it was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

uncle ron, deb, and tracie have been telling me i need to write more... and i know i've been slacking, but it's hard to write when i'm flying all the time! they have been working us like crazy the second half of this month, i feel like i'm never home. usually i don't bring my laptop with me on layovers because it's so heavy and then there's the hassle of going through security with it. i decided for this trip though i would bring it because i had 20 hours in fort lauderdale and the weather forecast showed rain, rain, and more rain.

i understand that all the airlines are having difficulties, and as most of you probably know, everyone is making cutbacks. i am "lucky" and won't be getting furloughed because there were enough volunteers to take leaves of absence. i say "lucky" because even though the leaves haven't gone into effect - they start september 1 - i am still working a ridiculous amount. i can not even imagine what it will be like when these people aren't here anymore! don't get me wrong, it's nice to get the paychecks, but as far as my sanity goes... well, it really doesn't exist anymore!

recently i was working a fake four-day trip. we brought the red-eye in from phoenix on the third night, so arrived on the fourth morning. i and another girl working with me were both sent directly back out to work a flight to san antonio - a three and half hour flight after working an almost five hour red-eye. not only that, but scheduling rolled our days off and extended our trip into a six day. we weren't the only ones either. i heard countless tales of three and four day trips being turned into six days. i am really curious as to how we will successfully operate with fewer employees, but i have a feeling it will be quite chaotic!

in other news... on my last set of four days off i was supposed to visit gloria in LA, but the flights were all overbooked. seeing as that wasn't really a viable option, i decided very last minute to fly to dallas and drive my car back to jersey. my roommate, our friend matt and his finace TJ all flew into dallas the next night to drive back with me. dad made dinner for all of us and then tuesday morning we loaded up on pete's breakfast for some roadtrip fuel. i drove 12 hours and it honestly felt like 4 - in every aspect except my numb butt! that night we stayed at TJs house in evansville, indiana. we met up with some of his and matt's friends then woke up a little later than planned on wednesday morning. tj's mom made us a delicious breakfast and we were on our way. that day we had 14 hours to go and we decided to go for it all instead of stopping another night. matt drove most of the day which was really nice for me. the drive was beautiful and i got to enjoy the lush, green scenery!

so even though i haven't been home much since lola came to bayonne, it is really nice to have her there for errands - we have gone to the grocery store and target. i plan to take a trip down to the shore and go visit aunt ro in tom's river. driving in jersey is definitely interesting to say the least! not only are the roads horrible, but who gave the east coast license to drive??

i fixed my schedule for next month to where i have a whole week off! i am throwing a baby shower for my best friend from high school, carin. she's having a girl and i couldn't be more excited! baby asby is due in december :)
then after the shower i'm flying to florida to meet up with the g-rents in panama city beach. it will be a nice little vacation and it also gives me a little reassurance that i will be able to coordinate my schedule for the lamb family cruise next november!
anyway... thanks to y'all who are still reading - now start commenting!!