Oh the irony! This post is coming to you live from Detroit's International airport. Unfortunately, I will not be going anywhere international from here today. I took the red eye in from Seattle and was all prepared to hit the hay for a nap when I thought, "I'm going to look at my schedule one more time, just to be sure I know the right report time." Thank goodness I did, as my 8 DAY TRIP!!! was gone from my schedule!!! I call up scheduling to learn that, yep, the first leg of the trip, Detroit to Narita, canceled today. :-( So no 8 day trip, no Bangkok, no Hong Kong, no extra pay, nothing for me. Its a terrible thing to have happen. But I am going to look on the bright side, I'll get back to you when I learn what the bright side is. The irony is that I was planning on doing a post on karma today and share a story about last night with you all. (This just in, from a facebook post as I type: At least I get free drinks on my way back to Seattle in a few mins!) So the irony is what karma came back to me today?
Ok, the story. What goes around comes around. The golder rule. Do unto others as you would have done to you. Karma. All great ideas to live by right? Of course!
Last night I was out, once again in Capital Hill, with a fella I will call Fuse, and we went over to a place called Barca to get a drink. It was crowded as there was a big block party going on in the neighborhood last night. So needless to say the bartenders were crazy busy, and it was about 11pm. We make our way to the bar and Fuse goes to order us 2 gin and tonics. On a side note, I am trying gin out to see if I care for it. The bar tender asks "How's it going?" "Good,"Fuse says, "How's your night going?" Then he pauses to actually here the bar tenders answer. What a swell guy right? So we proceed to have a discussion about how being nice to people can get you far. Especially people in the service industry. Be nice to me on the plane and you may get something extra! Be nice and polite to service people and they notice and appreciate it! As we were speaking the bartender, Stefan, makes us a gin on the rocks with a splash of tonic. Apparently he had appreciated Fuse's politeness and rewarded him with 2 stiff drinks. Wow, not sure if I care for gin.
We continue on with our conversation and about 20, maybe 30 mins later Fuse comments on the fact that Stefan is making a lot of mojitos and that they are such a pain. We are speaking these words as he muddles the mint and lime, we are still watching as he pours it into two rocks glasses and gives them to us! Again, being polite, gets you far. But it doesn't end there. After finishing our first drink and the mini mojito we thinking of leaving when Stefan puts down 2 more g&t's in front of us! "It's on me," he says, "If you guys leave I don't know who might take your spot!"
Wow, he was so thankful to have some nice people there that he was giving us free drinks!
Moral of the story? Be nice to people! Be courteous to service industry people! That includes flight attendants! :-)
Now back to Seattle and some much needed sleep!
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
A Walk on the Hill
Well, after a crazy month of work last month, this has been a rather slow one so far. So with not much travel info to blog with I wanted to share more about the local scene here in the Seattle area. While I haven't been to any far off lands, well any NEW far of lands, lately I have been in the Capital Hill neighborhood of Seattle eating, drinking and being merry. I'd been to the area a few times before, working on a movie set, or just driving around, but I never really checked it out. It is a fun place! Shops, bars, cafes, restaurants, movie theaters, its all there. It's got a real youthful, eclectic, urban vibe to it. Part of the happening grunge scene of the 90's, legend has it, (ok, wikipedia has it) that Pearl Jam actually came up with their name while sitting in one of the local coffee shops, B&O Espresso. Kinda cool.
Walking down one of the main streets, Broadway, you come across an unique art display. The Broadway Dance Steps are a set of 8 bronze shoes mapping out different dances on the sidewalk, such as the rumba, tango and waltz. Who wouldn't want to stop on the street and learn how to two step with someone? Are you in the mood for food? Capital Hill seems to have it all. Pizza, burgers, Thai, Italian, Mexican, Sushi, Greek, even a chocolate bar! Check out Bleu Bistro a quirky place at the corner of Broadway & Olive/John. It features a super cool menu with lengthy, historical descriptions and explanations for most food and drink items. It seriously would take quite some time to pick out what you wanted if you read it all. But the food is yummy, a lot of pesto options, and the atmosphere is fun. The booths have curtains around them for a more 'intimate' setting. Loads of fun and super yum! Or for a happy hour treat and some pool go over to Garage, a pool hall/bar/bowling alley. Happy Hour prices were some of the best in town and with about 15-20 pool tables your wait time is short. I hear that brunch is all the rage over there, but have yet to partake myself. Don't worry, I'll get around to it, but till then if you're in the neighborhood, go check make a night of it over in Capital Hill.
Random Fact: Ants never sleep.
Random Quote: But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? ~Albert Camus
Walking down one of the main streets, Broadway, you come across an unique art display. The Broadway Dance Steps are a set of 8 bronze shoes mapping out different dances on the sidewalk, such as the rumba, tango and waltz. Who wouldn't want to stop on the street and learn how to two step with someone? Are you in the mood for food? Capital Hill seems to have it all. Pizza, burgers, Thai, Italian, Mexican, Sushi, Greek, even a chocolate bar! Check out Bleu Bistro a quirky place at the corner of Broadway & Olive/John. It features a super cool menu with lengthy, historical descriptions and explanations for most food and drink items. It seriously would take quite some time to pick out what you wanted if you read it all. But the food is yummy, a lot of pesto options, and the atmosphere is fun. The booths have curtains around them for a more 'intimate' setting. Loads of fun and super yum! Or for a happy hour treat and some pool go over to Garage, a pool hall/bar/bowling alley. Happy Hour prices were some of the best in town and with about 15-20 pool tables your wait time is short. I hear that brunch is all the rage over there, but have yet to partake myself. Don't worry, I'll get around to it, but till then if you're in the neighborhood, go check make a night of it over in Capital Hill.
Random Fact: Ants never sleep.
Random Quote: But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? ~Albert Camus
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
A Day In The Life
There is a fellow blogger that I just love to read, The Sassy Stew, her posts are always so funny and true about that small 1% of passengers. Today I was reading back through her archives and just rolling in the floor with laughter. I got to thinking about all the crazy stuff I have seen, which actually isn't that much. I am kinda thankful for that. As much I like having a good story to tell, not being in an emergency or having a situation where you need to call the cops is probably better. But I thought I would share a few stories about how 3 people amazed me, in a bad way, on my last trip. It really is amazing sometimes to see what people think is acceptable.
I was on a 4 day domestic trip over the 4th of July week and story number one takes place on one of those days. First of all some background on what my uniform looks like as it is an important factor in this story. I like to wear the dresses that we have during the summer. There are two, a red one and a blue one. Both have a breast pocket where you can put a pen, or pocket square, or whatever. As the name implies, its right over the boob area for us ladies. With that being explained, lets go back to the flight in question. I was walking through the cabin with a bottle of water and a stack of cups when this guy holds up a used napkin to indicate he wants to throw it away. Now, on a side tangent, I am always shocked when people try to give me trash when my hands are full! Do they expect me to whip out a 3rd arm? Hold it with my teeth? Squeeze it between my knees and waddle down the aisle? I can't carry your trash right now people! Geez! So when this guys starts waving his gross, dirty, used napkin at me, I hold up my hands to indicate that, HELLO!!, I can't take your TRASH, while I am serving water and have no hand to take it, or bag to put it in. So what does he do you ask? Well he makes a motion with his free hand that interpreted as wanting a cup a water so I lean down a bit to make it easier for him to get a cup and lo and behold as he is coming towards me the world kinda slows down into slow motion like on a movie, where everything happens so fast you don't have time to react, but it seems so slow that you have the chance to process it all. He reaches up with the dirty napkin and sticks it into my dress pocket!! EWWW! Now not only has he put his TRASH into MY clothing! MY uniform! But in a way he has groped me! I was shocked. Who does that?!? Calmly, I sat my water on the floor, grabbed his stupid, gross napkin out my MY DRESS POCKET!!! and place it on his tray. Calmly still I told him it is not acceptable to place trash in a flight attendants uniform and under no circumstances is it ever ok to put anything in my front pocket! His response? "Oh, when you leaned down (to offer him the cups) I thought that was what you wanted me to do." Are you for real buddy?
Story Number 2
Might as well stick with the theme from that last story about inappropriate sexual behaviors on board. This one isn't as bad as the trash in my pocket guy, but still merits a "What the h**l are you thinking?!" On this flight, same trip, different day, I was sitting in the jumpseat where there are 2 passengers directly in front of you. Now, so fa's are super picky and ask people not to have anything in their hands during take off and landing, not even a book or magazine, because if something happens what ever they have is going to come flying at us. I don't care if you have a magazine, but on this particular day there was a guy with a HUGE laptop. I mean circa 1995, Dell something that had to have weighed 20lbs. It could have easily done some damage so I told the guy that I needed to stow it for take off. Now most people when you tell them that you need to stow something either: A. Try to get up to stow it themselves or B. Hand it to you to stow. (Which if you are already seated and we are moving, is the correct option.) This guy opted for option C. Which turned out to be 'pick the laptop up off my lap yourself.' Now this might not have been such a big deal had his laptop been at his knees, as opposed to directly on top of his crotch area. So after telling him I needed to stow it, he proceeds to lean back, lift his hands in the air and look down at the lap top to indicate I need to pick it up myself. Before I really thought about it I almost did it, but thankfully realized that had I went to pick it up my self, I probably would have had to inadvertently touched this guy in a spot that in no way did I want to. Eww. Sir, I am sorry, but I am not about to touch you in that way on today's flight. And I told him that and had him hand me his computer. Was he trying to get me to touch 'it'? I'm hopping not. I hope he just didn't realize what would have happened, but people are strange so who knows.
Story number 3 is short. I just couldn't believe that guys asked this. I was walking down the aisle and a man, in his mid 50's I would guess, waves me over. "Miss, I have a question for you." Ok, go ahead. "Those white things out there," pointing out the window, "Are they clouds or snow?" Seriously? We are flying over Minnesota/Michigan in July. Not Colorado or Alaska in January. After I took a second to be sure he was in fact serious, I answered him with the correct answer of 'clouds, sir." After which his wife proceeds to smack him in the leg and yell, "I told you so!" I am guessing she was thinking to her self, 'I can't believe I married this guy, how embarrassing!'
Today's Random Quote: "I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." - Marilyn Monroe
I was on a 4 day domestic trip over the 4th of July week and story number one takes place on one of those days. First of all some background on what my uniform looks like as it is an important factor in this story. I like to wear the dresses that we have during the summer. There are two, a red one and a blue one. Both have a breast pocket where you can put a pen, or pocket square, or whatever. As the name implies, its right over the boob area for us ladies. With that being explained, lets go back to the flight in question. I was walking through the cabin with a bottle of water and a stack of cups when this guy holds up a used napkin to indicate he wants to throw it away. Now, on a side tangent, I am always shocked when people try to give me trash when my hands are full! Do they expect me to whip out a 3rd arm? Hold it with my teeth? Squeeze it between my knees and waddle down the aisle? I can't carry your trash right now people! Geez! So when this guys starts waving his gross, dirty, used napkin at me, I hold up my hands to indicate that, HELLO!!, I can't take your TRASH, while I am serving water and have no hand to take it, or bag to put it in. So what does he do you ask? Well he makes a motion with his free hand that interpreted as wanting a cup a water so I lean down a bit to make it easier for him to get a cup and lo and behold as he is coming towards me the world kinda slows down into slow motion like on a movie, where everything happens so fast you don't have time to react, but it seems so slow that you have the chance to process it all. He reaches up with the dirty napkin and sticks it into my dress pocket!! EWWW! Now not only has he put his TRASH into MY clothing! MY uniform! But in a way he has groped me! I was shocked. Who does that?!? Calmly, I sat my water on the floor, grabbed his stupid, gross napkin out my MY DRESS POCKET!!! and place it on his tray. Calmly still I told him it is not acceptable to place trash in a flight attendants uniform and under no circumstances is it ever ok to put anything in my front pocket! His response? "Oh, when you leaned down (to offer him the cups) I thought that was what you wanted me to do." Are you for real buddy?
Story Number 2
Might as well stick with the theme from that last story about inappropriate sexual behaviors on board. This one isn't as bad as the trash in my pocket guy, but still merits a "What the h**l are you thinking?!" On this flight, same trip, different day, I was sitting in the jumpseat where there are 2 passengers directly in front of you. Now, so fa's are super picky and ask people not to have anything in their hands during take off and landing, not even a book or magazine, because if something happens what ever they have is going to come flying at us. I don't care if you have a magazine, but on this particular day there was a guy with a HUGE laptop. I mean circa 1995, Dell something that had to have weighed 20lbs. It could have easily done some damage so I told the guy that I needed to stow it for take off. Now most people when you tell them that you need to stow something either: A. Try to get up to stow it themselves or B. Hand it to you to stow. (Which if you are already seated and we are moving, is the correct option.) This guy opted for option C. Which turned out to be 'pick the laptop up off my lap yourself.' Now this might not have been such a big deal had his laptop been at his knees, as opposed to directly on top of his crotch area. So after telling him I needed to stow it, he proceeds to lean back, lift his hands in the air and look down at the lap top to indicate I need to pick it up myself. Before I really thought about it I almost did it, but thankfully realized that had I went to pick it up my self, I probably would have had to inadvertently touched this guy in a spot that in no way did I want to. Eww. Sir, I am sorry, but I am not about to touch you in that way on today's flight. And I told him that and had him hand me his computer. Was he trying to get me to touch 'it'? I'm hopping not. I hope he just didn't realize what would have happened, but people are strange so who knows.
Story number 3 is short. I just couldn't believe that guys asked this. I was walking down the aisle and a man, in his mid 50's I would guess, waves me over. "Miss, I have a question for you." Ok, go ahead. "Those white things out there," pointing out the window, "Are they clouds or snow?" Seriously? We are flying over Minnesota/Michigan in July. Not Colorado or Alaska in January. After I took a second to be sure he was in fact serious, I answered him with the correct answer of 'clouds, sir." After which his wife proceeds to smack him in the leg and yell, "I told you so!" I am guessing she was thinking to her self, 'I can't believe I married this guy, how embarrassing!'
Today's Random Quote: "I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." - Marilyn Monroe
Monday, July 11, 2011
Ballard Days
So a few weeks ago I blogged about a night out in Ballard and how much fun it was. On Saturday I was able to experience Ballard in the day time. It was the 37th Annual Ballard Seafood Fest! For 2 days Ballard is transformed into a street fair complete with music, vendors, performers and of course seafood!! They close off most of 'downtown' Ballard and people set up shop. There were people selling all kinds of things, from soaps, spices and jewelery to luxury sheets. We were a little surprised by the sheets. And the food choices, oh my, there was smoked salmon, pickled herring, chowder, Cajun gumbo, gyros, french fries, fried pb&j sandwiches, fish and chips, elephant ears, you name it, it was probably there. I happened to choose the one place that had the longest line, for what I am sure was the smallest amount of food, but it was still a good time. If you have any desire to people watch, a place like this is where to go. People were walking around wearing Viking helmets as Ballard is considered to have a Scandinavian heritage. Ballard also has a history as a fishing community in the area and I believe is still that way, though maybe not as aggressively as in the past. But if you walk down to the docks you can see big fishing boats parked beside smaller house boats. Its an eclectic community for sure. I believe that I will like to explore more of Seattle's neighborhoods. On the way to Ballard, the friend that I was with was pointing out some things in another community, Fremont, that were also random and quirky. Maybe soon there will be a 'Fremont Friday' post!
Today's Random Fact: Lake Baikal, in Russia's Siberia, is the deepest and oldest lake in the world.
Today's Random Quote: "Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?" ~ The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King
Also, more passport covers! Over 100 in stock! www.passportcoverskygirl.etsy.com
Today's Random Fact: Lake Baikal, in Russia's Siberia, is the deepest and oldest lake in the world.
Today's Random Quote: "Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for?" ~ The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King
Also, more passport covers! Over 100 in stock! www.passportcoverskygirl.etsy.com
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Viva Malaga!
It's possible this post may not make a lot of sense. I have wanted to go to bed 4 hours ago but thought I better not go to bed at 4 in the afternoon. So here I am at 8pm, east coast time, trying to stay up till at least 9pm. I'm going to make it, I think. I'm stuck on a 4 day domestic trip, which I don't care for to much, but it does give me 22 hours in Orlando, which I have used to crank out about 20 more passport covers. Check em out! Stay tuned, I may be getting a business partner in the near future!
You must hear about my lovely trip to Malaga, which may now be my most favorite city in the world. Why? I just don't know exactly. Maybe the way I feel like I just belong there. Maybe the way the streets are so windy and narrow. Maybe to way you never know what you might find down one of them. Maybe the beautiful Mediterranean, or the cafe con leche, the churros, the tapas, the rioja, the, well, you get the picture. I LOVE it there.
A must must must on your trip to Malaga is a trip to the market, Atarazanas, open from 8-2 Monday-Saturday. This place has your fruits, veggies, cheese, meats, some breads and its all delicious.
I easily spent 30 Euros here, but I got bags full of stuff. Olives, bread, almonds, tortilla, cheese, serrano, so much for so little. I am still eating most of it after sharing half with a friend! After your shopping trip, wander down to the park on the coast and check out all the non native plants there. Years ago sailors would bring back a plant from each exotic place they went and plant it in this park. There are all kinds of weird things there. Finish that off with a stroll on the beach. Don't be scared to get rid of those tans lines ladies, as some women go topless here. The guys are quite nice to look at as well. (See?)
Finish your day up with a good dinner of tapas, maybe some wine or sangria, hopefully from some locale where you can watch the sun go down. Then get ready to dance the night away. The Andalusians are know for their buleria lifestyle so be ready to live it up. And of course the next morning you will be ready for a cafe con leche and some churros y chocolate. And can it get much better than that?
You must hear about my lovely trip to Malaga, which may now be my most favorite city in the world. Why? I just don't know exactly. Maybe the way I feel like I just belong there. Maybe the way the streets are so windy and narrow. Maybe to way you never know what you might find down one of them. Maybe the beautiful Mediterranean, or the cafe con leche, the churros, the tapas, the rioja, the, well, you get the picture. I LOVE it there.A must must must on your trip to Malaga is a trip to the market, Atarazanas, open from 8-2 Monday-Saturday. This place has your fruits, veggies, cheese, meats, some breads and its all delicious.
I easily spent 30 Euros here, but I got bags full of stuff. Olives, bread, almonds, tortilla, cheese, serrano, so much for so little. I am still eating most of it after sharing half with a friend! After your shopping trip, wander down to the park on the coast and check out all the non native plants there. Years ago sailors would bring back a plant from each exotic place they went and plant it in this park. There are all kinds of weird things there. Finish that off with a stroll on the beach. Don't be scared to get rid of those tans lines ladies, as some women go topless here. The guys are quite nice to look at as well. (See?)
Finish your day up with a good dinner of tapas, maybe some wine or sangria, hopefully from some locale where you can watch the sun go down. Then get ready to dance the night away. The Andalusians are know for their buleria lifestyle so be ready to live it up. And of course the next morning you will be ready for a cafe con leche and some churros y chocolate. And can it get much better than that?
Friday, July 1, 2011
Out Living
Enjoying life so much right now! There isn't enough time to post! Great trips! Great friends! Great days! Be back soon!
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