I am...

Listening to - HBO

... an Air Traffic Control Specialist Trainee (with a TOL). Here are my thoughts and ramblings from last night and today...



So here I sit. My tiny Long Island MacArthur Airport is the most crowded I think I have ever seen it. Thank you Southwest, Spirit, and to some extent US Airways and United.

The new terminal is truly beautiful. Some of the scenery ain't so bad either.

There's all sorts of people here today and I'm sure everyday. There are the typical Long Island types - the Guido ******** as I like to call them, the Fire Island types, the stuck up Long Island girls, you name it - they're here. I don't discriminate, they're just here. You can tell the locals from the non-locals which I do find quite amusing.

The SWA staff here has had some work to do this afternoon and they look frazzled. The line at the counter for re-booking has been a steady ten persons long since I sat down on the floor ten minutes ago. Yes, the floor. There aren't any seats left and I'll let the older folks take one first. I'm perfectly fine here on the floor. Our gate is still occupied by a flight to Orlando. It's full of families going on vacation. The Chicago flight looks like an older crowd with less kids. This Orlando flight's supposed to push back at 1825 and according to my clock it's 1826. So close, but so far. Ya know - You couldn't pay me enough to do what these ground agents do here. I'll stick to flying them or controlling them thank you very much.

My flight has a scheduled push-back at 2020 but I got a text message from SWA stating that it was 1940. Maybe they just haven't updated the gate board yet.

It's looking more and more like the Chicago flight isn't booked full which is nice. I wouldn't mind stretching out a little. I'm not tall but I think we all can agree that a little extra room is always nice.

Well the gate door is closed so I'm going to go ahead and shut down the laptop in hopes that we get out a bit earlier.

Monday, August 11th 2008 6:33PM Eastern

FL380 - 500 miles to go. The sun's setting in front of us but I just get a skewed view out the left window. The flight ended up being full. We departed at approximately 2005 Eastern Time off of runway 6. Center must have given us some nice restrictions to get to COATE (my guess) because we first headed out to Calverton, then Deer Park, then a right turn direct COATE. This is the same routing I generally get whenever I fly upstate which - well sucks for a 737. You can't climb past 8,000 near Deer Park then you finally get stepped up to around 15,000 before getting tossed to ZNY. My understanding of the jet engine dictates that the higher you are, the less fuel you burn so that time spent down around 10,000 burnt more than usual.

The flight is loud. The people behind me are extremely loud but what can you do right? I still enjoy Southwests service and ability to turn a plane around in less than twenty minutes. The couple next to me see to be quite in love. It's nice to be sitting next to them instead of the loud people.

My water's here - so I'll go watch the sunset.

Ciao from somewhere over Upstate New York or Northern Pennsylvania.

Monday, August 11th 2008 8:46PM Eastern

Finally here. It's 2253 Central and I'll be getting up in a few hours. For now - I'll check my e-mail and attempt to fall asleep.

Monday, August 11th 2008 10:54PM Central

Oh boy... One hour to go until I'm supposed to be there. I woke up an hour earlier than I wanted to thanks to a text message from a friend. I've got about five miles to drive today and it seems pretty straight forward on how to get there. I forgot a black belt - all I have is a brown. Oh well.

This is it. If I can just talk like I did to the folks on the plane last night about my passion for aviation then I should be good.

I'm not up to eating just yet... I'm doing exactly what you shouldn't do and going off of adrenaline. I'm running out of things to do to waste time...

Maybe I'll try to eat...

Tuesday, August 12th 2008 9:02AM Central

Success. Life is good. I have my Temporary Offer Letter in my hands and I keep staring at it. It's quite a good feeling to be DONE with all of this stuff. My medical is done (and clean it's safe to assume), my background is done, and psychological is done, life is GOOD.

I don't have a class date yet because well - they are backed up beyond all belief according to the woman I spoke to in HR. I was told that if I call my contact in about three weeks she may have a better understanding of when I might get to go. It's safe to assume I won't be going to OKC until at least January.

I've made about ten phone calls since I got back to my hotel room. I'm going to celebrate tomorrow in Omaha with my sister and brother in law. I can't wait to surprise her!

Tonight - I'm going to just keep low and relax. I'm going to have to get up at 0600 or so to drive over to Midway, return the car and check in.

Life truly is good...

Tuesday, August 12th 2008 5:16PM Central