Your Wrap Up Of Another Wheels Off Broadcast Day...

OK...so it's not The Ticket Top Ten...Dear Lord, today was a crazy one. Let's see here...where to begin?

I actually rolled into work early today, just in time to get pelted with some hardcore rain. I flipped from my usually spot on the dial (1310 The Ticket's FM repeater on 104.1) over to KRLD just in time for them to mention a tornado was seen southwest of the airport. Now I LOVE storms. I love rain. I wish for rainy days the way most people hope for sunny days. I'm weird like that. However, I am NOT a fan of even just the idea of a tornado.

So, I'm driving down the service road that leads to the south employee parking lot already slightly freaking out about the whole idea of a tornado. I make the left merge into the crossunder that leads to the parking lot and my car decides to hit a slippery patch and come out from under me. I spun around a little more than 90 degrees and went up onto the curb and into a chain link fence. Yep, I got into a wreck in the middle of a massive thunderstorm 5 minutes from work. That was a somewhat decent sign that my day was gonna be crazy. I started predicting right then and there that today was the day I was gonna get sucked into a 737 engine.

I got into work and decided I would pop my contacts in my eyes before hitting the ramp (which was temporarily closed thanks to lightning in the area) so I could wear sunglasses. I grabbed my glasses case out of my gear bag and made a run to the restroom where I washed my hands and pulled my left contact out of the case. I put it in my eye and it immediately felt like someone was pouring acid into my fucking eyeball. Yep, it hurt so bad I was literally blind for a good 5 minutes. Blind. And to top that off, I lost the contact. After recovering my sight, I began counting the minutes 'til that 737, with it's roaring wing mounted engines, was to pull into the gate. Today was my day to get sucked in.

That flight came and went without incident...hell, it didn't even take me that long to cater that sucker in the rain. So, I started thinking all would be well in the world. Things were looking up.

Then the next flight rolled in and I knew everything was gonna be okey doke. Our last flight of the day is a through flight that originates in our hub city, stops in Dallas, then goes on to LAX. In Dallas, the flight crews allow the passengers going on to LAX to deplane and stretch and maybe catch a bite to eat on the concourse. Well, tonight...we had a Buddhist monk on his way to LA who didn't quite understand the concept of the through flight and thought he was in Los Angeles when he obviously was in Dallas. He sat around and waited for his bags and came to the realization that he was in Dallas/Fort Worth right around the same time the plane was supposed to depart.

He approached one of our ticket agents and tried to explain as best he could with the little English he knew. She called the gate agent and the captain decided to let the guy board. They were already over an hour behind thanks to delays...what was another 5 minutes, right? Well, since he wasn't middle class or white, he had the dreaded SSSS on his boarding pass and he had to go through extra screening. 5 minutes quickly turned into 15 minutes. At this point, I was asked to let the flight crew know what the delay was. After a few more minutes, here comes the monk (in full monk garb), waddling down the jetbridge.

I swear to God, that man reminded me of E.T. for some reason or another...but you couldn't help but smile when you saw him smile. It was that infectious of a smile. Big and toothful. And I realized that I don't do that enough. I let everything stress me out. Here's this guy, on the verge of being stuck in big ol' Dallas/Fort Worth Intl. Airport by himself with no bags and no real grasp on the English language, yet he was still happy and showing no signs of stressing. That's pretty cool.

Planes were late, but staggered, so we kicked some ass and got outta there at a decent hour. I was the last to leave and I got out at 0315. That's not too bad for a bad weather day.

Well, I'm not sure if I ever mentioned my Cingular wireless situation here...so why not now. When I went to our hub city for training right after I got hired, I used my phone alot. Afterall, I was on a nationwide, no-roaming wireless plan, right? WRONG! I thought I was, but the good folks over at Cingular wireless decided that I wasn't really on a nationwide plan. Because of that, I racked up an $850 phone bill while in the evil city de hub.

Thanks to this, I've been having to put off moving to Denton for over a month. Thanks to the loan I took out from Shaun prior to getting a job with my airline, I'm having to pay him back in installments of $150 per paycheck. After all my deductions and taxes, that leaves me with less that $120 to last me almost 2 weeks. YES! I can't wait to not eat!

I've been doing alot of thinking lately. That's dangerous, I know, but I can't help it. I've been having all of these constant little reminders lately of how stupid I am and how I always manage to fuck up the good things in my life. Alot of this revolves around Maureen and how much I really miss her friendship. There are just so many songs and so many things that make me think of that girl. This morning on the way home it was doubled thanks to "I'll Be" by Edwin McCain being on the radio as I passed the big sign at Fouts Field while it said in huge letters "MEAN GREEN SOFTBALL". Yeah, that's a quick route to feeling like shit about how stupid I am.

But Mo isn't the only one I've been thinking about lately. I've also been thinking alot about how the only 2 girls I ever broke up with (as opposed to me being the dumpee...which is the more often occurance) are the only 2 that were keepers. Chaulk up another fuck up for me!

Oh well...I better hit the hay. Another fun day at the airport is coming right up in just a little bit!

I leave you with this...

I never wanted
This to be.
What has happened here?
I believe
I never said it
So, I must have read it
Between the lines
We find the time to grieve.
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Current Music: Jackson Parten and Folktronic - No Importance
Current Weight: 235 (it's finally coming down!)

Yet another Weekend Update...audio-tastic!

(Non) Revvin'

Ahhhh, nice to be awake before 3pm. :)

(Note that this part was written a week ago...)

Had a super good night at work last night. Damn near flawless. Everything was on time, loads were light, cabins were mostly clean. Lav tanks were full. Wait...that was a flaw. I had lav duty last night...and I swear it took me 20 minutes longer than usual. Hooray for dumping doo doo! Oh well, operationally speaking, yesterday rocked. :)

Went to D.C. to visit Lisa this weekend. I knew it was gonna be wheels off when my trip started out with me showing up at 0756 for my 0800 flight. I had to punch in the code to the jetway door myself, run down to the plane, toss my work gear bag to the gate agent so she could put it in my locker down in operations, and jump onto the plane in time for them to close the door right behind me. The F/A's were having a field day with making fun of me being late...so I made them work. I was three coffe and Bailey's deep before takeoff. Mmm...:).

Got in the air, about 100 miles east of Dallas and the plane started a sharp bank to the left. At the same time, the flight deck interphone dinged, and the F/A that answered...well, judging from her face, I was pretty sure we were under nuclear attack at that point. A look of sheer horror. Then the Captain comes on the PA and all he says is "Hi there, ladies and gentlemen, at the request of our dispatch in Orlando we're turning back to Dallas/Fort Worth. We'll have mor details when we get back on the ground". So I'm sitting there wondering "what the hell". The man sitting next to me saw my airport badges when I walked onto the plane and started asking me question after question about why we would be turning around. Of course, I don't want to tell him what I really think (malfunctioning aircraft parts), so I start making shit up about not having a proper dispatch release on hand or something like that. I don't quite remember what I told him...but I do remember it being so genius that he left me alone the rest of the day.

We got on the ground and I realized I still had my badges in my pocket...so I hopped off the plane (leaving the rest of those suckers on the plane, no less) and walked the F/A's to where they could smoke a cigarette. Stopped by operations and got the real story on the gate return...VOR2 went out and we had a replacement on hand at DFW, so it made more sense to go ahead and make the swap then. We were grounded for about an hour, then back towards BWI.

Good flight...booze and sleep. Does it get any better? Got to BWI and, since Miss Lisa can't leave the lovely Commonwealth of Virginia, I had to wait for her friend Amanda to come get me. Nice girl but I could tell she was less than thrilled about driving half an hour to pick up some dude she doesn't know. We got back towards D.C. and Amanda dropped me off with Lisa on base.

Lots of drinking and poker...lots of Lisa throwing me under the bus regarding who I voted for in the presidential election.

I've been meaning to post this entry for a while...so I'll stop here and continue later since I just got called into work early.

A Quick Note About FOD

FOD...it can mean two different, though related, things. Foreign Object Debris or Foreign Object Damage.

Foreign Object Debris is mainly just trash. Pier stickers, bag tags, plastics, etc...it can all be picked up off the ramp to help avoid Foreign Object Damage.

Foreign Object Damage can be defined as a gigantic fucking pain in the ass for all involved...from ticket, gate, and ramp agents to flight crews and aircraft maintenance.

Just wanted to make sure we were all clear on that.
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I wanna kick shouts out to the crew over at "the airline that s-canned an F/A for doing what I'm doing right now". I heard through the grapevine (insert singing raisins...here) that they apparently read this thing. Now that I know you're reading...that means you have to donate to my beer fund...err...I mean, charitable cause by click the "Tip Jar" link over to the right. Oh...and a big "up yours" to whoever decided to let that plastic bag fly around enough to make it out to the taxiway.

Off to D.C. this weekend to see Miss Lisa...haven't seen her in over a year. Should be wheels off fun. Hopefully my direct deposit will come through before I head out...otherwise, D.C. on $90 should be interesting.

Things are better with the old crew now...except Mo. I'm done trying. She doesn't give a shit, so why should I? I'll miss that girl alot, but she's almost a different person now than the person I thought I knew. Eh, you win some, you lose some. Of course, if she ever comes around...I'll be there. I'm a sucker like that.

Baseball season is finally here. That means printing 16 pages of pregame media notes everyday, listening to a little Diamond Talk on 1310 The Ticket's Hardline (since baseball is a "talkin' sport"), and lots of time watching the Rangers on FSN-Southwest and eating ice cream just like like my Papa.

Hopefully, I'll get to catch a game at Fenway this season (the Sox made Mariano Rivera their bitch again today...you better believe I LOVED every second of that). And I sure as Hell will be catching some games at the Ballpark in Arlington, too. I'm predicting the Rangers will win 90 games this season.

So, that's about it...I need to get some shuteye...it's officially my Friday at work and I need to get packed before I leave here for work. Probably gonna put in an overnight shift, go to Denton to shower, and head back to fly out at 8am.

Oh, real quicklike while I'm thinking about it...be sure to check out Mean Eddie Walker's blog. It's a great read and always entertaining...I think alot of you will like it. I've been meaning to plug his blog for a while and just keep forgetting.

Until next time, "She's a brick and I'm drowning slowly"...
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Current Music: Terry Cashman - Talkin' Baseball