Leisure Engagement Passion

I never would have thought I’d be posting my thoughts on How To Stay Healthy, but when I injured my knee it made me consider my vulnerability at my age in the game.

This past March, when my husband and I loaded up the RV and headed out of California to explore the Pacific Northwest, we vowed to get outdoors more often and at least walk each day.  Now we weren’t couch potatoes, we used to walk the dogs when we lived in our home in “suburbia”, but it was just around the block to go get the mail from the neighborhood mailbox.  I actually think the dogs could have gone around the block themselves, but they couldn’t master the mailbox key too well.

So now that we’ve been “hooked up” here in the Puget Sound area since the beginning of May, we have kept to our promise of walking on a daily basis.  It started out with a stroll up and down the road.  The area is pretty secluded and the road is lined with tall pines on each side and private roads lead in and out to beautiful residences down on the waterfront.  I found I could walk for miles, well 3, and be feeling okay.  My husband said I should be feeling okay since we normally walk an entire golf course.  But this was different, it was just walking and enjoying the view.

And then I decided to take it up a notch… I was determined that how to stay healthy was to start jogging!  Not too fast, not too long, maybe a combo jog walk to start.  Now I was cookin’.  Two whole weeks of jog walking.  Still 3 miles, but I could feel my clothes loosening up and I noticed my posture straightening.  I was feeling great.

I made up mind that I was ready to join my “running” girlfriend for a 5 mile trek.  I was literally off and running.  She of course was leading the pack.  How to stay healthy was going to be a breeze…or so I thought!

Having to work for a living, still, I found myself preoccupied on my way to the Airport shuttle one morning and that’s when it happened. A tweak in the knee. IT WAS ONLY A JAUNT! I don’t know when, don’t know how but there it was. If I hadn’t forgot my lunch in my car I could be running miles by now. (maybe 5)

It’s been a full two months now, August is right around the corner and I am tired of not being able to walk the golf course with my husband let alone just enjoy a great walk around the park. It does seem to be getting better however and it looks like I’ll be up and running in no time. I hope.

Moral of the story? Don’t forget your lunch, you never know what can happen.

Minor Family Christmas 2008

My family has never been on vacation together since we all became adults with our own families.  So a year ago we made it a goal to be together for Christmas 2008.  We had a great time in Rocky Point Mexico ~ Puerto Penasco.  We had the entire beach to ourselves.

Our original plans were to go on a Mexican cruise, but due to the horrible economy no one wanted to start 2009 with more debt hanging over their heads than they had to. It wouldn’t have been an issue if we all lived in Southern California and could just drive on over to San Pedro to board the cruise ship, but our family is spread around.  I’ve got a brother in Chandler Arizona and another in Wichita Kansas.  Mom, Dad, my family and youngest brother live in California.

I being the only daughter without children have no problem traveling at a whim (I also work for an Airline) but when you have 3,4 or 5 to make travel arrangements for things get a little expensive.

Sure there’s been times where a couple of us have enjoyed time together but as Mom put it, she and Dad aren’t getting any younger and since everyone’s health is good, let’s not let this time together pass.  Using our Money Merge Account to check on the true cost of our trip allowed us to know that we weren’t spending too much and boy was that a good feeling going and coming.  Mele Kalikimaka

I just had to write about this perk that JetBlue Airlines just announced.  That’s right, you now get bonus frequent flyer miles when you travel with your pet or pets.  You don’t have a pet carrier, don’t worry they can help you with that too.  Read the full post in the LA Times I only wish pets could travel in the cabin to Hawaii on Hawaiian airlines without being a service animal…some day…

MUMBAI TERRORIST ATTACK

I thought I would share with you what Airline crew members are having to deal with these days.

Gone is the “Glamour”.

Related Story:

NWA has since said ALL NWA and DAL crew members have been evacuated from Mumbai.

I just got back from Amsterdam and brought several NWA crew members with me who were at the Oberi Hotel hotel when the terrorists attacked.  Here is an account from one of our NWA Captains:

Scott D_________________________________________________________________

Dateline Mumbai;

I was lucky.  Just two hours separated me from a life altering event.

Yes I was there.  My flight was on approach to BOM when the first terrorist attacks took place.  Our ETA to the Oberi/Trident hotel was about 90mins later.  The outbound crew was scheduled to be in the lobby about 20mins after the first attack at the hotel (10:30pm).

My crew spent 6hrs on the aircraft before being relocated to one of the airport hotels.  In retrospect, NWA should have gotten us there immediately.  We were the crew who would fly out of BOM.  Being off duty on the aircraft is not resting, and I correctly guestimated how most of the decision process was going to play out over the next 12hrs.  We were eating into what would be a 48hr period with (in my case) just 4hrs of sleep.  I thought my day couldn?t get much worse.

At this moment, I?m on a flight from BOM-AMS.  My crewmembers are all safe, and we have nine of eleven of the crew who were at the Oberi/Trident.  Sadly, a pilot and FA are still at the Oberi, holed up in their rooms.  NWA hired two different civilian extraction teams to get them out of the hotel safely … you know, expats - challenge/response passwords & all that James Bond stuff … That may have worked initially; but the hotel was locked down by the local military (to the exclusion of those rescue teams) and that simply provided the terrorists time to reorganize, take hostages, and prepare for a long standoff.

Flashback to Oberi hotel.  Some stories from that unfortunate crew follow:  (Apparently, a well built hotel muffles sound more than you might think …..  )

F/A exits the elevator in the lobby of the Trident.  The terrorists (probably) just gunned their way  through the lobby, into a connecting hallway to the Oberi (their primary target).  Bodies and pools of blood everywhere.  The two girls at the front desk, Bellman, and Doorman all killed in the initial attack.  All other people in the lobby were either shot/killed or helped the injured out of the hotel.  The FA returned to his room then followed a housecleaner out through a (sort of) hidden stairway into the relative safety of the street.  I later found out the hotel manager, who lives in the hotel with his wife and children, were all killed in the initial attack.  That may point to an ´insider¡ helping the terrorists.

Another F/A goes to the elevator to head down to the lobby.  Doors open and the interior of the car was splattered in blood..  She returned to her room and got a few other F/A?s and left that floor via the emergency exit.  Once out on the exposed outer stairway, the fire door locked behind them. If they ran into trouble down below, without another exit strategy, they?d be truly screwed.  Near the bottom, they heard a lot of commotion beyond a set of double doors.  They were potentially stuck in a real bad situation. They backed up a bit, laid down and played possum (wouldn?t have worked - no blood).  A few minutes later a police team came up to their position and escorted them to the relative safety of a nearby parking garage.

A male Chinese F/A was trying to escape the hotel following a hotel employee through a different pitch black service stairway.  He opened a door to a short hallway leading into the lobby.  Shell casings and damage littered the floor.  He started into the lobby and came face to face with one of the armed terrorists.  Fortunately, he was not in uniform, and wearing a European style black leather jacket..  He didn?t fit the victim ´profile.¡  He turned around, back through the hallway … got out alive.

That crew eventually spent about 9hrs on an ascending ramp at a concrete parking structure about two blocks from the hotel.  The F/O on the scene separated that crew from perhaps 300 other confused civilians.  Automatic weapon fire and hand grenade explosions permeated the restless night.  They were able to keep in touch with NWA security via an international cell phone.  They got on a charter bus about 9am, and were transported to the hotel where my crew was located.

I`m now in AMS.  I`ll be on a flight to civilization in another 3hrs.  The two crewmembers stuck in the BOM hotel are still OK, but … still waiting to be rescued … along with Lufthansa and Air France crews.

The above was a quick summary of what happened last night.  I could get into a Lot more detail.  But right now, there?s a shower with my name in it.

USC Notre Dame Rival 2008

When I asked my Godson Bryce what he wanted for his 14th Birthday and he said he would love to see his favorite College Team, Notre Dame play USC, I couldn’t say no.  I don’t have children of my own and he is my only Godson, but I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.  First of all, I didn’t realize how hard it would be to ‘acquire’ tickets to this sold out game.  Yes, I live in Los Angeles County and I know how popular USC is but I wasn’t expecting the anxiety I would have locating tickets he and I would be happy with.  I’ve been to NFL games and have sat in the nose bleed sections and also in seats right behind the bench, neither I would recommend, but when they are free you take what you get.  Anyways, I wanted to make his first College game experience (and mine) his most memorable so I held out as long as possible to get the best seats for the amount of money I was willing to spend.  I searched  eBay, Craigslist and all other ticket outlets I could think of.  I even sorta begged some USC alumni and parents I met on my Hawaiian Air flights to see what they could do in my quest.  I lost a bid on eBay and was kicking myself for not going just a bit higher.  Then when I broadened my search to all of California on Craigslist, I found an ad that gave me hope.  I emailed the seller and probably gave too much info but I was getting desperate.  I had two weeks to find tickets.  Did I mention that my Godson lived in Kansas and that he was already booked on a flight to arrive the day before Thanksgiving?  I knew I could get nose bleed seats for a price I was willing to pay, but I didn’t want his first college game to be looking thru binoculars or always watching the big screen.  (We could have stayed home for that).  So I waited…

Then one day online, I get an email from the Craigslist seller.  First one to pay on paypal gets the tickets.  YES!  Right then, instantaneously, I submit payment to paypal, I email the seller and I get an immediate reponse that I was the first person to pay and therefore I get the tickets.  Luck, maybe, persistence probably, but most importantly, my Godson and I get great seats for our first College Game.

Teenagers Dream of Playing for Notre Dame

I had last Thursday off from my Hawaiian flight schedule, so I decided to catch up on a United First Financial webinar I had  missed the previous week.  I try to make it online with a new client once a week, but since I had worked everyday this past week I didn’t reconfirm with my neighbor to make sure she would be online with me.

I should have called her instead of emailing her because as most of us know, life gets in the way more than we’d like it to when it comes to making a slight change in our schedules.  She apologized, I apologized and have committed to being on this weeks live webinar with Lynn Spencer.  I have a good feeling she’ll have the time this week since it’s a ‘holiday week’ and the work load is lighter.  Also, since she doesn’t even have to leave her house to see the webinar to enlighten her on how to pay off her mortgage and debt, she’ll be comfortable knowing no one can expect her to interact unless she has questions for me when I call her after Lynn does the real work.  This United First business couldn’t be easier with how techology has come around.  When she’s ready, I’ll make her a twitter too.

The News is Out and it’s Big. The announcement that Hawaiian Airlines is getting A330s two years earlier than planned was difficult to miss. People visiting New York City’s Times Square would have noticed these electronic billboards proclaiming the news.

Airbus A330

Since I’ve been with Hawaiian Airlines for over 22 years, I thought it best to announce that we’re celebrating our 80th year in Business as of Novemeber 11th.  I can’t believe that I’ve been flying that long, no pun intended, but the time has flown by rather fast, again, no pun intended.  Boy, I’m on a roll…

I’ve been thru too many bankruptcies that I care to remember, numerous aircraft upgrades and a whole lot of uniform colors, but the one thing that stays consistent is our Ohana.  The family that I’ve had for 22 years that has been around for the good times and the bad.  The best times of my life and some of the worst, not too many people can say they’ve been with the same company for over 20 years.  One thing I know for sure, when the time comes to say Aloha, it won’t be easy.

I’ll be moving soon and I must find the time to pack everything up, sell it or give it away. I’m not a collector of things so I don’t really have any must keeps other than family photos and such. But just the thought of going room to room and sorting thru our items is time consuming just thinking about it. Time I don’t have right now and probably will never have but these inconveniences must get done. I wanted to watch Oprah’s show today “Clean up your messy house tour”, but I figured I don’t have time for that either. I can’t say that I have a messy or cluttered house, but I thought if I could get some pointers for the next house I’d be ahead of the game. Oh well, I guess containers for everything with labels. Did I mention that I’m moving into a 40 foot Motorhome?

I returned on Monday evening after spending the weekend in Tampa Bay.  My Hawaiian J.O.B. had me on our Charter flight that flew the Seattle Seahawks to play on Sunday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  It was a short trip but enough time to have Dinner with friends and get to the Buc’s stadium for one quarter of the game.  My coworkers and I thought the stadium would have a lot of seats open considering the Tampa Bay Rays were playing the 7^th game on their way to win the AL East Division. But as you can see from the picture, there are a lot of football fans and baseball fans. Anyway, we ending up leaving after the 2nd quarter to get back to the hotel and then to the airport to prep the flight back to Seattle.  Of course the Seahawks lost… again.  Too bad it’s not like last season when they almost went all the way…

Tampa Bay vs Seattle