Training, Tulsa

Ok everyone, join me in a collective sigh of relief......
I passed my annual recurrent training and am qualified to pass out peanuts for another year! Woo-hoo!

But serisouly, recurrent training is actually about everything other than passing out peanuts and opening cokes. This year the program included hours of computer modules that had to be completed before testing day, a review of the FAA manual to make sure it is current and complete, a written test, hands-on drills evacuting each of the aircraft in our fleet, then more playtime with the fire extinguishers, life vests, Automatic External Difbulator (AED), etc.

It wasn't entirely unfun, and it is refreshing to get a little job performance feedback other than a customer complaints because you didn't hang some coach lady's overstuffed garment bag in the first class closet (please people....write a customer compliement if you are able, it makes a big difference).


Recurrent training is a good reminder of our top priorities: safety and security. It make me proud to wear the navy blue polly-wool.


The day is also an excellent reminder of why I don't have a regular job: getting up early every morning, having to pick out different business causal attire each day, spending hours in the same office/classroom setting with the same people. I have so much respect for you who can do it, and your labors are truly appreciated, but I couldn't do it.

So, with renwed enthusiasm for my chosen professssion and a pair of sexy new shoes (if I'm required to wear unadorned black heels in the terminal, they should at least be heels) I preared to end this month as i began it...with a long layover in Tulsa, OK.

In the past, the best thing I've had to say about Tulsa was that the beds were comfortable and they layovers short. So you can imagine my delight when I was assigned 30hrs at a new hotel.

Oh what a hotel it was!

We entered at ground level and ascended a steep escalator to the newly remodeled lobby. Done in huge undulating glass chandiliers, black laquered end tables, zebra print ottomans of dramatic, oversized proportions and freakish flower arrangments held hostage in low geometric vases, it sparkled with a sort of Ikea-meets-brothel modern opulence.

And just in case you wondered how all this opulence came to be exisit in the Oklahoma prairie, framed picture of an oil rig hung in my bathroom.

Classy.

But if you would prefer to ride with not those not coasting on oil profits, then you should have joined me for a trip on Tulsa Transit.
The bus in Oklahoma is a unique oppurtunity to encounter a highly concentrated assortment of bedragled humanity. They spanned ages, represented many races, and lacked an assortment of limbs and teeth. In general they were friendly however, and those not concersing boisteriously with themselves were delighted to tell me all about what brought them to Tulsa (and it generally wasn't a shiny 737)

I had taken the bus to visit a local yarn store in the posh Uttica Square shopping district.

"Loops"' was spacious and inviting, with beautifully displayed yarns, good lighting, big comfy couches and slick Mac Pros to ring up your order and manage their online business. The owners wre friendly professionals and refreshingly down-to-earth amid the high-end, big-named retailers in Uttica Square, where Tulsans came to despoit thier oil money.

And as I sat there, the store filled up with customers who had come to just sit and knit. We exchanged stories and talked about knitting projects. I bought some super-soft alpaca blend in shages of orange and brown with some vauge Thanksgiving project in mind.

On that same visit, back at the hotel, I completed all my computer modules for recurrent training, and struck up a conversation with a conferenece attendee in the computer room. Together we raided the display booths of some enviornmental engineering meeting for candy, pens, post-it notes, letter openers and chapstick.

I considered it a pretty productive trip.