I forgot to post this back in April...

Carolina living is treating me well so far. After all, the really oppressive summer heat has yet to begin. The past two months I've spent as a nanny have flown by!! It's such a relief to finally be happy to come to work!

One thing that has surprised me since moving here is how much traffic there is. All. The. Time. And I'm not sure if there's just a higher percentage of stay-at-home mothers and retirees down here, but it seems that stores are never not busy. I do the majority of my errands on Thursdays and Fridays when I work a 3-day week, and I'm consistently surprised by the number of working-aged people who are also out and about. I'm used to doing my errands on weekdays, since that's often what I had off when I was flying. Whenever I ventured out during weekdays in Philly or Jersey, stores were deserted. Frankly, that's how I like it, and part of the reason I continue to do my errands on the weekdays I have off.

I've been enjoying the lack of mosquitoes and black flies here. It makes hiking and backyard fires much more enjoyable! There's a pretty big amusement park nearby, and I decided that it would be worth it to buy a season pass. I've been three times so far, so it was definitely worth the season pass, since it pays for itself after you've gone twice. The daily rates are astronomical, so it's definitely worth the season pass if you plan on going a few times. It's nice to have a built-in, pre-paid activity to fall back on when you're not sure of what else to do or can't afford to spend extra money that week.

I'm dreading the weather getting hotter, but I know it will come eventually. Likely sooner, rather than later. But until that time comes, I plan to get outside and enjoy the outdoors as much as possible!

There's No Crying in Law School

Once again, I have been neglecting my blog. So I'm sorry, lone follower of mine. I hope you haven't been too lost without me. I have been too sweaty for the past eight and a half months to type. Yup, the south is HOT. Last week, on Thanksgiving, it was about 68 degrees outside. That is just not normal. But I'll take 68 over 108 any day!! I'm glad to have some milder weather, considering I've never experienced a summer that lasted 7+ months. I've gotta say, I didn't really care too much for it.

So I spent the summer mostly complaining about the heat, sprinkled with a few Carolinian adventures and making new friends. If you noticed that the literary quality of this post is lacking, that's because: law school. Having not used my brain since about May 2013, starting law school at the end of August was pretty rough. Ok, it was more than pretty rough. It was like trying to find a cure for cancer in a week. Or so I would imagine. Not only was I trying to oil the gears of my brain to get them up and running again (a slow start after they'd been at a standstill for over two years), but I was faced with the task of navigating an entirely new world at the same time. I was trying to order my books (a race against the clock, since hundreds of pages of reading had already been assigned for the first week of classes when we only got access to our book list four days before the start of the semester!), figure out the parking garage situation (never a problem in good ol' Rhody), and actually learn HOW to learn in this new environment. On top of it all, I was working about 50 hours for the first few weeks of the semester. It was a stressful time, for sure, but obviously I made it through. Without tears. Just kidding, there were lots and lots of tears.

After about a month, I got into a good routine. I love that my job allows me to be creative and have fun. It's an essential balance with the stressful academic environment of law school. Little Miss is growing up so fast! Every day is a new adventure and it gives me great joy to see her discovering new things and listen to her chatter away with all of the new words she's learned! I never knew that a job could actually fill you with feelings of happiness and serenity, rather than dread and despair. I'm so thankful to have finally found a job that I love. Being happy at work makes the biggest difference in one's overall happiness and well-being.

Although law school is tougher than I ever imagined it would be, I'm quite pleased to have made it through a whole semester! There were days when I thought it would never end, or I that would never make it through. Of course, I still have three and a half more years to go, so let's not count our chickens before they've hatched. But I'm letting myself be proud of the semester I've (almost) finished. All that stands between me, a month off, skiing in New England, and a new apartment is two more finals!!

Sweet Freedom and Greener Pastures

After five months of working six days a week as a tech school recruiter, I am pleased to say that I finally have a life again! I can only compare being free of that oppressive environment to seeing daylight for the first time in ten years. The ways in which my health was compromised while in that position are immeasurable. I was all but chained to my desk, even receiving written notice at one point that I was not to leave my desk for an extended period of time without first seeking my boss' permission. The stress created by being constantly pressured to meet the company's impossible standards has probably taken years off my life. Note to management: learn to manage, and cut it out with the micromanaging. Due to the fact that I spent all day every day staring at a computer screen and dialing a phone, being chastised for taking a walk around the office or having a five-minute conversation with a coworker, my only distraction was eating. So, from my lack of physical activity and increased consumption of sugar a complex carbs, I gained a lot of weight. Again, taking years off my life.

However, as of three weeks ago, I am free of that hell-hole! I packed up and moved South, to the land of sunlight and moonshine. I took a job as a nanny to a one-year-old girl, and accepted a seat in a part-time law school program, beginning this fall. I am thrilled to be embarking upon this new journey, and combining my two passions of children and arguing for what I believe to be right. Once I meet some people and make a few friends, this has all the potential to be the life I've always dreamed of!

The Pros and Cons of Flying (super belated)

As of October first, I am no longer a miserable, poorly compensated flight attendant. Now, I am a miserable, poorly compensated sales associate (of sorts…. Exact details to come at a later date). I left the airline for a number of reasons, the top among them being a knee injury that required surgery, and also made me super fat because I couldn’t walk all summer.

Because of this knee injury, I was all but forced into a desk job. So here I sit, making millions of phone calls a day whilst wearing stretchy office clothes (because I’m still fat from my knee injury). There are days when I miss flying, and days when I really don’t. Every job has its good points and its bad, and I thought I would detail some of the pros and cons for you. Whether you’re considering a career as a flight attendant, know someone who is, or are simply curious about the life, the following is a list of my personal highs and lows (pardon the pun) of a life in the sky.

Pros:

-You get to fly for free. This has its limits, in that you aren’t guaranteed a ticket, so you basically have to make plans to go somewhere the day of, and never know if you will actually be able to get there or back. But it’s still a pretty nice perk if you don’t mind being flexible about your travel plans. (Like really flexible).

-You don’t have to deal with a boss constantly bugging you about dumb stuff. You’re pretty much left alone by management and free to do your own thing, provided you follow federal regulations. It’s nice to be the only one in charge of yourself on a day-to-day basis.

-You get a lot of exercise. I walked several miles per day between back and forth on the plane, switching planes between flights, and general time in the airport. I was often too busy to eat, and didn’t get meal breaks, so I maintained a decent weight when I was flying.

 

Cons:

-Your schedule is obnoxiously unpredictable. When on reserve, you’re on call and never know whether or not you will be working, or for how many hours or days.

-It’s extremely hard to have a life. Because you can be gone for a week at a time, and you won’t necessarily know ahead of time that you’ll be gone, you can’t very well make plans.

-You won’t make nearly as much money as you think you will. The hourly rate is generous, but at my airline, we were only guaranteed to work 70 hours per MONTH. That adds up to just about minimum wage.

These are just a few of the things to consider when thinking about how awesome you think flight attendant life is. It is better than a lot of jobs, but it’s definitely not without its faults.

 

P.S. I wrote this post back in December 2014, but because of my lack of free time due to the fact that I was spending 6 days a week making fruitless phone calls, it never got posted.