Did I Make The Grade?

In the busy/craziness of my life I don't think I mentioned that I took an HR Class at NYU last semester (or maybe I did and I'm just looney and too lazy to check my old posts). Anyways, I just got my grade back and I thought I would share the experience that was my HR Class this year, or as I affectionately refer to it as "Night School".

For starters it wasn't on the cool, hip, NYU campus. It was in a High School. Not like the high schools that I am familar with. This was very, very different (see photo). My classroom was on the 7th Floor. Keep in mind that my high school didn't even have hallways!

So every Wednesday night I would pass through security and take the escalator, littered with candy wrappers, mayonaise packets, lint and gum up 7 flights. There were cages to cut you off from the DOWN escalators. The walls were beige tiled and most of them were covered in graffiti. It smelled a bit like wrestling mats. The girls bathroom was just that, the door literally said "Girls", which I found amusing. There were pad locks on the toilet paper rolls and signs up about hand washing.

The classroom took me back to my childhood days. There were all kinds of colorful posters and work on the walls. They had vocabulary words like "mingle", "betray", "isolated", "chaos". I hoped this was a freshman english class. I realized that I have been out of school for a long time. I found myself wondering what it would have been like to attend a high school like that.

So the class itself was pretty good. There were only 8 of us, and we were all women. Boys, if you want to meet some smart, cute girls, take an HR class.

We learned about employment law and fair employment practices. It was all very interesting and applicable to my job. I ended up getting an A in the class!

Virgin

First of all let me say that I am a loyal Jetblue flyer. But I found a good deal with Virgin Airlines and even though I've never used them, I thought I'd give them a try (yes, that makes me a virgin to Virgin).
When I arrived at the large, open JFK terminal I passed the rows and rows of cold, impersonal airlines. Then I see a red banner in the corner that says Virgin Atlantic check in here. How inviting! It's like a birthday banner. I round the corner and it's a little airport-check-in sanctuary. They have these modern "kiosks". Sleek screens on this very smooth white counter. I think there were even red carpets. I checked in with ease and my little square boarding pass pops up from the counter. I go drop off my bag to the friendly attendant. He was this older, German gentleman (a la President Dieter F. Uchtdorf) and he informed me that I had a window seat and that as of now, no one was sitting next to me. SWEET!! I thought that it was really nice of him to tell me that.

The next leg of my experience I do not blame on Virgin. Must remember to wear socks to the airport! There is something so skeezy about walking around barefoot through security. I might as well lick the pose on the subway. Another thing to blame myself for is my case of being chronically early. I ended up with a lot of time to kill. It's okay tough because I got to eat breakfast, read Vanity Fair, listen to Kelly Clarkson and stare out the window, although visibility is about 30 feet, it's very foggy outside...needless to say my hair looks pretty bad. Also, I wanted to mention that the bathrooms at this terminal are small and icky. AND there is NOT a great food selection. I can get any kind of duty free perfume but can't find a decent muffin or orange juice. Where are you Dunkin Donuts? Starbucks? McDonalds?

It's time to board the plane, so far its like every other time. But then, I get on the plane and it looks like a club! The seats are black and the cabin lights are purple (I expected the lint on my dress to start glowing!) There's this cool, jazzy, techno music playing. There's a screen at every seat. The backs of the seats including the tray tables are this smooth, bright white plastic (although in this lighting nothing is 'bright'). I woke up pretty early, maybe I'm dreaming? Airplanes aren't supposed to be purple!

I squeeze down the aisle to my window seat. Hmmm... I look at the top- 18A. Look at my boarding pass- 18A. Why is there a passenger in my seat? Could Virgin fail me after all? Noooo, turns out it was a misunderstanding. After we got it worked out I settled into my chair... One thing I noticed and it sounds very silly, but the seatbelt buckles were VERY shiny. The belts were black like the seats, and the buckles were just so sparkly! The plane is also outfitted with WiFi! It's $12.00 though... no thanks.

I also discovered the magical entertainment they have. It is a touch screen with all sorts of goodies: TV, music, music videos, games! And the other amazing feature is the controller to the tv. It comes out so it feels just like a real remote control. Yay for channel surfing! The flip side of the remote is the controller for the games, including a full keybord.

They have to pause my game of Mahjong for the safety information which is this funny little animation.

The rest of the flight was pretty standard.

Part Two of the story has nothing to do with the airline, but it was funny to me and needed to be included. I documented this on the flight right after "the incident" here is what I wrote:

Flight VX251. 9 May 2009. Somewhere over the Rockies

OMG this "crusader against the swine flu" just turned around shoving napkins at me shouting, "Miss! Miss! Could you cover your mouth!" which she repeated again. I had no idea what she was talking about. I had my headphones on, minding my own healthy-proper-hygienic-etiquette business and apparently someone in the vicinity was coughing, causing her to freak out, blame me and try to save the rest of the innocent passengers from some kind of disease. Sheesh lady get a grip!

After we landed the woman turned around and said to me in her cool, raspy, slow, Los Angeles voice, "I apologize for waving those napkins at you like that." I forgave her of course and thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

Overall I had a great experience with Virgin. I am not forsaking Jetblue- but the times I don't flywith them, I'll probably be on Virgin!