Early Morning Wake Up Call

     So my 15 hour layover ended with an early-morning wake-up call from my airline's crew desk. The scheduler wanted to catch me before I started getting ready for my morning flight out of New Orleans. It ends up that my first flight for the day was canceled because of a flat tire, so she was trying to figure out what do do with my crew and I.
      "Reassignments", as we call them in the business, happen more than we would like. And nine times out of 10, they are not in our favor. But this one turned out not-so-bad.
      When the scheduler called my hotel room at 5:45 a.m., she told me to hang tight, not to get ready or leave my hotel room. She said she was probably going to work us out of the city on a later flight. So I dozed off and went back to bed.
      Only to be woken up about 15 minutes later. The scheduler informed me that she had booked my crew and I on a 7:20 a.m. flight, where we would be flying as passengers. In the business, we call it "deadheading." Great, I thought. At least I would be able to catch up on my sleep on the flight.
       So I hopped in the shower, quickly got ready, then met my crew in the hotel lobby for the short ride over to the airport, where we were whisked through security and dashed to our gate.
       When deadheading, crew members usually like to get their seat assignment from the gate agent, then board before the rest of the passengers, so that way we can have space for our luggage and not have to check it in the belly of the plane.
       We were lucky enough to get first class seats and enjoy a nice warm meal and drink from real glassware. Pretty nice, considering we did not have to serve one drink or be responsible for hundreds of passengers' safety on day two of our trip.