I’m Moving To Dubai and Other Life Details

So I’ve definitely been MIA in the blogging world lately. A big reason is that I’ve had several different job related issues going on that I’ve been hesitant to share about until they were more concrete. I’ll go ahead and start out with the most obvious issue at hand…I’M MOVING TO DUBAI.

A year ago when I first started with Spirit, my knowledge about the aviation field was slim. I immediately heard other coworkers going through training with me speak of Emirates being their dream job, as well as a few trainers speaking of their glory days when they worked for Emirates. Now, being the former Southwest Airlines loyal customer that I was, I had never even heard of this company, however throughout the past year I’ve learned a lot more about it, and was eager to try and work for the best.

Last month, a friend of mine informed me that Emirates was holding several recruitment days in the USA, and asked if I’d be interested in going with her to one in Orlando to interview. At this point I thought it would be really cool to work for one of the most elite airlines in the world and fly around the globe, but was not completely focused on the reality that I could possibly get hired with this company. Regardless, I prepared for the interview and attended the open assessment day with two of my Spirit flight attendant friends.

The day was TOUGH! It started at 9:00 A.M. with one of the recruiters, a woman from Ireland, presenting us candidates with an hour long information session. While she was giving this presentation, another recruiter, a young women from Australia, was reviewing our resumes and professional photos. Yes, I did have to get professional business photos taken, yes they’re stupid.


After the informational session they divided the 80 of us candidates into groups of ten and asked that we come up with a new slogan for Emirates. The recruiters then walked around with clip boards and watched us all interact; very lab rat Esq. After completing this activity they thanked us all for coming and told us to line us by the door and they would call out our number and hand us a slip of paper. The papers either said (basically) “thanks, but no thanks” or “you have made it to the next round of interviews.” I was very thankful and excited to have received a letter informing me I had made it to the next round. Unfortunately, one of my friends, whose dream it was to work for Emirates, did not make it on to the next round.

After this we had a small break, before coming back to do another round of watching us all interact in a group. I was surprised to discover that out of the 80 candidates, only about 12 of us made it to round two. During this time they also did a height test, where you had to be able to reach seven feet. Unfortunately, my friend who did make it to round two was eliminated during the height test. Following this exercise they once again handed out the pieces of paper and only five of us made it to the following round, which was a basic English comprehension test. All five of us passed this round, and were invited back for a one on one interview the next morning.

Now I’ve had many of one on one interviews in my time, BUT this was by the far the most intense interview I’ve ever faced. One of the recruiters was so scary in fact that when she handed me her business card and in parenthesis it actually said “THE INTIMIDATOR.” Okay, maybe not, but you get the picture. Anyways they kept me on my toes for a good 30 minutes asking me questions about my weakness, my failures, and times I’ve let a team down. It was’t exactly roses and rainbows hour. However, after the formal interview was over, I could feel it in my soul that I had nailed it. The tone in the room immediately changed and the scary recruiter relaxed a little herself and asked me if I had any questions, comforted me about several of my fears concerning safety, homesickness, and culture shock, and reassured me that I would do great in Dubai and love working for Emirates. They then informed me that within three weeks they would let me know the results.

So that was mid November….During those three weeks I constantly had Emirates in the back of my mind, but there was still life to be lived during that time. All of these things in itself our worthy of their own posting, but for times sake, I’ll spare you. I went home for Thanksgiving and had a GREAT time with family and friends.

I had a childhood friend of mine killed in a car accident (first time I’ve ever lost a peer, I had a much rougher time handling this than I thought I would). Was recommended to be a part time check airmen for probationary Spirit flight attendants, applied and interviewed for the position, and was hired. Went to Disneyland for the day to celebrate my friend Michelle’s birthday celebration.

And last, but not least, have had some really fun layovers in Chicago where I’ve gotten to spend time with lots of family and friends!




Now, fast forward to last Wednesday, exactly three weeks since my initial Emirates interview. I was driving to work for a red eye to Costa Rica, and I received a call from an unknown number. My stomach dropped to the floor as I heard the voice of a male middle easterner, because I knew this was the call I had been waiting for. Surprisingly, I don’t get too many personal calls on my cell phone from middle eastern men. He immidently introduced himself, and congratulated me on being accepted to work for Emirates airline. He then proceeded to tell me a lot of important information, but I was too in schock to absorb any part of the conversation other than “you will be moving to Dubai on January 15th.” Needless to say I was not exactly tuned into work that night, in fact it was all a bit of a blur.

So since last Wednesday I have been rushing around trying to complete necessary medical related tasks such as obtaining my vaccination reports and getting dental Xrays. While doing this I’ve also been trying to figure out how to pack two years of life into my Corolla. So far I’m down two bags of clothes, one box of shoes, a bookshelf, and a bike. Anyone in need of an Ikea bed, less than a year old, hardly ever slept in????

Soooo that’s where I’m at! This is all extremely exciting, but also an extremely stressful time for various reasons. I really have appreciated all the love and support I’ve been shown throughout this entire process. Any words of encouragement are welcomed and appreciated! Anything else can be kept to yourself! I am not a naive person, I’m aware that Dubai is located in the middle east and that it’s a completely different culture over there. However, I have done my research and I really do believe some good old fashion common sense will take me a long way! All of the negative comments I have received about my decision have come from people who have never even visited Dubai. What I have learned about Dubai from people who have either visited or lived over there has all been incredibly positive. Here is an email I received from a friend of a friend who has been working with Emirates for about a year.

“ Hey Kelsey!!! I am so sorry for taking long time to reply back; i was really busy for the last few weeks... Well what can i tell you... It is absolutely an amazing company, if you like flying and getting to know different culture this is the place for you. I have seen many Americans here and seems that they love it, the country is very safe and is not so strict as people think. Before i moved here i was concerned as well but i had good feeling since the begging and i have no regrets... Wish you luck and look forward to see you here”

I’ll be home for about three weeks, and hope to get to squeeze in as much family and friend time as humanly possibly before I venture across the pond! Love you all so much!


"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." John A. Shedd

My mom text me this quote as soon as I shared my exciting news with her, what a great mom!

California Knows Hot To Party....Unless Your Name Is Kelsey Schutz

So I'm currently hanging out in my L.A. hotel room, and feeling slightly guilty about doing so. See, I'm always the #1 advocate for seize the day, live life to the fullest, blah blah blah, BUT some days you just need a personal day. Like a legit I'm not putting on contact lenses or a bra kind of day. So even though today I'm in beautiful Los Angeles, it just so happens to coincide with my I'm not doing anything day. In my defense, it only 58 degrees outside and not too sunny.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a ton of reading time this week, so I still haven't completed my book on how to handle my quarter life crisis, so no new news on that front. However, I have been able to read a little bit of it this week, and so far so good. A big part of the book is about reflecting. One of the exercises from the book this week involved interviewing your mother about her experience as a 20 something year old. I'll keep this very general because when I asked her to do the interview with me she actually said, "This isn't going to end up on the Internet is it?!" Oh, Gaily! Anyways, my mom and I are very close, so there really weren't too many shocking moments (although I was slightly hoping for some stories she possibly forgot to mention during the past 23 years like about the time she almost eloped, or the time she got arrested for disorderly conduct, or the time she went streaking through her college campus....eh not so much). While I really didn't learn anything horribly new about my mom, I still took a lot away from the interview. The biggest lesson I learned, is that while my mom and I have very similar personalities (very laid back, passionate about people, free thinkers), we have had very different 20 something year old experiences. At my current age of 23 I'm struggling with issues like where should I move next, what career path should I pursue, do I actually want to get married and if so at what age should I at least ATTEMPT to stop dating Mr. Wrongs. My mom, on the other hand, had been happily married for four years when she was 23, and was a full time mommy to a one year old. She was very active in the community, and she and my father were very focused on expanding the family farm. I just thought that was all very interesting, because the book has been talking a lot about the differences between the current 20 something generation, as opposed to our parent's generation, and in many ways the experiences are very different because there were different expectations of that generation as opposed to ours. Just a little something something to ponder.

In between my last trip, and the one I am on right now, I had a three day gap, so naturally I went to Disney. I was able to hang out with my friend Liz, and you guessed it, we got another Holiday Sandwich. YUMMMM! After our Earl of Sandwich dinner, she actually showed me one of her favorite Disney things, that I had never experienced before; watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the beach at the Polynesian Resort. They even play the music that accompanies the fireworks. How cool is that?!


Two of my Spirit friends from Fort Lauderdale also came up for the trip, and it was fun to show them around my old stompin' ground. We were able to visit Hollywood Studios while we were in town, and see the Osbore Holiday Lights (Christmas lights that blink to the beat of the music).

While we were in town we stayed with my good friends Lita and Sari. I also got to meet their newest roommate, Benjamin! I'm not always the biggest animal lover, but this dog just melts your heart. I resisted the urge to put him in my suitcase. The best part about the dog? That's right, he's hypoallergenic and does not shed. Now that my kind of indoor pet!


And now, a little thought to ponder for the week....God only has three answers to our prayers. Yes, not right now, or I have something better in mind.

Have a wonderful week!!!

12 on The 12th

1- The Office is seriously the funniest show ever. I thought it would all go down hill once Steve Carell left, but it's actually remained just as great. Anyways, according to Dwight, I'm going to hit my attractiveness peak at age 24, and then gradually go down from there. Ggggreeat!

2- Speaking of being almost 24, I've self diagnosed myself with having a quarter life crisis. It's pretty much the same thing as a mid life crisis, except I have no plans of buying a Ferrari or leaving my husband (nevermind the fact that I'm not married). I'm reading about my condition in this new book titled 20 Something 20 Everything. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of the week, and then at that time I'll will have direction and know what the heck I'm doing with my life. So, that'll be nice to have one less thing to worry about.

3) I ran in the Hot Chocolate 5k in Chicago last weekend with my friend Kristen. We ran it in 31:47, a fairly respectable time considering we trained for it in five days. It was a lot of fun, and was a good reminder of how much I actually do love racing.



4) I love my friends! I got a big dose of them last week after spending the weekend with Kristen and Allison, and then a full night with my high school friends. Being with them is good for the soul.

5) Hello, my name is Kelsey, and I am addicted to pinterest.

6) If you're in the market for a good book I highly reccomend the following...Freedom, The Luxury of Less, Fire Fly Lane, The Help, Heart of The Matter, A Piece of Cake, Heaven is For Real, and of course anything written by Nicholas Sparks.

7) Last weekend, I also got to see my friend Steve Peach for the 1st time in a year and a half. Not only did he serve as my taxi from the airport, but he also gave me a tour of Loyola University (where he is currently working on his masters degree), and treated me to some fabulous Thai food. What a swell dude!

8) Right now I am in San Juan....working, kind of. Anyways, I am totally jamming to some hispanic radio station. No idea what they're saying, but I kinda like it. Just my view out the ol office window.


9) I'm in serch of the perfect brown boot. Trickier than it sounds!

10) My flight attendant dress is getting tight. Not all over, mainly just the rib area. I think my rib cage is getting fat. Is that possible?

11) This week I had to get some professional headshots taken (the reason for that is a whole other post,for a whole other day). Anways, I went to Target Portrat Center (classy, I know) and, I kid you not, the photographer was the real life version of Deb. Deb, as in Glamor Shots by Deb from Napoleon Dynamite. She legit said things like, "Tilt your head a little to the right," and "I think that one's gonna turn out really nicely."

12) I've been experiementing with different work appropriate hairsyles lately because you can only wear your hair in a low pony for so many hundred days in a row before you start to feel like your stuck in a bit of a rut. I may also have been slightly inspired by the new show Pan Am. My appologies for the posting of a mirror shot. It goes against everythging I believe in.

Tales of Orlando, Cancun, Virginia, and Hitchhiking

So this month I’ve slept in my own bed a grand total of four nights. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my busy life, but am definitely ready for a little R and R at home. I just got back home from a four day trip, changed into my favorite oversized sweatpants and sweatshirt, crawled into bed, and plan on staying in this outfit, in this bed all day long!

The day after I last wrote/rambled I spent one week in Orlando visiting friends, and working at Walt Disney World. I spent several days in the Magic Kingdom working as a member of the parade audience control (PAC). I’ve come so long from my first PAC shift where I left the park feeling defeated, and crying. This past time I can honestly say I was able to remain composed and even smiled while waving my blue light wand and yelling, “You cannot stand in this area, this a walkway only.” As I was doing this, I was also having various strollers rammed into my shins, and being called a blankety blank Nazi by Mr. Father of The Year. Oh the magic...

I was FINALLY able to see my friend Liz, who is currently doing the college program, and had an awesome time exploring Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival with her. I was also privileged enough to introduce her to Earl of Sandwich’s Holiday Sandwich (think Thanksgiving between sourdough), YUM! Visits to Orlando always include lots of laughs and great life chats with great friends. In a weird kind of way, Orlando always feels like home to me, of course in a different way than White Hall. Mainly because it doesn’t smell of hog manure, and there’s really not too many corn fields, and no one there is related to me….but none the less home :)

After spending nearly a week in Orlando, I returned to Fort Lauderdale where I met my friend Eric who had flown in from Chicago. That evening, I worked a red eye flight to Niagra Falls, returned back to Fort Lauderdale the next morning, and then left with Eric a few hours later, and flew to Cancun, Mexico. I’m all about laying on the beach and being served unlimited margaritas, so naturally I’m a fan of all inclusive resorts. We spent four days and three nights there, and had a blast! The only down side to the trip was the weather, as it pretty much rained the entire time. Regardless of the rain we still had an awesome time seeing all of the evening shows at the resort, and enjoying the unlimited food and beverages! One of the best parts of our trip was going to Coco Bongos. The best way I can describe this place is if Vegas, Lady Gaga, and a raging nightclub had a baby, it would be Coco Bongos!

After four days of fun we flew back to Fort Lauderdale, enjoyed a nice classy all American dinner at Hooters (not my first choice), and then went to two different Halloween parties thrown by some of my friends. Thankfully the parties were not black tie affairs and we were able to continue wearing our vacationing outfits. ;)

After being home just long enough to dump out one suitcase worth of clothes and repack it, I was on a plane again, this time headed to Virginia for my cousin Lindsey’s wedding. Lindsey is one of my very favorite people in this whole world, and someone I’ve always looked up to and admired. After she graduated from college she randomly moved to South Africa to bar tend. While she was there she met a hunky South African, they fell in love, the rest is history. My entire immediate family was able to attend, as well as almost all of my mom’s side of the family. I seriously love being with my family, and am thankful to be part of a family that genuinely loves being together and is so stinking fun! The wedding was gorgeous, and so unique. It almost felt like the day after Christmas once it was over with, and I was a little bit nostalgic for the weekend as soon as I left. Great times!

Flying standby on a Sunday is always a little tricky, but this past Sunday, when I was trying to leave Virginia, was especially difficult. After missing several flights out of Richmond heading to Atlanta, I finally decided I would try getting on a jetBlue flight to Orlando. Luckily, I made it on the flight, but after I arrived in Orlando, the buck stopped there. The only two flights going from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale were completely full. As I was trying to figure out how to get to Fort Lauderdale, I discovered the first officer on the flight I had just been on was also in the same predicament. To make a long story (semi) short, myself and this random jetBlue first officer rented a car, and drove home. I figured if I had trusted my life in his hands for two hours in the sky, then what the hey is another three in a car! The car ride wasn’t too awkward, aside from him getting somewhat creepy around minute 45 of the trip, with comments such as, “So what types of things make you attracted to a man?” and “You possess a lot of qualities I would want my wife to have.” Call me crazy, but I was under the impression polite conversation for two strangers consisted of topics such as, What do you like to do in your free time? Or maybe even a simple, “How bout them Cardinals…” I yi yi, the situations I get myself into.

After thankfully arriving home safely, I was home for a grand 12 hours before heading back to the airport for a four day work trip. The first layover was in San Juan, and I was able to go for run on the beach, one of my very favorite things to do! Two nights ago I was in Detroit, and last night I layed over in NYC. Life is good!

A couple of weeks ago I saw a bumber sticker that simply read: Wag More, Bark Less. I think I’ve decided that is my new personal mantra, it should be yours too :)

Meet The Black Bullet...The Silver Bullet's Alter Ego

I'm VERY happy to report that I am the proud owner of a 2006 Toyota Corolla S! I am happy just to have a car, but I'm extra excited that I really do actually love the car. It's two years older than the silver bullet(RIP), but it has just about the same amount of miles. I know zip, zipch, nada about cars, so I was not exactly in love with the shopping process. Thankfully that part is all over, and I hope I bought a good car that will keep me safe for many miles!



I'm currently in Boston on my last day of a very fun four day trip. Last night my friends David and Maria and I (who all share a line this month) had a layover in Vegas. I had never been to any of the shows in Vegas, and had always wanted to see one. The thought occurred to me that afternoon that we would be in Vegas, on a Friday night, with just enough time to see some type of a show. Thanks to technology, as soon as our passengers deplaned, I googled cheap show tickets, and surprisingly enough, the most affordable tickets were to see American Storm...think generic Chippendales. Now, I am not one to condone stripping, and would actually go as far as saying I have some real moral issues with it, but I figured what the hey, I'm in Vegas!

Ths show was awesome! We seriously had so much fun, and it's on of the best 30 dollar purchases I've made in a long time! The performers were actually very classy, in a stripper kind of way. A few glimpses of bare (beautiful, muscular, gorgeous) butt cheeks was as riskay as the show got. It was pretty cheesy at times, but it was all in good fun. I would definitely recommend getting American Stormed to anyone doing a girls trip to Vegas.

After this trip I am off for two weeks, sans one pesky red eye I can't seem to get rid of. I'm super pumped for two weeks of visiting friends and family, working at Disney, and traveling for pure pleasure! Wahoo! I love my job, or in this case, the lack thereof!

Have a great week everyone!

"Today is life - the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today." Dale Carnegie

Kelsey AKA Floridian

This past week I had an awesome four-day trip! It was so easy that I definitely felt like I more so vacationing than working. There was only one leg per each day of the trip, just the way all trips should be!

The first day I arrived in Chicago late in the evening, and didn't have time to do much before heading to bed. The next morning my friend Maria, who was working the trip with me, and I were picked up at our hotel by my friend Eric, who so generously offered to be our tour guide for the day. We then drove to the train station and picked up my friend Heather, who I had not seen since February. Us four then rented bikes and rode along Lake Michigan. We had perfect weather, and it was absolutely gorgeous out. Naturally we were a little hungry after several miles of pedaling so once we made it to Navy Pier we ate lunch at Jimmy Buffet's MargaritaVille. Unbeknownst to us, our day in Chicago just so happened to coincide with free hug day. I'm not actually sure what the cause Free Hug Day is trying to bring awareness to or what the point of it is, but we did see large groups of college age ish people wearing tie die t-shirts that said Free Hugs who were in fact giving away free hugs. Personally, I think Free Hug Day sounds like a perv's dream come true, this coming from one of the least touchy feely people known to mankind. Anyways, after our lunch we looked around Navy Pier and rode the big Ferris wheel. This was Heather and Maria's first time riding the Ferris wheel and probably my fourth. Every single time I ride it, my palms get sweaty, it gets hard for me to take deep breaths, and I freak out! Still not sure why I always insist on riding it.

After our day in the city, we flew out to Los Angeles. Eric and I randomly decided that since he had the next couple of days off, he should try to fly standby with me. Luckily he got on the flight, and so he was able to spend the whole next day sightseeing with me. I have never been to Disneyland, but every since I started working for Disney World, I've really wanted to go. We decided that since we had a full day in Los Angeles and free passes into Disney, that we should go visit. So we rented a car, drove 30 minutes, and spent the day at Disneyland. It was almost an errie feeling being inside this park I had never been to because for the most part it was set up like Disney World, so I felt like I knew my way around. Due to us only having a limited amount of time and Eric not being super into the whole Disney thing, we only spent about 4 hours in the park. It was really neat to see though, and I definitely would love to go back when I have more time, and am traveling with fellow Disney nerds. Eric had never seen the Hollywood sign or stars, so after we left Disney we went to Hollywood and took the usual touristy pictures. Even though I had done all of that before, it was still fun to be in Hollywood. I LOVE California!

After our busy day in California, we flew back on a redeye to Chicago. I'm actually quite used to red eyes, and actually prefer them to day flights. However, working a red eye after playing tourist for an entire day with no nap was ROUGH. Thank God for coffee! After arriving in Chicago and getting minimal rest, we flew back to Fort Lauderdale where our trip ended. Super fun four day!

These past few days I have been off, and after being gone non stop for nearly three weeks I've been indulging in some good old fashioned R and R...as well as grocery shopping, random errands, cleaning, working out, and hanging out with friends. My big news for the week is that I am officially a Floridian. Yesterday I switched my license, and I have to say I was a little nostalgic about doing it. I don't even know who my governor is!

This quote really doesn't tie into anything in this post, but I saw it this week and thought it was interesting and thought provoking. Enjoy!

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge; Dig two graves" -Chinese Philosopher Confucious

Longest Post EVER

I'm currently on a flight back to Fort Lauderdale, and can honestly say I'm pretty excited to be headed there! It's been exactly two weeks since I've stepped foot into my apartment and am ready to go to my gym, sleep in my own bed, and get some clean clothes. Two weeks ago I left for a four-day trip with planned layovers in New York City, Chicago, and Las Vegas. Keyword here is "planned." Due to weather, our flight from NYC to Chicago was cancelled, and we ended up spending two nights in NYC. Unfortunately, we didn't get much warning about the cancelled flight, so we weren't able to go do anything super fun in New York. Despite the rain, another flight attendant and I did venture out to Union Square and split a gourmet carrot cupcake. Delicious! The next morning the crew and myself deadedheaded (meaning we got paid to be transported to meet our next flight, but did not physically work the flight) to Chicago where we met our plane that was headed to Vegas. Very randomly, a girl who I went to WIU with was on my Chicago to Vegas flight. Fun to see a familiar face on my flight! Although I have flown into Vegas several times, this was my first layover there. My friend, Maria, our first officer, and myself went out on the strip for a few hours. We all had fairly early show times the next morning, so I doubt this will go down in the record books as my wildest Vegas trip ever, but we did have fun. Not to brag, but after feeding the quarter slots all night, I did come out $.50 on top. That you, Vegas! Late on Friday evening I arrived back in Fort Lauderdale and I spent the evening at Maria's. Since I am still car-less (gurrrr) Maria, being the awesome person she is, stayed up until 4:00 A.M. and drove me to the airport to catch my 5:45 A.M. flight to Saint Louis. The stars all aligned perfectly and I made it on my flights from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale on the first tries! The last time I had been home was the first week of May. Four months is just about my being-away-from-home limit, I start getting cranky after that. From the moment my plane touched down in Saint Louis I was busy, but I seriously loved every minute of my visit. My sister in law, Stacy, picked me up from the airport, and we may or may not have rocked out to a couple Lifehouse and Adele songs on the drive home. After a quick nap and saying my hellos to the fam, I headed to my friend Cassandra's wedding with my high school girlfriends. The golf course wedding was beautiful, and thankfully the rain held off for the ceremony and reception. I had an awesome night drinking too much champagne, dancing, and laughing with some of my favorite people in this whole world. Last September when Lindsey, one of my best friends since I was five, got married, I worried that being a married women may change her and make her more mature. After engaging in a "who can lick out the tiki torch flame" competition with her, I think I have nothing to worry about. We even completed the night with her father in law providing five of us obnoxious partygoers with a sober ride home. I'd go as far as saying I'm actually benefiting from this married friends business.

The next day after attending church we had the entire Schutz clan together. It only lasted one hour, but for those 60 minutes all 12 members were in the same place at the same time. I'm pretty sure it only happened because I begged them months in advance for us all to take a family Christmas card photo to ensure we wouldn't have to send out holiday greetings featuring individual pictures of mom and dad, all three siblings with their families, and then Kelsey, the single, solo, party of one sister. Thankfully they all obliged. Even at 23, being the baby of the family still has major leverage in the Schutz family On Monday, Jackie was kind enough to loan me her Dodge Challenger to drive to Macomb for the day. Not gonna lie, I kinda felt like a B.A. when I drove the beast. In all reality though, I was a nervous wreck the entire time I had it in my position, and seriously topped her out at 60. I met up with my former supervisor from Catholic Charities, Carrie, for lunch at Chick's. Then, I had ice cream with the hilarious April Hutter, and I finished the day visiting one of my favorite families, The Zanollas, for dinner. Working at Disney, I've met a lot of kids in my time, and I can honestly say these kids are off the charts on cuteness levels!

Tuesday I drove to Springfield and met my best good friend, Jenny Raabe, for some excellent sushi. That girl sure knows the way to my heart! Afterwards I spent the night at my sister's and was assigned the difficult task of being " baby rocker" from about midnight to 7:00 A.M. for the newest man in my life, Joseph. He is such a sweet baby, he seriously never cries!

The next few days I spent around the farm, biking, hanging out with the nieces, attending both of their open houses, trucking with my dad, and spending time with my mom. I even had the privilege of dropping both girls off at school one morning. Lana, the fourth grader, is officially too cool for school. Let me rephrase that, too cool for ME at school, as she refused to hug me as she left the van. Ouch! Friday morning, my mom, Stacy and I went to Peoria to visit my aunt, uncle, cousin, and my cousin's new baby, Sam. While we were in town we also got to see my great Aunt Kate, who is 91, in amazing shape, and has an awesome, upbeat attitude about life. I hope to be that perky at 91! Friday night I attended my cousin Blane's high school football game. My only thought after leaving the 40-0 game was how thankful I am that I was able to cheer for winning North Greene Spartan football teams when I was in high school. It was painful to watch! After the game, my friends and I had an entertaining Weiner roast together and then hit the local watering hole, The Horn. Speaking of painful games to watch, Saturday I drove to Columbia, MO to watch the WIU vs. Mizzou football game. I left during the third quarter, but rumor has it the final score was in fact 69 to zip! Rough weekend for my Alma matters, indeed! As much as I do love football...players, the real reason for my Columbia trip was to see my friend, Jenn, whom I had not seen since graduation. As is usually the case with good friends, we picked up right where we left off a year and a half ago! So good to see her! Sunday I drove back to White Hall and arrived just in time for the Schutz family's big Sunday lunch. Impeccable timing, eh? After an afternoon nap and five-mile bike ride with Kristen, we had the last hoo ra for my homecoming. Twenty people came over for some delicious soup mi Madre made, and we ended the evening with a competitive game of Apples to Apples. I value all of my friends, but there's just something extra special about the big group of fiends I grew up with. Maybe it's the fact that we can all tell stories about each other from 15 years ago. Or maybe it's just that I never laugh as hard or as genuinely as I do when I am with all of them. Love, love, love them! This morning I quickly said my goodbyes and and "I'll see ya in a month" and headed back to the mother ship, aka the airport. My mama drove me to Saint Louis, and I think we're doing better with this whole distance thing, as we only started crying as we pulled into the airport this time. After our initial big hug and telling one another goodbye, we parted ways at the terminal drop off. With tears in each of our eyes, we waved goodbye to one another as we each prepared to return to what has become our new normal...living hundreds of miles away from each another. The captain just announced our initial decent, and as I peak out the window from my free middle seat I can see the ocean. Looks like I'm home.... my other home. :) Hope you all have a great week!

Silver Bullet Bites The Bullet

So to answer your burning question of what has Kelesy been up to since she last blogged...I've pretty much been dealing with the aftermath of my car accident. The day after my last post my friend Liz moved to Orlando to do the Disney College Program. She had driven all the way from Chicago to Orlando solo, so I really wanted to be in Orlando to welcome her to the great state of Florida. It had been storming that day, as it has seriously been doing EVERYDAY since then, so I decided that since there might be flight delays, it'd be quicker to drive. Fast foreword to 5:30 P.M. that evening. It had just finished raining, but the roads were still slick, I'm driving about 60 MPH in the far left lane on I95.Mr. McRedtruck to my right, who is going about 45 MPH decided it'd be a good idea to not turn on his blinker, nor check his mirrors, and pulls into my lane. The silver bullet, AKA my 2008 Corolla, smashes into the back of his truck, bounces off, and slams into the concrete divider.

Fortunately for me this was the 1st accident I've ever been in and honestly for it being a really sucky situation, the whole post wreck process went very smoothly. My friend Michelle was my angel that day by not only driving to West Palm to pick me up, but also buying me peanut butter cup ice cream, taco bell, and calling the insurance companies for me I was still very shook up. the officer on scene was also very kind and took the time to speak with both of us in order to get the complete story. In the end I walked with only a few bruises, the other driver was found at fault and I have a rental car for the time being.

Since I was in a pretty bum mood about the whole wreck situation, Lita drove down the weekend following the accident to cheer me up. Have I ever mentioned what good friends I have?! We spent the weekend watching How I Met Your Mother, IKEAing, cooking, and topped it all off with a good 'ol fashioned Rascal Flats Concert.

Within a week of the accident my bruising from the seat belt had faded enough that it only looked like I had a small hicky on my neck...awesome. Any who, I finally felt good enough to go back to work. My mom was raised with her Grandma Strand telling her that, when you don't feel normal, do something normal. So with all the craziness that the accident brought, it was actually kinda nice to return to the normalcy of work.

After a few days of work, it was time for more fun. This time my friend Eric came to spend a few days soaking up the Florida rays on the beach. As I previously mentioned, it's been raining non-stop here, so we had to go to plan B: drinking pina coladas next to the beach. Equally as fun! Although the sun never really came out, the crabs did and we had fun walking on the beach and finding them. We also saw the movie Our Idiot Brother. If you have plans to see this movie, I have some words of wisdom.... DON’T! Seriously, horrible movie!

The BEST news I have to report is that I'm officially an aunt cubed! Joseph Benjamin Six was born on August 27th at 9:00 PM to my sister Genny and her husband ben. I was very excited to see pictures of him, but it really tugged at the ol heartstrings when I heard him cry on the phone. I cannot wait to come home and meet him.

Speaking of home, it's been four and a half months since I've last been there and I'm very ready for a visit. If all goes as planned, I will be there September 10th through the nineteenth. Get excited!!

Not Old, Just Older

Greetings friends and fam! I'm currently writing this blog fat and happy from my hotel room in Boston on a very rainy and blah Monday. My flight was delayed getting into Boston last night so we rolled into our hotel at around 3 A.M. This was really no problem for me as my natural sleep pattern does not allow me to even feel tired til right around 4 A.M.! Lovely, right? So I took the liberty of sleeping in until the crack of noon today. Because I'm trying, half heartedly, to train for this half marathon I drug my arse down to the gym and ran four miles....very slowly, but none the less I did them. After my run, I felt like I deserved some hearty food. I've really been craving some good seafood lately and, despite the monsoon outside, was determined to find some today. Thankfully another flight attendant was feeling adventurous as well, and we took the train downtown and ate the BEST seafood I've ever had in my life! We ate at Legal Seafood right by the water. I had grilled scallops and shrimp that were caught this morning, and an awesome crab cake. Well worth getting poured on! Mmmmmm!

Last week in between two of my trips, being the amazing friend I am, I offered to help Lita move into a her new apartment in Orlando. She was moving out of a furnished apartment and was in need of some furniture. Luckily, a friend of hers from Boca was getting rid of a nice couch and loveseat, and told Lita she was welcome to them. The only catch was that Lita would have to haul them from Boca to Orlando. So last Sunday I picked Lita up from the airport, and her, me, a Budget moving truck and two couches putted down the road for three and a half hours. Despite almost soiling myself from a few of her lane changes, it was actually a pretty entertaining way to spend the afternoon. We're thinking of taking her cross country soon!



This past weekend I had a few days off, so my roommate, Stephanie, and I decided to fly up to visit my friend Neil at Ohio State University. I'm not positive, but I think I have driven through Ohio on my way to Virginia before, but have never actually gone on a trip where my destination was Ohio. Because Columbus is a fairly small city, there were no non stop flights from Fort Lauderdale to Columbus, so we had to connect in Atlanta. Flying standby definitely puts a different spin on traveling. We missed two flights going from Atlanta to Columbus (because they were oversold, not because we drank too much at the airport bar). A lot of the flights to Columbus were looking full, so at one point we looked at the flight schedules and were contemplating where else we could fly for the weekend, a fun perk of having free flights to anywhere in the US! Finally we made it on a flight to Columbus, on an airplane the size of a mini van. My seat was seriously locked in an acute angle! It was free, I'm not complaining!

Once we got to Ohio, Neil was there to pick us up and it was so good to see him! After napping during the afternoon, Steph and I got all dolled up in our college going out attire (short dress, stilettos, teased hair, Coach clutch, a bottle of Svedka in one hand, fruit punch in the other) and headed to the Frat house down the street. Most of the time in life I continue on in my day today activities without really stopping to reflect. It just feels normal that I don't live at home anymore, I have a job, I travel, etc. But there are moments where I feel like life throws me one big reality check. The reality check I got from this weekend: I am no longer in college! Now I am no way under the impression that I am old, I am a mere pup in the whole circle of life right now, but I am definitely over the college phase of my life! As I sat in the frat house filled with 21 years old, I had an overwhelming urge to ask for the music to be turned down so I could have a conversation without screaming. After we left the frat house, we headed to Ohio State's equivalent to WIU's Forum. While everyone else seemed to be enjoying the grinding game, Stephanie and I wondered from room to room searching for a bar that had stools we could sit on. And then there was the next morning... we weren't feeling so well. In fact, we ended up taking the 7:00 P.M. flight home because that was the first time all day we felt like we could compose ourselves on an airplane without tossing our cookies. So in closing, best wishes you Leathernecks, Buckeyes, Salukies, Cougars and Hawkeyes as you return for yet another year of the college life this week. I think I'm gonna sit this one out :)

NYC to LA

I started off my week with a two day trip, laying over in New York. I do love New York layovers because there is so much to do in the city, however the hotel we stay in is slightly sketchy. Not only is it in a creepy location (right by a rundown subway stop in Queens), it's also spiritually creepy. According to some of my fellow flight attendants the hotel is haunted. I'm not exactly a ghost expert, and am not even sure if I by into the whole ghost thing. My best good friend Jenny swears there are three things on this Earth that you just don't mess with: spiders, tornadoes, and ghosts. I've taken her words of wisdom to heart, and call me a baby, but try my hardest to avoid New York layovers. Since I didn't know anyone else on the trip, I knew I would be forced to spend the night in my hotel room alone. So I did what anyone in my situation would do; I went out with my crew, drank a few vodka pineapples, walked back to my hotel room at 4:00 A.M., and slept soundly in my bed.... curled up next to my Bible!

Tuesday evening I left for a two day trip to Los Angeles. This was actually my first time being on a layover in L.A. and I LOVED it! During my April visit to L.A. my friends and I did a lot of touristy stuff, but never actually made it to the ocean, so yesterday was my first time seeing the Pacific! The water was WAY colder than the water in south Florida, but the Pacific beaches were much wider and prettier! The waves in the Pacific were also much bigger! One of the flight attendants I was with is very familiar with the area, and offered to show me around for the day. We ended up walking about two miles from our hotel to the ocean and renting bikes. There is an awesome bike path that runs the entire way from Manhattan Beach (where we started) and Santa Monica Pier. We biked all the way to Santa Monica and back, which was a 26 mile round trip! AKA I biked a marathon yesterday! I was totally in my happy place the entire time! We rode through Venice Beach, which was very hippy ish, but none the less pretty cool. We also saw Muscle Beach, where there is literally an outdoor gym for people to work out on the beach. It basically seemed like a playground for meat heads, but hey, to each there own. The culture in California is so much different than Florida. It's much more environmentally conscience, and overall just more chill and relaxed. The temperature in L.A. is also much more milder than South Florida, so me being the really intelligent person I am, didn't factor in the whole the sun is still out, I may need sunscreen thing. Walking through the airport was a wee bit embarrassing last night as people were literally turning there heads to stare at me. Upon walking onto the aircraft the captain, being ever so tactful, greeted me with a, "What the hell happened to you?!" Needless to say, I'm trying to only partake in inside activities today that require me to show no emotion, as it is PAINFUL to move my face!




On a different note, I've been reading the book My Year With Eleanor. Basically, this book is about the author's year of trying to live a year based on Eleanor Roosevelt's quote, "Do one thing everyday that scares you." I would only give the book an ok rating, however I have learned a lot about Eleanor Roosevelt. What a cool lady!

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear, for newer and richer experiences." -Eleanor Roosevelt

Sum sum summa time

So this month I have been working pretty much all red eye flights. I actually don't mind the schedule since I am a true night owl at heart. One of the only downfalls to this month's schedule is that I have very few overnight trips. However, I managed to make up for it by having a great time on my one layover of the month in Boston.

I'm on line with my friend Maria this month, which makes trips 100 times more fun then getting stuck with a senior flight attendant who routinely eats a bitter sandwich for breakfast every morning, and probably should have retired about five years ago. Last week we spent a full 30 hours in Boston, which is such an awesome city with tons of things to do and see. We started our morning by hopping on the subway and heading down to the Quincy Market. For being a born and raised country girl, I'm quite proud of myself for learning how to maneuver around on the subway in so many different cities! There were so many food choices there, it was hard to pick just one place to eat. Sticking to my true classy form, I took Maria to Dick's Last Resort...the restaurant where you pay to be insulted and eat mediocre food. There is actually a Dick's Last Resort in Chicago that I have already been to several times, but I'm always highly entertained by this restaurant and continue to come back. The restaurant is famous for making dunce caps out of white paper and writing insults on them. As we sat down I was reading the hats of some of the other patrons and was amused by one little girl's hat that read "I eat my boogers." I also enjoyed another women's hat that read, "Yes, this is a padded bra." I wasn't quite as amused though when our waiter came to our table and awarded me a hat that read, "I'm not as hott as I think I am." Rude. We then spent the afternoon watching some really talented (and some really strange) street performers. The weather in Boston was fabulous, and it was a nice change to be outside for an entire afternoon without feeling like I just took a shower, fully clothed.

Because my family does things slightly unorthodox at times, my brother Chad and sister in law Stacy ended up buying a car last week in a town that is just about 20 minutes away from me. In order to pick the car up, Stacy flew down to Fort Lauderdale and was able to spend a couple of days with me before driving the car back to Illinois. I still had to work during the nights, so I think we actually only spent a grand total of about 12 waking hours together. I was still pretty impressed we were able to cram in a day at the beach, lunch at Rattlesnake Jake's (once again, do I know how to pick a classy joint or what?), and of course frozen yogurt at Orange Leaf. I also made her earn her keep by taking out our trash, airing up my bike tires, and fixing my computer. It was a very short impromptu visit, but I always love getting to spend time with my family!

I usually try to pick up during my days off if I know I'm just going to spend my days being lazy at home, but this past week I decided to take a little staycation for three days. It was so nice to sleep, clean my apartment, lay out, and hang out with friends. Ahhh, I'm relaxed just remembering those three days!

Love to you all!

Ten Thoughts

1-Time goes by so freaking quickly. I just got my bid packet for the month of August...AUGUST! How crazy is that?! Ya wanna know when time didn't fly by? Second grade! I remember staring at the clock during spelling time and thinking at times the clock had actually gone backwards. I'd like a happy medium.

2-My trip to Alaska was AWESOME! It was gorgeous there, and I was able to see a glacier, a Moose, and lots and lots of mountains. I think I had my sweatpants and beanie off for maybe 20 minutes of the entire trip, so to say I was cold there would be a major understatement. The best part of the entire trip was getting to spend time with my cousin Lindsey. It's creepy how much we are alike.


3-After training for a half marathon last year, and being really disappointed that I wasn't able to run in it due to a scheduling conflict with work, I've decided to give the whole half marathon thing another shot. If all goes as planned I'll be running in the Miami Rock n Roll Half Marathon on December 11. I start my training on August 1st. Wish me luck!

4-Crystal Light Strawberry Kiwi packets, delicious!

5-Last week my nieces Lana and Bridget, and my cousin Ashley flew down to spend a few days with me in Florida. They are some of my very favorite people and I had a blast with them! While we were in Boca we hung out at the pool and the beach, rented funny movies, ate way too much ice cream, and went to Boomers, where we rock climbed, rode go-carts and bumper boats, and played arcade games. Over the weekend we went to Orlando and hung out at Disney for a few days. I was really impressed with how well the two little girls did with being away from home for five days, being as young as they are.

6-I'm going to try to ground myself for the month of August. I obviously LOVE traveling, but I'm ready for some time at home during my days off. I'm hoping to get back to Illinois for a visit in September. However, there is a certain baby that is due in August, and I'm not actually sure how long I'll be able to stay away once I start seeing pictures.

7-I've been primarily working red eye flights this month, and as horrible as that sounds to some people, I've actually really enjoyed it thus far. I have no problem staying awake all night, the passengers sleep the entire time (therefore, they aren't ringing their call bell and bothering me), and I don't have to deal with traffic on my to and from the airport. I think it's a win win situation.

8-I am now the proud owner of an iPhone. I've actually been against the whole smart phone craze for quite some time, because frankly I don't really think they're necessary. However, I have to admit that I love it and it's made my life 10,000 times easier. I no longer have to carry my laptop with me on trips, nor call my family and friends to google things like flight times, train schedules, directions back to my hotel, etc. I think they all appreciate me having the phone too.

9-During the summer it rains a lot in Florida. Like seriously everyday at 3:00 in the afternoon it pours for about an hour, and then it's sunny again. Weird.

10-A lot of my friends have recently gotten real people jobs. Like they work at insurance agencies, loan offices, marketing companies, probation departments, schools...it's weird. With that being said, I'm very proud of how accomplished all of them are. A lil shout out to Allison, who had her first day of work today! I think I did well in the whole picking out friends department, if I do say so myself :)

The Good Life

Since I'm aware I've severely neglected my blog these past couple of weeks, I decided I should take advantage of my some free time to scribble something down while I'm laying on the beach. The only problem with writing on the beach, well besides my hand being too greasy from sun tan lotion to grip the pen I'm writing with, is that my mind is complete mush. I'm 100% relaxed with nothing on my mind. So forgive me if this post is lacking the comic relief it's usually laced with. Like Forest Gump's dad, my creative juices are on vacation!

So to answer your burning question of, "What in the world has Kelsey been up to these past couple of weeks?" I can respond to that with one simple word, WORKING! Thankfully for me my work is always mixed with a lot of play.

I've been very fortunate this month and have gotten to fly with really great crew members. During the past two trips I was able to fly with friends of mine that I went through initial training with. The first trip I flew with my friend Lia and we had overnights in Myrtle beach, South Carolina, San Juan, and Orlando. I love the Carolinas! My family used to vacation in Nags Head, North Carolina and that is when I first fell in love with that area. It just feels so beachy and quaint there! I literally feel like I'm living in a real life Nicolas Sparks book! My friend and I went out for a nice dinner there and the next morning I went for a run on the beach, one of my very favorite things to do!

We only had about 12 hours in San Juan, but I still made time to go lay out by the gorgeous pool at the resort where we were staying. The company I work for has contracts with different hotels in each city we layover, so we usually always stay at the same hotels. Because I obviously have a lil bit of a stalker, President Obama just so happened to be in San Juan at the exact same time I was. Coincidence, I think not! This was actually a pretty cool thing as this was the first time an acting president had visited Puerto Rico since President Kennedy in 1961. Several major roads (as well as the airport) were shut down for a couple hours while the president was in town. As a result of this, my crew and I were relocated to a hotel that was closer to the airport. The new hotel was actually a resort, and I loved it for the mere fact that we were greeted with complimentary coconut ice cream upon our arrival. All of the locals were elated that Obama was in town, and nearly all of them were wearing some form of Obama memorabilia.

After asking my cab driver his thoughts on Obama's visit he informed me that he wasn't sure why the president had decided to visit the island, but Obama had his vote! In fact, he had all three of them as he held a drivers licence in Puerto Rico, Florida, and New York. Hmmmmm

The next night I stayed in Orlando. This layover could not have come at anymore of a perfect time for my friends Lita and Sari as their air conditioner had just bit the dust. Something about it being 90+ degrees outside didn't exactly make them excited about sleeping in their upstairs apartment. I always love seeing friends on layovers, so I was more than happy for them to bunk up with me for the night. We spent our exciting night watching CNN and eating Papa John's. What can I say, we know how to party!

I returned home just long enough to do a few loads of laundry, grocery shop, bike ride to the beach, hang out with some friends, pack my suitcase, and hit the runway again! My friend Dan is actually still on reserve and didn't even know he would be on the same trip with me until the day we were leaving. The first night of our trip we layed over in Washington DC. I love having lay overs in this city as there is a ton of stuff to see and do. As soon as we got into our hotel, we hopped on the subway and headed down the Pentagon Memorial. The memorial was really neat and reminded me a lot of the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. At the memorial there is a bench for each person who lost their life on 9/11 at the Pentagon site. It was set up in chronological order so that the oldest person's bench is the first one in the memorial and the youngest person to loose their life is the last. Growing up my family and I always visited national monuments, and I always appreciated them, but usually they were for things, like World War II or the Battle of Shiloh, that I obviously had no emotional ties to. It's just very bizarre seeing tributes to 9/11, as I remember that day very clearly. After viewing the memorial, we continued our touristy activities and visited the capitol as well as the White House. I'm pretty sure Obama was at the White House the same time I was. See what I mean about him following me?


We spent the next two night of our trip in Atlantic City, New Jersey. I had a severe moment of weakness and went shopping. I'll be regretting that in about three weeks when the ol Discover Card bill roles in. Atlantic City has a really cool boardwalk right by the beach that Dan and I went strolling on one evening. Apparently I had some good Karma coming my way because as I walked into one of the many fudge shops along the boardwalk the owner informed me they were closing for the evening and was wondering if I wanted to take all the leftover samples home...FO FREE! If Heaven tastes anything like Rocky Road Fudge, then shoot me now!

I had half heartedly mentioned to Lita on the last day of my trip that I was off for the next two days if she wanted to come visit. I was very surprised when she text me back and said she's be there in the morning. Apparently you don't have to twist this girl's arm to get her to spend two days on the beach. One of my favorite parts of living in South Florida, is that when I have the time to completely relax, it really does feel like a vacation. Lita, Sari, my roommate Stephanie, and I had a great three days eating, drinking, sleeping, and catching some rays!


Have you all heard OneRepublic's new song, Good Life? It pretty much sums things up for this girl! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZhQOvvV45w

Love and miss you all mucho grande!!!

Happy One Year Anniversary To Me

This past week I celebrated my one year anniversary of living in Florida. It's crazy to think that it's been one full year since Kristen and I loaded up the Corolla, and made the long drive all the way down to Orlando. It's been an awesome and exciting year, filled with lots of changes! One year in and I have apsolutly no regrets about making my move!

This past week was super fun, but left me very sleep deprived! I am loving knowing my work schedule in advance, it's so much easier to make plans when I at least know in general what I am doing from day to day. Saturday morning I flew from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and ended up in Orlando. I spent my afternoon napping by the pool, and then my friend Kane picked me up for dinner that evening. After dinner, we ended up going to a country line dancing bar called Aligator Ally. Aligator Ally turned out to be a plywood palace that makes the Hunter's Horn (a Greene County establishment) look like a classy joint. The inside of Aligator Ally was complete with a mechanical bull as well as a DJ booth set up in the back of a Ford pick up truck. All of the patrons definitely seemed to be frequent flyers at Alligator Ally as they seriously had a line dance to every song that was played! There was even a cowboys only dance, which involved an interesting game where the men would throw their cowboy hats on the ground and try to get the hat back on their head while doing a handstand. This must be some type of a mating call ritual that they do in the south??? Although we were the only three sober people in the place, and that my friends Kane and Khadz were the only non white guys in the building, the night is still a success in my book!


The next day I had an easy one leg flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I had never had a layover there before, so I was super excited to explore Old San Juan. Thankfully one of the other flight attendants I was on the trip with was from Puerto Rico and was kind enough to serve as my tour guide. We first went to a local coffee shop and had a great latte made from beans grown locally. Then we met up with one of her friends, Franklin, who just so happens to be a salsa instructor, and went dancing at a club called Latin Roots. Now I may be able to tap dance with the best of em, but salsa dancing is not exactly this midwesterners forte. Franklin was very talented in the dancing department, so talented in fact he was able to make me look like a not half bad salsa dancer. One of the live band members even commented that I wasn't bad for a gringo!



The next day I flew back to Fort Lauderdale and then on to New York. My friend Lita was already in New York visiting family and friends, and my friend Christina, who I met while working at Disney, was awesome enough to take off of work and meet us for an afternoon in the city. This was actually my first time ever in New York City, and I had a flipping blast! First of all it was wonderful for the three of us to all be back together again. To me, I consider someone a good friend when we can go months without seeing one another, but then pick up right where we left off. I feel beyond blessed to have many of those close friends in my life, and Lita and Christina are definitely two of them! The girls were already downtown, so I had to take the subway all by myself. After traveling all over the U.S., I am 100% sure that midwesterners are the friendliest people in the country. Even in Chicago, the people are just friendly. New Yorkers, however, not so friendly! It was like pulling teethe just to get someone to answer me when I asked if I was on the train that went to Times Square. Anywho, I finally figured it out and met up with the girls. We spent the day exploring the Time's Square area. We window shopped in the Diamond Distract, I, of course, would have bought something, but I just didn't really see anything I liked.... We then ended the day the way every day should end, with Sushi!




The next morning I flew back to Fort Lauderdale, and Lita actually flew with me. She was warned (threatened) to be on her best behavior. Thankfully she did as she was told and I had no outbreaks of laughter while doing the safety demo. I then continued on my travels for the day and flew to Cancun and then finally back to Fort Lauderdale where I ended my four day trip. I was home for a grand total of 12 hours before I headed back to the airport for a two day trip.

During my two day trip I flew from Fort Lauderdale, to New York, Myrtle Beach, and then ended my day in Chicago. My friend Eric picked me up at the airport and after scarfing down a delicious Chile's salad, we biked on Lake Shore Drive and spent the afternoon at North Avenue Beach. For the record, Chicago was WAY hotter than Ft. Lauderdale. Holy crike, being outside Wednesday was like sticking my head in an oven! After biking back to Eric's apartment, I headed over to by best good friend Allison's new apartment. I was pretty worn out from my crazy week, so it was so nice just to get to hangout with her and have life chats. Our relationship has definitely evolved from our good ol college days as it was a Wednesday night and both of us were yawning uncontrollably by 9:00 P.M.




I made it home yesterday morning, and was elated to spend the day in my bed! I seriously have been running on four hours of sleep or less each night and it has taken it's toll on my body! I slept for six hours during the day, and then was able to sleep nine hours last night. This is one tired girl!!!!

To celebrate one year of Florida living, I decided to treat myself to a little you-did-it gift to myself in the form of a new bike! I just got it this afternoon so I haven't even taken it out for a test drive yet, but I'm stoked about it! I love bike riding and besides my keyboard, it is the second object I have most missed since living in Florida. She's a blue and white Schwinn, and after doing a little research it seemed like the best bang for my buck. I'm so excited to for my many bike riding adventures!

And now for the low light portion of my week. All of my girlfriends from home are currently on vacation in Lake of The Ozarks, most likely laying on noodles in the lake as I type :( Thankfully they haven't completely forgotten about me, as I've been receiving some entertaining phone calls. My brother, Brock, has also been really sick this past week, and ended up having his appendix removed. He is still in a lot of pain and was readmited into the hospital again today. My parent's used a natural conseques approach while raising us four kids. I respect them so much for that and think it has taught me so much more about life than I would have learned from simply being spanked or punished. I love living in Florida! However, a natural consequence of living 20+ hours from home is that I do miss out on things, and sometimes it's a little rough. Now I'm playing the world's smallest violin for the world's saddest story. Ok, ok in all reality life is good, I have no complaints :)

"I have found that if you love life, life will love you back." Arthur Rubinstein

Here There And Everywhere

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be on an aircraft that not only broke down once during my day trip to New York, but twice. Now, I know I usually seep with sarcasm, but in this specific case I truly was elated to have my flights delayed. I was happy because this delay made the plane land in Fort Lauderdale twenty minutes into my guaranteed day off. As a result of this I was awarded an extra day off, which I always gladly accept. With this extra day off I now had six days off in a row, and decided to head back to Illinois to spend a week with my family and friends.

The commute back to Illinois was crazy! I hadn't down much planning since the trip was very last minute, and hadn't thought about how difficult it would be to fly standby on a Friday after work. I won't bore you with all the details, but after not making it onto three separate flights, going through TSA security four times, and sprinting from one end of the Atlanta Airport to the other carrying my stilettos, I finally arrived in Saint Louis around 12:30 A.M. Saturday morning.

My week at home was great! Chad, Stacy, and Lana were out of town for the weekend, but Bridget opted to stay at home with me. I miss both of those girls so much, and I loved getting to spend so much time with Bridget. She is truly one of my very favorite people in this whole world. She is sweet, kind, funny, loving, innocent, and creative. I just wanna put her in a time capsule and keep her as a six year old Bridget forever. Although the rainy weather didn't corporate so well for our planned bike ride we made up for it by playing Barbie's, watching Tangled (cute movie, BTW), playing dress up, and giving each other pedicures. Fun times!

Some of the other highlight to my Illinois trip were...

-Homemade Gaily dinner with my friends
-Eating Guadalajara
-Mowing my parents yard (not even kidding, I seriously love mowing)
-Going to the little girl's dance lessons
-Spending an entire day with my sister painting Baby six's bedroom
-Seeing bridesmaids with my girlfriends (very funny, movie)
-Biking, picnicking, and shopping in Grafton with Kristen
-Watching my cousin Ashly play softball like a rock star
-And last but not least attending the high class event of the year "The Carny" with Lana and Bridget

Thankfully I fly for free and was NOT charged a baggage fee for the extra five pounds I brought back with me....on my hips. If the expression you are what you eat is true, then just call me Kelsey Homemade Pizza-Stromboli-Ice Cream-Tagalongs-Blueberry Muffin-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie-Stuffing-Schutz!

I was at home in Fort Lauderdale for a grand total of 18 hours before I packed up the 'ol suitcase and headed out again. I spent two night in Atlanta and had an awesome crew! On the second night of the trip a fellow crew member and I went out and explored Atlanta nightlife. I was a fan!

After arriving back home I worked two more days doing day turns, and was then off for three more days. As soon as my plane landed from Nassau, Bahamas I headed over to the Southwest terminal and hopped on a plane to Orlando in order to work a few shifts at Disney. I'm pretty sure that by the time I'm done going out to eat, shopping, and seeing movies with all my friends in Orlando, I pretty much just break even on these "work trips."

In other exciting news, I was awarded a line for the month of June! This is awesome because I now know my schedule for the entire month and will no longer be on call, WOOHOO! I'll be working quite a bit and I have some fun layovers that include Atlantic City, New Jersey (tax free shopping?! Yes, please!), San Juan, Puerto Rico, Orlando, New York City, and Myrtle Beach. The only downfall to this is that I didn't get the weekend off that I had planned to go to the Lake of The Ozarks with my friends from home. I still haven't completely ruled out going for only half the weekend, but even that may be difficult to swing. Ugh, being an adult is hard work sometimes!

Hope everyone has a great week! Hugs!

California

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! Hope everyone gets to enjoy some delicious tacos, fajitas, and margaritas today.

The only super exciting news worthy event that has taken place since I last wrote was my trip to California. Three of my other flight attendant friends and I all had four days off and decided what better to do with four days off then go to California. I had actually never been there, so I was pretty stoked about the trip. We were able to fly out to Los Angeles on Virgin America Airlines. This airlines is awesome! Not only was the crew super friendly, but the planes made me feel like I was more so in a nightclub rather than a metal tube with 200 of my closest pals. Each seat has a personal screen that allows you to watch movies and TV, listen to music, and even order your food. Very cool!

We arrived in Los Angeles with little to no agenda, which is personally how I travel best. The first day we roamed around Hollywood Boulevard, and got pictures with several stars on the Walk of Fame. As we were outside the Kodak Theatre, a guy, who introduced himself as the as a production assistant with the Jimmy Kimmel Live Show, approached us and asked if we were interested in being in the audience that evening. I'm not exactly what you would call the world's biggest Jimmy Kimmel fan, but what the hey! We had a few hours before we needed to return for the taping so we quickly found a cute Mexican bar, and entertained ourselves there. A few hours later we arrived back at the Kodak Theatre and were very surprised to find out that we'd be sitting front row. My friends and I did get to meet Jimmy Kimmel, and he made several jokes at our expense about flight attendants being cell phone nazis. I can now officially say I've been made fun of by a celebrity. The guest that night was Martin Short. For being a comedian, I acutally did not find him to be all that funny. I was slightly disappointed that after viewing the show I made it into all of two clips. Show biz is just so tough these days!

The next day my friends and I went to California's Six Flags. It was pretty much just your typical theame park, but it was awesome to see all of the mountains from so high up. I was also able to meet up with my friend Ryan, who interned with me at Disney and now lives in California. It was a great two day trip, and I am definitely eager to go back.

This past week has been very slow work wise. It's difficult to have much of a routine when I never know wheather I will be working or hanging out at home all day. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that next month I will be blessed with a line, which allows me to know my schedule for the entire month and no longer be on call.

Have a great week everyone!

Make New Friends But Keep The Old One Is Silver And The Other Is Gold

This past week was a lil thing called, AWESOME! On Thursday I picked up my friends Jenny and Andrea from the airport and drove to Orlando. This was not only Andrea's first visit to Florida, but also her first Disney World trip. I felt like a proud mama as I drove her into the Magic Kingdom parking lot. We spent Thursday night in Magic Kingdom and squeezed nearly every attraction into our six hours in the park. We topped the night off with fireworks and ice cream. What more could you want out of life? Not only was I stoked about having my friends from home visit, but my roommate from Orlando, Alex, who now lives in Colorado, was also in town for the weekend. Us four along with my friends Dean and Lita all spent the day together at Animal Kingdom and Epcot. I think it's safe to say I've become a Disney nerd. Like I literally get way too excited about showing people the parks. I guess it's just a part of life I'll have to live with.

On Saturday morning Jenny, Andrea, and I headed back to Ft. Lauderdale. When Jenny and I were 16 we went on our first ever vacation together to Florida. On this trip we discovered one of the best gourmet, authentic, Italian restaurants known to mankind: Cici's Pizza, home of the $5.99 buffet. We ate there at least four times on our week long vacation. Unfortunately Cici's Pizza hasn't quite caught on in Illinois, so Jenny was beyond pumped when she laid eyes on Cici's. So obviously, we had to make a pit stop on our way back to South Florida. Carbs, carbs, and more carbs, mmm good!

That night we spontaneously decided to go to a Dierks Bently concert. As we were walking up to the box office a husband and wife approached us and handed us two free tickets. At first I was pretty sure it was a scam, but it turns out they just had two extra tickets and figured we could use them. Kindness in this world is still alive and well! The concert was amazing! It was at a really small outdoor amphitheater, and for some reason hardly anyone was there. We literally sat about fifty feet from the stage. It was by far one of the best concerts I'd ever been to. Side note, security gets really touchy about fans waiting by the stars' buses after concerts, even if you do claim he personally invited you to his tour bus. The nerve...

The rest of their visit was spent laying on the beach and lounging in my living room watching The Office episodes and movies from our childhood. We did squeeze in a night of dinner, drinks, and a drag show with my Ft. Lauderdale friends at my roommate's uncle's restaurant. I can't say that I had ever experienced anything quite like it before.

Like visits with people I love usually do, it ended all too quickly. Tuesday morning I took their bums back to the airport. As much I would have loved to return home and wallowed around in self pity about how much I'd miss them, I had to report for work just as I was dropping them off. All of this lovely weather that has been going on in the Midwest has been causing delays, which creates lots of really friendly passengers (insert sarcasm here). Since Tuesday I've been flying all around the country and spending each night back in Chicago. I've been able to hang out with my friend Eric the past couple of days who graciously supplied me with a much needed fix of Portillo's and deep dish pizza. At 4:30 A.M. (just writing that time makes me queasy) I'll be on my way back to the sunshine state.

Hope everyone has a great Maundy Thursday!

Free Flight Fun

April 4th, 2011 was a very monumental day in my life. April 4th not only marked my three month anniversary with the airline, but it just so happened to also be the day my free flight benefits kicked in. Insert sound of the Heavenly gates opening and angels singing here.

I was working on the day the free flights kicked in, so unfortunately I wasn't able to start my personal traveling immediately, but I was definitely getting the itch to do so. Friday morning I left bright and early, actually it was more like dark and early, and worked a flight that made stops in Orlando, Atlantic City, and Boston. Friday night as I was preparing for bed I was mentally going over the next day. I'll get up and go to Ft. Lauderdale, San Salvador, Bahamas, back to Ft. Lauderdale, and then I'll have the evening and the entire next day off. Which is great because I need to go grocery shopping, do laundry....or I could go out with Kristen in St. Louis. I haven't quite decided if my impulsiveness is a downfall or strength of mine, but either way it makes for a very interesting life. So without giving it much thought, I called Southwest Airlines and booked a flight into St. Louis the next day. Thankfully there were plenty of open seats on the flight and I was able to make it on with no problem.

Kristen, being the best good friend she is, was inside the airport to pick me up just as soon as my plane landed. I wish I could share with you that I traveled across the country to tour museums, go hiking, site see, etc, but I would be lying. My trip consisted of going out to the college bars in Edwardsville, getting breakfast at 2:00 A.M., singing along while watching Hairspray, napping, and ordering Jimmy Johns all with one of my best friends. All in all I would consider this a worthwhile trip.

Yesterday I headed back to the airport around 5 to catch my flight home. I wasn't too worried about getting a seat as the gate agent I had spoken with the day before said there were three available seats. People wouldn't really wait until the day before to book a flight, so I just assumed I was in the clear. Then I got to the ticket counter and was informed the flight was oversold by one. Well, crap. So I sat at the airport for an hour with my fingers, knees, and toes crossed that maybe just maybe two people wouldn't show up. I never want to wish harm on anyone, but if someone on there way to the airport could just get a little flat tire it would be really helpful! Thankfully, just as the boarding process was starting my alias, Kelsey SchuLtz, was announced over the loudspeaker requesting I come to the ticket counter. Glory be, hallelujah, my prayers were answered and I got on the flight.

Now I'm aware that beggars can't be choosers, but I was the LAST person on the plane and therefore was treated to the LAST open seat. As soon as I sat down it was obvious why it was the last seat available. The seat was an aisle seat in the very last row, no big deal I'm used to sitting in the back of the plane. However, I was seated next to a husband and wife who were both, how do I put this, of large stature. Thankfully I don't take up much space so it wasn't a huge issue, but none the less slightly annoying. What I did find amusing though was halfway through the flight the woman in the row in front of us slightly reclined her chair. Apparently this was very irritating to the large husband as the seat was now in his personal space. He let out a very loud huff and whispered not so quietly to his wife, "Jesus Christ is this guy serious? Some people are just so rude." Never mind me sitting on half of my seat over here. Self awareness, some people got it, some people don't.

Despite the whole almost getting stranded in St. Louis and then having to share my seat thing, my first non revenue trip was in fact a success! Now the question is, where to next?

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain