK around 9:15 (already delayed 2 hours) and got everybody off the plane.  I did forget one tiny detail, everyone on the flight was connecting to international flights. That's what happens at JFK, its one of those airports that operates at all hours of the day and night because there are so many international flights leaving at night and so many red eyes and international that arrive super early in the morning.  This particular family was trying to make a 10pm flight to Hong Kong.  

Everyone deplaned and I soon followed, so tired and ready to go back to Kew Gardens and get some much needed rest and relaxation.  I saw the family in the terminal and asked them if they needed help finding their way around (mistake #1) and in their broken English and my hand directions, I led them quickly towards the exit.  They were headed to Terminal 5, which required they take the Airtrain. The Airtrain at JFK wasn't close (Airtrain is the train between the 8 terminals at JFK) and it was a good 15 minute walk from where we were in the terminal.  They walked with me and to my dismay the Airtrain had quit operating that evening around 9:30.  I'm not as familiar with JFK as I am LGA so I asked the Airtrain personnel how we were suppose to get  to different terminals, as I had to reach terminal 5 where the city buses connect.  

The employee told me that we were to go back downstairs and outside and that there would be an alternate shuttle connecting the terminals.  Downstairs outside is a parking garage, so I told the family to stay put and I would go upstairs and ask again.  The employee had disappeared (of course) so I had to ask one of the guys cleaning up the parking garage and he directed me in the right direction.  

We approached the front of the terminal and I again told the family to wait there and I would go inside and ask.  At this point, I felt like I was mother goose with all my little ducklings following behind, chirping in my ears.  The woman inside told me to take the shuttle bus marked "All Terminals".  So, that's just what we did.  It pulled up, we hopped on (with 50 other people) and off we went (mistake #2). Then I realized, we were not going to the other terminals.  We were going to the rental car facility and the Airtrain station at Lefferts Blvd. Station.  The exact opposite of where they needed to go.  At this point, we were pushing 9:45pm.  The asian family had made their way to the back of the bus and I stayed right by the door as to remain inconspicuous.  I felt like I was on a wild goose chase.  The moment I realized we were going the wrong way I was mortified with embarrassment and hoping the asian family didn't notice anything was wrong.  I didn't care where I was, I knew at the next stop I had to get off the bus.  I had to get where they couldn't see me.  

I hopped off quickly at the next stop and ran away into the darkness.  They saw me get off and motioned "do we need to get off too?" I said no, and kept on running.  I turned back and they were making everyone get off the bus.  They began to follow me but I just couldn't bring myself to tell them I had led them in the wrong direction (mistake #3).  I was heartbroken.  I eventually lost them but couldn't sleep that night wondering if they had made their connection and were flying over the ocean on their way to Hong Kong.  I surely hoped so.  

My mom always tells me I have a gentle heart, and I hate having my feelings hurt, or someone being mad at me.  And it's true.  This story is a prime example.  It was my fault they probably weren't on their way home, and I knew it.  I helped them as much as I could, or just as much as I guess they could have figured out on their own....but I still think about them often.  Strangers...people I don't know... but every now and then, they cross my mind.  

I guess it's just part of the job.  

Please Turn Off And Put Away All Electronic Devices

Electronics are the bane of a flight attendant's existence.  How many times a day do I say, "Can you power that down?" "Please power that down." "We can't leave the gate until you turn that off." "Sir, I'm going to need you to power that completely down." It's gotta be a million...no...a million and one.  And if you turn it on before you are suppose to, or you tell us your headphones are "off," or you text under your leg, or your laptop fan is still running under the seat....we know!! We are not stupid, we know.  

So imagine my surprise when I read on the news lately that the FAA is considering allowing the use of electronic devices during takeoff!  Will it make my job easier? Absolutely.  Will it egress the ease and timely manner that we take off?  Of course.  Is it safe for all passengers to use electronic devices during takeoff?  Absolutely not.  

The majority of all airplane accidents happen during taxi, takeoff, and landing.  The most recent being San Francisco bound Asiana airline that crashed during landing today.  Prime example.  If those passengers had been preoccupied with movies on their iPads, texting as we reenter cell phone service zones, or jamming to the newest tunes on their iPods...they wouldn't be alert and conscious of what's really going on around them.  They wouldn't be able to hear the captain or flight attendant as they make announcements of what's going on or directions for an emergency landing.  

Granted, they wouldn't lift the ban on all electronic devices, just some (which then begins the question of where do you draw the line...).  As of now, we require that any device with and on/off power switch be powered down...including kindles and e-readers.  Does an electronic device create interference with air traffic control?  Directly, no...but it does create a buzzing in the captain's headset.  Too much buzzing = not being able to hear air traffic control.  

It would make my job easier, sure.  But if we did have to make an emergency landing and half the cabin wasn't paying attention, or after landing a million devices began launching into the cabin hitting other passengers over the head....just another thing to have to worry about during landing.  It's just not good!  I would rather tell passengers a million more times to turn those blasted electronic devices off, than have the risks of having them out and on.  

So when your flight attendant asks you to put on your seatbelt, put your bags under the seat in front of you, and TURN OFF the electronic devices....DO IT!  We don't just ask you to do those things for fun or to see who does it and who doesn't....we do it for YOUR safety.  So that in the million and one chance that your plane does have to make an emergency landing because something drastically wrong happens....you will be as safe as possible!! 

So pay attention to your surroundings and fly safe!