Smiles, Charity and Inspiration

A few weeks ago I spoke at a National Charity League Event for one of my team members in my corporate office and her daughter. I have to say, what an inspirational day this was for me and for the audience of about 50 young girls and their mothers. Normally, a day in the life of Cindy Novotny is not working with young teenage girls but when I was standing up on that stage looking down at all their innocent faces, I realized, it's fantastic to make a difference in someone's life. After the speech, I had all these girls and their mothers coming up to me with endless smiles. You could tell that these were some good girls, but the ones that may have a little chip on their shoulder, were brought back down to Earth at a young age - no matter what age you are, sometimes you must be brought back to reality and realizing what an impact you can make on certain individuals lives. I was featured in the Orange County Register and that felt amazing. This was not about me. This was about these young girls, smiling, feeling good about their charity efforts and ready to take the world by storm - because guess what ladies and gentlemen, these girls will be working for you in about 5 years! Cheers to a fabulous weekend!

Observations of "Real People Doing Dumb Things" I am sitting right now in the TAP Lounge in Lisbon, Portugal listening to a man on the phone trying to get rid of a virus on his computer. He is talking to his IT professional back in his office and apparently from what I can hear (and everyone else in the lounge) is that he needs to set new passwords for his accounts. So that is exactly what he does - he confirms these passwords OUT-LOUD for everyone in this TAP Lounge to hear them , write them down and hack right back into his computer. I am sure you can only guess knowing how "curious" I am that I needed to say something to him - my traveling companion - Lefty told me to stay out of it, but I thought otherwise. I leaned over and mentioned that everyone could hear his passwords and he should not say them so loud. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "I have to give them to my IT guy because he said I can't email them or someone could get them." OK - I give up. Is everyone a "stupid donkey?" Just earlier in my day I was at the Frankfurt Lufthansa Lounge and every person that walked by the coat hanger hit their head on the hangers. I watched this for about 20 minutes and then decided I would get up and move the hangers that were sticking out in the way of people walking by. No one else noticed, cared or even made mention that they were hitting their head on the hangers. Honestly - what is wrong with being curious - I just decided that my goal in life is to stay connected and share my thoughts with people whether they want to hear them or not. I know that someone out there will appreciate me one of these days. Signing off - Airline Lounge Curious Cindy

How Do You Act on an Airplane?

As you all know, I fly for a living. I am traveling this globe 50 out of 52 weeks of the year and see many people, places and attitudes. I have come to the conclusion that you can tell a person's character by how they act on an airplane... You've all seen it - boarding the plane at O'Hare to "The OC" and you should actually plan on riding in coach because the "Premier" line is so packed with the "Orange Crush" group - the too good businessmen that think a woman has no room standing in 'this' line, the obnoxious person on their cell phone, the mother who is trying to board with her newborn being pushed aside by a man in a suit - that has the "Orange Crush" written all over it. Now, I live in Orange County, so I'm allowed to say this - but everyone is so consumed with being first in line, first to board, first to be served, it's in our nature - but next time you are flying the friendly skies and you see that mother, elderly person in a wheel chair, someone drop something, think about your character and re-assess yourself. See you in the skies :)