Once A Stewardess, Always A Stewardess!

I actually went to work! Yes, it has been almost two years since I last donned the beautiful blue polyester suit (which is another story in and of itself, but we'll get to that!). I have been so blessed to be a stay at home mom and I have enjoyed being with Sean almost everyday of his life. After he was born, I transfered to NYC where I would have enough seniority to be off reserve. I think I have flown about 8 trips in as many years--all by choice! I have a great guy that takes care of my schedule for me each month and he does such an amazing job!
On this trip, as I was about to get on the flight to La Guardia to commute up to work, Crew Schedule called. My first thoughts were: either I have been fired because I never go to work or I messed up my sign in date or time! They were calling to let me know my departure had been delayed 3 hours so my sign in time had been pushed back. I went ahead and flew up on the flight I had planned on taking since two flight attendants I was working the trip with were commuting up too. We shared a cab over to Kennedy and chilled out until about 7pm.
Unfortunately, our flight was late coming in from the DR and that delayed us further. When we boarded, we found out there was a problem with the water tanks and we would have to go with out water. No coffee, no ice water service, no washing your hands---on a 6 hour flight. Ugh! Catering brought on 6 or 8 gallons of water for drinking and wet-naps for hand washing. We were finally under way--almost 5 hours late!
Because oour departure had been so delayed, we were not legal to work our return flight in the morning. They brought a different crew in to work that flight back to Kennedy and we were scheduled to dead head (ride as a passenger). It worked our great--I got home 5 hours early! And picked up a couple extra hours of pay in the process!
I have been a flight attendant for just under 20 years---boy, have things changed! It is no wonder people get so frustrated with air travel! Everytime you turn around it's another fee! Checked bag? $15. Two bags? Another $25. Hungry? $10. Need headphones? $2. Magazine? You'd better BYO!
I absolutely love the crews out of NYC and the trips are great. I am all geared up and ready to make a habit of this going to work business! It really is fun! I was amazed at how nice our passengers were (well, except for one cuckoo, but there's always one in every bunch!) even with the crazy delays and no coffee! Really nice people. Oh, and did I mention how stinky the plane was? I am talking hide-your-nose-in-your-sweater-stinky. They did complain about that, but so did we! It was seriously foul.

So, a day or so before I was going to fly I thought it might be wise to try on my uniform....NONE OF THEM FIT!!!!! I am not talking they were tight---they full on wouldn't button. I thankfully had a really ugly dress that I had never worn before since it was so large-marge that it needed taking in. Yeah, I got that on and wore it like a straightjacket. Seriously, not funny. R. made a comment about it looking too tight. I felt like saying, "well, at least THIS one ZIPS!" but I was too proud! Oye!
So I ordered a new skirt. Dang Texas heat must make everything shrink in my closet!