when it rains. it pours... and hails!

I never talk about work on here, but last week's adventure is worth repeating. But it's a LONG STORY!!

Friday, June 12th was supposed to be a normal, excruciatingly long but normal, day. A 12 hour day with 4 flights. It also didn't help that Thursday night's overnight was cut 2 hours shorter.

This is how it was SUPPOSED to go down...

*Seattle 8:50am - Denver 12:25pm
*Denver 1:20pm - Kansas City 3:50pm
*Kansas City 4:30pm - Denver 5:20pm (wait for 2 hours)
*Denver 7:10pm - Kansas City 9:45pm (overnight in KC)

Yuck right? Yeah, it didn't even happen that way. Here is the real day...

*Seattle 8:50am - Denver 12:25pm
*Denver 1:20pm - Kansas City 3:50pm
*Kansas City 4:30pm - PUEBLO, COLORADO!! 5:45pm

OK. So we didn't make it to Denver. The weather, hail, rain, thunder, lightning and such closed the whole airport.

-So, after 1 hour in a divert situation you give out water.
-After 2 hours you break out the emergency divert kit, ie. granola bars.
-After 3 hours, due to the new passengers-stranded-on-planes-for-hours law, the airline gets fined per passenger still remaining in the plane. We are talking about over $20,000 per passenger. And in Pueblo there were 4 Frontier planes so it would cost us about $3.7 million per plane!

Our amazing pilots got us off the ground with 15 minutes to spare. I felt like we were racing against the clock in some action movie. More tiring than exciting though.

*Pueblo 8:28pm - Denver 9:07pm

At this point we had no idea if we were still going to Kansas City for our overnight or not. Where is our plane? How late are we going to be? Won't this be too long of a day if we go?

We found our gate, plane, passengers to head right back to Kansas City. We boarded and headed out into the outrageous line of planes. We drove around for an hour, still waiting in line, and finally the captain told us we were 4th in line and to be seated for take-off. About 5 minutes later his next announcement went something like this...

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are number 2 for departure, but we just got a call from operations and they said your crew timed out for the day."

You should have heard the passengers grumbling. I just sat on the jumpseat and cried. If we had taken off it would have made it a 16 hour day and that is illegal for us. I was so tired I could barely walk or talk and I felt so aweful for the passengers since they had been waiting for us and now who knows when they were going.

So our last "flight" of the day was just driving around the tarmacs and runways of Denver International Airport.

*Denver 10:15pm - DENVER 11:22pm!!

It was too brutal of a day. But the best part was that once we got to Kansas City we were supposed to do a Cancun turn back to Kansas City the next day, well we got the rest of the weekend off since our day had been too long we couldn't go back to KC.

Tony and I had an entire Saturday off together and even got to go to a party down the street that some neighbors had!

We had to come back on Sunday for a Jackson Hole turn. And if you know me at all I would go and see the Grand Tetons any day of the week. I brought my camera and we all walked around the plane to take in the spectacular sight.

So all in all one rough day turned into a great weekend and I guess it's kinda cool that I got to experience my first divert. I just don't want to do it again EVER!

I need a new job. ASAP!!!

I must confess... I HATE my job! I know there are tons and tons of people out there that hate their jobs and that have terrible profesions, but I think mine is gonna make me crazy! It is also making me sick. I have developed Vertigo over the last year and a half and flying everyday and feeling nauseated is crap! I have to take meclizine before I go to work. Not only is it making me sick its really killing my spirits.

I am a flight attendant. Sounds like a dream job, right? NO! Long hours, low wages (that keep dimishing due to cut backs and bankruptcy), cruddy passengers, being alone all the time, rushing here and there, sitting and waiting for hours, ass-hole pilots hitting on you, forgetting things in hotels, eating cold meals bc there is no access to microwaves.

There are great perks too (loads of down time, being in a different city every night, free flights, tons of days off, great friends, a beautiful view from the windows!) but I am soooo over them. I have been everywhere I want to go and any new places I want to visit I want to experience with my husband. I am ready to be home everyday. I don't mean not working, I love to work and will always work full time, but I want to be HOME every night! I want to eat home cooked meals, be with Tony more than just 3 days a week, work in the yard, play with the pup and cat, and sleep in my own bed and take a shower in my own bathroom.

I have applied to a bunch of places, but of course no luck.

And the real reason for this whiney post... I WANT YOUR HELP!!

*26 year old female searching for a full-time job with benefits earning about $15/hour. Job can involve retail, office work, bank, hotel, library, shoe department at Nordstrom's, cosmetics, anything. Server/waitress positions will not be accepted. 10 years customer service experience.

Seems like a lot to ask for, but I am willing to work something part-time to split up the time I have to be away. I can work part-time with Frontier and part-time somewhere else.

Does anyone know of anything in the Denver area?

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let me know if you know of anything. I am going to dress up one day and go door to door at the mall since I have no idea what else to do.

Thursday's wish list...

This is my wish list! (I stole this idea from my friend Kirsten's blog.) It's just a portion of the many MANY things I want. I add more things all the time so I will update this from occasionally.

Oh and since my birthday is coming up... you can get most of them at Emily's Amazon Wishlist

vigotti boots size 8

A Single Man. One of my favorite movies of all time.

lomography colorsplash camera

This is my new favorite series and I have to wait until the 25th to read the final book!

subscriptions to Vogue and Instyle magazines

OMG! There is so much more, but I won't overwhelm you. Hope you enjoyed!

higher education...

Sewing. I cannot tell you how much I enjoy it. I don’t only love to sew, but I love trying to figure out how the logistics of clothing work. If I stitch here will it fit better? What happens if I dye this fabric? I really can’t get enough of the fun!

This is why I am going back to school (eventually) at Emily Griffith Opportunity School for their Professional Sewing/Design program. They offer classes from beginning and serger sewing to alterations and advanced sewing with everything in-between. I am trying to decide which electives to complete; alterations, design sketching, menswear, lingerie and lycra, and patterns will all be a must. It will take at least 18 months to complete and I hope I can survive working at a job not suited for me for another 2 years until I can do something I love. And the fact that my homework will probably involve a sewing machine while I am traveling around… yikes!

I hate school and the thought of me going back hurts my insides. It is the history, science, math and so on that I feel is unnecessary (albeit good knowledge in general) for an art/design student. I suck at those subjects anyhoo. So I am going to a trade school to just get what I want!

I have been planning this for a very long time and I have been telling everyone about it, but my finances keep getting in the way. No, I can’t use financial aid because I have to go to school full-time to receive it and that just isn’t going to happen when I have to work full-time from out of town. Aaaarrrggghhhh! It’s a huge stress for me but I think I have a solution.

Because I don’t have the money to begin classes right now (but hopefully in the fall (fingers crossed)) I have a fall back plan for the time being. There is a little place called a library filled with magical books on any subject possible. So I am using my FREE resources and now have about 20+ books with me about sewing, crafts, lingerie, fabrics, textiles, fashion design, beauty, history and more. I am studying!! I never thought I would see the day that studying could make me so excited. Some of the books are hilariously outdated but others are such wonderful gems to assist in my knowledge.

Along with these books I have decided to obviously practice with anything I can get my hands on. So far I have…

-bleached pants Alexander McQueen style
-made a floor length size 20 skirt into a high waisted skirt in my size
-made 5 skirts with pockets for me, Carly, and my mom
-used Rit dye for the first time
-made cafe style window coverings for the kitchen
-embroidered several birthday gifts for the ladies in my life

and this is all before I actually got the books or schooling! I will add pictures of my craftings later.

I think I have finally found my niche and I am so excited to begin!

busy crafting... try again later.

birthday, easter, and los angeles...

We have had quite a busy week!

*Friday, April 2nd... Tony's Birthday!
He is now 29. Yikes! We are getting old. We had a really exciting day and he claims this to be his best birfday evah! He received an iPhone (from me!), new bowling ball, a Wii, GQ magazine subscription, and the series "the States" from the History Channel on DVD. I think he did pretty well! Of course Tony, Matt and I went bowling with his new ball and ate some great bar food while we were playing. For dinner, we decided to try something new with tapas. If you aren't familiar, tapas are spanish style appetizers and are FANTASTIC. We tried The 9th Door in LoDo and just happened to be there during happy hour! Basically $70 got all three of us drunk, stuffed and happy! If we went for normal dinner it would have been outrageous. All in all a fantastic day!!

*Saturday, April 3rd... Flying to Los Angeles
We decided to take a vacation just to get away and it was great timing with Tony's b-day. We have so much family in L.A. and thought it was a perfect opportunity to crash couches. I have an aunt, an uncle, six cousins, and many friends to see. We arrived at 8:30am and were ready to go...

-picked up by cousin Bo from LAX
-while leaving Bo and Hannah's house in Silverlake, saw January Jones at a restaurant
-to Chinatown, bought me a fantastic (cheap) oriental robe
-Olvera Street where it was "Bless Your Pet Day" and, yes, we saw dogs, birds, cats on leashes, iguanas, turtles in carts, and even a huge snake on a little girls shoulders
-attempted to layout by the pool at KK and Trudie's house (aunt and uncle), but it was too cold :(
-the Griffith Observatory for sunset with the most spectacular view of all of Los Angeles
-a late dinner at Malo with Bo, Hannah, and our good friends Elena and Shannan

*Sunday, April 4th... Easter
We have so many cousins here that it takes some serious planning to see everyone. We stayed with Bo and Hannah in their crazy house on Avocado St. But we needed to see the others. We decided on brunch for Easter.

-Gladstone's on Santa Monica Beach (very pricey seafood place) for brunch with the Kemm family cousins, Josh, Chiara, and Jessica. And we saw a dolphin!
-driving back from the beach along Sunset Boulevard, through Beverly Hills, detoured to Rodeo Drive, then the Sunset Strip
-an Easter cookout was in order with tons of roommates (from the Avocado house), more family (KK, Drake, Bo, Beata, Josh), Dodger Dogs, and kebabs
-not only did we have a great cookout there was also an Easter Earthquake! Tony's first!
-we met a friend of Bo's named Bill. Now Bill was super familiar to me. Turns out he was on How I Met Your Mother which of course we love and watch religiously and we knew his part very well (and of course we could quote his line back to him)
-apples to apples, a game of celebrity and talking late into the night rounded out the day

*Monday, April 5th... Lazy day
We didn't do much of anything and had no plans.

-got coffee at the Coffee Bean and had to run back to the house in the pouring rain
-had breakfast with Bo and Hannah at Fred 62 and happened to see the kid who played Elliott from ET. He is all grown up with a little girl and a wife. I think he knew we were talking about him. But apparently its his fault for being a child actor.
-the rent was due at the Avacado house and due to roommate drama we were hiding upstairs when I came up with our new names of Anne and Frank!
-to get away from the drama, we got a beer at the Cha Cha Lounge. A rediculously furnished, dank bar with the greatest vending machine items (jiffy cornbread mix, 21 Jump Street trading cards, naked lady greeting card...)
-to Elena and Shannan's for pizza and beer. My Tony got to meet their cat Tony!

*Tuesday, April 6th... To the beach!
-we took off at about noon and headed to Santa Monica Beach for a day in the sun!
-lunch at Hot Dog on a Stick, only my all time favorite corndog eatery!
-a stroll through the arcades and boardwalk
-off to Venice Beach to see the crazies and the drunkies
-dinner at Red Lion, a great German restaurant, with Hannah, Bo, Elena, and Shannan

*Wednesday, April 7th... home again
We had such a wonderful and relaxing trip and we got lots of great family time in. We did come home during the drama with the "Shoe bomber/smoker" on the tarmac at DIA. But luckily we landed fine and all was well!!!