aruba, jamaica, oooh i wanna take ya...

ah yes. my airline life. i get the "uh, seriously, WHY did you leave???" question a lot. it's a good question :-)

it *was* pretty darn nice... mostly. except for, you know, the layoffs every few months, and the regular paycuts. i got my first paycut within 2 weeks of getting hired. overall, i got 3 promotions while i was at the airline, and netted a grand total of $4k in raises as a result. $4,000. total. for three promotions. that's due in part to the fun-fun paycuts, and in part to the fact that by the time i left, "promotion" meant "guess what! we're not firing you! or even cutting your pay [this week]! congratulations!!" so while i'll probably never, ever, have a cooler job... i can now make rent AND eat in the same month!

also. i'm sure most of you have experienced layoffs at one point or another, but let me tell you... regular ones? at least 3 rounds (that i can recall!) in just 2.5 years? really, really not fun. even if you're not one of the people laid off... this time. not only is it not so hot for morale, and also makes you spend a lot of formerly-happy time wondering if you'll get the axe next (and you knew there was always going to be a next time), but these were my friends getting cut. it was awful. plus, we literally didn't know if we'd show up to work one day and there would be chains on the doors because the company had gone under overnight.

but. oh. big, big, but. you know what helps restore morale when your friends are getting laid off and you have no money and you spend way too much time obsessing over job security? oh yeah, the CARIBBEAN.

i got in the habit of picking up a postcard every time i took a trip on the airline, and hanging the postcard up in my cube when i got back. this is my caribbean collection. i know for a fact i'm missing at least st. croix from the ensemble, but i think all the other trips might be spoken for there. (although this doesn't account for repeat visits to the same island. my postcard rules were 1 postcard per destination.) so. yeah. it wasn't ALL bad there.... ;-)

for the record, postcards pictured above in order are: st. lucia; antigua; st. martin; turcs & caicos; the bahamas; caymen islands; barbados; jamaica; and antigua.