Another reminder of Sarah

A few days ago, I was watching my TV, when a United Airlines commercial rolled by; I watched intently, since it's Sarah's airline.

This animated commercial was titled "Interview," where a man takes a United flight to a faraway city for a job interview, only to realize that his shoes didn't match. He walks away disappointed, until a call on his cellular phone reveals that he got the job. Then it turns out, it was all a dream, as he was napping on the United flight, being served by a tall redhead flight attendant.

I love this commercial, because the tall redhead may as well be Sarah, and it feels like I am seeing her just doing her job - and keeping her passengers happy.

I'm gonna watch the commercial again now, as United has uploaded it (and a few other commercials) to its website.

United Rhapsody (commercials website)

More complications of changing Sarah's age

I keep thinking...

If I change Sarah's age so that she finishes high school in 1995, instead of 1998, it will make for a much more confusing teenhood for Sarah. With the World Wide Web still in its infancy (I still remember Netscape Navigator 1.0N, with its blue N, from that year), it would be exceedingly difficult for Sarah to find resources, and to shop for girl clothes.

I know what it was like to come out in 1997-1998, with the Web in place. Not 1995. I may have to ask another transgender woman, who transitioned in that era, for any ideas, but looking for other transgender people is the last thing I want to do right now.

If I go ahead with this change, the best thing I could hope for would be for Sarah's father to borrow some clinical books from the San Francisco Public Library. Of course, since San Francisco had started protecting its transgenders in 1994, there would be some knowledge floating out there. Maybe one of Sarah's father's coworkers may have transitioned, right inside Bank of America.

Even style references will need to change. I will need to throw out anything Ally McBeal-related, since that won't be around until 1997. However, I could use Friends-related stuff, including Jennifer Aniston's hairstyle. I also remember that plaid wrap skirts were extremely popular in 1995, and that wrap skirts in general remained popular for the rest of the decade. Both Jennifer Aniston and wrap skirts were my favorites, and I want them to be Sarah's favorites too.

As for what Sarah would do, I am thinking of a brief stint as an office assistant at Bank of America, where Sarah could meet her father's transgender coworker and start learning the basics of the "community." Afterwards, Sarah could go to a community college. A good combination of education and job experience will give her an edge as she applies to become a flight attendant in 1999.

These are fleeting ideas for now. I'll have to flesh them out from now on.

Change in Plot Needed

I've finally located an article about United's new flight attendant hiring spree.

Washington Post

The minimum age for flight attendant work turns out to be 21. I've had my plotline so that Sarah would start work at 19. Oops.

Looks like I will have to make Sarah two to three years older. It will be a good development, as that'll make her closer to my age. I could even make Kirsten exactly my age, while at it, since Kirsten is supposed to be a year older than Sarah.

However, I don't know what I am gonna do between age 18, when Sarah finishes high school, and age 21, when Sarah starts work at United Airlines. Right now, my idea is for Sarah's father to hire Sarah as a secretary at his Bank of America office, because that would give her some work experience that will prove helpful when applying for the flight attendant position. But that's only a fleeting idea. The question then would be: why would Sarah leave a decent-paying secretary job to work for an airline for less pay? (There are plenty of good reasons actually, but this is something to think about.)

I just don't see Sarah getting a job as a transgender woman, with only a high school diploma, anywhere else.

Or I could send Sarah through a 2-year college, after a futile year of job search, where she could take a few vocational courses that happen to highlight the airline industry.

There are several options that could make or break the story here. I want the transition to be smooth. Let's see what I can make out of this.

United is hiring...

I've been just told by my classmate that United is hiring flight attendants again.

I went to the United website, and bookmarked the flight attendant recruitment page, for my reference; Sarah would've definitely seen something similar, as she searched for her job back in 1999.

I will need to come up with something that draws Sarah to the profession, and particularly to United. Sure, I have my aviation interests too, but that didn't land me any airline jobs. Something extra will need to happen to Sarah. Of course, living in the Bay Area - a United hub - will make Sarah gravitate toward that airline.

For the first time, I am learning that entering Phase II of the training gets the applicant a $1,500 incentive. Now, I need to know what each phase of the training process entails.

I'll also look out for flight attendant message boards out there to see if I can pick anything else up - whether information is generic, or United-specific.

I have never worked as a flight attendant, and do not have the temperament to ever be one, but I don't want that to prevent me from giving an authentic experience and voice to Sarah.

Lastly, I will need to start a notebook, which will contain all the things about flight attendants and United Airlines that I ever find out. I don't think spilling everything into this blog is a good idea; some things are better kept private.

United Airlines

Refining the flight attendant years

My memoir class may be over, but the pelting of questions to my classmate, a former United flight attendant herself, is just beginning.

Now that I'll be getting some first-hand answers to the questions, I will need to start adding details, major and minor, to Sarah's flight attendant years. I have four conflicts that will find resolutions, but beyond that, I don't have much in the way of specifics. The answers I get now, my own experiences as a passenger, and my imagination, will combine to produce something to work with.

I will need to do this, both to let my classmate know what I am doing with her answers, and to further move my story toward completion, particularly as I prepare for a new novel writing class.

I will look forward to this experience. It should be fun.

Another tribute to Sarah

My mind keeps wandering off. I am out of ideas for new scenes right now, and I think I need the motivation from writing circles and class deadlines to keep moving forward. I will enroll in a new novel writing course which will start late January. In the meantime, to keep things focused on Sarah, I decided to do another "exercise" on my computer software.

Just like Sarah (and her grandfather Warren), I have an interest in aviation. In fact, I used to log a lot of virtual flight hours using Microsoft Flight Simulator; to support this hobby, I repainted many aircraft models into my favorite airlines' color schemes, and flew them according to the actual airline schedules. (Some airlines, including Sarah's airline United, in fact encourage using their trademarked logos like this, for noncommercial purposes.) I eventually stopped "flying" in order to concentrate on Perfect Girl.

As I looked at Sarah's representation in The Sims 2 (see my last post), I wondered: what about having her represented in the Microsoft Flight Simulator virtual world, considering her own aviation interests and career? I decided to do this by naming an aircraft Sarah used to work, in her honor. After all, United's first 777s were named after employees and loyal customers, and one of its newest 777 was named Spirit of United as a goodwill gesture by Boeing. And the 777 is supposed to be Sarah's favorite model to work. And I already had done a repaint of the 777 into the United color scheme, so all I needed to do was some minor editing.

So behold, the newest virtual addition to United's 777 fleet - Sarah Radcliffe, Flight Attendant. I haven't decided yet if I want to upload this to the flight simulation enthusiast websites, or just keep it for myself. The flight simulation world is extremely male-dominated, and I don't want to out myself there by talking about my novel.

Here's a nose view from the ground. The name is very prominent.

A passenger in the terminal would most likely get this view. If United actually named its planes after flight attendants (and treated them well accordingly), I would be happy.

Here's the tail, showing the details of United's new 2004 color scheme. In the real world, United's 777 registration numbers run N766UA-N799UA and N205UA-N230UA. N231UA was in fact ordered, but cancelled when the post-9/11 doldrums hit United.

For Sarah, the sight of the Golden Gate Bridge told her that she was heading out for parts unknown - most likely somewhere in the Far East - or that she has returned home to San Francisco.

Another inflight shot, with a good view of the Pratt & Whitney engines. Sarah will definitely talk about their sounds as she describes her inflight work experience.

Thanks to Melvin Rafi for designing the virtual 777 for the Microsoft Flight Simulator world.

You may want to read the relevant Wikipedia article.

Sarah visualized as a Sim

Here is what I think Sarah would look like, if I were to meet her in person.

I used The Sims 2 to come up with this image of Sarah. In The Sims 2, which also happens to be the best-selling computer game of all time, the player creates Sims, or simulated people, and puts them through the grinds of daily life. In short, it's a virtual, intelligent dollhouse. The creation tools allow me to define Sarah's facial features in excruciating detail. I made sure that Sarah has pronounced browbones and jawline, as well as thick eyebrows and large nose, that give away her male past, yet when put together as a whole, she is still a very attractive woman.

Even though The Sims 2 is an extremely flexible game, there are still limits on what I can do. For example, I cannot simulate anything transgender on this game, so here, Sarah is a biological female; if she were to fall in love with a man, she can surely get pregnant and have a baby. Of course, I am making sure that this won't happen, since Sarah is a lesbian, just like in the novel.

The career options are also somewhat limited; Sarah does not have the option of entering the airline industry, as a flight attendant or otherwise. I decided to simply put her through the corporate ladder; she is now the Vice President of a mega-corporation, where I sit as the Business Tycoon. (Yes, I made myself a Sim as well - and a biological female too.)

In the game, Sarah is my roommate, sharing a not-so-small house together. Sarah is single, while I am in a civil union with another woman, who also lives with us. Sarah has a well-rounded personality, and her aspirations are to get as many friends as possible, hopefully to become the most popular woman in all of SimCity; I think this reflects Sarah's "people person" personality that is so crucial at her flight attendant position.

I can wrap Sarah in the latest fashions, such as the see-through tunic blouse and wide-legged pants seen here. (I could even indulge her in the whole leg warmer revival thing.) However, I can't dress her up in late 1990s fashions, such as wrap skirts, to simulate her early days of womanhood. I will have to edit the clothing graphics to come up with such looks, especially since I am myself a fan of the fashion of that era.

Due to the limitations of the game, I don't think I am able to use this virtual Sarah as a model to play out the storyline of my novel. Nevertheless, it's nice to have a visual image of what she looks like, and to give this virtual Sarah a personality mirroring the actual character's from my novel - and see how it works out.

Wikipedia on United Airlines

I've been addicted to Wikipedia - "the incredible free encyclopedia anyone can edit" - in the last few days.

Somehow, tonight I decided to look up some information on Sarah's former employer, and ended up digging up a lot of dirt.

As it turns out, the seeds of trouble that ended up in the airline's bankruptcy - and Sarah's layoff - were planted way back in 1985, back when Sarah was a toddler, and I had yet to set my foot on a United plane (or any other airline's plane for that matter). The problem back then was a massive pilot strike, which lasted 29 days, and which eventually resulted in the disastrous Employee Stock Option Plan of 1994 - one that ended up causing a lot of friction as the dot-com bubble burst, passenger revenue declined, and stocks plummeted around 2000.

The ineptitude of the management team over those twenty years is also notable. It should've budgeted for a real pay increase instead of the stock options, and it should've prepared for the possibility of dot-com crunch.

It appears that the only thing that saved United from oblivion is its outstanding network both inside and outside the US, even though its South American network is now nearly gone. And through all these turmoils, I took my first flight, came to the US, flew across the US, then left the US repeatedly, using United's network. And Sarah found work, served these flights, and tended the needs of the customers, on the very same network.

I want to have the clearest possible picture of the circumstances surrounding Sarah's flight attendant work, so that I can write the best possible novel out of it. And thanks to Wikipedia, I am getting closer to that goal.

An anniversary for Sarah

Exactly six years ago today - December 2nd, 1999 - Sarah flew her first international flight assignment. Still trying to adjust to the life of a flight attendant - and a woman, she nervously worked Flight 930, which took her from San Francisco to London. This ended up being her first return to London since early childhood, as well.

I picked this particular day and flight for Sarah, because I took that exact same flight, exactly six years ago today, as well, as part of my journey to the Netherlands. It was a rough journey; my BART train caught fire as I headed for San Francisco's airport, and once in London, my Amsterdam connection was cancelled, forcing me to wait it out in Paris until the winds died down at Schiphol Airport. Door-to-door time, from my apartment to my hotel, totalled 27 hours. The rest of the trip was just as rough as well; instead of finding the infamous Dutch tolerance, I only found the Surinamese thugs taunting me at every corner, over my race and gender. Perhaps the Dutch tolerance includes tolerance for Surinamese sexism and homophobia. I returned home a week later, utterly fed up.

Believe it or not, Flight 930 was probably the best part of the whole trip. It wasn't perfect; the air show was dead, preventing me from checking my flight progress. However, for the millennial holiday season, United Airlines had decided to feature Melissa Etheridge in its inflight audio program, as a followup to its extension of benefits to unmarried partners of employees earlier in the year; both developments were fantastic news for a baby dyke like Sarah, and I certainly enjoyed listening to Melissa as well. The quality of service, in general, was very good on this flight. As the flight progressed through the Arctic Circle, I was able to catch the northern lights as well; I've never seen the northern lights before or since. And this was the only leg of my journey to not suffer from delays, cancellations, or mishaps, pulling into Heathrow slightly ahead of schedule.

Of course, I don't remember a tall redhead working this flight. But I don't remember any faces from this flight anymore, save for a Frenchman flight attendant. I took care of this, by putting Sarah in the rear half of the economy cabin, whereas I sat in the front half. I've already written about Sarah's nervousness at having to face all the passengers, her joy at listening to Melissa during her rest period, and her excitement of leaving the US for the first time as a woman; in fact, I have a mini-scene out of this flight, complete with an embarrassing masculine cough, which I wrote for a class back in May. I want to expand this scene into a full story of Sarah's first international foray.

There will also be other scenes I will need to write. For starters, I will need to set up a plausible training schedule for Sarah; I had her do her training in September and October 1999, and I wonder if doing her first international duty in December is too early. I will move the training schedule if I must, but I wish to keep December 2nd as her first international flight date. And since I ended up in Amsterdam, I want Sarah to reach Amsterdam on her later assignments - and be fed up with the experience as well. Too many people still think of Amsterdam as an anything-goes, super-tolerant place, and I know that it is not the truth.

Sarah's French and German proficiency will keep her working internationally, initially on European routes. She will not be sent to Latin America due to the homophobia there, but she will eventually work Asia as well, culminating in one whole chapter taking place in Seoul, which will bring Sarah in touch with her grandfather's Korean War service, and with Kirsten.