Random flying notes

In the past two days, I've randomly come across some websites that have to do with flying. They're interesting enough that I thought I should share them with you guys. The first one is from the TSA. They have developed a blog that their own employees will use to address concerns by flight passengers. All are welcome to post comments to the blogs and after the first blog entry (yesterday), they received over 700 comments! Today's blog was informing the commenters that they are working on different ways to allow flyers to voice opinions and ask questions. What a great forum! I'm looking forward to checking that out once the blog gets going in full swing. Here's the link: http://www.tsa.gov/blog.

The other webpage I saw was talking about airline rule 240. Apparently this was a rule created back when airlines were regulated. After deregulation, the airlines don't have to follow this, but some still do. So what is it?  It reads that if a flight is canceled or delayed, "caused by anything other than weather, the airline would fly you on the next available flight — not their next available flight, which might not leave for another 24 hours." What? They never do that anymore. But check out this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22900119/ This guy has tried it several times and it worked. The key? Be nice when you're asking about it, know what you're talking about, and just know that they are doing you a favor if they do this for you because the rule is not so much a rule anymore. I say it's worth a try, at least.

Mac magnets

It's been a while since I posted, but here hasn't been a whole lot going on. The thing that has kept me the most busy is my new computer. I bought a refurbished MacBook and I love it!  I've almost got everything tranferred from one computer to the other, so I'm almost running at full capacity. I'm still learning more and more about the Mac OS, but it's so much better than Windows. It's so intuitive, I'm not sure why anyone would want a Windows machine, who THINKS they know what would be intuitive.  I've loved Macs since since I worked with them in Portland, and I've finally got my own. I couldn't be more excited over it. I feel like such a geek being this excited, but what can I say, I work in the IT field. :) If anyone knows of job openings for Mac lovers, let me know.  Ha ha!

I hope everyone is doing well. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone sometime!

Christmas holiday

I just want everyone to know what a great Christmas holiday I had. I'm blessed with a job that allowed me to take a whole week off to celebrate with family and friends. After the week I felt refreshed and happy and realized how much I love spending time with family and friends and how important that is to me.

Thank you to all the people in my life who help me feel this way. I had a great time with everyone I saw. I never had a dull moment the entire week, from all the little kiddies (and kiddies to be) to parents, siblings, and in-laws we visited. Thanks for making my vacation a great one and for making Christmas meaningful for me being surrounded by so many loved ones. I hope you all have a  great new year and that this year brings lots of joy and great memories!

One nice thing about Chicago

Yesterday on my way home, I left work accidentally in time to catch CTA's Holiday Train. It's a tradition here for almost 20 years I think. I didn't even know that it was going to be on my train line. I wasn't even thinking about it, but it pulled up with all its festivity and joy. It was one of the coolest things that's happened to me here. You couldn't help but smile and be in a good mood when you rode it. Unfortunately I didn't get to ride for very long, I could have rode it all the way to the end, it was great. I looked up pictures today and this site probably has the best pictures for it http://iconeon.net/blog/2006/11/27/cta-holiday-train/ and this is a good picture of the exterior http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1524252119048480006MlMzGx  so check it out and make yourself smile. I even got to see the big man
 in red himself!

Niece pictures

Here are some pictures of my new niece!

 Proud papa and new baby, already wore each other out.



Wide awake and ready to greet the world. Hello, world!

Retreat experience

     Almost a month ago, I went on a retreat with a group called Charis. The topic was "Decisions... and the transitions that follow." I went into the retreat thinking about getting advice on how to make decisions, particularly with my career or where we want to live. That's not all all what came out of it. This retreat was a life-changing event for me. The second talk that was given was about letting go of the things that hold us back from making transitions in our lives (internal change of how we view our identity, as opposed to a tangible change). The woman who spoke gave a testimonial about herself, something she never talked about in public before. She was bipolar and had to learn how to live with her major ups and downs. She wondered if she would ever have a "normal" life with someone who loves her for who she is. What she had to let go of was the feeling like something was missing in her life and the attitude that this was a debilitating disability. It hit home with me and my depression. After she talked, we were all given index cards to write a few words about the things that are obstructing us from moving on in transitioning. Since her talk really struck me, I felt it was my turn to let go. I wrote about how I don't always like who I am or where I'm at in my life and all those bad things that are not helping me be happy. Then we went outside and when we were truly ready, we ripped up the index cards and threw them in the fire.
     After that, we went into the church and gathered around the baptismal font. We talked about how we were all God's Beloved. They transformed the church into a labyrinth afterwards. We all took different journeys through it. We ran into obstructions along the way, but we also had people encouraging us, just like our journey through life.
     The whole experience for me was life-changing. I felt so free afterwards. I've had a positive outlook ever since. I'm seeing things more positive, acting more positive and I've found myself saying things I normally wouldn't say in that way. It's been a month now and I'm coming down off the excitement high of the retreat, but the experience is so close to my heart that I know that this is the real thing and it will stick with me. I'm hoping that this experience and the transition I'm going through now will eventually carry over into my depression and help me with that.
    During the retreat, after the labyrinth, we wrote letters to God about the things we wanted to let go of. In response, we had to write a letter from God to ourselves. Both of my letters flowed out so easily when I wrote them, that I truly believe God had a hand in those letters. I keep those letters with me and and pray about them often. I am contemplating ways to make the letters pocket sized to have readily available throughout the day when I need a pick-me-up. I hope someday, I can share those letters with you guys because the power I feel in those letters is unlike anything I've ever felt.

Expanded family

My family has expanded! My brother's wife gave birth today to a baby girl. Addison Jayne is 8 lbs 2 oz and 20 inches. This all happened less than 2 hours ago, so I haven't even seen pictures. I'll post one when I get one, but seeing that she comes from my family, I'm sure she's gorgeous.