April 7th, was the second anniversary of, “The Rerouted Skytress” blog. I celebrated this anniversary in true Skytress fashion. I woke up at 4am. A short time later, I worked a flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta. After we took off I had a good fright. I thought my flight home to St. Louis had canceled. So, I quickly booked a flight home for the next morning. Upon further inquiry, I discovered the flight app hadn’t updated the date. My flight home was still going as scheduled. The flight had canceled the day before. Whew! Well, not whew for the people on that canceled flight. My apologies to those passengers. After we landed in Atlanta, we had a three-hour sit. So, I finished my required quarterly computer training. I had already completed several hours of the training while I was sitting in the crew lounge before my trip. That day the lounge was full of rerouted Skytresses and Skyters. The only place in the lounge that wasn’t crowded was the computer room. I took this as a sign from God that I should start my training. I’ll admit. Sometimes God sends me obvious signs. After our sit, we flew to New Orleans. On our way back to Atlanta we had a medical situation. Yessiree. It always happens on the last flight home. Thankfully, we landed just in time for me to make my flight home to St. Louis. I did manage to celebrate the second anniversary of my blog before I boarded my flight home. Yessiree. I raised my chocolate protein shake box and toasted the glorious occasion.

I admitted in my first blog post that I wasn’t sure if anyone would ever read my blog. But, that didn’t stop me from writing it. Starting a blog was something I had to do for myself. I’ll admit. I had a personal goal of writing my blog for one year. Well, as you know by now, I’ve exceeded that goal by one year. See, Skytresses and Skyters CAN do math! Well, at least this kind of math. The old days of “liquor -money counting math” was a completely different beast. I know my senior Skytress and Skyter friends are saying “Amen” to this statement. Oh, and “Amen” to not having to whisper up and down the aisle anymore asking passengers if they had change for a $20. But, I’ve digressed. I want you all to know I’m truly humble that you, my sweet friends, keep reading “The Rerouted Skytress”. Yessiree. I’m blessed beyond words. I know Ron’s Dad, Papa Ed, is my most loyal reader and commenter. Papa Ed, this means more to me than you will ever know. Again,…I am blessed beyond words. I’ll have you know, not all commenters are like Papa Ed. No siree. I receive numerous comments from people I don’t know. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. However, most comments are written in broken English and have nothing to do with my blog post. Many come from a site called “Hairy Styles”. They are obviously spam. However, they do give me a chuckle. Nonetheless, it’s quite refreshing when I get to push the button to permanently delete these comments. I’ll admit. I’d like to respond back to Hairy Styles in broken English. Just once to be funny. However, I’m pretty confident this one response would open up a can of worms for me and my blog. Sadly, I’m not tech savvy. I have enough issues with my blog posts without bringing Hairy Styles into the mix.

Now that I am writing this, maybe Hairy Styles has been messing with my blog. When I was on vacation last month I reread some of my earlier blog posts. I discovered some of my blog pictures are randomly missing from some of my posts. I have no clue why this is the case. I know I need to contact my blog service to find out the answer. Only I hate dealing with technology people….when it comes to technology issues, of course. Otherwise, I find them perfectly fine people. Unfortunately, when it comes to my technology issues, I squirm at the thought of talking to them. Technology people incorrectly assume since I have a blog, I have an inkling of web technology. Silly people. They have no idea I publish my blog on a hope and a prayer. Heck, I still print out my blog posts after I publish each one. Yessiree. This is how a non-techie “backs up” their blog site. Don’t laugh. It’s worked for me for two years. Why ruin a good system?

I believe I am going to have to start rereading my older blog posts more frequently. Yessiree. After two years, it’s becoming a little foggy for me as to whether I’ve already written about something or not. This slight case of doubtfulness doesn’t surprise me, though. Heck. I have a Skytress brain. Yessiree. Most days, while I am serving passengers from the beverage cart, I can remember multiple drink orders, who I need to bring headsets to, and which seat monitors I need to reset. In complete contrast, on other occasions I’ll ask passengers what they want to drink. Then before the scoop of ice hits the glass, I’ll completely forget what they just told me. Yessiree. That’s called Skytress brain. If I do happen to repeat a story or two, I apologize. Then again, a great Skytress or Skyter story always bears repeating. Just ask any Skytress or Skyter! I’ve been a Skytress going on thirty-three years now. I still laugh at the story of the Skytress falling out of the airplane galley door. She did this on two separate occasions. Both times she fell down onto the ramp. Believe me. I’ve heard this story more times than I can count. It never gets old. No siree. It only gets funnier. I’ll try to remember to write about this story in another blog post. I apologize if I forget. But, remember……I have a Skytress brain.

I’ll admit. I do miss the early days of writing my blog. I loved writing my blog with The Hallmark Channel or the Cowboy Channel on in the background. Mostly, I loved all the free time I had to write. Yessiree. Being on a company leave during the early days of the pandemic had it’s perks, Heck. If there hadn’t been a pandemic going on, it would have been the perfect summer. These days I mostly write my blog while I’m killing time in the crew lounge, or when I am on my commuting flights. I know passengers are curious when they see me typing away for the entire flight. I’m pretty sure they think I am writing up flight reports. I’m sure a few may be thinking, “ Good golly! I’m glad I wasn’t on THAT flight”. Then again, others may be thinking, “ Good golly, I wish I had been on THAT flight”. Little do they know, I am writing about THAT flight and other Skytress stories for all of you to read about on my blog. This will be our little “ The Rerouted Skytress” crew secret. Oh, yes. After two years, you are no longer passengers on my blog. You are most definitely my favorite crew.

The third year of “The Rerouted Skytress” is ready to take flight. However, just like a Skytress or Skyter sitting on airport standby,…my blog destinations are unknown. As any good Skytress or Skyter can tell you, we are flexible. We love a good adventure. Well,…most days. All of this bodes well for me and my blog. I suspect there will be a few reroutes along the way this year when it comes to my blog, to flying, and with life. Heck. After all, I am The Rerouted Skytress. I’m certain there will be a plethora of fascinating stories to write about thanks to having an office at 35,000 feet in the sky…..with a plane full of unusual…..I mean…interesting passengers. If the passengers fail to provide me with stories, I know the rest of the world will not. I look forward to you all being a part of my crew again this year. You are my favorite people to fly with and share stories with. My sweet Ron said it best. “Let’s have a great trip.” I’ll definitely raise my chocolate protein shake box and toast to this!

Well, my sweet friends, it’s been a month of Sundays since I worked a flight. But, I’m back being a Skytress again. My poor crews. I promise I’ll try to make the reintegration period as painless as I can. I’ll admit. I adored my time away from being a Skytress. This Skytress didn’t leave St. Louis once in my month of Sundays off. You may be wondering what I did to keep myself busy. There was a lot, I tell you. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, and I am slowly transitioning into the real world, I’ll show more than I write this blog post.

I spent an abundance of time with my dog Finley. We took an abhorrent amount of car rides. I drove. It snowed one day while I was on vacation. I’m not sure which one of us was more excited about the snow. Finley would say it was her. I’m not sure which one of us was more sad to see it melt. Finley would say it was her, too. I may beg to differ. But, I’m not going to argue with Finely. After all, she rules the roost.

It’s never too early to start thinking about Christmas. Well, at least it isn’t for me. I went to one of my favorite stores to look for pots for some house plants. I didn’t find any pots. But, I found my spheres for my Christmas decorations. I, also, gathered up a bag full of pine cones off the lawn to use this Christmas. I have no idea what I will do with them yet. But, last year I had to crawl under the pine trees in the freezing cold to gather cones for a project. Yessiree. I lived. I learned. I froze. Thus, I picked up the spring pine cones.

I made Irish soda bread for St. Patrick’s Day. Then I made it again several days later after I asked my Aunt Cathy for her recipe. Why I haven’t asked her for it until this year, I’ll never know. I lived. I learned. More importantly, I learned I will be making her recipe from here on out.

I went to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra with my sister, brother, nieces and our friend, Madeleine. The symphony was playing music by composer John Williams. If you don’t know who John Williams is, it will behoove you to look him up. The symphony started off with his iconic Olympic theme. Yessiree. I almost thought I was at the Olympics. Thankfully, for all in attendance, I did refrain from doing an Olympic somersault. The Symphony then played John Williams film scores from Harry Potter, Jurassic Park, E.T., Superman, Indian Jones, along with other much loved film scores. The symphony ended with a soul stirring rendition of Star Wars. Need I say more? Yes, I need, too. Cellist, Alvin McCall left me speechless when he played the theme from Schindler’s List. It was one of the most beautiful things I’ve had the privilege to hear in my lifetime. I held my breath the entire performance. Well, actually, McCall’s playing took my breath away. And left tears in my eyes.

One day I bought several pieces of pottery from renowned potter, Peter Wakefield Jackson. Then several days later when he announced he was taking pre-orders for more pottery, I bought several more pieces. Rest assured. Peter hasn’t heard the last from me.

I caught a ferocious fever while I was off. No. It wasn’t the flu or Covid. It was a severe case of spring cleaning fever. For days the Amazon delivery man left boxes of slim black velvet hangers on my porch. I took such delight in organizing closet after closet. Sadly, I had only organized two closets when my best friend, Shannon, told me she wants slim gray velvet hangers for her closets. I had never thought about slim gray velvet hangers before in my life. But, now I must have them. Don’t worry. The Amazon delivery man won’t be delivering them to my doorstep any time soon. I’ve set my sights on some storage boxes. He’ll be delivering them for awhile, I’m sure.

My spring cleaning fever morphed into a case a spring planting fever. I bought several new bushes for the yard. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, I told the people at the nursery, “I’ll be back”. Yessiree. I want to plant more bushes. Sadly, I just ran out of vacation Sundays.