Kayoh @ 190

I am finally back from a long week of working, and have decided to reflect on the past five days…..

First stop- Puerto Vallarta where if you tell people you are headed down there, they say “Are you going to get the fish tacos? They’re the best in the WORLD!”. Now, I am not a big fish eater, but in the interest of making the most of what could be the last couple months of my job, I decided to try the fish tacos that were supposed to change my life forever.  All I want to know is what the hell is everyone I work with eating that would make them think that those tacos were anywhere near the vicinity of “good”????  I only managed to get down two bites, but those two bites got back at me the rest of the day!

Next- Salt Lake City. I only had enough time there to attempt to sleep, so nothing really to report.

Newark! If you say it with flair it doesn’t sound so bad ;)  For some reason, I was actually surprised that it was a little chilly, and scolded myself for not knowing better. This time of year, it is imperative to pack for all temperatures just in case, but each and every year I get caught with my proverbial pants down and end up buying a sweatshirt just so I can walk across the street for dinner in relative comfort (I am a huge temperature wuss! Anything above or below 72 is just awful!).  You should see my sweatshirt collection!

LA - Awwww, home sweet home. There is nothing better than having an overnight where you can sleep in your own bed….ok going home and not having to go back to work is better, but the overnight is a close second.

Las Vegas- Viva!  Still really hot and windy, but people going to Vegas are always excited and in a good mood.

Fresno- What can I say? It’s Fresno.  Although, I did run into an airplane I used to fly….a really old Cessna 152  (a little two seater). No, I didn’t literally run into it, but I did have my picture taken standing next to it. This was one of the airplanes I used to have my flight lessons in, and later on in life, I taught people how to fly using this airplane. I have certainly come full circle!

Today is the first day of yet another new life. With the airlines cutting flights across the board, this means that the passengers’ options become very limited, and the airfare for the flights that are left will skyrocket.  To the employees, this means less commuting options, a much worse quality of life, and yes, several thousand of us will be furloughed (a nice way of saying “laid off” because a furlough implies that you will actually return one day).

So my new life for the immediate future means that my schedule gets reduced to what is called “Short Call Reserve”. Now I have to go to my base and sit there for five days waiting to see if I get called out to go fly anywhere. I must be able to get to the airport within a two hour call-out. Seeing as I live in California and my base is in Phoenix, this is quite a considerable pain in the butt! (Could be worse, could be commuting to the East Coast!)

I am very fortunate, and have wonderful friends here in Phoenix who have set me up with a room and an old beater airport car I have named “La Bamba” (so much fun to drive it around and get funny looks!) .  All this for a fraction of what any other crash pad situation would cost me.

So here I sit in Phoenix, reading and writing just waiting for the call.  My new life until the next new life!

Have you ever wondered what happens when you purchase your airline ticket online, clicked your choice of seat on the cute little airplane diagram, and then you arrive at the airport only to be given a boarding pass with a different seat number on it?

Daily while I am at work, I observe people who are quite upset when their 4A window seat magically turns into the 22B middle seat by the lav. Can’t really say that I blame them, they thought they were getting 4A. They also thought they had purchased a seat next to their significant other- no worries, he/she is now in the other middle seat across the aisle from you!

Because this happens so frequently, I started asking around to try to find out what is happening and why it happens so often.

Rumor has it:  So there you are online purchasing your airline ticket (Now I know you don’t want to pay the “talk to a human fee”!) and selecting what you think will be your seat. When you do this, what is actually happening is that you are placing a seat request. You have just purchased “any” seat on that flight (you have just bought yourself a space in that airplane), you have not purchased “that specific” seat (4A) on that flight. I have been told that “the company” does their best to honor these seat requests, but your best bet is to check in and get your boarding pass in your hot little hands as soon as possible with the seat you want printed on it. Waiting until you get to the gate just prior to boarding and trying to change seats will not usually get you a better seat as many other people have had the same idea.

The age-old saying “The early bird catches the worm” is definitely applicable in this situation, only now it becomes “The early bird doesn’t get the middle seat”!

Quite the interesting morning today at the Toronto airport. After clearing customs for the second time in about ten hours (and YES, I now have a Canada stamp in my passport-yaay!), my crew and I were going through security when we hear a loud crash coming from the security line next to us. I look over to see a man picking up his laptop from the ground and say “You idiot!”. The man in front of him who had accidentally knocked the laptop off the security “belt” turned around and started screaming at this man. “F you, you piece of sh-t. How dare you talk to me like that, you don’t do that!”. The other man says “You broke my laptop!”

“IT WAS A F-ING ACCIDENT YOU PIECE OF TRASH! You’d better get away from me or I’m going to punch your F-ing face in!”. After a few more expletives, things lighten up a bit and we make it through security without a full blown brawl breaking out (thank goodness-I left my camera at home and hate to miss such photo opportunities!) As we walk away, the crew and I place bets as to whether or not these two gentlemen (I use that word loosely) will be on our flight. A bet that I win- they were not on our flight After the betting had closed, I note how there we were in line at airport security when a fight breaks out and the fine security personnel did NOTHING aside from a couple of “calm down” sirs. Did I mention they did NOTHING? So apparently it is alright for two very angry men, about to go to blows, to waltz through security and get on a very confined aluminum tube without so much as a “time out”?