Airports

Oh how I love airports....

I actually really do enjoy them.

I am sitting here waiting for the next flight to Detroit. The powers that be at Delta changed the times on some flights today and the flight I was originally going to be on was suddenly full. So now I wait for the next flight out. With a baby. Thankfully she is sleeping like a dream! Lets hope she stays asleep when we get on the plane, because lets face it, thats when it really matters.

But back to why I love airports. It is the best place to people watch.
Seriously.
Have you ever sat in an airport and looked around at all the people? There are people from all walks of life and many are quite entertaining.

Right across from me is a lady so hung-over that she looks like death. She fell asleep on the *super comfy* chairs, her friends left her with all their bags while they go walk around and she just woke up very, very confused.

There are people trying to act all fancy, like they are better than everybody else. Walking around looking down on everybody else. They are probably sitting in coach, in the back by the toilets. (Yes, I like to guess whether people are first class or not).

There are a couple fancy lookin guys in suits...isn't is Sunday? Why are they in suits? They must be very, very, VERY important.

Across the terminal from me is a restaurant. I know that some people have long lay-overs and such, but they never seem full or hardly have any customers, who eats there really?

I'm sure there are people judging me for being a lady traveling alone with an infant and wishing and hoping that I am not on their plane.

Overall, the airport is a fun place for me. I don't mind waiting. Even with a baby. I can walk around and see all sorts of people. The over-priced food and connivence stores crack me up, but I like going through and laughing to myself about the prices.

Its kind of like a fun challenge for me. Looking at what flights are available and which ones I can make. And then actually getting to the airport and seeing what I flights I get on. Some people really don't like this guessing game, but I for some reason love it. Maybe some day when my kids are older and we are traveling as a bigger family, I might like airports a little less. But, for now I'm going to roll with it and hopefully keep being spontaneous with trips and vacations. Life's too short to not live a little on the edge. 

Looming Deadlines

Sometimes I forget how different Jordan and I's life really is. We are just so used to our situation that I just assume everybody else lives the way we do. Being home for up to 5 days a week is just so normal to me, and honestly, sometimes its nice to have a day at home alone! But I have a feeling that those home alone days are going to be a lot more busy and probably more stressful once our new little person arrives in a about a month! In the midst of us being so used to our daily routines being apart, the stressfulness that comes with our lifestyle is sometimes overshadowed, and other days it rears its ugly head. Thats how it has been this week.

Jordan is in a very stressful situation with work. The FAA has a new law going into effect August 1st that says every pilot operating in the airlines has to have their ATP license, which basically means they need 1,500 flying hours and have passed a test and a check-ride. Doesn't sound so challenging does it? Well, for us its a bit more complicated. Jordan started in the airlines with low hours, which is totally legal, and he was very qualified to be trained in the plane he is currently flying. His training was 2 months long, so I would think at the end of that, he is qualified. About 6 months in, he had to head off and do military training for a new position he took in the Air National Guard. What was suppose to be an awesome job turned out to be on the chopping blocks for the Air Force and his 9 months of training didn't benefit him at all. Actually, it hurt him, a lot. It means that he missed out on 9 months of hours flying in the airlines. Now that is biting us right in our bootys.

The unions in the airlines protect their pilots by restricting their hours to no more than 100 a month. It is a very necessary rule, and I don't want my husband flying more than that a month, but when you have low hours and a looming deadline to get x amount of hours, you feel very helpless. Long story short, we still need about 300 hours before August 1st. We know that is not going to happen. So we pray, and pray hard that the FAA decides that for pilots who have been flying with airline companies and have over 1,000 hours can be allowed an extension to get their hours. At this point though, they are saying nothing. We are in total limbo.

At this point, as of August 1st, Jordan's company so graciously, won't fire him, but will place him on un-paid leave. Now isn't that nice of them? Do they forget how expensive it is to get flying hours without being paid to fly? I'm sure they still think they are doing us a big favor. I guess it could be worse though. August 1st Jordan is automatically de-qualified to fly the plane he has flown for more than 1,000 hours. The vast majority of his flying experience is in the airlines flying a jet with passengers on it. August 1st comes along, he is now not good enough because he is a couple hundred hours short of 1,500. This means that some other muck who has been flying around single engine prop planes around an airport and has no airline experience, no experience with passengers, no experience with multiple jet engines is more qualified to fly the plan Jordan knows like the back of his hand. Tell me how much that makes sense!

There are so many other factors playing into this situation right now that most days I just don't think about it negatively. In my head I just figure that the FAA will of course grant extensions to certain pilots who are so close to meeting the 1,500 hour rule. How could they not? It would be stupid for them to not do that. But the FAA is the government, and we all know that the government doesn't always do things that make sense. So now we just pray that things work out in our favor because Jordan has sacrificed so much for our family and has put so much hard work into this career that he truly loves. Oh yeah, and did I mention that we have a baby coming just before this deadline making things even that much more stressful? I'm just going to stay blissfully unaware of all the negative things that could (and probably will) happen, and pray for the small chance that things will work in our favor. Because, you can't dwell on the negative things, it will drive you crazy. Worrying is like a rocking chair, it'll keep you busy, but it won't get you anywhere.

Some Fresh Thinking

I am sitting here alone on a Sunday night. Its a night that my husband should have been home. Could I be mad, sure. But what will that change? The fact is, my husband is an airline pilot with a regional airline company. His life, well our life, is mainly dictated by his schedule and when he is home. He is a junior FO at his company and sometimes he has a dictated schedule and other months he's on reserve (on-call). This month happens to be a reserve month. And per contract, he can be "junior manned" and made to work a day he is suppose to be off. Hence the situation we are in. It doesn't help that I work full time as a Neonatal ICU nurse and it seems like most of the time our schedules are completely opposite. Sure we might sleep together at night or have a few hours together, but to spend quality time is often challenging. Our lives tend to be so apart at times, and  yet we are very dedicated to each other. 

Most nights sleeping alone isn't troubling to me. We live in a safe neighborhood with great neighbors who are there for me if I need them. My family is minutes away and Jordan's family is less than an hour away. We have great friends. I know I am never really lonely, but I am alone a lot of the time. I keep myself busy with my side photography business, seeing my friends and family and working out. At times I feel like I have a double life. The Lisa who is "single" and the Lisa who is with Jordan. Of course I am married and would never, ever waiver in our amazing marriage, but I used to constantly schedule things around Jordan's schedule so we could make the most of our time together. This would bug Jordan. Me being home all the time when he is home makes him feel like I am suffocating him by always wanting to be together. I mean that's normal right? After not seeing your husband in 5 days, you would want to see him and spend every minute you can together. It took some time for me to realize that trying to make every minute he was home available for some kind of "Jordan & Lisa" time didn't work. It drove me crazy to figure out my work schedule and the days he was away were so full it was too much. It drove him crazy because he never got alone time. I had to realize that I was able to have all this alone time when he is away, but he was working the whole time and didn't get the down time that I have. I don't know why, but that is a hard concept to grasp. Even now I tend to find myself trying to switch my work schedule so we have more days off together, and there are some times when I do need to switch so we have a few days a month where its just us. 

But even not having matching schedules and trying to make my life as normal as possible I still feel like I have 2 separate lives. And I'm not real sure how to change that feeling. I'm not sure if it will ever go away. Its like I put certain things on hold when he is home so I can do more with him, but I tend to get more stressed out when I do things that way. What a struggle though. Its hard to find that balance. I wonder if I will feel more balanced when we have kids because I HAVE  to keep some consistency for their sake. Gosh I can't even imagine at this point what wrenches kids will throw into our crazy life....

There are so many intricacies and craziness to our life that I hope to spell out a bit here. I am honest about what we go through and the stages we will come across in life. I hope I can be somewhat entertaining and therapeutic for myself at the same time. I could continue this entry forever and ever, but there is plenty of time for that. I'm just excited to start this new chapter so to speak and get things out. 

I'll end this first post by saying I love my husband so deeply that I can't imagine having life any other way. We just don't have typical time together as other couples do. Some say I'm strong for being able to "do things on my own" or I hear "how can you sleep alone?" I don't feel like I do anything on my own, Jordan never leaves my thoughts and he is a very strong constant in my life. And who doesn't like to splay out on the bed by themselves every now and then?