onefreeman - some unfortunate souls must need work for a living, and, worse than that, not only for themselves...

Life is difficult indeed, but with the usual fluidity I imagine that I shan't know whether or not I'll be at the PiP until I'm there. Four months is so far in the future, and the crystal ball is murky.

Punki, A profession with a LOT of travel. I have a friend in Dayton, Ohio who does the same. My company does some at major airshows around the world, but we contract out the setup.

Yes, flyguy, it is true, some people in my industry travel way more than they would like to, especially people involved in sales and show services. Fortnately, for me, there are only a few shows which I absolutely must attend no matter what, so that gives me a lot more freedom. That's probably why I haven't burnt out on travel after all these years.

Trade shows are really exciting and it is a very diverse and interesting profession.

Well, it's been such a long time ago that I posted my profile (actually the first one to do so) that things have changed since then.

Well, I'm still a brazilian born chinese who grew up in South America and got educated in the US- Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda Maryland and The American University in Washington D.C.

But now I am working for an IT consulting firm (Cotelligent) in Irvine as an IT recruiter. My flying patterns have changed and I will probably lose my AA Platinum and my UA Premier Executive this year. Oh, well, I still have my First Card VISA and my AA Citibank card. They won't give me status but will keep adding miles to my account.

Anyway, just wanted to update the "veterans" who have seen my name on and off for a while.

Tim Chen

Since I'm beginning to get to know some of the folks who post on this board, I'd like to introduce myself.....

I'm a frustrated airline pilot. I wanted to fly those "big boys" since my mom took me on my first trip to Los Angeles at age 7 (44 years ago). But it was never to be. Allergies and asthma squashed any hopes of becoming a pilot, and I returned to Wisconsin in tears after "interviewing" (visiting) United Air Lines headquarters in Chicago at age 19. I still wish to this day someone at United had advised me to come to work there in a non-flying capacity, but no one did, and I was not mature enough at the time to figure this out myself. So I finished bachelor's and master's degrees in child psychology, and now work as a school psychologist in San Diego! I'm an employee of a public school system, so I do not travel on business at all. Frequent flyer programs are my hobby, and I'm green with envy of folks who accrue 80,000 or 100,000 miles per year on business. I toil along, mounting up VISA card miles, and only travel to visit wife's kissy-face family in Wisconsin once per year (God, they're smothering). I'm married to a teacher, and our kids are 17 and 13, both girls. I'd give anything to be at the Party in Paradise, but if I took off in November, the superintendent of schools would probably tell me not to come back. They give me summers and all holidays off, so they expect me there when school's in session! I absolutely love this board, and visit it nearly every day on one of the school computers at lunch. I've learned a lot, and have been able to earn extra miles through MCI and other promotions listed here. I continue to be embarrassed about digging through the school trash all last spring to retrieve Healthy Choice codes, having been spotted doing this by several school principals. With all the "health conscious" women I work with, it was like mining gold. Wife and I are also into timeshares, and we are going on an Alaskan cruise next month for free with some clever timeshare trading I did (it's our 25th wedding anniversary, and I'd like to publicly thank Punki for sending us upgrades on Alaska Air Lines for this trip).

That's about it. Perhaps I'll really be "Captain Mike", flying a Boeing 777, in my next lifetime!

Welcome Captain Mike! A very interesting lie story you have. One of the career options I am considering is to enter business school after a few more years of work and then go work for the airlines. It may mean a pay cut from the more glamorous fields of consulting or i-banking, but I want to see/do/run airline and yield management hands on!

I also only fly for leisure and am green with envy with some of the more travelled friends here on FT.

And for an update since I first posted my profile, I used to be on the east coast (Cambridge, MA) but now on the west coast (Pasadena, CA). No more BOS-LAX-BOS. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I concur with Kyklin (welcoem to the other coast!) and while you can't amke the PIP you could always offer your own get together where you live. Or if you travel. Or of course you and your wife are welcome to come to one of the F-T get togethers.

The older I get, the more I want to pilot a 777 (used to be 7-47.) There is alwasy the flight simulator thing they have at United in Denver (My FlyerTalk friends... please clarify me on this and explain better!)
But you have done well with your life. Hope to meet you someday soon.

I also hope to meet you Flyaway in Toronto. Don't know if you've beenr eading the posts but I'm planning a mini get together related to the Red Green Show in Sept. Maybe you can stop by or give us a sightseeing tip or two
(Love Toronto! And CANADA TOO!)


------------------
MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!!!

I count myself so lucky to have found this board. I've learned so much from all the experts here and had so many good laughs.
I'm a stay at home Mom living on the south shore of Long Island with my husband, Bill and three teenage boys. Bill is the frequent flyer (grounded recently- they need him in the office) and I am the "keeper of the miles and frequent spender." Almost everything from cable bill charges to college tuition goes on the AA Mastercard.

We're very lucky that when we do pay for a flight,our neighbor who is a gate supervisor at LGA for American has gotten us upgraded to first everytime. So when we fly, we fly American!

I'm glad to know there are others on the board who are earning their miles while on the ground. Thanks to all of you, I've been able to earn over 40,000 miles since February. That's a big deal in this house!
Regards to everyone,
Debbie

kyklin (and others, perhaps)... time to update not only the "who we are" listing for yourself, but the profile we see when we hit "info" for you.

Or are you just in denial about moving away from the lovely People's Republic of Cambridge??
(only comrades allowed... no Matt Wald!)

Reluctantly, I changeth. But once a comrade, always a comrade in the Peopole's Republic of Cambridge. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

it is nice (for me) to see, looking at baobab's profile, that 50% of the tree (her soul?) is still located in Zurich!

My mind, Rudi... I'm reviewing a proposal for another Zurich-based project: we may be dining together again sooner than you expect...

Reality and Cyberspace Collide!!

One of the things I am SUPPOSED to be doing when I am hanging out on the internet with you guys, is preparing for an exhibit design seminar I will be giving in Chicago in two weeks. One of the exhibits which was submitted by a design firm in SanDiego for presentation was IRONLIGHT. It was created for and spearheaded by non other than rhw88 (see post above).

It is a cool looking exhibit and my friends from SanDiego say that rhw88, Ronald, is a primo guy!! Welcom to the boards Ronald!!

Incidentally, AnnaS. I would love to get together with you while I am in Chicago. If you don't mind crazy people, we can drag you along to a party at the Pier on Monday the 19th, or if you prefer sanity, we could go out to dinner on the 20th. Let me know if you are interested. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Be crazy, Anna, be crazy....

Since I'm not traveling this weekend, I thought I'd send in a short infosheet as I spend alot of time lurking.

My name is Mark, I presently live in Maryland after moving here after my recent divorce. I work for a Software firm and presently spend 49-50 weeks traveling and installing computer networks and software in automotive dealerships in the US. About three quarter of the Mon-Fri trips involve flying, the other quarter are driven. On top of that, I also drive from Maryland to Michigan and back every three weeks to visit my three children. As you can see, most of my time is spent in hotel rooms. In my spare time (what?!) I'm a scout leader, and I love to camp, hike, scuba, rock climb, explore new places. I also collect antiques, Scouting memorabilia and United Airlines memorabilia.

If it wasn't for my love of traveling (my father was in the army for 22 years, so I have lived in Germany, Japan, Italy, Hawaii) I think the airport/hotel/car hassles and grind would have driven me crazeeeeee.

Thanks for listening,

Mark