Post the First -- Airline Staff

I love them. Love them, love them, love them.
I love train people and bus people too, but for now, airline staff.

All the people everyone bitches about. Security people. Desk Staff. Flight Attendants. The guys who point you in the right direction over the tarmac for your plane.

I have flown in times of great joy, and for pleasure. I have flown in times when I was exhausted, sick, grieving, shocked, injured, ill...

I have been stuck in airports for hours. Days.

I have gone into security completely organised and together, and I have gone through with things I ought not to have had, through carelessness, and with all my stuff in heaps in my arms, flustered and silly and stupid and slow.

And I have been treated, almost uniformly, with great courtesy and often with marked kindness. The kindness is sometimes a bit rationed and professional; there is a sort of mass market quality to it on occasion.

I don't mind that; what matters is, it's there and it's what is needed.

Airline staff have found me new flights. Food. Water. Maps. Bathrooms. Tampons -- from their own purses. Tylenol. Pillows. Blankets.

They have helped me when my fibro was kicking up and I suddenly couldn't manage my bag. They have walked me through simple instructions when my flights changed and I landed at a different airport than expected and was idiotically panicked.

And all I've ever had to do was walk up to them and say "I need help."

I love them.

(no subject)

This is actually damned_colonial posting here. Not at commodorified's request, I hasten to add, but she did give me the password many moons ago, and when I threatened to do this she didn't actually tell me not to. Even when I gave her a really clear opportunity. So she has plausible deniability, and I am the bad bad person for not actively seeking her full consent, and we can just get on with it.

commodorified has posted a couple of pieces of fanwork recently that she sweated and slaved over, and which a number of wonderful people commented on. However, she still craves feedback, in some cases very specific feedback, and unlike her I am completely shameless, so here goes.

A Lying Sort of Summer is her Edrington/Kitty fic, set in our shared Hornblower universe. Lots of great feedback, but a few specific people that she (we) was (were) really wondering what they thought. She started writing this story because kd5mdk asked for some het, and he hasn't even commented. Bad boy! Also, she really wishes she knew what tanacawyr thought of it, especially wrt the het aspect, or even if she's read it and just doesn't really have anything to say. And she is also wondering what widget285 thinks, and so do I, though in fact what *I* really want to know is whether she's has seen the little shout-out to her Fictional Hornblower Scholarship in the opening letters ;)

And then there's Tango til they're sore, a multi-fandom vid about Sam West and Paul McGann being sexy, which, quite frankly, bounced right the hell off me -- and yes, you can laugh at me if you wish, but I just I didn't get it. And perhaps nobody else did either, because there's not many comments. But, see, I got hold of her in IM and had a fairly long discussion with her about how it didn't work for me, so I'm off the hook here. The rest of you, she still wants to know what you think. So what's going on in the rest of your heads? Was it just too abstract (that's what got me) or was it that it wasn't about a fandom you knew and so you didn't watch it or didn't know what was going on, or what? If you actually dig that non-linear artsy stuff or have comments about lighting or editing or vid-geeking stuff like that, I'm sure she'd love your feedback too.

And commodorified is probably hiding under her desk right now, embarrassed beyond belief, and she won't come out unless you clap your hands and say, "I do believe in concrit! I do believe in concrit!" So, like, go comment.