Just call me Business Casual!

Exciting things were happening at my apartment this week. Hours of watching "America's Next Top Model" and "Project Runway" had prepared me well for the evening that I just spent! I got a HUGE box of new uniform pieces for USAirways. I had to try everything on, mixing and matching to make sure that everything fit. I had ordered 32 pieces and only two were missing. (this is actually better odds than most flight attendants that I had talked to!) I am missing a red scarf and a raincoat, but everything else was there. Lots of washing and hemming and trying different knots with the scarves rounded out the week!

This is a new "business casual" uniform. (I ordered 3 Skorts! :-) We have sweater sets and casual jackets and vests that look like what the postal workers wear. Since every time I go to work, there is someone in the crewroom who is about to "go postal," I guess this is appropriate. I think my favorite piece is going to be the "tailored top." If any of you knew me back in my days when I was based in Charlotte, just after the Piedmont/USAirways merger, one of my favorite old uniforms was a beige dress that we had that was actually two pieces: a top and matching skirt. When worn together, they looked like a single piece. The tailored top works this way and you can wear it with the skirt, pants or the skort!

The sweaters aren't so great. The shells are nice, short sleeved or a mock turtle long sleeved, but the outer sweater is yucky. It makes you look like you are wearing a track suit. I got one of each color, (we have a dark blue and a light blue) but I don't like them so much. I will need to wear them for warmth, but I think they look silly. But all in all, there are a lot more "girly" items than the old USAirways stuff. Scarves! Hurrah --although I really really really want to put one in my hair! Which is a big NO NO....It's the CLT F/A in me. I just want to have a pretty bow in my hair. :-) I wonder how long it will take til someone breaks the "scarf in the hair" barrier? And could it be me? Am I brave enough??

Originally, I was very excited about the skorts, but now I am not too sure about them. They have an almost gaucho thing going on about them that might not work too well with my increasingly stout figure. And I wonder how they are going to hold up to washing!

I will need to get pants hemmed, but otherwise, I was very lucky. My items fit me. Lots of flight attendants that I talked to had to send stuff back because the sizes were all wrong. One of the controversial things about the new uniform was the apron. The "America West" way of doing things is to have your name embroidered on the apron. I personally have no problem with this. But lots of flight attendants get a bee in their bonnet about people knowing their name. They think they are going to be the target of stalkers or that it will make people a little too familiar with them. I don't know. Anyway, they have their reasons. When we ordered the uniform, you were required to put something down to be embroidered on your apron. Several flight attendants took this opportunity to send a message to the company. And it wasn't "good job". Many of the things put down on the form were a little "blue"!! I actually saw an America West flight attendant the other day with "Inflight" on her apron. I thought this was very clever. Especially if you don't want your name on the apron. But USAirways was adamant about a name on the apron and if you put something off-color/or even silly on the order form or even left it blank, they are going to default to the first name that is on your employee badge.

We are supposed to start wearing our new uniform pieces on March 3rd! I hope to get some pictures out to everyone with ME in my new uniform soon.