How To Pack for a Year

There was no cake or certificate waiting for me on my one-year anniversary at my old job. Instead I went to Duane Reade on my break and came back with the floweriest Happy Anniversary card I could find and some Hershey's miniatures. I passed the card around to my co-workers and managers like a yearbook, soliciting well-wishes and congratulations. It was important for me to feel appreciated for my year of service, even if I did have to resort to candy bribery and guilt. The girls from the cashwrap understood, and fastened a register tape sash to the card so that I could wear it like the medal of honor it was.

Now that I've been a flight attendant for one year(!), I went back to Salt Lake for my annual FAA-mandated training. I got re-certified in CPR, brushed up on my evacuation commands, opened every single emergency exit known to man and watched many, many PowerPoints - all boring but none as memorable as the first, featuring a speech about how nowadays it is fashionable to want a job you love but really you should just enjoy the job that you do have, even if you don't love it (and maybe then you will!). Hmm. Maybe I should live my life more like a 70s pop song.

More importantly, this anniversary came with a raise. Which, when you think about it, is much better than a certificate or cake. Unless it was a year's worth of cake, because that's probably worth more than my raise.

note: I left my camera in Colombia which is why there are no more seeringly modern photos to illustrate my posts. All I have is the built-in camera on my MacBook which is really only good at taking myspace pictures. Here is one of me just now, thinking of a year's worth of cake:


Happy Holidays, and think of me celebrating when your flight gets cancelled!