Cutting the Apron Strings

Well, the woman who is retiring has left the building. I am officially on my own now.

I will not have her RIGHT THERE to ask questions any more. :( She was great about that, too! She'd come over to my desk instead of making me bring everything over to her. I was impressed with that. She is older and had a little back problem, so it would have been just as easy to tell me to come to her every time. That's how most everyone else would do it, right?

A few of us went out for lunch to celebrate her last day. I picked up the check to see what I owed, and the controller told us he was paying for the whole thing. :) Woo hoo! That was WAY cool! I was not expecting that!

I was good and did NOT get the fish and chips, but got the seared ahi sandwich with wasabi mayo instead. And, instead of french fries, I got fruit with it. AND, instead of a soda, I got iced tea. I wonder if I can get back to something resembling my old body without going ALL OUT? I'm not an exercise nut and I like food. It's kind of what we DO for entertainment here now! UGH!

Anyway...

My manager has a list of things she wants me to take over for her that the other woman did not do. It will be good for me to get to know all these things and build my skills!! She also said that sometime later, she's going to send me to some classes. I LOVE IT! Today she told me a great story about how she ended up in this company. She had just come back from maternity leave and had to take a day off because her son had an ear infection and could not go to daycare for 24 hours. Her new manager was a bitch and told her she felt that she was not giving 100% because of the day off! She WROTE HER UP!!!! WTF?

Anyway, she happened to get a call that same day (randomly) from our controller who asked how her job was going! (I guess he used to work there before, also.) She went to see him on lunch and was offered the job!

How vindicating must it be to go back that same day and be able to confidently turn in your notice??? :) I thought that was so great!!!

I like her a lot and we seem to "play well together." I have a feeling I am REALLY going to like this job!

Here is a picture of the view from my new desk.










It's odd to not be totally distracted by jets right behind you all day! (I'm thinking some are only like 100 feet away from me as they prepare to taxi back to the runway!) I see people coming and going all day (today and yesterday it was NASCAR racers and their crews.) and I wonder what they are doing that they require a private jet. I wonder about the story for each of the take offs and landings. Most of them just look like regular people -- even a few pets!!

A couple days ago I guess we had an ex-president land and take off in the course of a day. I missed the whole thing!!! WTF?

I also got to go up in the old air traffic control tower that we have on the premises. Our retiree's husband was there and wanted to go up, so a bunch of us tagged along. I guess he was up there in the 40s when it was actually in use! He told us a funny story about how they had a bucket for the guys to go to the bathroom in and they dropped it over the edge by a rope! Seriously! How bad does it have to be that you don't climb up and down the stairs to take care of things?

Granted, the tower is only 1/3 of the original height now (so as not to compete with the new tower and safety reasons associated with that) but I still can't imagine peeing (or POOPING!!!!!) in a bucket instead of climbing the stairs -- even 3 times! Sure, if you had an emergency, the bucket would be a good idea. I guess maybe they couldn't be away from their post that long? OK, now I think maybe it was a good idea now that I think of that! It was tiny, after all. Perhaps there was not enough staff to allow for long breaks like that.

So, anyway, it was fun to go up there. It's a piece of local history and not everyone gets the opportunity to go up there. I'm sure my dad will just about pee himself when he hears I got to go up in the tower!

On another note, I need to get in touch with my friend who works for the FAA. I think he may be in the REAL tower!!! Last I heard he was planning on moving back to the valley from OKC! He has a nasty habit of changing his email address to match his location, so I don't have a current email on him. UGH! I'll have to do some digging this weekend and see what I can turn up. We're way overdue for some chicken wings together!!!!