Life in November
Or rather it's just been this last week. Pending charges, calls from old friends and a harsh realization have me kind of reeling a little. I'm viewing it like a points game, and so far I'm still ahead, but it's been a bad week and as we all know, when it rains, it pours.
The pending charges, well I'd prefer not to plaster that on the internet due to a request from an authority, but for details, call or contact me on myspace, and if it's not in private message, be discreet, please. It's a sucky story and until it's resolved I'm not blasting it here, and even when it is, I may still keep it down. It's not fun.
I also have come to realize an air mattress is not a long term replacement for a couch. It's slowly deflated and won't hold air anymore, although with no major holes I assume a little hunting and a patch kit would fix that. I've found myself lusting after a certain futon from Wal-mart and hopefully by Christmas it will be delivered. It's just insanely difficult to admit that I have to save up for a futon when that would have been mine, when only a few short years ago I had too much furniture and unwisely tossed it.
When did this happen? No television, not even a chair in my living room, my computer has become my only source of company most nights and I hate missing television shows I love, playing video games or doing others things I used to take for granted. I've thought of making some sort of plea for charity, but I still can't lower my ego to the point of asking. I'll just keep scrimping until I can get the things I need.
I also spent Thanksgiving alone, which I have to admit was a tiny bit more lonely than I anticipated. I lounged, I watched movies, I went for a walk, I blared music and behind all of it, I missed my family. It's so difficult to explain for people who've never had to be away, never had to adjust to life away from a family. They bitch and complain about having to spend the holidays in a sweater mom knitted and listen to the latest gossip on Uncle Al's hospital visit, all the while blatantly ignoring the tears forming in my eyes, wishing they had a clue how much I'd give to be them.
It's just not the same when it's not your family. Turkey isn't turkey unless it's in the Michigan room on the beautifully restored family table. There's no point to it unless I'm leaning against a door frame listening to the chatter and feeling the love I have for those people. It's that love I feel that makes it a holiday. On a better note, our family Thanksgiving is postponed until next week when I can fly home and spend the time there with my whole family as a sort of Thanksgiving reprise.
But even Thanksgiving alone doesn't touch my weekend at work. Hell doesn't give it justice and I think I understand why people who constantly deal with angry clients eventually become stony and uncaring. They had no one for baggage service. I excel in every job they put me in, so when I stepped behind the ticket counter on my way to punch in, Eric stopped me and asked me to please help him. He needed me to do baggage service.
After a quick crash course from the morning shift, I was dumped into the cushy office chair and left to fend for myself. "Ok," I think, "I can do this. I can handle this." Saturday wasn't terrible to begin with, but Baltimore started having trouble leaving bags off the flights and so I learned by example how to take the claims and keep my cool. It was a good day, according to my supervisor and if I could handle that, I'd have no trouble.
The next day, I was again in baggage service, this time sans crash course and landed in the middle of hell. This is how it went down:
12:00pm - Baltimore (BWI) passengers arrive in Boston and about 50 of them are missing bags. 25 make claims and leave, the other 25 stay to wait for the 1pm flight to come in.
1:00pm BWI passengers arrive in Boston. Some of the missing bags arrive, most are shipped out, some are claimed by people who waited, others are left now to wait for the 2pm flight. And there are fresh passengers missing bags.
I came in early and find that each BWI flight (every hour on the hour until 8:30 pm) was like this with missing bags and increasingly angry passengers. Then our flights got delayed.
It's in this way that our last BWI flight came in at 1am, and 25 of the passengers waiting had been there since about 12 pm, waiting on luggage. In all 50 people were hoping this final flight conatined their bags with about 50 more having stormed off after making a claim and insisting their bag be delivered that night, no matter how late. About half of them found their luggage, and there were plenty more fresh from the plane missing theirs.
Some people were understanding, some were frustrated and tried very hard not to take it out on me, and some were unbelievably angry, hating me without even knowing me the second they stormed in the office. I can't even describe to you what it's like to be hated like that, the first words spoken to you by someone words of accusation and hate. And having that repeated many times a day. Not once, not twice, but a good 20 or 30 times.
If that doesn't kill you a little at a time, nothing will. But oddly enough, I must have done something right, because I'm one of two agents who's ever gotten a comment card from being in baggage service and the last agent who got one was fired 3 years ago. And the comment card praised my efforts, which was odd because not one person was ever expressing happiness with me. They even said I deserved a raise, heh.
I suppose after that it seemed to make things even out a little, but it's still one of the worst jobs in the airline, and I have a feeling my performance, my grace under fire and my ability to handle 50 claims without any confusion will probably have me in baggage service each weekend from now until who knows when.
Oh... and I didn't get out until 3am. Baggage service is hell.
The pending charges, well I'd prefer not to plaster that on the internet due to a request from an authority, but for details, call or contact me on myspace, and if it's not in private message, be discreet, please. It's a sucky story and until it's resolved I'm not blasting it here, and even when it is, I may still keep it down. It's not fun.
I also have come to realize an air mattress is not a long term replacement for a couch. It's slowly deflated and won't hold air anymore, although with no major holes I assume a little hunting and a patch kit would fix that. I've found myself lusting after a certain futon from Wal-mart and hopefully by Christmas it will be delivered. It's just insanely difficult to admit that I have to save up for a futon when that would have been mine, when only a few short years ago I had too much furniture and unwisely tossed it.
When did this happen? No television, not even a chair in my living room, my computer has become my only source of company most nights and I hate missing television shows I love, playing video games or doing others things I used to take for granted. I've thought of making some sort of plea for charity, but I still can't lower my ego to the point of asking. I'll just keep scrimping until I can get the things I need.
I also spent Thanksgiving alone, which I have to admit was a tiny bit more lonely than I anticipated. I lounged, I watched movies, I went for a walk, I blared music and behind all of it, I missed my family. It's so difficult to explain for people who've never had to be away, never had to adjust to life away from a family. They bitch and complain about having to spend the holidays in a sweater mom knitted and listen to the latest gossip on Uncle Al's hospital visit, all the while blatantly ignoring the tears forming in my eyes, wishing they had a clue how much I'd give to be them.
It's just not the same when it's not your family. Turkey isn't turkey unless it's in the Michigan room on the beautifully restored family table. There's no point to it unless I'm leaning against a door frame listening to the chatter and feeling the love I have for those people. It's that love I feel that makes it a holiday. On a better note, our family Thanksgiving is postponed until next week when I can fly home and spend the time there with my whole family as a sort of Thanksgiving reprise.
But even Thanksgiving alone doesn't touch my weekend at work. Hell doesn't give it justice and I think I understand why people who constantly deal with angry clients eventually become stony and uncaring. They had no one for baggage service. I excel in every job they put me in, so when I stepped behind the ticket counter on my way to punch in, Eric stopped me and asked me to please help him. He needed me to do baggage service.
After a quick crash course from the morning shift, I was dumped into the cushy office chair and left to fend for myself. "Ok," I think, "I can do this. I can handle this." Saturday wasn't terrible to begin with, but Baltimore started having trouble leaving bags off the flights and so I learned by example how to take the claims and keep my cool. It was a good day, according to my supervisor and if I could handle that, I'd have no trouble.
The next day, I was again in baggage service, this time sans crash course and landed in the middle of hell. This is how it went down:
12:00pm - Baltimore (BWI) passengers arrive in Boston and about 50 of them are missing bags. 25 make claims and leave, the other 25 stay to wait for the 1pm flight to come in.
1:00pm BWI passengers arrive in Boston. Some of the missing bags arrive, most are shipped out, some are claimed by people who waited, others are left now to wait for the 2pm flight. And there are fresh passengers missing bags.
I came in early and find that each BWI flight (every hour on the hour until 8:30 pm) was like this with missing bags and increasingly angry passengers. Then our flights got delayed.
It's in this way that our last BWI flight came in at 1am, and 25 of the passengers waiting had been there since about 12 pm, waiting on luggage. In all 50 people were hoping this final flight conatined their bags with about 50 more having stormed off after making a claim and insisting their bag be delivered that night, no matter how late. About half of them found their luggage, and there were plenty more fresh from the plane missing theirs.
Some people were understanding, some were frustrated and tried very hard not to take it out on me, and some were unbelievably angry, hating me without even knowing me the second they stormed in the office. I can't even describe to you what it's like to be hated like that, the first words spoken to you by someone words of accusation and hate. And having that repeated many times a day. Not once, not twice, but a good 20 or 30 times.
If that doesn't kill you a little at a time, nothing will. But oddly enough, I must have done something right, because I'm one of two agents who's ever gotten a comment card from being in baggage service and the last agent who got one was fired 3 years ago. And the comment card praised my efforts, which was odd because not one person was ever expressing happiness with me. They even said I deserved a raise, heh.
I suppose after that it seemed to make things even out a little, but it's still one of the worst jobs in the airline, and I have a feeling my performance, my grace under fire and my ability to handle 50 claims without any confusion will probably have me in baggage service each weekend from now until who knows when.
Oh... and I didn't get out until 3am. Baggage service is hell.