Snap Crakle and Pop

So this last weekend, I had to work. I hate to work the full weekend, it ruins my week. I got up very early Friday morning to go to work and it was raining pretty bad, so I knew there was going to be traffic. I left the house early and got stuck in traffic about 15 minutes away from work. Now, when I first started this job, the company scared you to death about being late, even if it was only a minute. You could lose your job and they didn't care about the reason blah blah blah. This has stuck with me for a long time, even though policy has changed a little bit. Anyway, I got stuck, but still had an hour to get there (there are some really slow buses I have to take from the employee parking lot to the airport terminal, so I always give myself plenty of time--because of the whole 'you're late for a second and you're fired thing'). So anyway, there I am, gridlocked on the freeway. I have never been gridlocked before and it's really nerve racking and boring; especially when it isn't even 6 AM yet and there is no one to call and talk to. So after an hour of multiple conversations with scheduling, the gridlock clears up and I start driving through the rain like a bat out of hell to try to get to work so I can get my plane off on time (ten minutes late, but my first officer was stuck in it too!); however, the whole entire day ran late due to legal working requirements, so we ended up in Harrisburg, PA for the night.

We needed to get up early and fly to Cincinnati. Well, we got up again at a extremely early hour (less than six hours of sleep)and headed off to Cincinnati. Well, the flight started and I was doin' my thing when I noticed it was really loud, but nothing really unusual, so I start tellin' the folks that I would start to serve them soon when the captain calls. When he does call me, he tell me he can't get the nose gear up and that we may have to go back to Harrisburg. So I decided to sit down and see the outcome of this little adventure. So about 20 minutes later, I get a call and... well, we have to go back to Harrisburg. I asked the captain if he wanted to make an announcement or if I should. He said he had too many checklists to do so I did it...Okay. So I make some nerdy announcement that is trying to be non-alarming, but it makes no sense. We sit for another 10 minutes and then it sounded like I was listening to a bowl of Rice Krispies, and the whole entire cabin started misting and my brain went into over-load. I was thinking "Holy Crap we are decompressing. Where is my oxygen mask? Why isn't my oxygen mask coming out! Maybe if I put my hand to catch it! And the big scary noise won't scare me if I'm ready. What were those pops, are soda can busting open?" Then the cabin cleared up and I still had my hand in the air waiting for my mask, looking like a goof. So I got on the PA and said we had decompression (trying to calm people down; most of them actually were calm) but we were still safe to breathe.

Twenty minutes later we landed on all wheels and were back in Harrisburg. As one of the passengers gets off the plane he said he knew we were in trouble when his bags of chips busted open. I went into the cockpit after and it was trashed. I didn't know such a tiny spot could be so trashed. Big buttons were pulled that I had never seen pulled before. Manuals were thrown everywhere, and the captain was on the phone saying he didn't push that button because he didn't get to read that far in the checklist. I totally have an new appreciation for all the training pilots do. We had a few things go wrong besides the landing gear, and it turns out the decompression was all part of the master plan of saving our hides. I really couldn't tell you what went wrong, because it's mostly jargon. I did think that it was funny that two women slept through the whole thing and were very confused to end up in Harrisburg again instead of Cincinnati.

7&8 s

Thanks a lot Mary for the tag. I hope I can even think up this stuff
7 things I plan to do before I die...
1 Go to Africa
2 Finish my Classic Literature list only 100 books to go!
3 Have a kid
4 I would like to own property in my own name (Sorry Daniel your name can't be on it unless it is beneficiary)
5 Go to a dancing class with Daniel
6 Go to Croatia or any other country that is war torn (I attract trouble in foreign countries)
7 Change someone's life for the better(I hope they tell me too)

7 things I can do
1 Laugh at anything
2 Scrapbook
3 Understand personal history
4 LISTEN when others speak (a must have when living with Daniel, that got him into trouble on our first formal date--touchy subject)
5 Sew--and getting better at all the time
6 Quilt--old fashion style with little bits of strips
7 Read for an entire day

7 things I cannot do
1 Sing
2 Walk in a straight line (I have terrible balance)
3 Wear make up 7 days in a row
4 Drive my car without music
5 Be without at least 7 hours of sleep (Scary otherwise--ask my mother)
6 Can't stand odd numbers. its my OCD do you know how difficult it is for me to throw away a half used coke. I can always get two drinks out of a can.
7 Sleep on my stomach

7 things that attract me to my spouse
1 His eyes. Its the first thing that caught me.
2 His beard. I know I am so shallow and physical.
3 I love that we have amazing conversations. We always talk; about feelings; books; politics; EVERYTHING
4 That my husband is intensely tender and you would never know because he only shows that side to me.
5 The cards that Daniel makes for me. They are wicked awesome
6 That he lets me have my way until I am completely unreasonable
7 That he likes to cuddle after I get home from work (whether I'm in the mood to or not)

7 things I say most often
1 Welcome aboard Delta Connection flight 4837 service to Atlanta etc...
2 Dude (like I lived in California in the 80's)
3 Uh Huh
4 Love you
5 Oh Honey!
6 Daniel, what were you thinking when you did that?
7 I know!

Favorite foods
1 Cheese, the stinkier the better
2 Fresh Basil in anything
3 Pesto
4 Chocolate Ice cream
5 Filet Steak
6 Cooper's/Meier's Barbeque
7 Drinking Chocolate

Now lets try the 8s

8 Favorite TV shows

1 Doctor who (Duh)
2 Project Runway
3 Monarch of the Glen
4 The Soup
5 FireFly
6 Arrested Development
7 America's Next Top Model Cycle 1-10
8 Masterpiece Theatre

8 Favorite Restaurants

1 Go Sushi
2 Wasabi
3 Sonic
4 I love Chick-a-fila --Waffle fries--mmmm
5 Brake Pad
6 Olive Garden; mostly for sentimental reasons
7 Paradise Bakery
8 Subway--I know, but it is so healthy on a trip

8 Things that happened yesterday

1 I realized how poor I was by paying my bills
2 Called my best friend to see how she survived her biopsy--didn't go so well
3 Lost my temper over a passenger, but didn't explode on them rather they exploded on me.
4 Talked books with my captain
5 Was fascinated by Les Miserables, the classic I'm reading, Victor Hugo is amazing
6 Went to Panda Express--can we say sodium and flying--bad combo
7 Started at Roanoke, VA then to Moline, IL ended up in Fayetteville, NC
8 The rest was pretty much the blur that is work aka where did I go? What did I see?

8 things I'm looking forward to:

1 Thanksgiving -- I hope I get it off!
2 Going to Salt Lake to spend time with the girls--hopefully
3 Crop night!
4 Making Owl Cookies
5 Halloween pictures
6 Christmas Cards
7 Christmas gifts (X box 360)
8 Finishing Les Miserables

Two hours later I can't believe I thought up all of that! I tag Melissa, Emlyn, and anyone else who wants to try.

Long time; No see

So I haven't posted in a while partly because I haven't really felt like it, there was nothing to talk about, and Daniel has been playing Diablo with his brothers. It kind of cramps the time I get on the computer. I am all for hacking and slashing monsters since I think it is cool he get to do it with his brothers in other states. Anyways I finally have something to say. I found a praymantis in our "garden" I haven't seen one in ages and it took me a moment to even see him since I was looking around at the green basil leaves. It was pretty cool, so I took a picture of it.