oh the joy

of working for an airline.
I was up at 4am today, my mother came over at 4:45 so I could be out the door by 5 so I could be on a 6:15 flight to Chicago. It was a beautiful sunrise as viewed from where concourses H & K split apart, especially while holding a steaming mocha from Dunkin. Bliss.

I had to attend a class entitled "Safety Starts With Me". It was bad, but not quite as bad as I expected. I was sitting with some entertaining guys, 2 from Chicago and one from Ft Wayne. We were way in the back and had ample opportunities to crack jokes as well as discuss events important to our bases or how events at one impacted another. The instructors (3 of them!) kept handing out little slips as a reward for participation. At the end of the class, you put your name/initials on each of your slips, then there was a drawing and 4 slips were chosen. Last one drawn was me, I got a $10 gift card to Sears. Yeehaw. I is so excited I can hardly stand it. (The 3rd one got a small fire extinguisher, so it was a darned good thing he was a local- wouldn't be able to fly that home!)
I had another hour to wander in the afternoon before my flight back to Ohio.
I guess they've had a bit of snow in Chicago... our ground cover is less than 2 inches. I also guess this tug (labeled Aircraft Maintenance) has been broke and not moved for at least a week. That's right dude. Fuel my plane so I can go the heck HOME!!!!! The heating was a nice touch too- except it took so long for rampers to come unhook it when we were ready to push back.