10 Tips To Succeed In Flight Attendant Training

So, you made it through the interview process, and at the very end you were one of the few and the proud who received the offer of conditional employment. I remember this moment well. There were only 13 of us left in the room, and we didn’t know if being the ones left was good, or if we had been sequestered so we could be let down easy. When our recruiters came into the room, single file, and gave us the good news, I could hardly believe my ears. The rest of the day was spent in a daze of euphoric exhaustion. Naturally, this was only the beginning. As I mentioned earlier, we signed a contract ofconditional employment.  The condition being, of course, that you successfully complete a grueling 4-6 week training program. Before you even begin to prepare for training, however, you should take a moment to appreciate what you’ve just accomplished.

Out of every 15,ooo applications an airline receives (approximately) each month, only 1000 are selected for an interview. And out of every group of 50 (or so) people who are interviewed in one of those big groups, only a dozen or two are hired. So, go you! You are the minority; the creme de la creme; the best. The fact alone that you’ve made it this far makes you a champ in my book. I vividly remember the euphoric sense of achievement I felt, so savor it.

In a few weeks you’ll receive a packet which basically has everything you need to know about preparing for training, and what to expect during the whole thing. This will cover everything to how much clothes you can bring (2 pieces of luggage weighing no more than 100 lbs), to how you should wear your makeup, to things you’ll need to study and become proficient in before you even arrive at the training destination.

I wrote about my experiences at training here, here and here. It’s different for everyone, but hopefully you can glean some useful information through my triumphs and tribulations out in Phoenix. Overall, it was good times and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

I will however offer a few quick tips for those of you waiting in the wings, as it were, for training to start.

1. Learn those airport codes before you get to training. I cannot stress this enough. There were 204 of them for me to learn, and I made myself study tables, flash cards and online quizzes to get them firmly stuck in my head. You will need them (anywhere you fly) and they will test your proficiency on the first day of training. So, don’t go thinking you can spend your first night there cramming and pass the test. I made a great online study table here on Quizlet. I learn best by immersion and tactile association. Flashcards are a perfect for this. Once something is in my memory banks, it never leaves.
2. Get plenty of sleep. I cannot emphasize this enough. The temptation, of course, is to go home and study some more for the constant onslaught of tests. Do not do this. Get some dinner, go to sleep and set your alarm for a couple hours earlier than you need to wake up. Look over your notes then, with fresh consciousness. Trust me.
3. Socialize. Get out there and meet people during training. This shouldn’t be the first priority (its not the Winged Fraternity House, after all) but it will help you immensely in the long run. Just for the record, this was the absolute hardest part of training for me. I didn’t go out on our one day off per week with my classmates, and I didn’t party. However, I did get to talk to and bond with most people over the course of the 4.5 weeks, and I’m so glad I did. As a result, I got to know Jasmine, Aurora, and Belle, who became my roommates. I also made wonderful friends and study buddies during the course of training. The good karma just keeps on unfolding from these people!
4. Moisturize , SPF and drink water. Out in Phoenix, we were in the middle of the desert. I had never been in “dry heat” before in my native Tennessee, so I had no idea what was going on when my skin dried out, my lips got sunburnt and my mouth was dry and parched.
5. Bring enough money with you for food/souvenirs. We were fortunate enough to stay at hotel that provided breakfast and dinner for free, but you’re going to want to have money for the food carts and awesome local restaurants which inevitably wind up near the training centers.
6. Save the receipts for your uniform incase you need a different size. I was told to get a size 2 in the dress shirts, and when I got them and tried them on I was  nonplussed to find they looked like a tent on me. Unfortunately, I got busy and forgot to send them back for a smaller size, and when I did try to do this, they wouldn’t take them because even though most of the shirts were unopened from their original packaging I had lost the receipt. Keep every piece of paper you get from training. Do it.
7. Try to eat balanced meals. I could tell a huge difference in how I felt, and how well my brain functioned when I ate a variety of foods. As much as I appreciated the free breakfast and dinner, it was the same thing every day. After about a week of this, you want to slap a b*tch. If I saw another waffle, or meatballs and penne pasta, I was fixin’ to have a stroke. Your body drags on all the fatty, processed foods. Get you some salads and fresh fruits.
8. Get some exercise. Go on walks. Tour the city a little. A change of scenery now and then (as opposed to training center, hotel lobby, hotel dining room, hotel bedroom and then back to training center day in and day out) will work wonders on your tired psyche.
9. Take lots of pictures. I did this both before, during and after training. The pictures I took of my friends and family back in Tennessee became treasured keepsakes which helped keep me centered on my goal. The pictures I took during help me remember the process, which in retrospect feels like a blur.
10. Bring comfortable shoes. I bought these, which are well within the 3 inch heel rule, and have thanked myself every day since. Your shoes have to be either navy blue or black. They cannot have any buckles, buttons, straps, patent leather, wedges or detailing of any kind. More importantly, you’re going to be walking/running around every day in these shoes. Be prepared. If they pinch your toes after an hour, you’re going to hate the shoes after the first day.

Things to pack:

1. a big notepad and plenty of pens. You will be taking notes, and your life (okay, well, your success at training) depends on them being thorough an comprehensive.
2. a camera. I have this one and love it. It’s so compact and easy to pack and the battery lasts forever.
3. an ipad/tablet of some kind/laptop
4. a big bag for carrying all your stuff. You will need this. Trust me.
5. enough clothes for approximately 2 weeks of rotation/combinations. Ex: I brought around 10 nice blouses, 2 or 3 dresses, 4 skirts and 3 pairs of dress pants.  I also brought some extra clothes for lounging around (sweatpants, comfy shorts and t-shirts will be your new best friends, so load up. Pretty much everything I brought was interchangeable, so I had a lot of options to wear without feeling the need to wear something “new” every single day. Keep things fresh—bring classic, comfortable clothes that flatter your body type. Remember that you’ll be wearing these clothes approximately 12 hours a day, so if it’s too tight or too hot or just plain uncomfortable….keep that in mind. If you can’t move or sit for long periods of time in it; don’t bring it.
   There is also a very strict dress code enforced daily. If your skirt is more than 1 inch above your knee, you’ll get approached about it
6. swimsuit
7. sunblock. I said it before, and I’ll say it again. Unless you want to look (and feel) like a leather handbag, bring plenty of high SPF sunscreen/moisturizer. I’m a big fan of a good BB cream, which works as a foundation, sunscreen and moisturizer all in one. I use Clinique.
8. sunglasses. I forgot to bring mine from home, so I used some of my precious spending money on a nice pair of Ray Bans. Every time I look at them I think about training and my fresh start.
9. spending money (see earlier comments)
10. hair products. Wispy flyaway hair is not allowed in uniform. Get some hair spray, and practice putting your hair up in various do’s (as this will also be a requirement.) If your hair falls in front of your face when you lean forward, you will need to put it up. No one wants to get a hair in someone’s food or drink when you’re serving on the plane, right? Right.
11. a watch. This is actually a requirement for the uniform—flight attendants must be punctual above all else. I invested in a nice Michael Kors rose gold timepiece.  I liked this particular model because it has the time, day of the month and day of the week all in one place. As a flight attendant, you will constantly lose track of what day and day of the week it is, because our schedules really don’t look anything like other peoples. A Mon-Friday work week doesn’t exist anymore. There’s only when you’re on call and when you’re not. Also, if I’m going to be looking at it for years, it might as well be a nice accessory! However, if this is not in your budget, Fossil makes great, durable, attractive watches as well.
12. lipstick. Again, I splurged a little and got some Chanel Coco Rouge Shine in Chance. I wanted the chic Chanel label, the high quality cosmetic, and I liked the thought of the lipstick mirroring my new “chance” at a career and travel.

some of my fellow trainees when we finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel

Well I hope this little bit of advice is useful! Good luck and keep your chin up! This will be hard but no worries, just stick with it and it’ll pass by before you know it. When you get those wings pinned on you, it’s 100% worth it.

What Happens in Vague-Guess (Las Vegas, NV)

One of the things I'm quickly learning about my long overnights in a given city/country is it's nigh impossible to fit everything I want to do in one day (or even a day and a half). I don't know why I had illusions of grandeur—as if I could just get a sampling and be satisfied with my "mini vacation." Don't get me wrong, its marvelous, but often times I've only started to scratch the surface before it gets late and I have to call it a day on my exploring. A part of me envies the passengers on the flight there, because they probably took a week off from work to have a legit vacation with scheduled leisure and venues in mind. On my trip to Ohio with Darcy last week, I had plenty of time to think about what we were going to do and when. As a result (and true to form for me) we had all the details covered, did everything we wanted to do and more. With the trips that I work, I usually find out I'm going somewhere the day before, which leaves me little to no time to plan exactly what I want to do when I'm there. This is both exciting and frustrating, but hey, it's the life of a reserve flight attendant. Do I look forward to having a line of my own and knowing where I'm going to be every day of every month so I can actually make plans?  Of course. In the mean time, I'm enjoying being a die in the hands of my airline and seeing where I get tossed.

On the flight, our passengers were tossing back all kinds of alcohol. We almost couldn't keep it in stock on the carts. A plane full of tipsy passengers can mean one of two things: hilarity (like the guy who said he admired my uniformed derriere and put a $20 bill in my apron pocket) or scary (the lady who went into the lav for 15 minutes and moaned loudly while she threw up). 5.5 hours later, we touched down and deplaned.

The casinos almost seemed to rise out of the sand when we touched down at LAS airport. It was quite a sight to behold!



The saving grace of a brand new reserve flight attendant with a lethal combination of enthusiasm and ignorance is our flight crew. There will be at least one person you'll bond with, and chances are they'll have years more experience traveling and invaluable insight into where you should go and what you should check out. I hit it off with the first officer, who was a sweet middle aged father of two, going through a very nasty divorce.

I took a whole lot of pictures while on this trip. Okay, that's not exactly true. The First Officer, who asked to be called Rocky, took most of them. He's a bit of a shutter bug and encouraged my vanity to no end. So, consider this a bit of a Vegas slideshow.

[caption id="attachment_215" align="alignnone" width="640"] Pilot Rocky![/caption]

Firstly, things that amuse me to no end. When people see the resulting humidity from the airconditioned plane meeting the heat from the Nevada desert, they freak out. It does look kinda like smoke, but good Lord! Chillax people! If we were on fire I'd be evacuating that darn plane! Cracks me up every. darn. time.



Nothing like a little sidewalk affirmation! :)



A can-dom. One of many awesome things I found in the Vegas giftshop. Size matters, y'all.



I was pretty excited, as you can see.



Treasure Island. A show about pirates shenanigans with an island of scantily clad swashbuckling lady rogues! Yeah, it was as cheesy as it sounds. But fun to watch!



Arrrgh, matey.



The palazzo! And me farding on camera. (definition: fard: to paint (the face) with cosmetics). Challenge: try telling a woman that you like watching her fard and see what she says.



Me keeping a statue at the Venetian decent. Such a beautiful building!



Somewhere, someone once said to themselves, "I want to watch all the games at once."

Inside the Venetian casino/hotel. Look at that architecture! It looks like I'm in Italy forreal!





had to get a cold drink (it was 90 degrees outside!) so I got a Mango Margarita. It was cheap and man, oh,man was it tasty.



Siegfried? Roy? Are you in there?



The most badass/blinged out Denny's you ever did see.



The Parisian casino. Vegas is so pretty at night!



My first trip to an In-N-Out Burger. It lived up to all the hype.



om nom nom nom!



Rocky made sure I had some schwag to bring home. Good stuff!



What follows is a pictoral storyline of me playing slots for the first time (the dollar is Rocky's). I thought it looked stupid; like a cage where the monkey has to press a certain combinations of buttons and levers to get a biscuit sent down a chute. I was right. Rocky captured these precious moments (I think the look of utter disgust and skepticism on my face is priceless. It pretty much describes my thoughts on gambling.)



My favorite part of the trip was the water shows outside the Bellagio. They were timed to music and went from little rolling waves to huge cascading fountains of water.



The scariest part of the trip was when Rocky took me on the Stratosphere Sky Jump ride. Rocky pretty much insisted (even though I was scared out of my wits) to plummet 855 feet, held only by a high speed descent wire. I'm really not an adrenaline junky, and I don't seek out opportunities that trick my body into thinking I'm going to die. I love Tom Petty, but free falling was not on my agenda that trip. Still, Rocky dared me to do what scared me most, but was ultimately necessary, and he used the jump as an analogy. It was tested every day for decades, was proven to be safe, and yet I still would not do it. He said his ex wife was also a big source of excuses for him, but he still felt obligated to talk to her because she was the mother of his children and they had a history together. Eventually, he had to face the music, take the jump and stop answering her calls. He asked me if I had anyone in my life who I exerted more energy for, only to be disappointed in return. According to Rocky, Vegas is a place to go to get away from reality for a little while, so that when you're ready to go back, you can let go of all of your excuses and do what you need to. So, I resolved to keep only active, loving, reciprocating friendships and move away from others.

So, I took the jump, and left my baggage behind. It was amazing. Sure, I thought the wire was going to break and I'd be the one exception to the rule who had to be mailed home to my parents in jelly form. But I wasn't.  I made it back to earth and wanted to go again. And again.

[caption id="attachment_223" align="alignnone" width="640"] The view from the Stratosphere Sky Jump ride. Yikes![/caption]

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do half the things I wanted to do in Vegas. It's basically a town created entirely to constantly stimulate, entertain and lure. While there are some things I wouldn't do (gamble), there are others I would love to (sight see). And so, I sincerely hope I get to go back soon!

Until next time, catch me if you can!

—Carmen

The Art of Man Sniping

Funny story:

So, of my 4 roommates, only Jasmine is single. And, as fate would have it, she and I have exactly the same type when it comes to guys. Tall, blonde-haired, light-eyed, fit, smart guys.

Anyway, I'm driving home from the airport after the 4 day trip I just got back from, and I see this guy walking his dog out in our apartment parking lots. Tall? Check. Blonde? Check. Fit? Double check. Smart? We'll see.

Ding, ding, ding! Winner!

Previously, when I was running at the gym weeks ago and saw another hot guy (which I told Jasmine about as soon as I got home) she told me that if I ever see an interesting specimen in our apartment vicinity I should call her immediately, instead of waiting until afterward. Understandable. Dude could be 3 blocks away by the time she heard about him.

Out here in Charlotte, not knowing a soul and constantly traveling, it can be hard for a single gal. I feel her pain. I may be off the market, but that doesn't mean I can't help a sister out.

I call Jasmine, and when she hears the news, she runs downstairs like the house was on fire. It just so happens that the guy came back around to our end of the apartment building just when she got down the stairs so it was a perfect meet-cute. As if I'd planned it that way. Of course we weren't going to hunt around for him in the dark and try to make it look accidental. *cough*.

Jasmine plays it cool and bends down and starts to pet the guys dog. I hint that we just moved in and would like to get to know more people. He introduces himself as Richard and invites us to the lake to hang out with him and his roommates. Now, I probably wouldn't go, because it would just give the wrong impression to a bunch of single guys (don't go to a steakhouse if you're a vegetarian) but I sincerely hope Jasmine does.

Back in the day, before I met Darcy, I enjoyed casually dating multiple individuals, and I got quite adept at the art of (as I call it) man-sniping. Now, not trying to toot my own horn. Just saying. I dated a lot and I learned a few things along the way.

So, here, is my unofficial list of tips to successfully meeting cute strangers when you're by yourself in a strange environment. Jasmine won't always have me as a wing woman. Things like this take a quick wit, good acting skills and a pinch of effort.

1. Men are very visual. If you're going out, wear something that highlights your favorite features. Do you have long, lovely legs? Wear a flattering skirt. Do you have nice toned arms? Wear something sleeveless. Do you have a goiter? Wear a scarf.


2. If you're going to do something drastic like have an accidental- on-purpose meeting, let that be the end of your pursuit. Toss the glove down, and if he's interested, let him pick it up. In other words, after that initial "oh your dog is so cute" meeting, let him get your number. Let him ask to hang out sometime. If not, let it go. He's just not that in to you. Or he has balls the size of raisins and couldn't jimmy up the courage. It happens. Whoopdeedoo. Fortunately, there are not a shortage of men on this planet.


3. Don't get too emotionally invested. Scared money never wins. If you go into a situation where you'd be devastated if he's not besotted with you after the first 5 minutes, you're probably going to end up disappointed. Go into it with the mental attitude of meeting a new friend, no strings attached. See where it goes from there. He may be really cool or he may be the type who cracks his knuckles, or crunches ice, or eats raw cat meat in his basement and that will be the end of your interest. You just never know.


4. Do not under any circumstances talk about your exes, any physical insecurities you have or how much you adore Say Yes To The Dress. Be yourself, but there's nothing I can't stand more than a girl whose like "I don't know why you like me. One of my nostrils is bigger than the other!" Get over yourself! Get some confidence! There's more to beauty than symmetry!


5. Try not to be a ho. Make sure a guy can stimulate your brain before you let him stimulate anything else. 'Nuff said.

Well, I'm sure there's more than that, but it's a start. I had fun writing it, and I hope you have fun reading it. I also hope things with Jasmine and Richard get crack-a-lacking. I'm good with the flint, but those two will ultimately have to rub their sticks together.

Roadtrippin', Rollercoasterin' and Roots (Mansfield/Ontario/Sandusky Ohio)

There are some trips that take you away from where you were, others that bring you back to where you want to be, and occasionally if you're lucky, you'll go on a journey that doesn't end after the trip is over. I had one such experience these past 3 days.

Mansfield Ohio is probably not on the obvious bucket list of grand destinations for most people. It's a tiny rural town about an hour from Columbus, but it's where Darcy was born and raised, so I wanted to spend some time making memories there.

We rented a car at the airport—a little Toyota Yaris. Darcy was chagrined to drive a much less peppy vehicle than his Camaro, but who could argue with the 40 mpg it got us? We got from Columbus to Mansfield, to Sandusky, back to Mansfield, then back to Columbus and back to Mansfield on a full tank. I think we were looking at an odometer of over 500 added miles when we finally refueled.

[caption id="attachment_157" align="alignnone" width="640"] Our rental vehical for the trip. 2013 Toyota Yaris. We were the first one's to drive this baby off the lot.[/caption]

The first day we just drove around the city. Darcy's face lit up seeing his childhood houses, schools and haunts.  It wasn't long before the little town and all its abundant charm had stolen my heart as well. There's a lot to be said about being able to drive around and point out a million memories from your childhood and the people in them.  Unfortunately, as it usually goes before I take a vacation, I'm so excited the previous night I find it hard to sleep. Which, while fine at the time, really limits my ability to function the next day. I was to tired, but it was too early to check in to our hotel, so we napped in the park in our car.
Apparently we stayed there for "suspiciously long" because a (bored) local cop drove up and interrogated us about our intentions for being there. hilarious.

[caption id="attachment_158" align="alignnone" width="640"] Warrior Pizza. It has an actual Corvette on the top of the building! Oh, and awesome food.[/caption]

That evening, we met up with some of Darcy's friends from his teenage days of working at McDonalds. I loved hearing all the crazy stories about adventures they had, as well as all the embarrassing stories about Darcy. They are a fun bunch and it was quite delightful to see how they had all kept in touch after so many years.

The next day, Darcy, his buddy Bradley and I went to Cedar Point, a badass roller coaster park where they had whiled away many hours in summers of yore. I was able to procure discounted tickets through my airline, and so we sojourned north to spend a day there.

Neither of them could believe I had never been on a real rollercoaster before. To be fair, I've been to the local amusement park in the Chattanooga area many times, and I even went on some rides at Orlando's Universal Studios for a Bachelorette trip with some of my friends. This wasn't good enough for them. Apparently, I didn't know what a real thrill was until I had ridden on some of the beasts of coasters which lurked at Cedar Point. If you don't taste your own bile, you're not having enough fun!

We spend 6 hours or so going on as many coasters as we possibly could, and by the time the sun had started to set, we were windblown (seriously, my hair was a mess) and deliriously happy. Many thanks to Darcy's friend Bradley for coming along and taking pictures!

[caption id="attachment_153" align="alignnone" width="640"] The biggest and best coaster park by FAR[/caption]

You might think that being on planes all day as a job might make me immune to the thrill of roller coasters. Wrong.

[caption id="attachment_154" align="alignnone" width="640"] There seems to be a bit of disparity between our expressions, isn't there?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_152" align="alignnone" width="640"] Darcy insisted that being in the stocks was no reason to be chipper, but I convinced him to feign a grin for the camera.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_155" align="alignnone" width="640"] The beautiful grounds at Kingwood. Kept in pristine condition by the love and dedication of the Mansfield citizens[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_156" align="alignnone" width="640"] Kingwood Mansion. Breathtaking. It's amazing how much there is to find when you go wandering through the woods![/caption]

Being the nature aficionados we are, we had to check out the beautiful grounds of this old mansion called Kingwood. Back in the day, it was owned by a brass magnate named Charles Kelley King. After his death, his home and gardens were made into a public park, and boy was it worth the trip! So much beauty abounded, it was impossible not to feel the love this man had had for his home and keeping the local flora beautiful. While we were at Kingwood, we picked up a little cactus from the extensive greenhouse shop there. We named him Manny, after Mansfield Ohio. He came back with us to Chattanooga, and will live at Darcy's house as a reminder of our first roadtrip/mini vacation together.

I was particularly excited at the end of the trip to spend some time with Darcy's family in Ohio. We reserved the entire day to just visit and relax with his two grandmothers. I loved that I was able to be a catalyst for him to get to go on a trip, spend quality time with people he cares about—all for free! One grandma asked when Darcy and I were getting married, and we both blushed and grinned sheepishly. While its certainly something we've started to talk about, it's nothing we're in a hurry to get done!

On our way back, we were starting to feel the Post Vacation Depression Syndrome set it. I call this the phase of inertia which happens after you spend several days having fun and experiencing exciting new things on vacation. When this ends and you go back to the daily grind, you feel kind of sad. Like, what's next? Oh....it's over. Bummer.
We weren't gloomy though. We'd just had the time of our lives together seeing family, friends, riding coasters, eating great food and making memories together. It's amazing how sharing your past with each other makes you want to plan your future. While we were having a very serious talk about what our lives will look like in the future, and how we want them to intertwine—we smelled something funny. Kind of like someone cooked dog crap and nerve gas nearby. When we realized the person sitting in front of us had had a bad reaction to whatever they had eaten earlier, we couldn't stop laughing. We forgot all about the seriousness of what we were talking about, and just busted a gut like two little kids.

As I'm writing this (extremely delayed) post, I am hanging out in my hotel in Las Vegas. More about that in my next post!

Until next time, catch me if you can!

-Carmen

PS—for pictures, comments and peeks into my adventures before I even blog about them, follow me on my instagram account at www.instagram.com/wingedwayfarer. You know you want to!

Stay Calm and Eat Clam (Seattle, WA)

How would you feel if you were about to embark on a cross country trip, only to realize you had left all your luggage at home? It's exhilarating, you should try it some time. *rolls eyes*

When I get offered a trip, I generally don't care how many legs (individual flights) there are to work each day, or even how many days there are in the entire trip. What I care about is where we stay overnight and for how long. That is the important question, because my goal is to see as many new places as possible. Case in point; my roommate Aurora got a call today from scheduling, asking if she wanted a trip. She didn't ask anything about it and decided to just remain on call without picking anything up. The very next minute, Jasmine gets a call and takes the trip.....to Rome. Not Georgia. Italia.

Always ask for the critical deets. Always. And furthermore, look carefully at the trip to glean every bit of information so you can prepare accordingly. If you do this, you won't have the crazy episode I had these last 2 days. I get a call, and one of the trips I can take is a red eye to Seattle. As you might have guessed from the title of this post, I've never done a red eye previously. I had a vague idea what it meant (a flight at an ungodly early or late hour) but I had no clue what I was getting myself into.

To the undiscerning eye, the trip sheet made it look like it was a quick turn: 6 pm to midnight on to trip to Seattle, and then 1:25 AM to 6 AM back to Charlotte. I was thinking to myself, well, I won't really get to see Seattle, but it'll be good experience to actually do a redeye. What I should have done is looked at the block time (layover) between the trips, because the actual flight times were deciving. On the sheet they were in Eastern time, but Seattle is in West Coast time, which is 3 hours behind. So instead of a turn, it actually was a 25 hour long overnight in Seattle.

You can imagine my chagrin when I figured this out—at the airport, with 15 minutes to boarding. All I could think about was how I had only packed my flight bag, which did not include anything for enjoying a full sunny day in a beautiful new city. Was I going to have to crank up the heat in my hotel room and sleep au naturel? Would I have to walk around town in my uniform? In my heels?  Expletives and self pity swarmed my mental circuits as I boarded the flight, with plenty of questions and absolutely no solutions. This brings me to another important piece of advice: even if you think you're just going on a quick turn or a short overnight somewhere— bring a change of clothes, toiletries, and pajamas. If you're an extreme believer of Murphy's Law, or have a testy relationship with liquids and gravity, bring an extra uniform as well.

As it turns out, I had a beyond fantastic crew. They were all seasoned veterans (including my first flight with a lady Captain) and when I told them my tale of woe they were quite amused. The girl who inventories everything in the galley carts, and pre-flights all the emergency equipment forgot.....everything she needs once she gets off the plane. It tasted like a crap taco, lemme tell ya.
The next morning in Seattle, I awoke to a knock on my door and one of my colleagues was standing there with some clothes and toiletries they picked up from a nearby store. They didn't want me to miss out on a chance to enjoy myself, so out of the kindness of their hearts they banded together and took care of me. I was blown away by the generosity of the gift (they barely knew me!) and made doubly sure to enjoy the day out.

Of all the things I forgot, I wish I had remembered to pack my camera this trip. My iphone just doesn't have the zoom capability and crisp detail necessary to do justice to the troll sculptures, the first ever Starbucks store, the art museums and the thousands of stores which captured my imagination. I am such a coffee fanatic and it broke my heart I didn't capture enough of it.

[caption id="attachment_146" align="alignnone" width="640"] latte art on my beverage from Dubsea coffee in Seattle. So cool![/caption]

Seattle is fascinating. There is really no other way to put it. Its very outdoorsy and modern with a laid back kind of vibe but also very sophisticated and fun. I walked down to Pike Place market where vendors were throwing fresh fish back and forth. One of the vendors jokingly asked if I would like to be tossed a fish, and I laughed so hard I nearly choked up a lung. I tried some salmon/clam chowder, which was a new concept for me. Apparently this one restaurant is famous for their varieties of seafood chowder and it was fantastic. I suppose if you've been perfecting a recipe since 1938, it's bound to be worth something.

 

[caption id="attachment_145" align="alignnone" width="640"] Ivar's Salmon Chowder! Yup, that's a giant hunk of fresh salmon you're looking at[/caption]

It's amazing how quickly a 25 hour layover passes when you're having fun. The key to waking up for a redeye flight and somewhat resembling a human is to go to sleep early in the afternoon. Darcy called me before I went to sleep when he got off work around 5 PM, and I called him after my plane touched down in Charlotte when he woke up for work the next day around 6:30 AM. Messes with your head, it does!

About the only thing you can do on a redeye flight back to Charlotte at 1 AM (since copious amounts of wine aren't allowed) is read and drink the in-flight coffee (which compared to Seattle's varieties tastes like burnt toucan piss). I was working the first class as the A flight attendant this trip, but since everyone was asleep, there was no one to schmooze with even.
One thing I don't recommend doing is read Tina Fey's Bossypants on your kindle. Imagine a perfectly silent cabin filled with sleeping travelers suddenly punctured by occasional uncontrollable guffaws, snorts and giggles. That would be me. The woman is so damn hilarious I could hardly contain myself. Read the flight manual instead. Or maybe, don't. Because then you absolutely won't be able to resist the urge to fall asleep. Fortunately the trip back to Charlotte is only 4.5 hours instead of 6 because of the jetstream. Learn something new every day!

Tomorrow, Darcy and I are going to use my flight benefits to take a mini vacation to his little hometown of Mansfield, Ohio. I'll get to meet some more of his family and friends as well as spend a day being a kid here. I'm so stoked I can hardly wait to blog about it. The best part, other than getting to spend time with Darcy, is that the hotel and tickets were extremely discounted for employees of my airline. Woot woot!

Until next time, catch me if you can!

—Carmen

Big Apple and Little Musings

There's nothing quite like starting out a new trip. It doesn't particularly matter where I'm going—the excitement of getting to the airport, meeting new colleagues (or possibly getting to fly with some of the graduates from my class), and experiencing something incredible. Most of the time I am very pleasantly surprised, like on a recent trip where I found out Miss Pitt was going to be in my crew. Miss Pitt, nicknamed for her hometown of Pittsburgh, is one of my favorite people from training. She  and I bonded one painfully looonngg day in the mock cockpit of one of our flight trainers, when I propped my head in my hands wearily and said "Y'all gon' make me lose my mind....". She overhead me and emphatically finished the lyric "Up in here, up in here."

She's the kind of person who I wouldn't be surprised to hear went jet skiing with Shaq O'Neal on a yacht off the coast of St. Barts one weekend. She's just all over the place. She's definitely a "verb" kind of person and I love her supercharged personality which knows no strangers; only potential friends.

She also inspired me to get an Instagram account for this blog—she takes pictures of  everything she thinks is interesting or awesome and is the absolute queen of the anti-gravity self portrait shot. I tease her that she'd take a picture of a child's barf on the seat of the plane, add a lens flare and sepia tone filter and caption it "flight attendant life SMH LMFAO!"

Getting to work with Miss Pitt was a dream-come-reality after making it through the program and following each other's exploits via all the popular social media. She came from the north, and I from the south, so its likely we would have never seen each other our entire lives had we not ventured into the unknown in Phoenix together. For this, and many people like her, I am eternally grateful.

[caption id="attachment_137" align="alignnone" width="300"] Miss Pitt and I in one of her famous Instagram self-shots[/caption]

However, there are also occasional times you have a less-than-pleasant experience when meeting new crew members. For example, on the beginning of this same trip, I was the B flight attendant and was working in the back galley getting the ice, drinks and coffee machines ready for the in flight service. From somewhere behind me I hear a strongly New York accented voice,

"Hey, I'm Chester*. I'll be the C flight attendant with yous guys on this flight. May I assist yous with anything?"

Without turning around, because I had an arm full of Pringles cans for inventory, I thank him and assure him that I've got it under control for now. He starts asking the usual questions, making light introductory conversation as flight attendants tend to do before boarding when there is nothing else to do. As he's narrating some story boisterously, I noticed a strange smell. It wasn't the lav—I had just checked it and everything was kosher. I decided to just ignore it until I turned around and the full force of it hit me in the face like bad shellfish cooked with mustard gas. It was his breath.

Now, don't get me wrong. Over the course of this trip, Chester was the most cheerful, helpful guy you could hope to fly with. But when he came back to the galley to talk to me or help with a service, I had to make a very concerted effort not to gag. He loved to talk so much that he'd eventually fill up the entire back end of the aircraft with the noxious fumes. Maybe because I was raised to be polite and considerate of traits people can not help about themselves such as excess weight or a lazy eye, but I got along with the guy just fine. Sure I could feel my hair curl when he'd lean in and say something in my ear over the noise of the turbines, but I didn't let it get in the way of my opinion of him.

Miss Pitt didn't go to such lengths to restrain her nausea. Since she was the A flight attendant, he had to sit up front with her during take off, taxi and landing. I leaned into the aisle a few times to see what was going on in the forward galley, and saw him animatedly talking to her while she had her nose covered with her shirt collar. I couldn't help myself; I busted up laughing back there a few times.

We had an overnight in New Orleans that trip, and I got some tasty jambalaya and fried chicken. I'm turning into quite the foodie on this job; there's so many places to try different dishes in their natural habitat and I'm very enthusiastic about getting my taste buds around all things yummy. For the sake of making a point about the importance of being polite and as understanding as possible with one's coworkers, Chester bought me that New Orleans dinner, and commented how he appreciated "my ability to put up with him talking my ear off all this time." Manners, ladies and gentlemen. Manners. They'll get you far. Thanks mom and dad!

Not long after, I ended up staying in New York City and not drinking for Cinco de Mayo. While we're on an overnight, we can't have alcoholic drinks after 12 hours before a flight. The FAA will have their mitts on you before you can say 'holy blood alcohol content, batman!' A good friend of mine lives in New York, and made sure we got to hang out and get some cheap tacos. As it usually goes with him, "let's you and I hang out" translates to "let's hang out with everyone else I know who is free this evening." So, I was surrounded by tipsy 20-somethings who were determined to fit as much lime flavored ice and booze down their gullets as possible. They thought it was hilarious I couldn't touch any of it. Not even a teensy weensy harmless widdle drinky-poo. The moments when it occurs to you that you've really reached adulthood mentally as well as physically are few and far between, but this was one of them. I love this job too much to be a dumbass.

In other news, I just recently got my parents put on my flight benefits, which means sooooper reduced cost to wherever their whimsy takes them. I'm very excited to see how this pans out, because they are both about to be empty nesters when my little brother scuttles off to college this Fall. So, they'll have a considerable amount of newfound free time. I hope they go somewhere Caribbean or European and just enjoy themselves while clandestinely being glad they gave birth to me.

Anyway, Darcy just made some devastatingly delicious looking banana pudding that I'm now going to help myself to.
Ta-ta for now.

Until next time. Catch me if you can!

—Carmen