Auntie Again!

Such exciting news was shared within the family yesterday!! (Well, we've known since Christmas...but the rest of the world became privy to the information via the blog yesterday!) My sister-in-law and brother are expecting a babbbbbyyyy!!!!!! Eeeeek!!! We are all so excited!  

Little baby Flynn is scheduled to arrive the end of next summer!  Check out www.kaelahbee.com for the cutest photo reel and more photos! 

No more underwear.

I arrived back into Chicago today from Little Rock to check my schedule and to be surprised (or not so surprised) that crew scheduling had added a San Antonio turn and a Northwest Arkansas overnight to my schedule.  It is currently day 5 of 6 for me...so I am wearing thin.  Sometimes...even the per diem isn't worth it.  So that will be 4 legs for me today, start at 7am, finish at 7:15pm.  You think I live the glamorous life?  ha...

Think Again.  

I am tired, my nail polish is beginning to chip, and I am running out of knee highs.....that means it is time to go home!  

As I was walking through the aisle today with the beverage cart I had a man stop me to ask for a drink.  I asked him what he would like and he proceeded with, "I'll have a water, a coffee, a Sprite and a Cranapple."  I am certain I looked at him with my "you have got to be out of your mind" eyes.  I honestly didn't know what to say.  (Don't get me wrong...there were things I wanted to say.  I just would have probably lost my job.) I eventually mustered up, "I have 55 other passengers to serve sir, you can pick two now, and if I have any of your choices when I get finished I will bring them to you." I felt like I was speaking to a child...."No..you can't have all the candies today, but pick two and we will get the other two when we come back to the store." What was he trying to do? Drink the price of his airline ticket onboard?  Sorry sir...but you have a long way to go.  

Now- if you'll excuse me...I have to go tell the husband who is massaging his wife's feet in row 10 that they must turn around and fasten their seatbelt for landing.  

Tortas Frontera

I am currently sitting at the food court in the Chicago O'Hare International Airport listening to a small Indian girl wail and wail.  I don't know what she is wailing about, but her parents are trying the ignore tactic-which clearly isn't working.  At some point...you have to draw the line.  As she continues to cry incessantly....my patience is wearing thin.  I must venture out...and at O'Hare, there is only one place to go!  Tortas Frontera!  

Rick Bayless has taken his food genius to the skies.  He is the owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago.  Tortas Frontera mostly serves tortas (grilled sandwiches) but there several other options on the menu.  The raspberry prickly pear aqua fresca is so sweet and sour and thirst quenching...it is a sight for sore eyes for flight attendants who are overloading with soda and Minute Maid orange juice day in and day out.  And if I wasn't in uniform, you can bet I would go for one of their delicious margaritas.  

I had guacamole and salsa last night which was a first.  A flight attendant I worked with last week told me I must try it next time I was in Chicago and to get it loaded...and that's its only around $6! So, that's exactly what I did.  What exactly does "loaded" entail?  Starts with a cup of fresh made guacamole, then its topped with bacon, toasted pepitas, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted peppers, and queso cotija-fresco mix.  Now-I will be the first to tell you that I am ONLY a fan of MY guacamole and my mother's.  I never order guacamole at restaurants because it won't even top our concoction.  But........ as weird as it sounds...the bacon in the guacamole was pretty delicious with its smoky aftertaste.  The sun-dried tomatoes created an intense tomato flavor and texture and the cotija cheese on top balanced everything out.  

It was a much cheaper option than having tortas or molletes (and I wasn't that hungry) and still a little taste of Frontera.  Love!  So do yourself a favor and next time you have a layover at O'Hare for whatever reason, make it down to Tortas Frontera and try it out!  There are locations in Terminal 1 at gate B11, Terminal 3 at gate K4, and Terminal 5 at gate M12.  Usually they will stay open until the last flight goes out.  

Waiting on a 12:50 departure to Little Rock this evening.  If I was in New York I can assure you that I wouldn't be going anywhere, but, lucky (or unlucky) for me I was doing Chicago flying during the snow storm so now I am sure I will be flying in and out of Chicago for a couple of days until things get back to normal in New York or the snow melts...whichever should come first.  

Jus d'Orange...Sans Glace.

I started off this morning in snowy Montréal, where I was eager to get up and out of bed at 5:30am.  I am always eager to get to the airport in Montréal, because I can answer all kinds of questions and be at every passengers call.....en français....of course.  For some reason, helping passengers doesn't have the same appeal in the english language.  I am always eager to chat up passengers going to and from Montréal....in hopes that we will have something in common and I can practice my French.  Granted, they are certainly not parisien...and their accent comes out somewhat grotesque...but I can usually fight through it and carry on a decent conversation.  If you ask me, my french is better than their french...but who is keeping tabs?  

I can tell you that I did not serve any drink other than orange juice on that flight.  Sans ou avec glace? That was the only question I asked.  Jus d'orange s'il vous plaît...  That was the only answer.

I arrived back into Kennedy airport around 9 am and called to be "released."  If you are a flight crew and on "reserve" our crew scheduling department can extend you to another flight or overnight when you arrive back into base.  I was keeping my fingers crossed that I could have the day at home to do laundry, go to the bank, and go to the store.  "Hi Melissa...this is Flight Attendant Philpot.  I was just calling to hopefully be released,"  I said in my sweetest voice possible.  We laughed about the weather and getting things back on track while she looked around in the system for anything and everything she could assign me to.  After holding for about 90 long seconds she came back on and paused.  "Well, we are going to surface you to LaGuardia Airport for a Detroit turn."  I wanted to reach through the phone and pull her hair and cry in her face....but instead she heard a grumbled, "Okay, put it on my schedule."  

Surfacing to another airport only happens at our base here in New York.  We are the only base that operates co-domicile....so going between the two happens pretty often.  There is a company that scheduling calls that takes us back and forth between airports as needed.  It is free to us, as long as the company schedules us.  

I rush to the gate and find out that there is not a second flight attendant listed for the flight.  The clock ticks away....10, 10:12, 10:35, 10:48...with a 10:55 departure time, we will surely be delayed.  For the past 10 minutes I (and the pilots) have been hoping that maybe they would just cancel it.  The captain begins to list himself on the earlier flight home.  The First Officer would be able to have lunch with a friend, and I could go home and get my chores finished.  I look at the clock again which just turned 10:57am and they just assigned me a partner in crime.  A few choice words come into all of our heads.  

Let's go to Detroit.  

Baby I'm Back! Yea!

I'm back! 

Okay, so its not a New Years resolution (because that rule I will just break), but I'm going to try my hardest in 2014 to get back into the blog.  My life really isn't all that interesting, but talking to my family over the holidays helped me to realize that it is more interesting than most.  Especially since passengers seem to get crazier and crazier as the months go by......

I spent the beginning of the month of January at home....spending time with my family and friends, picking up on the holidays I missed out on.  I went back to work for four days then spent four more days at home.  I am currently on a flight back to New York where I will spend four days working then three days off...heading out to the Grand Canyon with my favorite friends and roommates, Paige and Tenee.  We haven't spent a lot of time together just the three of us in ....well, I can't even remember.  

As I sit in a packed 63 seat CRJ aircraft, I can't help but notice everyone around me.  The lady beside me that smells like fish tanks,nursing homes and chinese food.  The man across the aisle that asks that perpetually hated question when asked what he would like to drink by the flight attendant, "What do you have?"  Then the spiel of coke, diet coke, pepsi, diet pepsi, dr. pepper, orange juice, tomato juice..................................and the list continues until you finish ALL of the products in your cart and he decides upon a glass of water - no ice.  Get OUT of my life.

 The woman sitting in front of me is a hoity toity you-know-what that thinks she is better than anyone else....and acts as if sitting next to someone in coach is the most horrendous thing that's ever happened to her.  News flash: buy a first class seat.  Besides, your white girl weave is showing.  

Or, perhaps the mother sitting behind me with her four year old child whose shoes seem to easily find the back of my seat.  If I didn't have on my uniform, you can bet that I would put that childs feet to rest.  And last but certainly not least, there is an asian man sitting diagonal from me who is bald....but he has a mullet.  Don't ask me how its possible, I don't really know....but it is.  

I don't notice things like that when I work, because I have a job to do and not a lot of time to sit around and look at other people....but the general public is an interesting species.  I often wonder where everyone comes from, where are they going, and why can't they just follow the rules-but I'll save that one for another day. 

I suppose without all those crazy people I would be out of a job...so I guess I gotta suck it up and deal with it!  

I wish I could count all the pairs of pantyhose that I've been through in the year 2013.  I know I've been through at least 4 pairs of shoes.  I've smeared through 2 tubes of lipstick.  I've gone through two watches and probably 25 bottles of Purell.  I've learned to cover things like hotel remotes and phones with shower caps and ice bucket liners (smart, huh?) and never touch anything in an airplane lavatory.  

2013 was exciting!  I loved my new job, and I still do.... but the newness is beginning to wear off.  Would I be lying if I said I do it for the benefits?  Absolutely not. Would I be lying if I said some days I just want to say "no" to crew scheduling and forget the whole thing and just have a day off?  No.  But the people I work with are top notch, and so much fun.... despite their quirks our passengers are really very nice-sometimes a little needy-but make work fun.  What other job could I possibly have that allowed me to visit friends and family all over the world on my days off?  For free?!  

So I hope that I can transition the blog into something new and fun and relevant to my life as a flight attendant.  I hope that there are still readers hanging on out there....and I hope that I can provide lots of insight into the world of travel and airports...and for those of you in Galax or Lawrenceburg that live vicariously through this blog, I hope I can once again bring a little daily adventure back into your lives!