The Prelude

Come Fly With Me……. Wings of Wisdom

As I am about to embark on a new and exciting chapter of my already exhilarating life, I thought it would be the perfect time to start the blog I have been threatening to start for about 5 years! My hope is that anyone who takes a moment to read what I write takes away with them a new found knowledge about life in the skies, the life of a gay southern raised man, a life lived trying to always look at the positive, a life blessed with a wonderful family and magnificent friends, or at the very least, the life of this idiot who can always find humor even in the most aggravating of circumstances!

I have been a south Florida based flight attendant for right at 5 years, and as I prepare to enter into my 6^th year of flying, I decided it is time to make some changes in my life. Those changes are physical, mental, emotional, and most of all geographical! I will be transferring to Las Vegas, NV effective March 1st, 2012. I had bariatric surgery on November 17^th, 2011, which has already resulted in nearly 40lbs of weight loss and I hope it will result in another 40lbs gone rather quickly.  I have decided it is time to make me the best me that I can be in hopes of bringing something positive to the world, my readers, and most of all myself and anyone who is fortunate to become part of my life.

Therefore, I promise that this first post will be the most boring one and the ones to follow will be a lot more humorous and enjoyable. But, I feel that as a writer, I would fail you miserably without giving you a little back ground into my life, so here goes. I was born the middle of 5 children in 1973. I was raised in extreme south GA where tolerance, I hope, is finally taking place! Growing up knowing I was gay was not easy at all. I constantly worried about what people would think if they knew my dirty dark secret. I was raised in a society that taught us to hate those who are different and not to be accepting of others. I am in NO way trying to say that my parents or siblings ever intentionally taught this, but society as a whole at that time did! I was fortunate that when I was young, at dinner time, the TV went off, the phone was taken off the hook, and we talked at dinner! We talked about drugs, we talked about alcohol, and yes unfortunately even in the 80’s we started talking about AIDS and HIV. That was a very scary time for the world, and here I was knowing that one day I could be one of those guys on the news with the “gay virus” because I knew even as a young child that I would never be in love with a woman and that I hoped to someday find love, everlasting love, with the right man!

I was the first of the 5 children my parents had to graduate high school and I was fortunate to win a writing contest which awarded me a 2 year scholarship at the local community college. All my life I grew up saying I was going to be a Dr. but through events that took place during my senior year of high school, I realized that I might enjoy being a nurse even more. So, when I registered for college the week after graduating high school, I entered as a nursing major. That did not last very long at all. Chemistry was my nemesis, and when I called my mother crying about the F I had received, she did something I never expected. I wanted her to scream and yell at me, I wanted her to rant and rave about how disappointed she was, and say I was smarter than that, but my mother did NOT do any of those things. She simply said, in a very concerned and loving tone, “Son, high school and college are much different, you will find these classes a lot harder and it is ok if you do not make it the first time you take a class. An F is not the worst thing that will ever happen to you so calm down, relax, get some rest, and study for the next time,  and you will do fine.” Now I have to ask you, do they make a better mother than one who would say that to a college student who is freaking out over his first F?

Needless to say I changed major right away, I would show that Chemistry teacher, I would major in something that did not require his chemistry class! I decided to major in business. I buckled down and before I knew it I was making the dean’s list. I was loving college but I was also working a lot, so after a year and a half of that madness, I walked into my advisors office and said to her. “ I am here to drop all of my classes.” She asked why on earth would I want to drop classes I when I was making all A’s. I told her I was just burnt out and that I needed a break. She allowed me to drop, I packed everything from my dorm room into my car and went to my parent’s house. My mother was PISSED, and I can’t say my father was exactly happy. But, in the end, as they always have, my parents understood and supported my decision.

Another year goes by, and I realized that life in small town GA was nothing I could bear any longer. So, with an invitation from my cousin to stay with her for a while in Jacksonville, I packed my 1972 Pinto Station wagon and headed off to Jacksonville, FL on Easter Sunday. Again, not a decision I am sure my parents were happy with, but supportive and understanding they were! I quickly got a job through a temporary agency and started trying to settle into my new life in Florida. In the two years I was there I fell in and out of love twice, learned all about having a home computer, this new thing called the World Wide Web, and came out of the closet, and tried marijuana for the first and last time of my life. What a ride that was! I will not bore you with all the details; I will save that for the book! 

As the two year anniversary of my move to Jacksonville approached, I was living with two very dear friends that were a lesbian couple, they were breaking up, our lease was up, and I was so completely miserable with my life in that area as a whole, that I felt as though I were sinking in quick sand. So, I did the only thing any grown and independent young man would do, I called my mommy! It just so happened that she and my father were working on a contract in Panama City Beach, FL where they had leased an apartment. They were done with the work there, but still had the lease on the apartment. She asked why didn’t I come there and give things a try. I packed up my dilapidated car and left that very night. Now this car would never make it more than 5 miles without shutting down and need a rest before I could restart it. So, I said a silent prayer as I drove north on I-95. I said “Dear GOD, if this is meant to be, then now is the time to show me. Once I get outside of the city, there is no turning back. I want to know I am doing the right thing, so please confirm.”  I made it all the way to Panama City Beach without one single incident, shut down, or stutter. I still had a half tank of gas, and $10 in my pocket.  I landed a job the very next day and that started my 9 1/ 2 years of a wonderful life on the Gulf of Mexico.

During my time there I met many wonderful and interesting people. I held jobs in property management, event design and catering, cashiering at the local gas station, landscaping, and even being a concierge at the brand new 5 star resort. Not to mention, honing my skills as a wine taster, and drinker! Of those friends, one would play a major role in my life that I never thought she would play. Her name was Lynda. Yes, that is right ladies and gentlemen, that is Lynda with a Y! Lynda was originally my drinking/foodie/bar/entertainment/ and all around fun buddy. We had many wild and fun times together, but again, I will save those for the book. I will say, Lynda always wanted to be a flight attendant, after several tries and interviews, she landed a job with her airline of choice and at the young age of 60, she started her 5 year career as a flight attendant. How did that have anything to do with effecting my life, well here it is…..

Lynda would call me and tell me of her unbelievable adventures in the air, and we would spend hours laughing on the phone. On one of those occasions, Lynda said to me, “Now MF (as she so affectionately called me.... and I will let you all figure out what the MF stood for yourselves), I want you to hear me out, and if you say no, I will NEVER mention this again, but I want you to consider flying. This job is not made for everyone and not everyone is made for this job, but I KNOW you are meant to do this and this is the perfect fit for you!”  Well, if Lynda did nothing else, she kept her word. If she said she would never bring it up again, she meant it.  I told her that I was happy with my current job, that my dog was too awesome to leave behind and that if I decided to make that wild of a leap, she would be the first to know.  Six months later, the company I worked for sold, my car was repossessed, and I was going to be evicted from my home. I called Lynda, got information on how and where to apply to the airlines and she and her wonderful husband Al supported me the whole way with referrals, ideas, and even on one occasion a flight and hotel room so I could interview. Within 3 months, on Dec 12^th 2006, I got the call I had been wanting, I was hired by a Florida based airline and I would be starting training after the first of the year. My dog died that night (unrelated) and therefore I think that day was the most bitter sweet day of my life and the start of a journey that I am so very happy to be part of! However, I would not start my flight attendant training for another 3 months, I was on the waiting list for an open class. Mind you, the head of our training depart still remembers my constant calls begging for a class as soon as possible and letting her know I was being tested by my baby sister every day to make sure I was prepared to pass any test she handed me because this was not only going to be my new career, it was going to be my new life!

Being that I was broke, unemployed (well I was working a part time job that I could do from anywhere over the internet but it by no means paid enough to support myself), and no car, I did what any self-disrespecting man in his early 30’s would do. I called my mommy… AGAIN! Of course her magical words came out….. “Son, you can always come home! You will always have a place here!” To which I replied, “I cannot really afford to pay, and there will be nights I ask for the car just to get out and …. we will just say get out, and I will want no questions asked. I have lived independently for years and moving back home with my parents has not been on my agenda and living by rules and curfews is not something I can do.” Again the reply was more than I could expect….”I understand totally and I agree with you”. I did promise to help out where I could around the house and do what I could to lend a hand and I kept my word. With that, the conversation over. I then asked my baby brother to bring a truck and a trailer to Florida and move me and my things back home. He said he would be there Friday night. He was there early morning Saturday and we loaded everything and headed back to Ga. A place I never thought I would live again.

When we arrived, I unloaded everything and promptly started unpacking and putting things away at my mother’s and father’s house.  My baby sister saw this and asked, “Aren’t you planning to move back to Florida as soon as your flight attendant job starts?” I said, “I sure am!” To which she replied, “Well won’t you want all of your things when you get there? Unpacking them and putting them away here will only make that harder on you to pack for the move back.” My reply was simple (in my mind anyway), “When I go back to Florida, it will be on a plane, carrying a suitcase of clothes and the supplies I will need for training, everything else is here to stay. That is all part of my old life, I have acquired it all before, and I will acquire what I need again when I need it.” What I was subconsciously doing was painting myself into a corner so that when I got to Florida, I had NO choice but to pass training and earn my wings. I had nothing to go back to, I had no plan B, all I had was a new dream and that meant I had to leave myself NO choice but to make that dream come true! Thus began the 5 year journey I have been on so far and hope to continue until I need assistance with my walking cane and can no longer function as a flight attendant. Retirement for me is not an option for this new career has immaculately changed my life forever and I am so blessed by that, I owe it my debt of gratitude for as long as I can hold the job!

I will not bore you with the mundane details of everything that took place in the 3 months I lived back in GA, I will just say I am the most blessed human being on Earth, because my parents opened their home to me when I needed it, they put up with my rants and raves, they dealt with my crazy ways, they supported me and asked nothing in return and they made sure I had a ride to the airport to start this new career! They even picked up a run to South Florida (which as truck drivers, it was a run they despised) just so they could see their 33 year old son get his new shiny wings pinned on his uniform on April 7, 2007. I now have 5 wonderful, zany, stressful, blissful, mind blowing, amazing and wonderful years of flying and stories to catch you up on! So, if you will bear with me while I catch you up, I promise that I will do so in as fun and funny a manner as I can, and I promise that as each new adventure passes, to take you along for the ride! Not all stories will be funny, some will be way too meaningful for humor, some will possibly even be sad, but this is my life and I would love the honor of sharing it with the world.  Now please fasten your seatbelts, raise your window shades, make sure your carry-on items are safely stowed,  put your tray table away, and prepare for take off!