Vacation Mode

I am so in vacation mode. As you can see my countdown is doing it's thing and as the numbers fall I am getting so excited.

I have been so busy these past couple of days, working and shopping. I have had to find a "formal" dress to wear for this cruise.

Unfortunately with my body type it is difficult to find something that hides all of my parts but is not a freaking tent. After visiting a million stores in the 200 degree weather I finally found the dress I was looking for.

Now we just have to figure out how we are going to get to Copenhagen. Even though we are flying standby the tickets are freaking expensive due to the European taxes. We are looking at taking $100 tickets and turning them into $250 tickets because of taxes. It is just ridiculous. The hurdle we come across is we are flying over 4th of July weekend. Flying stand-by sucks when you are flying over any holiday. You never know if you are going to get on the flights, talk about stress.

Anyhow, I better go I have to do some laundry and get ready for work. Just wanted to drop a note letting you know I am still alive and breathing.

Phoenix Monsoon

Last night we had a monsoon. Monsoons in Phoenix are an awesome event. You can see some other pretty good pictures over at PHX Monsoon (that's where I got this one)
I remember the first time I had heard about the monsoon, I didn't quite understand the big deal about monsoons. I had seen some pretty good storms, including a hurricane. So I thought, "How bad could a monsoon be?"

I learned about the power of a monsoon real quick. It rolled in fast, starting out with a dust storm, only to finish up with some amazing down pours and an awe inspiring thunder and lightning show.

One of the most powerful monsoons I have seen was about 2 years ago. I was working at the airport that night and we had been having warnings about the storms for a couple of hours. The dust storm came in thick and fast. We could barely see across the concourse to the other side of the airport. Next came high winds and lightning. It was amazing. The winds were so strong they moved a 757 (our biggest plane) off the gate by about 20 feet. It tour the jetway apart and did a bit of aircraft damage.

Then within 1 hour it was gone, like it had never happened. Amazing.

A little desert humor

Adding to the drama

So my little brother called me today and said that he was thinking about going to school out here in Phoenix.

He is 19 and is currently living in South Carolina with his girlfriend. He graduated a military high school last year, where he did really well academically. Unfortunately, his first year of real freedom didnt go so well and he flunked out of college. My dad (his cash cow) was really pissed so now he has to get himself out of this mess.

I was kinda surprised that he would move all the way out here away from his girlfriend who has him whipped but she is starting college this year and I am sure he is wondering where he fits into the equation.

It may be a pretty good thing because it would solve my roommate problems and he could focus on school.

Well have to wait and see what happens.

Still Breathing

I am still around and unfortunately my blog is being totally neglected. I am still in hyper work mode, just finished up working 5 16 hour double shifts over 6 days. My current mantra is that it will all be worth it when I am cruiseing on the Baltic sea. I am expecting one whopping big paycheck next week. I better not be disappointed.

In other news my roommate has not been home for about 2 weeks. She has been spending all of her time at her boyfriends house. I am happy for her but sad in other ways. It seems that our roommate relationship will be coming to an end soon. September will mark our 5 year anniversary. We met during orientation for the airline. During those 4 weeks we found that we had a lot in common. At the time we both were living with our uncles in the same part of town, our families lived thousands of miles away and were very similar in a dysfunctional kind of way. We decided that we could try the roommate thing and see what happens. I remember when we were signing the lease we opted for a shorter one to make sure that we would get along. Five years later we are still together.

I haven't quite figured out what I am going to do when it is over. I pretty much only have 3 options. I can get my own apartment, which on one hand would be nice but very lonely as well as very expensive. I could try to find another roommate but I think I am getting to old to deal with living with someone I don't know or Cowboy and I talked about getting an apartment together. Unfortunately Cowboy comes with a lot of baggage. His brother is moving to town in August and he has a roommate. I am not sure if I am ready to share a place with 3 guys varying in age from 25 to 50. It would be interesting though and I know damn well that I would have to have my own bathroom.

I guess I am just going to play it by ear, I have never lived with a guy that I was not sleeping with so it would be interesting. Well, see what happens.

I am off to get some running around done, the library sent me an email telling me my books were due and I have been craving Chinese food like you would not believe.

TTFN (ta, ta for now)

Strange Friends in Life

I find that as I go through life I tend to become friends with the strangest people.

My friend Cowboy is a tall, skinny thing. He is about 6'1, stick legs and arms, no rear and a little beer belly. This will matter later.

So, Cowboy and I are walking back to the office after having a cigarette and he is telling me about his recent trip home to the back mountains of some northern state. He tells me that him and his family were discussing the sizes of their beer bellies and how he was so proud that he was catching up to some of them. As we are walking I am just laughing at him because he is proud of it. So I tell him, that having a beer belly is not something to be proud of, that he should try to put some of that beer belly in his rear, the rest of the conversation goes like this....

Cowboy: "There is nothing wrong with being proud of my beer belly"
Me: "Why?"
Cowboy: "Because it is more fuel for the Love Machine"
Me: (Laughing Hysterically) "I cant believe you just said that, no wonder you are single"

So, ladies if you are looking for a man with fuel for the Love Machine, let me know...

Finally...

Well, as of 10pm tonight, I finished my 10 day stretch of working and I get to "relax" tomorrow, after I do all of my running around. Which, includes a freaking dentist visit. Sounds like fun.

Of course a fitting end to my day I sat talking with a customer who had misconnected due to ATC/weather issues. He didnt believe the fact that there was an ATC/weather problem. As an airline employee that is probrably one of the most frustrating parts of the job. Imagine going to work everyday and all of the people you come in contact with dont believe what you are telling them. This is probrably one of the reasons most people want to leave the passenger service part of the airline. I am not going to say that I have never lied because that would just not be true. However, I would say about 99% of time I am truthful in my work, especially when I have to tell people things I know they dont know want to hear. I would love to tell everyone what they want to hear, it makes my job a lot easier but that is just not practical.

I do love my job though.. I can not imagine doing anything else. I love working with the customers because heck they are what my job is all about, when they stop flying, I stop getting a pay check. You can meet so many interesting people, visit interesting places and see wonderful things. Everyday I marvel at the fact that they actually pay me for doing my job. I would have never guessed 10 years ago that I would be doing this.

I suppose I am one of the lucky ones to say that I truly like my job. :)

Day 9

I'm on my ninth straight day at work. So far, I have worked 88 hours in 9 days. That averages out to about 9.8 hours a day without a day off. I can see the end of my stretch since I have Monday off, then back to work for another two days filled with 32 hours of work.

It is hard to blog when I am working this much, especially since I really cant blog while at work.

On the bright side I really love my new position with the Company. If I had known the grass was this green, I would have become a fat cow munchin on the green grass a long time ago.

However, all of this hard work will be so worth it while I am loungin on my 10 day Scandinavian/Russian cruise. All these hours will equal one really "phat" paycheck that is only to be used for my cruising pleasure. Oh yeah and it will be even better because the company shorted me 16 hours on this paycheck and they owe me some back money to the tune of $180 from my status change (long story). All of these monies will be available to me on my next already fat paycheck. Yeah baby!

Of course all would be even better if I was independently wealthy and I wouldn't have to work at all. In my current state all that is, is wishful thinking.

Truth in Advertising

So true, So true

Dreams

I dont know whether it is the heat or the moon cycle but I have been having the craziest dreams lately. They range from getting married, my sister being on trial to beer being thrown in my brand new car. I have no idea where these night-time mini movies are coming from but I like it, it makes the night more entertaining :)

Like a Dog

My posts around here are going to be sporadic over the next couple of weeks. I am working a few extra hours to pay for my upcoming vacation. Like in the next two weeks I am working an extra 7 days. Yeah, you heard me right 7 days! I will all be worth it when I am sitting on the flight heading off to my cruise. I cant wait.

Well, I am off to hop in the shower for work. Ugh!

No Secret

JJ over at Picadilly asked me how I "created" my banner.

Well, there is no real secret to it. When I was in California last month we were at the beach and I love to write stuff in the sand, but you can only write your name so many times so I got the idea to use my other "identity" and took a picture with the intention of using it for a banner.

I was really happy when it came out the way I pictured it in my mind.

Vacation Plans

I have been wanting to go on a real vacation for a while now, but is seems like nothing ever works out, whether it be money or time or both our plans always seem to fall apart.

Well, yesterday we finalized our plans for our vacation this summer. We decided we are going to take a Northern European cruise. I am so freaking excited, I can hardly wait.

On top of everything the cruise was a smoking deal. It is aboard the Star Princess on the Princess cruise line. Our ports include Copenhagen, Denmark - Stockholm, Sweden - Helsinki, Finland - Tallin, Estonia - Gdansk, Poland - St. Petersburg, Russia and Berlin, Germany. All for less than $1000 per person. It comes out to like $60 dollars a night. Absolutely amazing.

It is about time!