Better Moods

Ok, so I had some pretty harsh feelings about what happened at work last weekend. And now we have had rain two days in a row here. I guess I should have kept my mouth shut, I love the snow and the winter time.

I do however feel much better about life. Work is getting better although still challenging, it always is this time of year. I am feeling better thanks to the medicine that I started on while I was in Idaho Falls. I am sleeping much better than I have been for awhile and I worked enough hours last pay period that I might even have some extra money after I pay bills on Friday. So here is to the New Year, hoping it is better than the last, and starting it off right, with a little money in the bank. I will ring in the 2009 with a few close friends and wishing I was with some family.

Crazy Days of Christmas

So as this week comes to an end I can honestly say that I am soooo happy it is finally over. I was so glad to go home for Christmas this year, it had been 4 years since I was able to celebrate this holiday at home (aka my mom and dad's house) with my family. The first part of the week was not at all what I had hoped for. I start my work week on Saturday afternoon so that is where I will start my story.

Last Saturday it seemed as though it would be a pretty normal day at the airport. My Mom was trying to get home from Texas which was proving to be more of a challenge than we had thought but it was working. She arrived in Boise around 1030 that morning so I picked her up and brought her back to my house to rest for a little while since she had spent the night in the Seattle airport I knew she would like a nap and shower. Besides Seattle is the coldest airport in the world in the middle of the night, we learned this a few years ago on our way home from Alaska.

So anyways, I dropped her off and headed back to start my shift at 12pm that day. I clocked in and went about the first part of my day without any major events. It was trying to snow but it wasn't anything to get excited about. I picked Mom up at 4pm and brought her back to the airport, I was scheduled to work until 8pm that day. She had a flight at 940pm back to Idaho Falls so she decided to just spend the afternoon at the airport reading. So around 5 that evening is when the holiday season turned into something that I will never forget as long as I live. Seattle and Portland we forecast for freezing rain... what does this mean, well it means that we still had 8 flights that were scheduled to leave that night and only if I remember right 3 of them did, Mom's was one of them. Well while they were canceling flights for the rest of the night I was rebooking passengers that were getting more and more upset that due to this horrible weather in the Pacific Northwest their holiday travel was being interrupted. I got off work that night at 230am... after 3 Alaska 737 aircraft came to Boise to get more fuel to try to land in Seattle, one from Kona HI, one from Newark NJ, and one from Cancun MX.

I returned to work the following morning at 715am with about 2 hours of sleep and very little patience for what the day held for me. That Sunday of the 20 flights that our airline was suppose to operate out of Boise we sent 3 or 4. We spent the entire day rebooking people for the next day hoping that things would get better overnight. Well they didn't and on Monday I returned to work again to spend the entire day rebooking passengers. By this time I was on a first name basis with about 200 people that had been trying to get out of Boise now for 3 days to no avail. Tuesday was more of the same although we did send more flights that day we got several phone calls telling us not to send anyone to Portland or Seattle if they had connecting flights to anywhere else in our system. Because Portland and Seattle had felt the worst of the displaced angry passengers they had thousands of people they were trying to move. At one point there was a 4 hour wait in Portland just to get a chance to speak face to face with and airline agent. Tuesday was the last day of my work week this week. I was headed home for Christmas and come freezing rain or not I was going to make it. And I did, Dad offered to drive round trip from Idaho Falls to Boise that day to pick me up, but I decided that I would take my chances with the flight and see what came of it. Well come 940pm that day when I should have been climbing onto and airplane for a short 45 min. flight home, I was climbing onto a bus to transport me across that state. I got into Idaho Falls as 130am where Dad picked me up and took to me home. I got sick, some kind of upper respiratory crap, I am sure I got it from one of the hundreds of boarding passes I handled in the 4 days I spent telling the same passengers over and over again how sorry I was that the weather in Seattle and Portland was so bad and that we would get them there as soon as we could. In those 4 days at work I put in approx 49 hours give or take a few. We had great support from our leadership at the airport, they brought in food when we needed it and they tried to make sure that each of us had the chance to sit down and eat at least once a day. I know that I did not put in any more hours than at least 4 of my coworkers. My hat goes off to the people in Seattle and Portland that dealt with the same thing on a much larger scale. As a company things like this really show our true colors and the fact that most of our passengers still had smiles on their faces as they were finally boarding flights to various destinations makes me proud to be a member of the team. We are doing something right.

I spent 3 days at Mom and Dad's house. It was a great mini-vacation, I got to go sledding with my niece and nephews and we had a great holiday together. So I came home to Boise today, where we got 6 inches of new snow and dealt with more delayed flights. I have a feeling that last weekend was the worst of the winter weather but it is far from over. I have never worked so many hours and been on my feet for so long, and still felt so useless. No matter what I did, those people were not going to get where they wanted to be in time for the holiday. At work today I saw several of them just now getting to board a flight that they should have been on a week ago.

So as this holiday season in upon us, for those of us that were lucky enough to spend it the people that we love I hope that we can remember all of those that did not have that chance. Because of things that were out of their control. For the soldiers over seas and for the families that suffered loss this year or in the years past. We are truly blessed when we can be surrounded by our loved ones during this season.

Another Day at the Office

The winter is in full swing here in Boise, we have had snow in some form or another everyday this week. I always forget how crazy things get at work during the winter time, and I have decided that is a good thing because if I always remembered what it was like last winter then I don't think I would still be working for an airline. So, with that I look forward to having tomorrow off work because we are forcast to have an other storm come through here this weekend and I think that I am going to need my sleep to get through the weekend of angry passengers yelling at me because the flights are late because of deicing and other things that only happen when it snows. So, please think of me while you are all at home in your warm cozy homes and I am at the airport trying to get everyone home for Christmas.

Family and the Holidays

I found this little guy and just had to post him. It is so true.

Planes, Trucks, and Automobiles

Ok, so here is my story. I feel like I need to spend the next 3 days in a hot bath to get rid of all of my muscle aches and pains after the last week of my life.

Last Friday I flew to Idaho Falls to see my family for Thanksgiving, it was a great weekend, we ate and played and just hung out together. On Tuesday morning Hollie and I went to the airport to catch a flight back to Boise so I could work for a few days before the Ekstrom Family Christmas Party on Thursday. So we got to the airport and found out that our flight had been canceled.... So dad picked us up and took us back to the house where we woke mom up and started figuring out how I was going to get home to Boise. We decided that I would drive Dad's truck and while I had it in Boise, Hollie and I would pack it full of her stuff and then Dad would fly over Thursday morning and drive it back while Hollie and I drove her car to Idaho Falls. So Thursday morning I got up at 5:30am and met my dad and the airport where we headed for Idaho Falls. We got to Mom and Dad's house at about 11:30 we unloaded the car and got into Mom's car and headed for Salt Lake City.

It was great to see the family and visit with my cousins and aunts and uncles, I really enjoy the family christmas party.

So then Friday morning CJ and I got up early to go to the airport to catch a flight to Pheonix. Thanks Dave to taking us. Well CJ got on the flight that we had intended to but I did not, the joy of traveling standby I guess. So I waited at the airport for the 10:30 flight and got to Pheonix just a few hours behind CJ. Then the two of us headed north again, we drove as far at St. George on Friday, this trip was to drive his second car from Pheonix to Idaho Falls, they left it there when they moved this summer. We spent the night in St. George, Thanks Matt (Shayla's Dad) for the hotel for the night. We got up this morning and drove to Salt Lake where I am spending the night tonight with Misty and Dave, Thanks again guys. Tomorrow another day of traveling, I am driving the second car back to Idaho Falls and spending the night with my parents and then getting up on Monday morning to head back to Boise where I will start my regular work week on Tuesday afternoon, after the hour and a half massage that I scheduled.

In the last week, I have traveled more than I ever thought possible. I have been on 2 Flights with 1 still to go, I have driven round trip to Boise from Idaho Falls, and round trip to Salt Lake from Idaho Falls, I flew to Pheonix and drove to Salt Lake, just to recap my story. I have no clue how many miles I have traveled but I do know that I have traveled approx. 26 hours in the last 7 days.

I don't think I will be traveling again in the next little while, I am just about traveled out for the year. If anyone has any ideas on how to relieve the pain in my butt and neck please let me know, I will take any advise I can get.

And to those that I have traveled with and those who needed my help to get the things done that needed to be done on these many trips I have taken, I love you guys and I would do it all again in a minute.

Guess What

Hey all you out there that want to keep track of more and more of our family Hollie started a blog..... Check it out MK!!!!

hollister83.blogspot.com

The plague is spreading... Watch out.

Merry Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving Gone

I had the chance this weekend to visit my parents house and have a family dinner since I had to work on Thanksgiving Day. It was nice to be home and see my family all in one place, except Jennifer, I missed you sweetie.

We gathered in Mom and Dads kitchen for a family dinner on Sunday evening after we had all gone to our church meetings and done all of the other things that keep our restful Sundays so busy. Mom made a ham and I made Parker House Rolls, we all love those things don't we. And we ate and ate and ate, we played with the kids and watched Christmas movies. It was nice to just have the time and not feel like someone had somewhere to go or something else to be doing.

Hollie and I helped Mom decorate the house for christmas on Saturday, that is always a bit of a job but it is done and it looks great. I am looking forward to actually being home for Christmas this year, I have had to work the last few years and haven't been able to be with family. So as I head back to Boise and back to work until the next holiday comes, I have to say how truely thankful I am for my family this holiday season. I love them all and look forward to the next time we can all really be in the same place for a holiday, hopefully that day is not to far off with most of my family on the move who knows what next year will bring.