There’s been a rather unfortunate change in the configuration of the crew room–the TV is now in the main room instead of the little back room. The only internet connection is in the same room as the TV. Fortunately, I’ve got headphones. There are few things in the world I find more obnoxious than CNN.

Joanna and I went to Dallas to see The Magnetic Fields on a whimsy of mine, that had something to do with Rachel. We could have seen The Magnetic Fields in New York or Denver, which would have been more convenient, but then we wouldn’t have gotten to see Rachel, Kate and JR and meet Joseph. Seeing The Magnetic Fields in Dallas didn’t really seem to be one of those things I had any choice about, despite the fact that I’m the one who made the choice. I’m jealous that Joanna got to eat at Breadwinner’s and I didn’t.

I’m still scheduled to start a 5-day trip tomorrow. This is good news, and I hope it will re-endear me to the job. It’s been so long since I’ve actually flown, I’m forgetting why I ever thought it would be a good idea. It’s really starting to wear me down. I took the midnight DEN-JFK this morning. It’s a silly way to get to work, but means an extra day at home. It’s hot and icky in New York (okay, a whopping 70 degrees, but compared to 40 in Colorado, it’s hot and icky). I crossed Flatbush in a crosswalk, with “the white man” as Liz would say, and about halfway across the street, traffic turning right decided to honk at me and started gesturing to the flashing red hand (“slappy” for those who speak Liz) as though I no longer had the right of way. I raised my hand in a, “What the hell?” gesture and walked slower. It’s that sort of thing, along with the dog shit I discovered on my shoe later that make me hate New York. The love/hate relationship is a delicate balance highly influenced by the amount of time I spend in the city. Lately, I’ve spent way too much time here, and today is a day that I hate New York.

My last 24 hours looked something like this: At 10pm last night, Jonah drove me to the DEN airport. (I was too tired to drive my car back on Tuesday.) I got to the airport at about 11:15pm, and on the plane at about 11:40pm for an 11:50pm departure. I got a middle seat, but at least it was in the “more leg room” section. I was only able to fit my bag in an overhead bin at the back of plane, even though I was sitting in the front, and even that required serious overhead bin mojo, which obviously I now possess.

The flight wasn’t too bad, though I wasn’t able to sleep very well. I got off the plane in New York around 5am. I rode the AirTrain to the LIRR, where I had to buy a peak ticket. I live off-peak, but my going “home” happened to be at the same time and same direction as the rest of New York going to work. I got off the train and walked a mile. My leather jacket was miserably hot and an unwelcome burden. I should have just left it in Jonah’s car, but I’m guessing I’ll want it when I drive home next week. I carried my leather jacket and heavy bag up to Sydney’s 3rd floor apartment, inflated my air mattress and fell asleep around 7am.

I woke up at 11:59am to my phone ringing. Crew tracking jumped the gun by 1 minute, but unfortunately I can’t read the clock on my phone while it’s ringing, so I didn’t know that when I answered it. I knew exactly what the crew tracker was going to say. I could have avoided the phone conversation by clicking the “I’ve been notified” button on my schedule online to acknowledge the Noon-10pm ready reserve, but if I did that, I’d have shorted myself 1.5 hours of sleep. I’m not required to answer my phone until I go on duty at noon, at which point they’ll tell me to be at the airport for ready reserve, but they have to give me 1.5 hours to get to the airport. Sometimes they forget and call me up to half an hour late, but not today. Also, they decided they still wanted the full 10 hours out of me, and instead of my usual 1200-2200 shift, they assigned me a 1330-2330 shift.

And so now it’s 8pm, and I’m at the airport, too tired to read my book with 3.5 hours of sitting left to go.

All this, so that I can get paid to fly an airplane. I keep waiting for the asymptotic deadline where I find out if I can live at home and fly the Dash.

But I get to fly tomorrow. Things will be better tomorrow.