It seems that October and March always turn out to be lucky months, for me anyway. I got to see the beau a few times, always great and I got to catch up with friends; Causal and Bill, HT, Tara and Tom, Buket. So, its been a good month for friends, romance and making some money. I even got to sneak up to London for five days to play. It is so funny to think about life sometimes. When I first met Tara in 2006 working in that pit of a flower shop, we could never have dreamed that she would be engaged to a British guy and I would be a flight attendant, who would visit her in London. So weird.

Yep, no one's wife, but a happy life. I wish I had something deeper to add, but at the moment most of my brainwaves are focused on how to manipulate my work schedule (especially since I am stuck back on reserve next month) and check off all the to-dos on my list now that I find myself home until this evening when I fly to BOS-EWR-SFO. Oh yeah, and I have to pack. Something minimal that will be good for the next 6 days in 3 climates. Sounds about right.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween out there. Catch up with you in November.

Not to use gender-loaded language, but I'm such a pussy. Every time I have a decision to make or more than 2-3 things to do at once or something changes I really feel physiologically stressed. I can feel my breath quicken, eyes go blurry, fingers feverishly jabbing away on my phone... I think I need to get serious about this meditation thing while this merger is happening.

In three days the big merger of the USAir and AA reservation systems happens. This completely changes the one thing I care most about in this job-- flying around for free when I'm not working. No seriously though. Anyone who has been around me when I'm attempting to go from point friend's place to point work place knows what an emotional breakdown I can have if the flights are full/cancelled, etc. I've been jokingly calling the "combined reservation systems day" The Day SkyNet goes Live. I hope you'all get the Terminator reference AND, btw, if you haven't seen the latest Terminator movie that came out earlier this year put that on your homework list right now. Many FAs talked about 1)how mergers in the past got this horribly wrong and how bad it was. We're talking lost reservations, luggage everywhere, delays, cancellations. Basically your normal airline travel experience, but on crack. 2)that they were going to bid their schedules to purposely not work that day. Not me. I put that on my schedule first choice, because like Batman's Joker; some of us just like to watch the world burn. It should be interesting.

On the plus side, I can now fly people around on AA buddy passes, which is a big deal. I, however, have to adapt to two totally new websites, both of which are notably inferior to the USAir sites. In sum, anything that impedes my travel in any way-- I hate it.

Which brings be to the real question. Through some twist of fate, I have all this time off now at the end of the month. I can't believe someone actually picked up my trips. Now, I have to do something. I have to show the scheduling gods that I am not going to take this blessing of freedom for granted. But what? where? with whom? Turkey? Too dangerous. Korea? Maybe. I really want to see the Northern Lights, but I don't want to go alone. hmm.

Anyway DEN tomorrow, then ROC, DTW and SYR, recurrent training, working the flower shop and then... I'm off!!

Wow-- great job on the blog, justgotspaid. I wonder if you will even remember your life in two years. This might be a good time to remember, who knows.

Now that I moved the dogs back to Gainesville, my stress level is greatly reduced. I was going through something for a few weeks in August--- mostly just some weird self-pity and doubt phase where I was bemoaning things I don't have and won't foreseeably ever have-- like house, husband, children. blah blah blah.

Luckily I woke up from the haze and realized once again that I might not actually want that stuff afterall and balance and happiness was restored. I wanted, more than anything, to have a boring Sept. with no travel drama and no international travel. I mostly got that. Just one very short and normal trip to Toronto.

Anyway, I'm about to embark on another four day trip to ORF, BUF and SFO. Afterwards, I haven't told them yet, but I hope to go back to Pennsylvania for a few days. With 5 days off in a row this month, I really really thought about going to Korea or Turkey, but I've been feeling a little wiped out lately. Best to visit PA during the good weather week and see dad post-Chemo.