Barrel of Monkeys

Ok so this pic is a little out of focus but I love it! We both look so happy in it.....good thing to remember since John has been gone since Saturday morning and I'm not sure when I'll see him again. He was told he would be positive spaced to and from training, which would make sense as they positive spaced him to IAH to do the drug test and background paperwork. Only to find out TODAY (in an email none the less) that because his base is still IAH they won't positive space him, even though they said they would...and they did last week.

This pretty much sucks, not to mention John is asleep and I can't talk to him about it! We are having 2 get togethers this weekend and John was supposed to be back on Saturday night BUT since they won't positive space him...maybe not...he can jumpseat...so says the girl that apparently didn't know he couldn't be ps. But I know John and he won't want to take the chance of not getting to school so my guess is if he does come home at all it means a) buying a ticket.. ahhh and its last minute now...crap...or b)taking a chance and jumpseating which means he would probably go back Monday night instead of Tuesday night. It also means there is NO WAY he is going to be home the 2 weekends after that! Also he doesn't have to wear the uniform to jumpseat but he usually does (tends to make it easier) and his uniform is (of course) not with him, it is at his cousins house about 1 1/2 away from the training center...... Pretty much this can be summed up with one word..crappy.....So far this whole "going back to school" hasn't been a Barrel of Monkeys....maybe that would be a good name for wine...since clearly I am going to be buying stock in some kind of alcholol before this is over!

Back to Work....

Whoo hooo...who thought this day would never come? Be honest......ok me.....I wasn't so sure John would ever go back to work after all the surgeries and therapy BUT he starts training on Monday!! A big part of that is in thanks to one of my (new) good friends whose husband works for the same company as John and is also coming off ltd and starting...Monday! I found out about the class from her, and John just kept asking (nicely) that he be put in that class, and the background check came through this morning so it worked perfectly! But now it will be weird...John's been off (this time) since July 2007.....and was off for a 6 months before that. I'll have to get used to being on my own again, of course this means I won't have to make the bed every morning, and I will go around frantically cleaning the day he comes home :)


His training schedule is actually quite good though, he will be gone 7 days now (and it wouldn't even be that many if he wasn't driving to IAH). Then he will be home for 3 1/2 and after that he has school for 4 off for 2 or 3 until the end of October he'll do his final check so he should hit the line Nov 1!!!

Back to IAH

One word (Fail) sums up John's first attempt to get to IAH, via positive spacing. There is nothing better than getting up at 3am for a 6:30am flight and NOT making it because its oversold. Clearly the word Fail is the word of the day. By the time I came back from dropping John off at ABQ (5:30ish) one would have thought that at least McDonald's would be open for breakfast....but no such luck...then I almost had a jackass hit me in the McDonald's parking lot (later when they were open) because he blew a stop sign...he was in such a hurry to get to the gas station and wait...Then I go through the drive thru and this dumbass....different than the jackass... places her order...drives around...stops her car at the window....gets out...gets her purse out of the backseat...(up to this point I would have forgiven her) WALKS up to the window.....then (my favorite part) tries to use McDonald's like an ATM. She asks the guy if she can get cash back if she uses her debit card.....WTF?! I don't think I'm going outside again until I have to pick up John tonight....

Airline Death

The dates on this are wrong, as this headstone was originally for branded flying BUT I thought that given the current situation..............Anyways not too much on the merger front other than a few of us have discovered that ASA health insurance SUCKS! This sucks for us, given how much we have used it over the last 3-4 years. John is going back to work on Monday to do paperwork and background check, once that clears he will get a schedule, so the sooner the better :)

Mergers...Airlines...and where to live....

I found this picture and thought it was hilarious!

So of course now that John is almost (he still has to get released from his neurosurgeon) ready to go back to work...SURPRISE it's merger time with XJT and ASA (in all fairness not a super big surprise to those in the know). Since I had, thankfully, convinced John to based trade to ORD (promising him he could get an Ipad as a reward) he will at least be able to hold a line and hopefully fly ALOT before they merger the seniority lists.

Since he's going to fly as much as possible once he goes back, this begs the question of...(since both our parents live there) should I go back with him for a while...about 8 months or so. At first it would seem like a good idea, I would actually get to see him, though with as much as he's going to be flying..it still wouldn't be a lot. I would be closer to my parents and a few of my friends that still live there.......However our entire herd cannot stay at my parents (they have an apartment) and while we could probably stay at John's in the basement..fully furnished walk out basement...I'm not sure that would be the best choice either.....and with either choice we would have to board the horse....thats some money...boarding 3 horses in Chicago area...eeek. Plus I would have to try and find at least a part time job, well I wouldn't have to but I would want to.

So then that bring us to me staying here.....well I won't see John much maybe twice a month, which sucks! But I also am pretty sure I could have a part time job here, and I have quite a few friends here as well. Plus we wouldn't have to pay to board the horses because they live here! I am hopeful that my mom will come stay out here with me for a few weeks that would be fun, plus she could animal sit so I could go see John!

Either way it's a crappy deal. Stay here and don't see him, but have job and friends and horses or go to ORD and not see him alot, no job, but family and friends and pay for horses. It's going to stink for a while no matter how you spin it....

Welcome to the wonderful world of airline mergers....and this one hasn't hardly started yet!!!

Expressjet and Skywest

So its official, we are now going to be part of the Skywest family, via ASA since they are ALPA and we aren't. We are just praying that dh stays a CA until he can get his 1000 hours and get out. Also it seems ASA's insurance isn't as good as XJT's, so there is another potential pitfall. And now dh's company will be based in ATL which is a long ass ways away from here! So I guess we will just wait and see......

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100804-712443.html