from the finest to the nitty gritty
So many people ask me "so what exactly do you do as a private flight attendant?”
People are surprised when I reply, well, umm, well, you see...and then they are in for a fifteen minute conversation. How do you sum up a job that takes you from California to the Bahamas to New York and to New Zealand all in a week? And just as busy as the destinations we fly to in a week sums up how busy I am on the ground and in the air on the way to each place with each passenger.
As a private flight attendant your responsibilities grow ten times as opposed to when I was in the commercial airlines. As a private flight attendant my duties include:
going grocery shopping for standard supplies
working with a broker and fulfilling every kind of catering request
being a florist
creating a menu
setting up the plane for clients arrival
creating a welcome table full of treats and fun
printing out a menu & itinerary
preparing food inflight
being a mixologist at 41,000 feet
clean up after someone is ill
doing a great deal of dishes in an itty bitty sink
buttler--ing your heart out
keeping the bathroom supplies tidy and in stock
making up a full bed in a cramped jet with all eyes on you
attending to & feeding the lovely pilots
hanging up coats
being prepared for an emergency & always keeping safety first
cleaning the entire plane after each and every flight
restocking every item after each and every flight
tracking down client requests in strange & remote places
I'm sure I missed a few but that is the jist of "what we do" as private flight attendants. Sometimes you're a florist, other days a doctor, and some days you just flat out feel like their mother--cleaning up after them, asking them what they need or want, reassuring them, preparing their food, picking up their trash, cleaning after a long days work when they get to go off and have fun. Some days it feels like you're juggling every single job imaginable and others you have no freaking clue what you're doing.
But, that's this life that I'm in the middle of. It's unpredictable, it's about multi tasking your booty off, it's about doing things you couldn't have imagined doing, it's about doing the best and finest work while doing the down to the dirty and gritty work, but knowing both are equally important. I think that has made all the difference, knowing that I can plate the most beautiful and elegant ratatouille on a gold rimmed plate with garnishes galore at 41,000 feet, but knowing I am also the girl that is on the plane after everyone's off picking up crumbs off the carpet, cleaning the toilets, taking out the trash and every unmentionable in between. I think that's what makes me happy, is knowing I am both--I don't ever want to be able to define "what I do" in one sentence, because I think that's when I would lose the girl on the ground that's bopping around cleaning on a jet while listening to Amos Lee--and that girl, she's just getting started here.