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Who's that heating up an ear of corn in the hotel microwave? That would be me. In an effort to eat healthier and save money, I've started packing more varieties of food for my trips. At the microwave in the lounge, I helped myself to some wine and discovered that there is a cocktail hour. Whoohoo for the long Baltimore layover. Maybe I should put on some pants (instead of my pjs) and go back up there. Free wine and cheese-- what could go wrong? Oh yeah.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, I never know how a day will go in this life. I decided to go for a walk downtown Monday when my friend invited me up to Philadelphia to help his roommate and fiance celebrate before heading down to DC where gay marriage is, I hear, legal now. I hopped on the next plane up to PHL where I was treated to dinner, a pirated version of World War Z (thank GOD, if I had to wait any longer to find someone to watch that with me...) and then we all went out for an authentic Philly Cheesesteak. Naturally after that the only thing left to do was tour the city at night-- I saw everything; the LOVE statue, city hall, the Liberty Bell, etc etc between midnight and 2am.

My friend Brian and I are pretty dumb

I woke up on the floor the next morning to someone making coffee and boiling eggs. I got talked into going to New York City. We drove up there and went around Times Square, the public library and Central Park before I had to scramble to JFK and get back to Charlotte to fly the next day. I had my own row in first class. That NEVER happens. It was so nice.

Because I CANNOT stay out of trouble, I was interviewed by a Chinese news crew. See the story at the link below. ha ha ha, seriously, I can be such a ditz.

http://v.ifeng.com/news/world/201310/012f1331-2ae9-479a-82a8-bdce2957fa2a.shtml

Martin got it all on camera too apparently:

Central Park

Honestly, if I made even close to a livable wage with this job, I would feel guilty pulling off this lifestyle.

...and on to the wine and cheese.

Some favorites:

The Fox and anything else by Ylvis, honestly

Air Afrikaans

Brian Regan on Flying

Do I like the changed xanga? No. Am I getting used to it? Maybe. I miss all the fun features of the old one though...sigh.

Anyway, a few weekends ago I was in San Fransisco, the next weekend in Pennsylvania riding a horse, and the next.... I hit the flight attendant lottery and got called to do the London flight! Whoohoo! My first transatlantic! I was so excited and nervous. Even more nervous when the senior flight attendants made me do the hardest position on the plane. Oh well, gotta learn sometime, right?

In case you were wondering, the hardest position is the person who has to organize all the carts and cook the meals in the back. It doesn't sound bad, actually I prefer being in the back on domestic flights and I like messing around with the food, but... it was stressful and a bit backbreaking. I took a hot shower when we got to the hotel around 10am and slept for about 4-5 hours. I woke up and ran out to see what I could find. What I found was the Museum of Natural History. Not usually my first choice, but it was cool. There were all these gems, dinosaurs and taxidermied birds.

A giant armadillo-sweet!
Dodos are bigger than you expect

shameless selfie

Darwin!

shots of the building

I like shiny things

Colorful Diamonds!

'81, a fine year

A giant sloth!

What is your sound?? Will we ever know?

After wandering around the neighborhood a bit, it was time to meet up with the crew for happy hour and dinner.

Not a Tardis

British beer

"I'll have the chocolate mouse please"

This is how they put my name into the system... nice try.

As soon as I got back from London, my roommates picked me up and whisked me away to the grocery store so we could get ready for our big dinner party-before-recurrent-training-event. Some of my best friends from training (who are based in Philly) came down to stay with us so we could all do training together. I rallied, dressed up as a queen, and helped through a super party.
My wonderful roommates and Martin.

The next day training was actually a kind of fun. I feel good having my CPR and door operations fresh too.
Who is a super flight attendant!?

After that, I went back to Gainesville to relax with my friends... and that I did. I was pretty exhausted.

And what have a done this weekend?
I am a moron. My roommate and I were sitting around on Saturday and we decided to go to this open-house event. We got a flyer on our door and there was free cheese and wine, so.... we pretended to be shopping for houses in our neighborhood and walked around visiting all 5 places. They were also doing this promotion where you picked a card from a deck of cards at each house and whoever had the highest hand was going to win a $125 gift card. Of course I snuck through the deck whenever they weren't looking and picked out the Aces and the Kings. The realtors at the last house were USAirways employees so we had a great time talking. They let us take home three bottles of wine too and a clipping from one of the home-owners plants too. It was probably because I hadn't really eaten all day, so by the time we went to our emotionally-needy friend's house, I was in pass-out mode. Then I got sick....like a million times. I even seemed to have called a friend and RSVP'ed to a party in Los Angeles next week. When I awoke, my hair had been tied up in a topnot by one of my friends and it was pretty caked (that's why having someone hold your hair is so important). Washing my hair today was one of the most disgusting experiences to date. Chunks came out, CHUNKS, I even found a twist tie in it. wtf. To make it up to my roommate, I am about to make us a steak dinner. I probably should have known I'd had too much when we started taking pictures like this at the houses.

And there's my update. More sitting around waiting for a trip tomorrow.

Nicki Minaj has a fashion line out in Kmart. It actually looks like stuff she would wear too. Kinda love it.

http://www.shopyourway.com/nickiminaj

Yes, this is my monumental news. It was for an excellent reason-- my little cousin is getting married and her big sister cooked up this plan for an all girls horseback riding and progressive drinks and game day.

This actually turned out fantastically and most importantly, the bride-to-be was happy and surprised.

Yes, I even bobbed for apples. Over five miles I rode! Man, was I sore the next day.

The night ended in a game of panties, steaks on the grill, icecream cake, and penis lollipops around the campfire. Good times.

The next day it was back to church with my dad so all the old ladies could ask me questions about how exciting my life is now that I am flying all over the place. I wish I would actually get to go somewhere cool so I would have a good answer for them. "Denver," is actually the coolest overnight I've been on in a long time. meh.

I happened to discover that one of my favorite festivals from growing up in NW Pennsylvania was happening that very weekend; the Franklin Applefest!! What luck! I make my dad and brother take me to this thing. It had everything; classic cars, corndogs, a bounce house, a live band playing all your favorite hits from the 70s and 80s, that thing where people wear a mildly offensive t-shirt while dragging their portable oxygen unit behind them, balloon animals, yellow jackets swarming all the free samples, turkey-themed lawn art being sawed out of logs... you know everything! Unfortunately, unlike in years past where every 12 feet you were hit over the head with some other sort of apple product, we actually had to go looking for apples this time--at the APPLEfest! Insane. That didn't stop me though--I was on a mission. When I did find the apples, I (well, technically my dad) bought a bag of the best honey crisps I have EVER eaten, apple butter, and unpasteurized apple cider.

And because I love cars with fins:

I was able to trade a day off with someone so I got to stay through Monday too. More hanging out time and then a couple flights back to Charlotte to be on duty. Such is the life.

That it isn't all that bad. Sure, I'm not making enough money as it is and I haven't actually had a flight to work in over 2 weeks (that's just how our system works). I went to a flower shop in town today and tried to beg for work...also turned down.
That said, I get to travel around for free and I just had an amazing weekend in San Fransisco, actually the first time I've ever been to California.
Me in Japan Town. I bought so, so many things at the "dollar store"

For some reason, I was divinely inspired at the grocery store yesterday and actually came up with a dinner idea. Today, I threw all this stuff in a crockpot and made something all three of my roommates are raving about. We also shared a bottle of wine I brought back from the best winery EVER in Sonoma. It feels really good to cook dinner for your friends and they actually like it and go back for more. I never had this feeling in my marriage where I so often felt like such a colossal domestic failure.
In one night, I found out that two close friends are pregnant too! As I stood on my porch, drinking my second wine glass of Bailey's, sporting my newest updo, I realized that perhaps I AM actually living the life I'm supposed to live; happy for my friends, happy to share some good food and good wine, in love (maybe--no comment) and poor. Poor, but happy. On duty, but drunk. It's not that bad.

OK, first attempt trying to put photos in this thing.

I need to get back to blogging and all my old blogs are here, but.... can I get used to this new format? This isn't fun and my cute things have disappeared from the side of the page. Is anyone still out there?

I still have my back-up blog on blogger, but I'm not really sure how to make it private. Gosh I hate getting on here just to complain, but.....