Scones!

[days_unfolding]

My dad said to take a lump sum from my pension and buy an annuity from a reputable company. He had a pension from United Airlines, but the company went bankrupt, so he got only a fraction of the pension. My pension is through the State of Illinois, not the University, so it's worth worrying about.

I read an article about how airlines are trying to hire more pilots who are women and people of color. My dad's cousin Aurelia, who is close to my age, wanted to become a pilot when she was in high school, but her parents told her that women couldn't become pilots. Sigh.

Finally showered and started laundry. Brought some stuff in from the car. Started going through box number two of books, but so far, most of them need to be chucked out.

Talked to Mom. Her hemoglobin and platelets are going up, and she's feeling better. Cool beans.

I wanted to make some carrot-cake scones, but needed powered sugar for the icing. I finally found it, but I dropped a bag of flour and got a bunch on the floor and on me too.

The scones are in the oven. I used my stand mixer for the first time, and now I know why people like stand mixers. (I don't have a KitchenAid, just an Aldi's knockoff.) Now they're cooling. A piece broke off, and I ate it, and it was good.

I need to prepare for Italian while the scones are cooling. My teacher asked that we start a hour earlier than usual. Okay, I have the stuff to talk about in Italian.

I've glazed the scones. I'll have one before bed. Oh, and I need to sweep up the flour.

Comments

[iddewes]

As someone who worked on check in and boarding for 2 and a half years (hence I have this icon!), I can say I VERY rarely ever saw female pilots (and only with Delta - I worked for several airlines), and never saw any people of colour who were. (Well ok I did see Asian pilots with Asian airlines of course). I did see people of colour who were flight attendants, that's it. I don't know how it is in the US but in the UK it is crazy expensive to train as a pilot. My friend's son really wants to do it and it has been suggested to him and his parents that he join the airforce because then it is paid for. At least he is an only child so they have a bit more money they can spend on him than they would if he had siblings. But I bet that is one reason why there are not many people of colour. I mean my friend told me it is about 100,000 GBP.

[days_unfolding]

Yeah, it's expensive to train as a pilot here too, so my dad's cousin might not have been able to train anyway. But I was mad at her parents.

[gilda_elise]

The thing with pensions, things can go either way. I took the pension from our company, my husband took the buy out. Now he has to worry every time the stock market takes a tumble, which it's doing a lot. I think now most companies' pensions aren't run by the company. Mine certainly isn't.

[days_unfolding]

If I took the buyout, I'd buy an annuity with it, so I wouldn't have to worry about the stock market.

[kaishin108]

Some people don't like annuities but we have a lot of our savings in annuities and we are having/had good results!

Yum scones!

[days_unfolding]

Good to hear!

[cordjostler]

yay for improving blood counts!

[days_unfolding]

Yeah, I'm happy for her!

[brittdreams]

Honestly, there are lots of reasons pilots aren't more diverse. One fun fact is that birth control isn't approved by the FAA for pilots to be using while working so you can't be on it and fly. And also there's no maternity leave for pilots at any of the major US commercial carriers. So not exactly a woman-friendly industry.

[days_unfolding]

That's interesting. And disappointing.

[brittdreams]

Definitely disappointing but not actually surprising. There are so many institutional barriers in place to keep the industry from changing that it becomes really obvious that some people don't want it to change. And that's leaving aside how expensive flight training is.