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