Shileen's Blog

Well that was quite a week. I don't even really know where to begin to try and explain the craziness.
I don't think I'm eloquent enough in my written words to try and write it all down.
We had alot of things go very very wrong, and we had alot of things go very right.

On Friday I was helping out at the Embassy helipad downtown, which was pretty much a fun day. Hannah and I got to ride in a helicopter to the track at one point. When we got there, we hopped right into a waiting chauffeured BMW who drove us on a tour of the track, on the roads where most people weren't allowed to go. There were trials going on and the place was packed, but whenever we would pull up to a crossing the National Guard would stop all the people to let us through. Everyone was straining to see who was in the car, cause they "must" be important. :)  So we got a killer short tour of the layout of the track and then were taken back up to another helicopter for the ride back. Hannah was so excited that she went. She was so nervous and hesitant about getting into the chopper, but I was so incredibly proud of her fighting her fear and doing it anyway. It was an experience we won't soon forget. She thought it was so cool being treated like VIP's. It really was pretty darn cool. Our evening at the Embassy ended with getting to hang out with some cool Austin firefighters while waiting for Mario Andretti to land. Yep, I asked him and his wife how their day was when they got off the chopper, and they said "wonderful".

Saturday and Sunday I was at an FBO at ABIA. That was my designated helipad that I was in charge of. Saturday ran smoothly for us and was pretty low drama. Then at 4pm I headed over to Austin Executive airport for Josh's birthday surprise. He met me there and we took off on a helicopter to the Oasis for dinner. He was very happy since he had always wanted to ride in a helicopter. I can tell you, there is nothing like landing in a helicopter at a restaurant to get some attention. Everyone had their camera phones shooting pics of us landing, it was really funny. As soon as we got out there was a guy in a golf cart ready to take us to the front door. We actually ate at Soleil? I guess it's the nicer restaurant next door. It was really good and the manager came over and asked how our flight was and asked if he could get us anything. :)  Word spreads...

Sunday is when the chaos began. I had more people show up than were expected due to lack of communication on someone who shall remain nameless's part. But I still got all my clients onto birds in a very timely manner, and everyone was happy. not so at some of the other locations however. Some choppers were late and then the governor shut down airspace for half an hour at one location so he could fly, and it ended up delaying some people by over an hour. So there were some unhappy clients out there. Then on the way back from the race apparently for a while the wait was up to 3 hours to get back on a helicopter. Some people knew this was gonna be an issue considering they would only give us 4 helipads at the track, so they were just in no hurry and having fun. Others took it pretty badly and got into some faces with very nasty words. (I don't envy Ren today.) All the Embassy people were routed back to me because the city wouldn't let us land there in the late afternoon, so I had them in addition to my clients. They were all supposed to be put in limos and transported back to the city.  I got some more volunteers after the race and delegated some to hand out gift bags, others to coordinate with all my drivers waiting, and I took the job of greeting them at the helipad with my firefighters, and golf carting them back to the lobby. I wanted to personally make sure they felt welcomed and taken care of. Alot of them I drove straight to their private jets which were in the same parking lot. It was a crazy scene around me. Private jets by the hundreds, half of them all fired up and blowing jet fuel fumes on me and dodging taxiing ones, and trying not to get hit by fuel trucks or helicopter rotors. It was absolutely nuts. I kind of think it must have resembled some sort of military base in the middle of a war. It seemed incredibly dangerous, and I'm shocked I was allowed out there with free reign.
At one point in the night in the middle of the chaos, we had a lobby full of people and choppers landing faster than we could go get them, the parking manager came to me and said I need to show you something. He walked me out the back door and showed me his little parking lot FULL of busses. He said "they all say they're here for you!" I laughed out loud, literally. So did he. Apparently the limo company was trying to help and sent me their whole fleet. I had to send them packing though cause it was causing a traffic jam and we had enough transportation for our people. It was great. Everything went smoothly at my airport and I was so happy that we didn't have any major issues. At the end of the night my feet hurt so bad after spending 3 solid 12 hour days in new boots we were required to wear. This morning they hurt when I stood up. I believe the are bruised pretty badly.
There was one guy, the videographer on tour with Aerosmith that made my weekend. We hit it off on Saturday when he was there, and I made sure he was taken care of just like I did with all my clients. But Sunday morning he walked in at 7 something in the AM and I smiled and told him good morning. He stopped and smiled back and said "There's that smile. You are the reason I came back today. It was rough getting out of the track last night and I thought about just taking a cab today, but I knew you'd be here with a smile for me today and that you'd take care of me. So I came back." Then when he landed last night I was sitting there in the golf cart with that same smile when he got off the chopper. He smiled and said "what a great end to my experience here in Austin."     That is a return customer right there. I loved that. Even though this was just a meaningless race in the grand scheme of things, it got me to thinking about the skills that I seem to have acquired somewhere down the road in the area of event/guest services or taking care of people. (not being boastful at all, please don't misunderstand) We all have gifts and talents, you just need to figure out what they are and how to use them.
As do I.