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In August, Angel had his 6-month probationary board at American Airlines, a small milestone. Only 6 more months of probation, and he would be a regular member of the Allied Pilots Association, as well as start getting paid by his flying time instead of a flat first-year salary.
Over the Labor Day Weekend, the whole family flew up to Boston with Angel, who of course got a call the next morning at 5:00 AM to fly a 2-day trip. Mary, Alyssa & Aiden spent a couple of days with Angel's mom Isabel and step-dad Jerzy, enjoying walks around Jamaica Pond, feeding ducks & geese, and visiting the Franklin Park Zoo. When Angel returned, we enjoyed a barbecue at his friend Phillip's house, who he has known now for over 30 years.
Also in September, we took a drive to visit Mary's parents in Del Rio TX, about an 8-hour drive from Ft Worth. Alyssa loves to visit her Gram & Pops, but we suspect she loves to play with their dog Max nearly as much. We drove home Friday, Sep 7th, and Angel flew to Boston the next day to sit what was supposed to be 4 days on reserve.
Tuesday, September 11 started off like any other morning. Angel was on reserve, but had not been called in to fly. Walking to Dunkin' Donuts with his mom for some coffee, Angel got a call on his cell phone from a friend on reserve in Chicago. "Two planes flew into the World Trade Center towers in NY. They came out of Boston. We weren't sure if it was a 737 or 767, so it's good to hear your voice." For the rest of the day, like everyone else, we were all glued to CNN. Stuck in Boston, Angel volunteered to work Flight AAssist, which is American's volunteer crisis peer-support network. On Saturday, Angel was at Logan Airport to greet the first American Airlines flight to arrive since the terrorist attacks. Every Boston employee that could be there was there, and the entire terminal clapped at the brave souls who disembarked. There were a lot of tears. Then Angel jumped on the next flight home to DFW and finally got to hug his family.
Mary had just started her new job on Sep 10th as Director of Human Resources for e-Telequest, a small telemarketing company in Arlington TX. It is completely different than her experience at the Employee Service Center with Weyerhaeuser. As HR Director, she deals with all the personnel issues, power struggles, and high turnover rate that typical of the telemarketing industry. On top of that, the company just turned their first profit since emerging from bankruptcy the year prior. The job is a lot of work, but she is learning quite a bit.
In October, Angel had the opportunity to spend time with his brother David, who flew up to Boston from Orlando FL for 3 weeks. Then in November, since Angel thought he was being furloughed, he brought Alyssa up to Boston for Thanksgiving. The flying schedule is still about 20% smaller, so there was a good chance he would not have to fly while Alyssa was in Boston--and it worked as hoped.
Of course Angel will be flying on Christmas Day, and Mary will fly to San Antonio (and drive to Del Rio) with the kids to be with her parents. Angel will stay overnight in Miami FL and spend Christmas Eve with his dad and aunt & uncle. We hope you could spend your holidays with family too.
2002 is looking up. Happy Holidays to everyone!
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