No Longer a Buffalo Blogger...



Downtown PHX in the sunset



It’s been over four months. I had all but abandoned this thing. But I’m not without excuse: this past summer my life changed dramatically.

I left Buffalo with all its grey skies, cold weather, and chicken wings behind. It was a leap of faith: I packed my little Subaru Impreza to bursting and drove it across the country. My new home is Phoenix, Arizona. I came out here for an opportunity to advance my career with Phoenix’s hometown airline US Airways (formerly America West Airlines).

That’s right; after nearly three years of selling shoes and putting up with obnoxious customers, I left my job at Kohl’s. My mom and dad met while working for Allegheny Airlines (eventually became USAir and now US Airways). My uncle was a pilot for the same. So I guess a little jet fuel was always in my veins, and that’s why I’m carrying on the family tradition at US Airways.

It’s been a phenomenal opportunity to apply my background in communications in an industry that has always fascinated me. I work at InFlight Services. In any given day it’s kind of like working at a newspaper: I write articles, do graphic design, distribute crew memos, take photos, and answer Dear Abbys (it’s actually called “Ask InFlight” and is an email forum where flight attendants write in to ask questions, or more commonly, gripe about what went wrong on their last flight).

And as for Phoenix? It’s a great place to live. There’s no such thing as a rain date here. A rare day of cloud cover is actually a welcome change of scenery. If you’re an outdoors enthusiast (as I am), Arizona has no shortage of beautiful mountains, parks, and scenery that varies from desert valleys to mountain highland. Compared to Buffalo, the cost of living is a lot lower. Case in point: even with a 2% food tax (something NY doesn’t charge on groceries), groceries are still a lot cheaper here. Gasoline is much cheaper (comparatively speaking; there’s no such thing as cheap gas anymore).

So basically it costs less to live in a far nicer place. Makes sense to me. This was a move that was a matter of when, not if. I’m just glad that US Airways provided me the initial opportunity to begin my westward expansion. In the meantime, if I’m going to keep this little hole in cyberspace up, what should I rename it? Buffalo Bloggins isn’t going to work anymore…