Wow, yes it has been a while. Hope everyone had an awesome holiday (if your in the states). I can't believe Christmas is almost here again. My how time flies when you forget to blog! hehehe

Let's see what the heck has been going on the past few months. Finally got a little time off in September to fly up north see my Dad. That was a joy! Actually the visit was great, just getting their sucked. I decided to pop for a plane ticket this time rather than just drive the 12 hours to get there. Since the time I was small, I have always flown on passes. One of the benefits of being from an airline family. Passes are a pain sometimes though. While you spend hardly anything you pay for it in not having a secured seat, getting bumped, and not always make hotel reservations and such. For this trip though, I popped for the ticket. Actually on because I couldn't get there on my passes :) Having shelled out cold hard cash for this short little joy ride, I decided to be a total rebel by wearing ripped jeans and my favorite torn up sweatshirt. Trying my best to blend in with the other passengers of today. See when you fly stand by, there is a dress code (something that would be good for everyone else too). As soon as I got everything laid out, the little rebel grey cell caved to the pressure of his homo majority and new jeans and polo shirt won out. Dammit. I did wear a ball cap though so maybe that counts for something. So I'm finally off to the airport only to find a line wrapping almost completely around the terminal. "Did I forget a holiday?" I ask myself. No. This sucks. Oh well, I'll soon be basking in the 80 degree temps Dad is having up there right now. Off to Billings.

Interesting little airport. I think they have like ten gates total. It's a pretty funky little airport and completely dead compared to DIA. Now for a nice little 3 hour layover I grab my bags and head outside into freezing rain. Not good. I call Dad and sure enough it is snowing like hell. He is about 2 hours further north.

Note to self...Never leave the secure zone when you can't check luggage all the way through. Back through security. Frak. I got flagged by the TSA. If you have never had this joyful experience, let me explain. You get pulled out of line due to a little code on your boarding pass. Then you get practically strip searched (which CAN be fun if they are hot!), luggage gone through and everything unknown to them fully examined and pulled out for the world. I swear the airlines hate me. Inevitably either K or I get picked. Last year K got it but accidentally left a metal **** ring in the carry on instead of putting it in the suitcase. That was funny. I think that guy turned purple when he asked what it was. This time I got critiqued on my selection of DVD's I brought along. Seems there are other Gilligan's Island and South Park fans out there. No toys this time thank God! That would be hard to explain in Montana. What makes this even more funny is that here I am getting on a 10 seat airplane for a 30 minute flight to the middle of nowhere flying out of Billings for Pete's sake. Like there is any threat there.

Finally at the gate, the gate agent pulls me aside and says that I am the only one flying to this small town and they are under a level 2 weather advisory and they might not be able to land. But I can still try if I want. What the frak. I say yes. We head out to this little flying van and get settled in. Off we go, up through the rain and into the clouds, then all of a sudden BANG then another one. Shit. Sounds like the plane is falling apart but we keep going. The look of horror on the few other brave souls who are with me on this journey. Next thing I know we are landing in a small town about 5 miles south of Canada. Not where I thought I was going to land. The pilot comes back and tells me they tried to get in to my town but no luck. You should see this terminal. It is no bigger than a mobile home trailer. Where the frak am I? Luckily the pilots took pity on me and get me an airline rate at the hotel they are staying in for the night and offer me a ride. We are gonna try to get in my town in the morning on the way back. We start talking and swap flying stories. Being a pilot also, it was cool to talk with these guys. They both start laughing and ask if I heard the bangs on the plane. It was the ice coming off the props hitting the fuselage. Glad it wasn't a wing coming off the thing!!

Finally made it to my Dad's the next morning and had a great visit. I haven't been up there in a couple years and even though the weather was shitty it was nice to be there. I miss my Dad.

Coming home wasn't near as exciting but I'm glad I got away for a bit. Since then it has been back to the grind. Hopefully I'll get back to blogging a little more often. Damn, I take a break for a few months and lose all my readers :( I'll have to try harder. Now to get everyone back. Maybe I'll have to start posting porn! That's it for now and until next time. Peace. And remember to check all your toys when traveling!