Layovers, Latte Logic and New Beginnings

Matthew and Cody gently unpack the quirks of in‑flight beverage service—how crews juggle hot drinks at altitude and the delightfully weird ways passengers order coffee. Matthew opens up about a tender career pivot from indie film casting director to flight attendant, while Cody shares a face‑palm interview outtake that might’ve cost him an airline invite and the tale of a baffling adults‑only party invite. Expect warm, candid stories, plenty of laughs, and thoughtful reflections on careers in the skies.

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Welcome aboard. I'm Matthew. And I'm Cody. This is Breaking Sterile. A show about flight attendance at a major American international airline where professionalism is the baseline.

Speaker 1 0:10

And humanity is what actually gets us through the day. And this show is about the part of the job that lives just outside the announcement. The part where you're exhausted, proud, frustrated, ungrateful. Sometimes all on the same leg. Sterile exists for safety. And this show exists for everything else. Hey Cody. Hey Matt. How are you?

Speaker 0:36

I'm great. How are you?

Speaker 1 0:38

I'm so good.

Speaker 0:39

Well, that's good. I'm glad. Why are you so good today?

Speaker 1 0:42

It's a beautiful day here in lovely Palm springs.

Speaker 0:46

It is. Yes. It's at 80 degrees in January. And it's my kind of place.

Speaker 1 0:56

So, Cody.

Speaker 0:58

Yeah.

Speaker 1 0:58

Yes. Do you have any interesting stories about the aviation industry specifically oriented to customer satisfaction or passenger involvement or flight attendant stories? Do you have anything to share today?

Speaker 1:12

That's a lot. Sorry. You know, it's interesting. Um, I've noticed an uptick in the what passengers are uh ordering, and a lot of it is like hot teas and just regular hot water.

Speaker 1 1:29

Okay, I've noticed it too, because we at our airline we serve several teas even domestically.

Speaker 1:34

Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:35

Which we didn't used to do, right? To be honest.

Speaker 1:38

It used to just be black tea. Right. And now it's a whole plethora. Plethera of teas.

Speaker 1 1:47

Which, you know, gives it a nice international feel. Doesn't I think so. Okay. So what's your problem with tea?

Speaker 1:56

My pro first, like getting decaf coffee and hot teas is like the bane of my existence. Yes. Because it's just I don't it's not hard to do, it's just uh obnoxious and annoying.

Speaker 1 2:07

Well, how do you do it? Do you want me to tell you how I do it? Well I'll go first. Okay. So someone pretend you're a customer.

Speaker 2:15

Hi there, can I get a tea?

Speaker 1 2:16

What kind of tea would you like?

Speaker 2:17

Uh, what do you have? That's decaffeinated. Shut up. I hate that.

Speaker 1 2:22

No, well, we don't have decaffed tea, but I have decaffeinated coffee.

Speaker 2:25

Okay.

Speaker 1 2:26

It's from Illy. Ooh. It's very nice. Okay. Okay. So then the next phase for this is for me to pour the hot water into the cup.

unknown 2:37

Okay.

Speaker 1 2:38

And um, no, sorry. I open up the packet and I pour it into the cup. Yeah. And then I pour the hot water in. I do that joke. And then I give it to them. Yeah, I do that joke. But before we talk about, but I need this comes back to a thing. That's if it's black. So when people order coffee, and I always say, okay, go. So I'm at we're gonna roleplay again. Can I get you something? Uh coffee. Uh how would you like your coffee? Uh-huh.

unknown 3:02

No.

Speaker 1 3:03

Black, that's fine. Okay. So then I pour the black coffee into the thing and I give it to them. And I go, anything else? Can I get some cream? Okay. So then I take the two creams. Would you like oatmeal cream or regular cream? Oh god, Jesus Christ. Do you really do that? Yeah. Oh god, no.

Speaker 3:22

Yeah, because you wanted to have a good day.

Speaker 1 3:24

Because I'm a good flight attendant.

Speaker 3:27

For the three times you fly a month.

Speaker 1 3:29

Right. So I guess my point about the coffee is okay, when you go to Starbucks, you order coffee and you tell them what you want in the coffee.

Speaker 3:38

Right. Right off the bat.

Speaker 1 3:39

Right off the bat. On an airplane, and I think this is universal for every single flight attendant. Nobody tells you what they want with their coffee. Can I get you something to drink? Yes. What would you like to drink? A coffee. How would you like your coffee? With milk. Okay. Oh, and sugar. So with milk and sugar? Yes. How many milks and sugars would you like? Two milks, two sugars. You get two and two, maybe.

Speaker 4:08

And honestly, if I ask somebody what they want in their coffee and they say and they say nothing, and then they ask for coffee or they ask for cream and sugar, I go, oh, so you did want something with your coffee. Right. I kind of shame them because they need to learn. You're a coffee shamer. I am. So back to the tea. So it's just interesting to me because it just seems like there has been a very large uptick in the ordering of hot teas or hot beverages on the auto aircraft. And you know, it's really interesting, also interesting because um earlier this month CBS News came out with kind of uh a news article on um airplane water grades. And I was kind of shocked at as to who they graded the water the type of water, they graded the quality of water. The quality of water on board air on on board the airlines.

Speaker 1 5:02

Okay, I have to hear this. Tell me.

Speaker 5:04

So you know do you know who had the highest grade of a 5.0? Like an A. Is that an A? It's an A, yes. Um, I'm gonna go with Delta. Yes, they had SS. And do you know who was next?

Speaker 1 5:14

But underneath Delta?

Speaker 5:15

Yeah.

Speaker 1 5:16

I'm gonna go with United.

Speaker 5:17

No.

Speaker 1 5:18

Okay, I'm gonna go with American. Nope.

Speaker 5:20

They were actually American was actually last with a D.

Speaker 1 5:23

Okay, wait, before we get to the Americans, Southwest?

Speaker 5:26

Nope. It was Frontier. Oh, your old stomping grounds. Yeah. Yeah, no. Why do you think they were second? I'm not sure. Those planes have been around for a while. No, they haven't. They're all they're all basically brand new. Oh, they they do. They've retired a lot of their older ones, and they have a lot of them. And what's funny is that is that a lot of the older Airbus that that that Frontier had went to American. So that that could be a reason why American got such a low grade. But no, so all the legacies, Delta, Alaska, Southwest, United, and American. Um, Southwest came in in the middle at uh with a grade of a C.

Speaker 3 6:06

Uh-huh.

Speaker 6:07

Um, United came in at seventh with a C. Um, and again, American came in at came in last. Um what about the regional cards? The regionals, the best one was Gojet with the grade of a B. Oh. Which was I guess I guess good. Um the the worst, if you could guess any regional airline that had that the worst coffee. I don't want people to know that the worst water situation. Oh, it's not my fault. Okay, I'm gonna say Mesa. Actually, they they they were made, they were the last with 1.35 as says in an F. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 6:44

And um Do you know, okay, so I don't think people know this, but when we have to get rid of the coffee, technically, when we pour coffee out, they don't want us to pour coffee out in um the galley on the ground.

Speaker 6:57

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 6:58

Not on the ground, they don't even want to pour it in the galaxy. Oh, because in case there's ground in there. Right. They don't want us to pour it in the in the sink, the drain. We don't really have sinks, but we have drains. So they don't want us to pour it in the drain because it clogs up the tubing. I'm just calling it tubin in the plane and the drain. The drain. But the drain tubes, like the pipes, right, right. So uh it clogs the pipes, but at my old airline, compass, which did I say it right? Refer to episode three. Okay, so at Compass, we weren't allowed to put things down the drains, not because of the tubes, the pipes, but because somehow on the ERJ 175, the coffee, the hot water would like the tube, the I guess the pitto tube or whatever the tube that releases the water outside the plane went right into the engines. So the c so any liquid from the galley would go directly into the engines. And I was like, well, that sounds like a design failure.

unknown 8:04

Right.

Speaker 8:07

On the 175s? Yes.

Speaker 1 8:09

Have you ever heard that?

Speaker 8:10

No, never in my life. You had the 190s, and we had the 170s in at Frontier as well.

Speaker 1 8:15

All right, and you never got them?

Speaker 8:17

See, I think well, but we that was through a regional carrier there, so Republicans.

Speaker 1 8:21

Maybe you didn't, okay. Well, you know. They're they they they shut down, so maybe.

Speaker 8:26

But it's interesting because because some of the the things or what one of the major factors in in determining the grade for these airlines was E. coli. Who? Yeah, right, which is kind of gross. So they're the So the worse the grade, the more E. coli. Yeah. Okay. Or and I'm sure there were other factors in there, but but E. coli was the was the strongest factor that that played into the determining grade. But um the the key the key re recommendations from this article were that passengers should only drink bottled water and avoid any coffee or tea that is served from the tap or from our from our coffee machines. Right and that to not wash their hands on an airplane and instead use hand sanitizers.

Speaker 1 9:15

Oh the wipes.

Speaker 9:16

Yeah. Oh so but I I also I mean, I I agree with part of this, but I also think that at this point in the game, if you're coming on onto an airplane and you need a hand sanitizer, yeah, you should be bringing your own. Because I only know of one airline that actually still provides hand sanitizers.

Speaker 1 9:33

But I but I think if you even if the water is E. coli intensive, um, maybe like when you wash, just use hoger water with soap, and then maybe that will Right.

Speaker 9:44

And and I don't I also think that a lot of passengers don't know that you can change the temperature on the water in the sink.

Speaker 1 9:51

You mean where it's a red sign or a blue sign?

Speaker 9:54

Yeah, you just turn the handle to the blue sign with the okay, everybody.

Speaker 1 9:57

Red is hot, blue is cold.

Speaker 10:00

Yeah, because all of those sinks have to have a heater on them. Yeah. So if you just make it hot, you're you're actually gonna get it. Because E. coli don't like to live in hot water. No, apparently I don't know.

unknown 10:11

Okay.

Speaker 10:12

So yeah, that that's that's been that's been grinding my gears. Okay. Good to know. Question for you. Yeah. What is your best airline interview story? Like that that you that you that you're doing. My personal interview.

Speaker 1 10:28

Well, I actually, you know, it was before I tell you all the story, I will tell you how I came to it, which was about seven years ago, I was uh in my office uh um as an independent film casting director, extraordinaire, and I um decided, hey, maybe I should do something else with my life. It's sort of worked out. It's so you know, I'm like half in, half out, but that's a whole other podcast. So um so I decided to start interviewing for airlines, for flight attendant jobs. And I think the just in general, the interesting thing is, and for anybody out there who's thinking about interviewing and coming from a different field into a new field, it's it is very challenging, especially if you've been doing the job that I was doing for over 20 years, to explain yourself and to to an interviewer and to kind of extrapolate what you've done in the past and how it relates to the thing that you're interviewing for. And it's a very humbling experience, I will tell you that much, because you do have to dig very deep. So it becomes a very personal um experience, and that this is a much bigger topic, but um, you know, when you're talking to somebody about essentially your life, and then you realize, oh well, maybe, you know, maybe my life isn't so fantastic.

Speaker 11:48

Maybe they don't know about it, right?

Speaker 1 11:50

Right, or they don't understand what you were doing and how it can relate to the job that you have now or are interviewing for. So that was part of it. But the job, so one of my first interviews was with Spirit Airlines. Okay, right, and I was very excited. I was very excited.

Speaker 12:04

Is this is is this Spirit as it is now or Spirit like before they were?

Speaker 1 12:08

No, Spirit as it is now is an ultra-low-cost carrier. And I went to, they didn't fly you out, so I went to Vegas on my own and stayed in some awful hotel. I think like the either Siegfried and Roy were playing at that hotel, I think. It was not very nice, anyway. Um, I stayed in the same hotel that the uh interview was in, and so I got so I got up the next day, and mind you, I wasn't as prepared as I was for future interviews down the road. So um, and I was very nervous because I at the time I thought I actually really do want this. So my nerves got more nervy. And um, so I get down there, I get there early, and uh there's already lines forming and huge amounts of lines, and people are talking and cheering and get you know, and and clapping and getting ready to go in, and there were prayer circles happening, and I was like, what the seriously there were prayer circles happening.

Speaker 13:11

That's a person that we're gonna.

Speaker 1 13:13

They were like, please, Jesus, bless us all for this moment in time where we are interviewing for the blessed spirit. It was very much You did not say that. I didn't say that.

Speaker 13:25

I was sitting next to the I didn't do that.

Speaker 1 13:28

No, but no. It did, I swear on the Holy Torah, that happened. Okay, so so then they pull us into the big giant room, and everybody starts losing their minds, clapping, clapping, clapping, clapping, clapping, and all the instructors and interviewers are in their uniforms and they pass out all these forms, and you're and here are the here's the uniforms and like pictures, and and they start talking and doing a slideshow, and it's a whole presentation. And does anybody have any questions? And here's the thing when you start interviewing for airlines, they always tell you and all these other websites, and we can do a whole other blog about all this or podcast about that, but they always tell you to have questions ready, right? But I didn't think I would need to have a question ready at like the big giant five, like literally 500 people in a ballroom, like but people were raising their hands to get seen. You know, they wanted that moment because they wanted the job and they wanted to get seen, and they asked a question and good for them. And I thought, wow, that's really brave of you to stand up in front of 500 people. I wasn't that brave yet. But what happened is is then they they sort of section you off and you go into another ballroom. And in that ballroom, they do the fishbowl question thing. Do you know about this? Yeah, and they put a bunch of questions on paper into a fishbowl and they give you instructions, which is line up to the right, follow the person after you, get to the table, pull the question out, read the question, uh, say your name, where you're from, and read the question. And then when you finish the question, put the question in the other bowl and then walk off to that side. And they do that all on purpose because they want to make sure that you're you can follow instructions. So I was all good on that. And I don't remember what my question was, but I do remember lying about the answer because we all have been there. Because having been a former actor, I decided improv is key here. And I thought to myself, they want to hear the answer that they want to hear. It actually doesn't matter that I I couldn't also get my head around how to translate my past into this question. So I gave them the airplane answer. And so then everybody gets you go through all of that, and that's you know, maybe 60 people, and then you go out there and they tell you to go have lunch, and then you come back and they tell you who got cut and who didn't get cut. I didn't get cut. So then I was very excited. So then I went to the next section, which was the face-to-face. Now, again, I'm still very nervous because now at the face-to-face, you're with a flight attendant and maybe two flight attendants and a supervisor or an interviewer, whoever, HR, whatever. And I walk in and we had to do the reach test, which is make sure that the that you can reach up to a certain height, because they want to make sure that you can close the overhead bins. And I did that, and I was in a like a very cordial, lovely mood, and I thought, oh, I'm just gonna try and breathe, like hopefully not look so stressed out. And they start asking me questions and lots of questions, like lots of questions. Now, this is before I knew about how to properly interview for an airline, and I thought the questions were a lot, like overly, like way more than net needed, necessary. And at one point during the interview, I said, gosh, you guys ask a lot of questions. Way to be forward with that because I thought like maybe four questions would be enough for this gig, but they were just question after question after question, and it was taking me aback because again, I was sharing my life with people I don't know, which I guess is the nature of interviewing. But like, you know, for me, again, it was this transitional period in my life, and I was hearing myself talk about myself, and I think it was affecting me more way more than I thought it it would, it would. And again, you go out and you go into this ballroom, and then they give you again, they give you like all these photos of what you're gonna look like and what life is gonna be, and blah blah blah, and everybody's very excited, and then they announce who stays and who goes, and I got cut. So actually, no, wait, wait, this there's more to this story. Okay, so then I go to Las Vegas Airport, the Harry Reid International Airport, and I'm sitting there, going heading back to I lived in Hollywood at the time, so I'm going back to Murbank Airport, and I'm sitting in the chair, and I think I called my husband, and I was like, they didn't want me. I don't understand why Spirit Airlines doesn't want me. I tried so hard. Like I had a full meltdown in the terminal because yeah, because I think it was way more emotional. It wasn't so much about going for the interview and going for going for the job, it was about the transition that I was experiencing in my personal life at work, and it and so it was all kind of very emotional for me. So then cut to COVID. I've already worked at Compass, and I'm now uh not working at Compass and I'm back to casting, and then COVID happens, and then we're sit all sitting on the couch for a little while, and Avelow um reaches out and I get the job at Avelo, and I won't go into that whole interview process, it's stupid. But I go to my first day of class at Avelo and I see this woman, and we have an instant connection, and I'm thinking, God, why do I know you? I mean, I haven't like, did you work at Compass? No, I didn't work at Compass, blah, blah, blah. She goes, I know you. And I go, what? She goes, I interviewed you at Spirit. I was the one who interviewed you for your face-to-face with the other guy. And I was like, Oh, and she goes, I wanted you to work at Spirit. And I go, why didn't you hire me? And she goes, the guy who was the head of HR said that you looked nervous. And and then she said, he is nervous because this is his first time interviewing for an airline, and this is a big deal for him. And I was like, that's so sweet that you were so empathetic to me. And she goes, then that guy was a dick. And I hated him, hence me changing airlines. You know, so you know, the funny thing about all that is I always, you know, at the time when you're doing something and you don't get the thing you want, this is just that story that you hear all the time. And self-help gurus and all that stuff. Sometimes the thing that you don't want closes a door but opens a door somewhere else, and you meet another person who you like, and you weren't wrong about your experience that you were having at the interview. And the guy was a dick, and I didn't, and I didn't, you know, and I I I wanted to say that in my head, but I didn't want to blame somebody else for my the way I interviewed. And so it was nice to have an affirmation and to feel like I was at that time had made the right choices and had, you know, had been in the right place at the right time at that point, and now at a new airline. So that's my story. It's pretty good, right? Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 3 20:40

I know.

Speaker 1 20:41

So now that I've shared emotionally my journey into flying, Cody, what was your ex like most interesting interview experience?

Speaker 20:55

All right. So I applied for the Big D Delta many, many, many times. And I got through to the final big boss a couple of times. And then the last time that I applied, they had just swapped over to their new video questioning.

Speaker 1 21:16

Like an AI system, sort of?

Speaker 21:18

Kind of, I mean, like like it was still it was flight attendants talking, and then like they would stop, and then you'd have to hit hit record and then record your answer.

Speaker 1 21:24

So it'd be like a person going, question four. Yeah. Why do you want to work for Delta Airlines? And then please answer in three, two, one. Kind of, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 21:33

Yeah, yeah, kind of like that. Okay. And so so I I hit record. I said my I did my whole interview process. No, I I did the first question and I was so nervous because I I wanted to work for Delta so bad. Uh-huh. And I was nervous, and I and I hit record and I answered the question, and then I hit stop. And I was so nervous. And I went, I hit and I hit stop, and I went, fuck. And then it went, and then it stopped. And I was like, and you couldn't redo it. And I couldn't redo it. And someone's like, oh god. So maybe they won't hear it. So yeah, I was like, I was like, maybe, maybe it actually stopped and it was just buffering, but it'll be fine, it'll be fine, it'll be fine. So, anyways, I I did the rest of the video interview. I didn't get a call for the second for a for an in-person interview, which I kind of expected. But then it's interesting is that I went to apply again and they said I could no longer apply at Delta Airlines. They were like, you are banned, you are blacklist. I don't know if I was banned about that, but I'm I'm no longer allowed to apply Delta Airlines, which might be because I said the F-word on that interview.

Speaker 1 22:45

I'm sure a lot of people at Delta Airlines have said a lot worse than the air. Oh, I'm sure they have too. I know.

Speaker 22:50

But they have to cut, they have to cut and figure things out, which is fine. And again, back to what you just said. Yeah. You know, things happen for a reason. Yes. You know, and I'm I have been a big proponent of that my whole aviation, aviation life, because I couldn't get to where I am now if the things that I have gone through over the last 20 years didn't pan out the way that they did. Right. So I'm actually like better for it. You are better for it.

Speaker 1 23:15

Because we got we met each met each other.

Speaker 23:16

That is one of the things that we're going to do.

Speaker 1 23:17

That wouldn't have happened if you were at Delta.

Speaker 23:19

That is true. We wouldn't be sitting here right now. Yeah. Comment and like on what your fun, interesting um interview experience. Interview experience was.

Speaker 1 23:29

You can do that at breaking sterile at breakingsterile.com or on our Instagram, which is Breaking Sterile Podcast, or on our website, which I still don't know the address.

Speaker 23:39

But also, if you're if you're listening on Spotify, you can comment on there too.

Speaker 1 23:42

Oh, you can.

Speaker 23:43

Yeah. Fancy. Yeah.

Speaker 2 23:44

We're so fancy.

Speaker 23:45

We try.

Speaker 2 23:56

Cody? Yeah.

Speaker 1 23:57

Okay. I want you to tell me something about a city that we fly to or layover that we've had that you really, really love. There's so many. Um so many. No, because I only like when I was based in LAX, I would only be in Newark, and I'd be like, oh. I love the free salad at the whatever hotel I'm not.

Speaker 24:25

You know, honestly, I would say, and I and I, whenever a passenger asked me the question, I always tell them Omaha. And I do like I love Omaha.

Speaker 1 24:33

Omaha is a surprising little city.

Speaker 24:35

It is well, first off, they have amazing food there, not just steaks. Right. Amazing food. Right. Um, their downtown scene is pretty great as as far as our food scene goes. Um, right near our hotel, there's a cute little sports bar that I absolutely love.

Speaker 3 24:47

Uh-huh.

Speaker 24:47

And I go there and I have the same thing and they know me, and it's kind of good, kind of bad. And also the passengers are so nice out of in and out of Omaha. Because they're wonderful Midwesterners. They are. And then and the our hotel has a great gym. Oh, it does? Oh. And the beds, I'm out like that. In a heartbeat, I'm out. Like I am so, they're so comfortable.

Speaker 1 25:09

You have never had a problem sleeping. That's true. I don't know why. That is a very good point. You could sleep on a bed of nails and you'd be like drooling on the slide.

Speaker 25:19

But yeah, no, so so the yeah, Omaha, I would have to say Omaha is probably my my favorite domestic overnight. Okay.

Speaker 1 25:26

That's nice.

Speaker 25:27

Yeah.

Speaker 1 25:27

And your favorite international overnight? You might as well just say it. Because I know you're dying to say it.

Speaker 25:33

Probably Narita. I do love Japan. The people, the people are so nice. They are nice. The city, for as big as Tokyo is, the city is super clean. There's not a trash can to be found, and there's not an ounce of trash on the on the ground.

Speaker 1 25:49

You're like, where does everybody put their trash?

Speaker 25:51

I'm like holding my wrapper that I was eating as I was walking, which you're not supposed to do, apparently. Right. And there's no garbage can to put it in. So you have to like wait to like until you get back to your hotel room, or wait until you get to a uh establishment that has has a trash can. Yeah. And it's so nice. And then our hotel has an amazing onset. Nice. But you really have to be comfortable with nudity. Yeah. Everybody's naked. And so, like, seeing you have to be also comfortable with seeing it. So your crew members are naked too. This is a problem. I don't because I walked in and I was like, oh, okay, you're here. Um I'm gonna wake up in the ceiling for a little bit until you walk out, and then we'll be good. Cool, okay. But I will say that that yeah, part of my my love for our Japan overnight is that it's my relaxation overnight. Like I sleep a lot on that and I just relax. I don't I don't really leave the hotel anymore. Right. Um, which kind of is weird to me that I'm going on an international destination, I don't leave the hotel.

Speaker 1 26:51

Yeah, but the thing is is like if we want to travel somewhere for real, we will go.

Speaker 26:55

Right.

Speaker 1 26:55

You know, and I find that these the these overnights at these amazing places, I after a while I'm like, I'm gonna be back, or I'm gonna travel here on my own. Right. So I don't really stress about doing something anymore.

Speaker 27:10

Right. And you know I would love to say that we're in a space that we can have the ability to go and do a lot of things, but we're not. Right. We're an hour and a half outside of Tokyo. Right. So if I want to go into the city, I have to plan on staying in the city. Right, and we don't fly to Hinaida from Denver, so that's and you know, I have to plan to stay in the city overnight and then come back the next day. And that's a lot of work and stress that I've got in my life.

Speaker 1 27:37

So did I give away what airline we work for? Yeah, it's okay. And so it could be any airline could fly from Hanaida and Denver. Yeah, any one of them. We could work for Japan Airlines. We do, we do, or you work for the tall. The tall is lighted in Japan Airlines. I work for A.

Speaker 27:53

Or zip. I work for Zip. So, but yeah, and so it's just I you know that's one of my things is to if I'm if I'm gonna go to it overnight consistently, I want to make sure that the beds are comfortable. And the bed isn't super super comfortable, but the rooms are like negative six degrees, and I am all about that lifestyle. Yeah, I like that. Because then you can cuddle up and get all whatever. I agree. What about you, Matt? What's your favorite overnight?

Speaker 1 28:15

Oh um, no, no. Well, I like Newark because my mom lives in the city, so I can go see her, or my or I can so Newark is good when it's long because I can go see family, because I have family in New Jersey, and so that to me is good. I even like going to Palm Beach, which I'm sure several flight attendants are like, thank God someone likes going to Palm Beach for various different reasons. Absolutely. But my I have but uh they're my people. So I just did a Newark Palm Beach trip, and you know, it's an interesting crowd, but um, but they're my people. So I uh I have family there, so I like to I I like to use my trips to see people, really. That's great. So Chicago I really like because um if it's a long Chicago, I like to go to the theater, I like to go to Steppenwolf. I do I I use long Boston to go to uh Ace ART, long San Francisco to go to ART. Like I'm very into theater, so this job has allowed me to see regional theater in a way that I would never have been allowed to see it before. So that's kind of so re so within the United States, I would say like Newark, Chicago, anywhere, Houston, anywhere that has like a really great theater scene, I'm very into. And I love my Hawaii's, I do love them, you know, and because everybody's always happy going, coming back, the whole different story. And um, and I really enjoyed my Munich, the one Munich I did, which I went to uh Oktoberfest, and that's a whole other podcast.

Speaker 29:42

Yeah, that was that was a long story. Fun story, which we can read for another day. So I have uh a really funny story before we end for the end for the day. Okay. Or the week. So I had a really interesting thing happen to me on the flight, um, not recently, but not that long ago. And I was flying with a friend of mine, and we were our flight got diverted. To where? To tropical Colorado Springs.

Speaker 1 30:12

Like four minutes from Denver International Airport.

Speaker 30:15

And we had we had these two pastors in our in our first class cabin, and that were super nice, and we got to know them on the flight over to the springs. And on the ground, when we were waiting to to get more fuel, they said, Oh my gosh, the two of you, can we invite you to our to a party that we're having? And we're like, Yeah, uh, sure, cool. This was in Denver. No, this was no the party was in Denver, yeah. Okay, and we're like, sure. And so we give them our contact information, you know, which is which is uh the first mistake that you made. But one of them was kind of cute, so I'm not gonna lie to you. Okay, so give them the contact information, whatever. And so we finally get to Denver, they say goodbye, we have a good, like we laugh, whatever, whatever, we have to play. A couple days later, my friend and I get a group message from one of the guys that was inviting us to this party, and he gave kind of really interesting time frame instructions. Like from five to seven is kind of an open group time, come enjoy yourself, whatever. And then as the night got as the night progressed, as uh the hours progressed, it was it got kind of more explicit. Did they use pictures? No, just a message, okay, but like the wording was a little explicit, like sexually explicit, yes, okay, and so my friend and I, like on a different message, message each other and we're like, did we just get invited to a sex party? And I was like, We absolutely did. And my friend was a girl, right? And I'm obviously a gay man. Yeah, and wow, okay, thanks so much. You're so welcome. It's a little early forgotten about transassination, Jesus. He popped, he did right. But it was just like, oh my gosh. Like, I mean, good for them that the that they want a gay man to be there, but yeah, I don't I don't know you well enough to be like, let's have fun at a party that is clearly a sex party. No one ever invites me to sex parties. Well, you have to fly more. That's our descent.

Speaker 1 32:21

Thanks for flying with us. Behind every uniform is a real human doing their best at 35,000 feet. Be kind to your crew. Hydrate.

Speaker 32:29

We don't just fly the world, we live in it. Sterile keeps us safe. Breaking it keeps us human. This has been breaking sterile.