What. a. day. I was non-stop. Six meetings, lots of phone calls, and no lunch! =( Work is really kicking my butt lately! This 4 day week is a cursed blessing. I get a day off, but now I have to do 5 days of work in 4! Whew! Unfortunately, I have no exciting 4th of July plans. Maybe relaxing should be my plans. At one point, Bo and I had plans to visit some friends on their land in Waxahachie and shoot fireworks, but I haven't heard any more about that lately. Last year we went, and if you remember, it had been a very rainy summer. The guys convinced me to go on a "hay ride" through the woods. Weeelll, they intentionally left out the part about 40 miles an hour through the cow pastures and people flying into the mud. Luckily, I held on, but got off with a mixture of cow shit and mud caked into my hair. So pleasant.

Bo and I do have exciting plans for the weekend of July 11th. It started like this...

I bought a really cute strapless top, which I immediately showed Bo the minute I got home from shopping. His response was, "Cute. That top would be cute for our 5 year anniversary dinner in Key West." Key West is mine and Bo's preferred vacation destination. However, we've both been there so we agreed to choose a different location. The beach was required so we compromised on Puerto Rico. So, I'm taking Friday and Monday off for a long weekend of relaxation. We booked an ocean view room at the http://www.condadoplaza.com/ Condado Plaza Hotel and Casino. Should be an excellent getaway!

I tried out my new sneakers today - awesome. My old shoes seemed adequate until I ran in these today. The huge arch support really made a difference. Definitely worth the bucks.

Sundays are a bittersweet day of relaxation. I usually don't have much to do on Sundays so I catch up on cleaning and laundry, but this great day of nothingness is followed by a high-stress Monday!

I did get some new sneakers yesterday. Everyone seems to be giving me shit about my old ones, especially since I own more shoes that everyone in my building combined. For some reason, I could care less about tennis shoes. At any rate, they had seen better days. The tread was starting to wear and the cushion was loooong gone. So, I headed to Luke's Locker and they gratefully showed me every shoe in the shoe in the house hoping I would shell out for the fancy ones. They were in luck - a shoe salesman's dream.

Tomorrow should be a good workout!

Check 'em out -

So, where do I begin? Tuesday I flew to Tulsa. I arrived at 10:45AM just in time for an 11AM meeting. And I mean wheels hit the runway at 10:45AM - still had to get off the plane, meet up with my ride, get to the base, get a visitor's badge, and up to the Engineering conference room. The windows Engineer was picking me up so I assumed if I had the subject matter expert with me, I could keep the meeting attendees waiting before we could start. Good strategy I thought. By time we were running in, the meeting ended. So begins my next two days...

After meetings in Tulsa all day, I flew straight to Chicago for a safety roadshow at the hangar on Wednesday. I arrived at 8:30PM, did some chatting with my co-worker and finally got to sleep about 11PM. Not bad right? Well, I had to be AWAKE at 3AM to be in the hotel lobby at 4AM so we could catch the first shift folks getting off at 5AM. Brutal. So I helped out at the roadshow all day and met with some facilities maintenance folks. I was finished early afternoon so I headed over to the terminal to try for an earlier flight. I had a confirmed flight at 8PM, but I didn't want to sit at the airport for 5 hours. Well, the 1AM flight was cancelled due to weather so all those passengers were rolled over to the flights I was attempting to get on. No way - there was 100 people on the standby list. Crap. So I decide to take a layover in Kansas City which would still allow me to be home at 8PM.

I get from ORD (Chicago) to MCI (Kansas City) no problem and in First Class. Well the MCI-DFW flight before mine had also cancelled while I was in route to MCI so my hopes for First were shattered when it when from open by 6 to Jen is 14th on the list. Yikes. My MCI to DFW flight however, had an unexpected aircraft change so we were 1 hour late departing as well.

So, I'm in 30F headed to Dallas. Not the best seat, but the flight is only 1 hour 15 minutes so no big deal. Welllll, some crazy weather came though Dallas just as we reached the airport keeping us from landing. We circled for 45 minutes then had to divert to Tulsa. Ugh. At this point, I am miserable and unpleasant. We land and park on the tarmac for what seemed like forever. There were no drinks on the plane because MCI didn't have enough catering to stock the new plane we received. Ugh. We sit for about an hour and the pilot informs us if we want to get off the plane and stay in Tulsa, air stairs are coming. So about 6 people out of 165 get off the plane. They turned out to be the smart ones...I stay seated in 30F.

Finally airport control lifts the shutdown and there's hope we will make it to Dallas. It's about midnight at this point and we've been waiting forever. We were 7th in line to get more fuel. Plane finally fuels up and they do one last check before we try and head back. Uh oh. They find out the hydraulic system is no longer functioning. How it failed in that short time we were sitting, who knows. They turn on the engines on to test the system - broken. So the captain informs up delivery of parts will take 20 minutes and labor 45 minutes. Ugh. This means we will not be taking off until 1AM-ish. Well, 15 minutes into our wait, we find out there's another 757 at the terminal we can take. So, we are instructed to deplane our aircraft and we will take the other plane. I start thinking...."We've been at this for awhile, we're going to lose our crew soon due to FAA work hour laws..." No sooner does the pilot get on the intercom with, "Uhhh ladies and gentlemen. I have some good news. We're going to take all you guys and luggage to the waiting aircraft and get you to Dallas. However, we only have 25 minutes to get you guys off and on to the next plane - luggage and all. Well fuck. No way that's going to happen. We're not even going to get off the plane in 25 minutes. Never have I seen people de-plane so quickly and at 1AM!

We're all RUNNING to the next gate to get on our new plane and make it just in time. Whew. And I got a better seat out of the deal because people where frantically trying to just sit down. So we landed in DFW at 2:15AM.

As I'm leaving the airport, the weirdest thing happened. I'm waiting in line at the toll plaza and this car in front of me rolls down the window and throws out a burning Startbuck cup - literally engulfed in flames. My mind says, "oh hell, is that going to blow up?' Remember we are in the airport so there's a heightened sense of fear when things like this happen. I skirt around it just in case and some guy comes running from the toll booth trying to figure out what happened. I roll down my window and tell him it was the guy in front of me. That car pays its toll and bolts off. I pay and head towards home. So, who knows what happened. I assume the guy was smoking, threw his cig in the cup and it didn't go out. But it made for some 230AM excitement.

I make it home about 3AM and the thought crosses my mind to email my boss and tell her I will be in late. The more I think about it though, I knew I would still wake up as usual and not be able to sleep in. So, I go in on time with the intention of leaving around 2PM because at this point, I have only had 7 hours of sleep in 2 days. However, I get busy and have a couple meetings so I don't leave until 515PM. What a day!

Ironic thing is the 8PM flight I was avoiding was only one hour late and arrived just after the storm at 1130PM. Bad gamble on my part....

I did go shopping tonight though. DSW Shoes is heaven on earth. I left with 4 pairs of shoes and a smile.

Nick left for jolly ole England today. He got upgraded to Business Class so I'm sure he's 5 hours into his flight an feeling very relaxed from a few drinks!

I love this Sunday for a couple reasons - good breakfast, a clean apartment, Food Network episodes all morning, a good tan at the pool, and shopping by myself for my one size skinnier self. =)

Well, it only took a week and a half of writing for me to slack off for the next week and a half. But here I am - back again. I don't quite know if I would say life got better or worse during my absence. I have gained my lunch hour back a few times the last week. Not tomorrow though.

My trainer came back! Sadly, I did not lift free weights as often as he would have liked so I'm paying for it! But it's a rewarding feeling to be sore. I have officially lost 24 inches (and 18 pounds)! That's two feet all over my body. Weird. Clearly, I had a distorted image of myself before and didn't realize I had 24 inches to lose, but here we are. I've had to retire quite a few clothes that aren't favorites enough to make it to the tailor.

If only it was Friday. This week is dragging. I bought a new cell phone hoping it would make me feel better yesterday only to find out AA doesn't support BlackBerrys and we have a firewall up against them. Looks like I will be headed back to get a BlackJack like the one I had. So unfortunate - I was really liking the BlackBerry. The rollerball is very cool. The phone works fine, but I won't be able to sync my work email to pop up on my phone - no bueno. Could I survive without 24 hour access to American Airlines??? Guess not because I'm headed to AT&T tomorrow to make an exchange.

Tomorrow should be a packed day - MCI for the day, AT&T, dinner with Holly! Keeping myself busy is the key to surviving this week. Thursday I have a 30th birthday for a co-worker Thursday, then it's the weekend!

I'm approaching my 1 year anniversary with American Airlines. I have seen all 4 seasons and all 12 months. I wouldn't say I am content, but I enjoy my position. The impending layoffs have caused me to search the market, but now is not the time to disrupt my work life. I'm still searching for some level of consistency, and I'm finally accepting that the lack of consistency is ny new consistency - watch my back, stay one step ahead of the boss, and document everything.

I make up for the incosistency with a stable personal life. I have a routine that's working for me with my trainer and the gym (which relieves stress!), I see my family regularly, I have a great apartment and wonderful friends, but this life is slipping lately as well. I've entered that stage where it becomes necessary to domesticate or live up my 20's. Naturally, my long term relationship has leaned me towards domestication. However, I worry it is not leaning both us and causing a disconnect.

I'm not a patient person. I hate the transitions. I wish I knew the outcomes. I assume people around me always had life as easy as they do now. I want to catapult myself out of this holding pattern and get on with it. I guess I can only catapult as fast as my other half.

Another weekend past and not much to say for it. Mom's birthday party was Friday night and good to see all of my family. Nick will be headed to London to study abroad pretty soon so it's nice to see him for the few weeks he's home. I think I'll need to take a long weekend and visit him. Maybe in August.

Other than mom's dinner, I have done nothing. Besides Friday, Bo has been MIA for the second weekend in a row. So, I worked out, did a load of laundry, watched too much tv, and slept. Good news is, I am down another pound bring my total to 18. Maybe I just needed to sleep away pounds.

Good news - doctors appointment was scheduled today for Monday!

It has been a tired week. Since Sunday, I have not gone to bed before 1AM and when 5:30AM calls, I curse my alarm. So, by 5PM, I am exhausted. It makes me test my workout willpower and even I have impressed myself. I'm pretty dang dedicated.

I am a little irritated with myself though for not making an appt with my thyroid doctor yet. I have noticed a pattern with my tiredness lately. Every morning I eat a bowl of cheerios about 20 minutes before I head off to work. About 20 minutes into my drive, I can't stay awake. I crash. I have to turn the radio up, blast the A/C, call someone to chat...every morning. Then, I eat lunch at 11:30AM everyday. About 1PM, I'm falling asleep at my desk and I have to take a stroll around the cubes. I crash again. I don't notice it so much at dinner because I am usually active and not focusing on anything. Weird. I can't figure it out. Maybe it's a thyroid thing, maybe it's a food digestion thing. But it's been happening consistently for weeks now (not just this week). If anyone has a diagnosis for me, please speak up.

So, since this is turning out to be a complaint blog, I have one more thing to complain about - conference calls. WHO schedules a daily conference call for 12PM every day. Since the windows ordeal, we have one of our conference calls at 12PM every day. Work is really cutting into my social lunch hour. I haven't been able to sit and gossip. Hopefully this will not be a permanent thing.

On a happier note, tomorrow is my mom's 50th birthday. We booked a private room at the Reata for a family dinner. It;'s been quite awhile since we have all been together with Nick in Oklahoma.

Agh. My trainer needs to come back ASAP. I am losing workout motivation.... =/ However, I'm noticing a little definition in my arms. I haven't had strong muscles in quite a while. It's rewarding. I have also noticed sit ups are becoming much easier. Our conversation often goes like this:

Jenny doing sit-ups.

"Get you chin down to your chest."

"I can't."

"Yeah you can."

"No, I can't. My other chin is in the way."

And now it's going away!

Windows

Well, I think this blog will be my avenue for complaints about work. So, what happens when a cabin window shatters mid-flight and the engine ingests the window shards and shuts down for an emergency landing? Meetings, meetings, meetings. All day. A typical busy day turned into a very stressful one. Therefore, I am exhausted. And my planes to Tulsa and from Tulsa were both delayed making it a very loooong day.

Munday

Today was definitely a case of the Mondays. I have a horrible horrible habit of sleeping later than necessary on Sundays and suffering Monday mornings from lack of Sunday night sleep. Consequently, being tired made for an unproductive night. The following were high priority to-do list items: work out, laundry, clean bathroom, preprare for work tomorrow...NONE got done. I slept. All evening.

I have a day trip to Tulsa tomorrow for an afternoon meeting. Out of office travel keeps me sane. I would rather a more exciting destination, but I'll take what I can get.

The First

In an attempt to make my life more accessible to this world that demands the use of online profiles and communication, I am starting a blog. I'm sure my words are not prophetic or sensible, but at the least, they are meaningful to me.

Since it is the first day of June, it's an appropriate day for my first entry. So, catch up for the masses: My current love interest is 5 years in the making - Bo. He is a teacher in Perrin, Texas. A town smaller than the 5 block radius I live in. He's an excellent basketball coach making a world of difference for those kids.

My second love, maybe arguably my first love, Molly - she's a beagle/blue heeler mix who is currently vacationing with my parents until I have a yard she's satisfied with.

I have a little seniority with American Airlines. It's not much when the average is 16 years. I am a commodity manager in Purchasing with my largest responsibility being aircraft windows for our fleet. I also manage facilities maintenance and some misc aircraft parts. It's become a great short term position, but with these layoffs, it has me looking for my next move.

My free time is spent with a trainer who has turned me into a work out monster. Other than that, I enjoy Sex and the City reruns, my nightly hot bath, and weekly manicure/pedicure.

This "transition period" of my life should make fore interesting reading.