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.....

http://justgotspaid.blogspot.com

follow me.

I feel like I can't blog right now with the uncertainty of the future.  I would rather stay with xanga.  I mean, look how cool my page looks, right?  lol.  I've moved to blogger, but I feel very noncommittal about it.

I've had a very big July in terms of things I could be blogging about;  I went to Brussels and then I spent the rest of the month moving (headaches and heartbreaks). 

New apartment, new state, new job, new blog?  Too much newness.

everything changes.... all at once

 So, the last bastion of continuity from Japan-to Florida- to North Carolina is changing and leaving!?!  Why should I be surprised when everything else is in a constant upheaval?  I'm talking about Xanga, of course.  They have 15 days to raise $30K to keep the site up.  I am bracing for the worst. 

Gosh... all my memories on here.  So, I'll wait it out until July 15 when we see what happens, but I really, really, really want to make a planned exit strategy (see... we did learn something from our failed military tactics, eh?)

I will move somewhere and I KNOW you are thinking, "but justgotspaid, you hardly ever blog any more" and to that I say, "just wait until I have a desk in my new apartment!!  ha HA!"  I feel not-so-depressive lately.  I actually got on here today to write about the great work day I had yesterday to Grand Cayman where the other flight attendants were really cool and I got a giant bottle of Kahlua for only $12.  I'm hoping for more "island turns" as they are called.

So, I want to take you with me: @saferia @rveblade @sakatamon @atypicalindividual @beryberygood @coolnahalf

I know it sounds cheesy, but I don't want to loose my xanga besties.  And other people who check this sometimes (Eleanor and Mallory)

***Can we all migrate to the same place****  Can we, can we??  Rveblade?  Saferia?  Are you there?

WHERE DO WE GO??

I would like a blog place that

1) you can subscribe to and get emails on (with actual reliability) when someone posts

2) easy to upload photos

3) a decent mobile app

@atypicalindividual already jumped ship and went to Blogger.  I see that has an app and you can post photos, but it is run by google, who knows all my private shit as it is.  Translation, if I don't want you to find my blog, I don't want you to be able to find it by googling my name.  THAT IS THE LAST F$*& THING I WANT.  Also, how do you subscribe to people on blogger?  Get updates?  I need to get updates or else I will never check blogs, it sucks, but that is kind of how I am. 

HELP!!!!

"It's not much of a life you're living, it's not something you take, it's given"

 ...I'm not really sure how to feel about it.  Sometimes this job is like being on a vacation alone that you didn't plan and have no control over.  I spent the morning rushing to the airport in Charlotte, then laying around by the pool in Phoenix and the afternoon sleeping and crying.  I should be sleeping now, but I've never been able to nap when the sun goes down.  I can sleep all day, but as soon as the lights go out--I'm ON.  Some sort of nocturnal hangover from my cavewoman days, no doubt.  So I have another 2 hours to kill before I work the red-eye to... where?  Oh yeah, St. Louis.  Who gives a shit about St. Louis?  See-- I'm being negative right now.  God help the first passenger who complains about the cabin temperature tonight. 

I fly around and around and around hoping that one of the stops will be bring me to the one.  Tonight I got close, too close.  Within hours, within 18 miles.  I couldn't hide my disappointment this time.  It was probably a mistake to show my emotions. 

I'm starting to think that it might be impossible for me to have a happy romantic relationship.  Who can take me seriously with this insanely unpredictable schedule ?  Indeed, who was taking me seriously before? Also, now that I can almost go anywhere to meet someone, is it wrong to still want someone who will come to me?  At least half way? At least occasionally?

warp speed