Cranky Pants

Yesterday was one of those days. I woke up early, did some yoga, made my bed, had breakfast, made myself pretty, and was even ready for work on time! Then all hell broke loose.

All the daylight hours later I returned home from work. Only to become even crankier, because today I will take a short but way too long trip to Minneapolis for some meetings. Um, it's cold up there. Oh, and here. I just want to hibernate.

Not to mention that this trip will make me miss the only holiday party to take place this year. And thanks to the weather here we'll probably get delayed and/or stuck. Awesome. 

Oh... and when does that leave me time to catch up at work???

Fire Hose

I feel completely hosed lately. I just can't win.

I poured my heart and soul into someone just to have them turn around and dismiss me like I was nothing. And not only that, but in the most hurtful way possible.

I work my ass off at work. But most of my time is spent fixing the shit that one idiot causes. And not only that, but I get stuck working my ass off when the bastard who caused it disappears.

I've been trying to get back to my life but it's hard when I have to pull all nighters.

I really need a change. Or this needs to be the bottom.

If I wanted to work this hard...

...I'd go back to grad school. Here I am, sitting at a gorgeous resort in Tahoe, CA. Only I don't get to enjoy any of it because I'm here for a class. Which will have me working 24/7 (or 5, til we leave on Friday.) And this is reward for being a "promising, young engineer?" Nice. Already I've spent all of this beautiful afternoon doing homework, instead of enjoying the great outdoors. Oh well, maybe the bear warnings will help it not suck as much.

To add insult to injury, I am in the same state as my boy, but nowhere near the boy.

And interestingly enough, Michelle was on the flight this morning out to SLC. And so was my favorite (yeah, right) irrational frenchman Cyril.

Is it Friday yet?

The Airline Biznass

Things have been pretty hectic and psycho at work. And that doesn't include any of the MD-80 madness or today's big announcement. All of a sudden things have been going wrong on the engine fleet I manage. Things are not going according to plan (yes, I have to forecast what shit will hit the fan before each year) and over the last 2 weeks I've had 3 oh shit moments, on top of the other crap I deal with on a daily basis. I'm WAY ahead of plan. And this is a case where being ahead is a bad thing.

The latest, which happened Friday at 10am has been the biggest challenge I've face so far. I'm still spending some QT with Daddy FAA to sort it all out.

And this, this is the quiet before the summer storm. Summer is the busiest time. And I expect even more stuff to hit the fan.

Not to mention the whole Delta taking over the world one airline at a time thing... at least I won't be bored for the next few weeks.

Work Stress?

This week was rough at work. I'm not sure I signed up for stress after grad school. A 12 hour days back to back, plus dealing with the Boeing company flight test people, plus dealing with "Elmer Fudd" and the messes he creates for me daily made it one rough week.

That was only 4 days long, thankfully.

Now I'm off on a "mini-break" skiing in Park City, Utah!

Just a Girl In A Corporate World

Just when I think I have the hang of working in this big corporate environment, things surprise me. Like listening to the webconference of the earnings results and not understanding half the words that are being said (which is ok, cause neither did my boss), wondering if I should get an mba, deciding I never want to be that high up in a company and resenting all the stock holders asking the questions who probably make more than everyone in the room combined.

Then there's always the feeling that I'm well cared for, more recently in the form of a huge lunch in the hanger. Which was awesome, especially since all of TechOps participated.

Then there's seeing my work in the form of actual cost savings, being able to answer questions.

It'll be difficult to give up, especially since I'm loving it right now.

I have the best job ever

Yes, I get 2% towards my 401k then they match 100% of the next 5% that I contribute. Yes, the flight benefits are awesome. Yes, most of my coworkers are awesome. But those aren't the only reasons my job is awesome. For an aviation nerd, it doesn't get any better than this.

This past Monday, after going straight to work from the flight back from Brazil (in business class), a coworker informed me in the morning of a flight test on an airplane in my fleet an asked if I wanted to go. I almost turned them down: I'd just spent the entire night on a plane. But, what the heck.

It ended up being a great experience. I got to sit in the cockpit for takeoff, run around (which made me a little motionsick, especially during the turns) to help troubleshoot, and after that was done enjoy some peanuts (which I tasted for the rest of the day) and Sex and the City reruns in the comfort of business class.

And to think I get paid for this. To have fun. It's better than I could have hoped for.

When It Rains

Today was one of those days. Those ones where you're dragging ass and that makes you late and you arrive to a gazillion voice mail messages to answer and meetings to attend and questions to answer and when you get a chance to finally take a minute to breathe and look at the clock you realize it’s almost time to go home. And it hits you. How exhausting and complicated getting people from A to B safely really is.

On the road again

Airport. Airplane. Up in the clouds. Another (crappy American) rental car, another hotel.

I’m on the road again for work. This time it’s better. Or worse. Waiting in the crown room with the boss, bud light in hand (at 2pm)? A plus. Traveling with the like such as man? Definitely a minus. Marriott? Step up from Cinci. Food? Yum. Open bar? Even better, I need another glass of wine.

This is my industry now. Without meaning to, I have stepped into a life. This isn’t just a jumping point, just something to pass the time while I figure stuff out. There is pride involved with getting people from A to B safely. There is concern when one of the ship numbers I know so well shows up on the pager. There is knowledge I’ve accumulated in my few short months, acquaintances I have made, ideas I have developed,. There is knowledge to be gained from the people who have been in this industry longer than I’ve been alive. They leave big shoes to fill, so much to inherit. There is room for improvement. So much that I could give with my skills.

This is my industry now. And it fits.

Training... or torture?

Today was torture. I didn't sleep well last night, added to the exhaustion from my extended trip on sunday and I completely passed out during the second lecture today. Whoops.

This morning;s speaker was good, but it was downhill from there. Lunch was even worse than yesterday: salads. Seriously? Hey large rather wealthy corporation who owns everything: you can do better than that.

On the bright side, I know everything they're talking about when they talk about design, etc. The mechanical stuff... not so much. And it's been hard to pay attention... Too bad that's the stuff I need to learn.

On the bright side, yesterday's entertainment was D&B and tonights was this awesome authentic German brewery thing, of which there are only two in the world. Good beer, good brats.

Two days down, 2.5 to go!

Tired and Toothpaste-less

Despite relative good luck non-reving up til this point (story to come soon), yesterday was a pain in the butt. I arrived at the airport 45 minutes before my flight, only to be told that I couldn't check my bag. Forgetting that there was a reason I wanted to check it, I tried to go through security. Oh yeah... the 6 oz things I packed. Oops. Not sure of the rules about skipping security when on business travel, I go out, get rid of stuff and go back through only to find that my plane has dispatched early leaving me and 6 other passengers sitting at the gate while they are pushed back and loading baggage. The next flight wasn't until 530, while my co-workers, who conveniently had the rental car, arrived in Cinci at 6pm. I arrived at the hotel at 9pm, after landing at 7 and taking a shuttle that took the scenic route out to nowhere, where GE is located.

All this, because of a tube of toothpaste and some shampoo. It's wasteful, thinking about the thousands of people who end up having to throw away perfectly usable stuff, not to mention that the terrorists are probably laughing at the barefoot oblivious americans while they plot something else that we couldn't possibly think to prevent.

Tardiness

I've been gradually leaving the apartment later and later for work every morning. Monday is was 7:05. Not ideal when my goal is be there between 7 and 715.

Today was definitely the worst. Last night was rough, I woke up around 2:30 am with a sinus headached. I decided to take some drugs and a hot shower to make it go away, which was successful. And, since I got a head start on my morning routine, I delayed my alarm to 5:55am (from the usual 5:30.)

Ok, that's all fine... except instead of hitting snooze, I hit dismiss. Next thing I know, it's 7:45am. I leave at 8am (no breakfast, no makeup, etc) and get caught in really crappy traffic. Who knew it got that bad? I finally arrived at 8:30am...

... and proceeded to stay til almost 6. It's a good thing I work a 9-80, because 8 hour days wouldn't be long enough.

Released

After catching wind of my "late" night yesterday, my manager insisted that I go home early, immediately after our meeting to go over the results of the late night. This was at 12.

I just got home, so as you can see that didn't happen. When it rains it pours.

I guess, in a nutshell, I am now working girl.
Right now working girl is going to go sit her ass on the couch and eat cookie dough.

Daylight

Today I worked literally from sunrise to sunset. Fortunately I saw the sun when my group went out for a goodbye lunch. My first long haul day at my new job, 13+ hours. Just a few weeks in, I have a huge task at hand. Come up with the fleet management plan for my fleet for the next 3 years. All removals, failures, etc. Millions of dollars at stake. No pressure.

It's fun. But I'm tired.

All in a day's work

As part of my training and learning for my job, they sent me to work in the shop with the mechanics one day this week. They were tearing down a contract engine for heavy maintenance. Not one in my fleet, but a variant.

IMG_5933
Originally uploaded by lcarneiro

It. was. so. cool.

I've always liked to get my hands dirty, be it fixing the bikes or changing the oil on my car. This was above and beyond. Massive tools to do certain functions. So many bolts and bearings. So much that the theory classes in school didn't even begin to hint about. So much dipping by the mechanics. No wonder, it's hard work.

They are skeptical of me. I am young and female. Two strikes. But, I brought donuts and homemade cookies. I am now their favorite engineer.

Desk Job?

I have a desk, and a job, but that in no way means I have a desk job. I do, however, have blisters on top of blisters. Fruitless comfortable shoe shopping and blister-healing band-aids.

Maybe it'll become more desk-jobish once I get into my regular tasks. Which is hard to do without my password that has been mailed to my house for security reasons. Seriously? Because someone is trying to crack into my work account and... book non-revenue flights?

The computer fairy visited me and now I have a shiny new hp laptop. It connects to a big gross monitor via dock when I'm in the office and to the network via VPN for working from home.

This, of course, is useless without said password.

Not withstanding, I like my job. So far.

Career Days 1 and 2

So. much. walking. This building is huge like whoa. They need street signs, because every corner looks the same. How do I get back to my car? So much confusion.

So many faces, all smiling. Glad everyone wears badges. And offices feature namplates. Cubes as far as the eye can see, and then more.

Airplanes just sitting there when I walk outside. Millions of parts. Who realizes that getting from A to B is this complicated?

My own nameplates. I have no computer. I have a phone, but it wasn't operational until today. I also have no cell phone reception.

7am is early. Dead tired. 8am meetings every day. Must find drinkable coffee. Hear the cafeteria has good breakfast. Yum yum.

Working Girl

Today I said goodbye to the lab and all the wonderful (and not so) people that I've worked with there over the years.

Bittersweet. I will miss my research, my cubemate, my coworkers, the flexibility. I will not miss the hours, the stress, the anxiety, the low salary.

Tomorrow, my career starts. The one I've been dreaming of for years. Well, not really... Thursday for real. Tomorrow my team is taking a team building trip to D.C.

How many people get to start a job with a trip?

Fingers Crossed

I interviewed at Delta yesterday for a fuel systems engineer position. I hope I get it. Everyone there seems very enthusiastic and happy with their jobs, despite it being a semi-high stress environment.

My theory is playing with airplanes every day makes people happy.

Back to Reality

Tomorrow morning I return to reality. I haven't been to the lab to work in almost two weeks (although, I did work on travel) and I can't say that I've missed it. In fact, returning from Colorado I was actually really sad and am even moreso now that I have to return to reality. Maybe it'll always be this way in life, or maybe it really says something about how unhappy I am with the status quo. April, however, should mark some changes or at least a slow down with contract work so hopefully I won't be too overloaded.

Past few weeks recap: fun birthday times, unfun trip to DC for work again, fun St Patty's day (although I regret not racing that day), and then one of the best trips ever out to Colorado for some skiing (more details about that later), and winning the beerfest beer pong tournament for Will's birthday. Good times.