A quote from 'Fight Club'...

F

Firebird2XC

Well-Known Member
"You wake up at Seatac, SFO, LAX. You wake up at O'Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, BWI. Pacific, mountain, central. Lose an hour, gain an hour. This is your life, and it's ending one minute at a time. You wake up at Air Harbor International. If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?" - Fight Club
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Sometimes, early in the morning, I wake up and forget where I am. The layout of the room I'm in.. the city I'm in.. the time zone.

It's a little bit disorienting. I've grown accustomed to feeling like a gypsy of the sky, at times. All the same, I'm forced to call the road my home and I've grown to like it.

Sometimes, though, I feel disconnected from self. That stream of continuity that makes life seem familiar because completely disjointed and I find myself looking at the world around me like a stranger at a dinner party.

I'm not always sure what to do with that.

Thoughts, everyone?
 
I am totally with you here. I have ran into a wall or two at night in various hotel rooms.

I know something is wrong when it feels weird to be home more than 4 nights in a row. Last week I was home 6 days in a row and didn't know what to do with myself. Interesting lifestyle we have for sure.
 
My perspective on "normalcy":

I am nearing the end of my longest stretch of time of not flying. No, I haven't been furloughed. Last month I was on reserve and not used a single day. This month I have a line but, all of my flying was crammed up at the end of the month by PBS. I don't go back to work until the 19th.

So far, it has been thirty-seven days at home. It has been making me loopy. I am starting to long for the strange hotel rooms, waking up not remembering what city I'm in. I have now realized that going to work was like escaping to me.

Sure, I have loved all the time with my pregnant wife and daughter but, I just plain feel weird. I am getting massively stir-crazy. I have noticed that some of my thought processes and reasoning have been a little off.

Sometimes, though, I feel disconnected from self. That stream of continuity that makes life seem familiar because completely disjointed and I find myself looking at the world around me like a stranger at a dinner party.
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That is one of the best parts of the job I think. I'll take it a bit further and say that another reason for that feeling is simply our view out the window. We are used to being above it all and see the world differently than "normal" people. It reinforces the feeling to us.

So, I long for my life to return to being like that quote.
 
Flying rocks.

I'll call in sick a few times so you can get some legs. Just flew a NCE trip with two of my favorite captains of all time. It's all good yo.
 
Of course it's allowed bro! :) As an example, FCO or LIRF = same same to me!
 
Welcome to my life for the last 16 years.

I spent one year fundamentally homeless with 300 days out...the following two years I spent 194 and 160 days on the road respectively. I haven't paid out of pocket for an airline ticket for myself or anyone I was dating/married to for the last 12 years or so.

But it does add up. I remember watching that string of scenes in Fight Club and thinking...yeah...I get it.

Funny thing about the road, though. No matter how much it burns me out, after two weeks at home I get itchy and gotta get back out there. It gets into you. Like nicotine.
 
Doug Taylor said:
Of course it's allowed bro! :) As an example, FCO or LIRF = same same to me!
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Ah! See that's what happens when you post drunk or while your Packers manage to give up a 17 point lead on MNF! :) But those now make more sense during a commercial break then they did while letting the Ravens score 14 points in 40 seconds.... :)
 
You know, that's all upper-level math/long division to me because I never got the "Sports Gene". :)

You, uhh, have to consult Mrs. Taylor on that angle!
 
You want to feel really weird. Come home from a trip and have the wife go for an international visit. It's been almost two weeks and it is strange being the one left alone at home.
 
We used to stay at a Holiday Inn in MQT that had a mirrored wall right next to the bed. I wake up in the night, want to head for the sink to get a drink of water. In my bleary stooper I get out of bed and walk face-first into the mirror... I learned then to open my eyes and be somewhat alert before actually getting out of bed.

It took about 5 weeks after my second furlough to quit wondering when I had to go back to work, and quit watching the weather in LGA... For 7 years I woke up every morning wondering 2 things: Where am I? and When is the van? It took a few more weeks to finally not have that go through my mind first then every single morning.

Adjusting to not being other places is hard! Sometimes I'm amazed at even now, how much I still miss parts of it. There are things I don't miss (ground stops, aggressively rude pax, 0330 wakeups) but there are some things I miss very much (camaraderie of crews, seeing other places, lack of monotony).
 
Heh, all this explains why half the time when I ask a crew where they just came in from they go "Uh..." and pull their schedual out of their pocket.
 
ChasenSFO said:
Heh, all this explains why half the time when I ask a crew where they just came in from they go "Uh..." and pull their schedual out of their pocket.
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People ask me, "Where's Bill"? I say "He's at work". They say, "No, where IS he?", and 90% of the time I have no idea.
 
Couldnt resist:

Warning: If you are reading this then this warning is for you. Every word you read of this useless fine print is another second off your life. Don't you have other things to do? Is your life so empty that you honestly can't think of a better way to spend these moments? Or are you so impressed with authority that you give respect and credence to all that claim it? Do you read everything you're supposed to read? Do you think every thing you're supposed to think? Buy what you're told to want? Get out of your apartment. Meet a member of the opposite sex. Stop the excessive shopping and masturbation. Quit your job. Start a fight. Prove you're alive. If you don't claim your humanity you will become a statistic. You have been warned- Tyler
 
MQAAord said:
We used to stay at a Holiday Inn in MQT that had a mirrored wall right next to the bed.
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Yup! That's where they put me up the first night when I got based in MQT.

Odd night. A bunch of other pilots showed up expecting to share my room too.

"Hey man, there's six of us, we'll use your room tonight, then if the rest of us sign in a day later, we'll have a week of hotel rooms".

"Get out."
 
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