Parents in town

My parents are in town, the arrived last Saturday and they leave Labor Day, hence my absence. Been all over town, dropping them places, taking them to the metro or Union Station and introducing them around. Some quick notes:

-> The freaked out after the second dinner with the Argentine, I guess the theory is much easier than the practice, when it comes to dealing with a big gay son. They are fine now, and I am hoping by the end of the weekend, they will be perfectly adjusted to the fact that they have a fagot for a son.

-> DC is a good city for parents, lots to do, and lots do for free.

-> Philly is of no interest to my middle age Mexican parents, they liked Constitution Hall, but I am guessing not enough shopping for Mom.

-> On the topic of shopping,anyone needs to/wants to come with me to Ikea and the outlet malls this weekend?

I been "working from home", yes big quotations around it. It worked well this week since the parents are here. Otherwise I am not sure how people ever work from home, I am booooored.

OK, back to work ...

This is all i get ???

After 6 months of staying 3 or 4 nights a week at a hotel, I decided to see how many points I have and what I could use them for. Yesterday I called the Hilton guest services program and realized I have 70,000 points. I thought well at least I can get a nice vacation out of this, 3 or 4 nights, or something. I call again because we are organizing a trip to NYC to see Spring Awakening, and I am trying to cash in my points and all I got as a certificate to you to pay for 2 nights a the Hampton Inn in Chelsea, but the kicker is this line I got in the email sent by Hilton:

Description: This certificate valid for two free nights at any Category 5 property.

What? Since when am I a category 5 anything … I guess points are meaningless in this time of traveling consulting and all that. I should have known when half the passengers in my flight to Charlotte in the morning have some sort of status. It is just the normal travelers that have no status.

Starting my good byes

This is my last week in Wilkes, and so yesterday they had a farewell dinner for me and the other guys who are leaving. It was lovely, really, maybe it was because I am leaving, but the dinner was a lot of fun, extremely relaxes and we manage to have dinner and drinks in less then 4 hours, which got my back at the hotel at 9:30. Perfect timing if you ask me. I got a card, very funny one and the following gifts:

Pencil Sharpener
4 assorted pens
3 notebooks for notes
Crayons
Markers
Thank you cards
Color clips, and a dispenser box
A 50 dollar gift certificate

The were all gag gifts except the certificate, before I left, they always gave us company regalia, and I said, no, no, no, no, I do not want or need a polo or a pad folio with a company logo. So they heard me, and they decided to give useful stuff.

I guess have nothing more to blog about; the week has been rather empty and boring, being working on this and that.

The shared Book Reviews

Wow, two posts in one day, I amaze myself, the second post can be found by going to the Argentine's site, see the link on the Dahlings section.




In what I hope will be a new tradition, I will review some books, and posting the reviews on the Argentine's Blog. The rule for me, is not reading his review so that I am nor influenced by what he has to say.

Massification

About 2 months ago I went to Candida’s a small travel book store on 14th St, and found this great cute little tag to put on my bag that says “ Toto we are not in Kansas anymore”, and I put it on my gray roller and felt so chic and smart. Yes I felt like an original, and urban and in the know. Then last week I walk into the magazine store, where the Diplomat asked me to buy for him the Rolling Stone with Zac Efron on the cover, and I see a little display with the exact same tags I had bought at Candida’s. And I thought this was something new and unique, well what new and unique can be found in Greensboro? Not much.

It’s a good thing I will stop traveling soon, at least for the time being, so that I can not be reminded about the lack of originality in my luggage tag.

Modern Fairytale

Once upon a time, in the rural landscapes of North Carolina, there was castle. In this castle there were many rooms, given to strangers that spend some of their time helping the feudal lord run the county. Every now and then a stranger would come and they would be given a room to test for their real talents. One of those nights, on of the strangers, got back to his room and tired of a long day of work and politicking, decided to turn on the TV and sit on this bed and watch something or other. He looked and looked and could never find the remote control, it was not in the bathroom, it was not on the desk, it had disappeared. The old fashioned way he thought, he pressed the on button and scrolled to a channel he liked. Once this was done he, threw his packages on the floor and proceeded to lay down on the bed. He felt something weird, like a bump in the bed, weird he thought, but he was tired, so he just sat there, and started thinking – this one stranger is always thinking – what could it be. It felt like something was under the covers, but what could it be, this was a simple room in a simple castle, there was nothing under the bed. So he kept watching and it dawned on him the remote. He jumped off the bed and turned the bed down, and looked for whatever was on the middle of the bed, and of course he found the remote control. Under other circumstances this could have been a myriad of other objects, but in this case only the remote control was hidden there. The joy was felt by the stranger realizing how like the princess and the pea, he had proven he was sensitive enough to realize when the bed was not made just out of mattresses.

Trying to eat healthy

Today I am trying to eat healthy and order a chef’s salad for lunch, it is all good and fine until they bring me the salad and it had half a pound of grated cheese on top of it. I did order for the dressing on the side, but come now, two handfuls of grated cheddar just because?

No wonder even if we are all aware of bad food we all are fat, cuz they keep giving us fat in our meals weather we want them or not. I am all for a little cheese on a salad, but literally there was enough cheese to make one very big quesadilla. Anyway, I dug the lettuce from underneath the cheese and ate the rest of salad, and picked at the cheese. The problem is two hours later I am hungry again!

It finally happened

After some time of really good luck traveling, last Thursday for the first time my flight was canceled and I had to stay over night in Greensboro, to wait for a flight to take me to the DC in the morning. This is a fact of life for us traveling consultants, it is difficult to swallow and a pain in the ass, but so far I had been lucky, last week I was not.

It all started with thunderstorms, which plague the East Coast, but the day here and in DC was ok, but of course it is between here and DC that the problem was. I got to the airport at 5:30 as usual and the flight as “on-time”, I was happy because some of the other flights had been canceled. At 6:20, the flight goes from “on-time” to canceled, with no explanation from the airline, I was fighting the desire to eat some donuts – the new temptation in the airport is the Dunkin Donuts shop. I walk to the booth, and they tell me they had to cancel it, because the 4:40 flight had not departed, so they were going to put us on that flight which was supposed to leave at 7:15. I crossed my fingers and went to the bar and had a G&T while we waited.

At 7:15 we walk up to the counter and we ask what time we would board, they said they had no idea, and told us to come back at 8. We went in search for something to eat, all we found was pizza and some sandwiches, and we chose the sandwiches and read for a bit. Finally at 8 they said we had not been given permission to leave the airport, and they would have an update at 9. Back to the Bar it was, where I had another G&T while watching the Galaxy play DC United, yep, at least I was reading “A woman of independent means”.

Again we go to the desk and they tell us that there is no update, that there will be an update at 10 pm. I am getting antsy, and I call the nearby airport Marriott to check if tey have rooms, they have, but if I make a reservation for the night I can not cancel, and would be charge the rate of $179. So I said thanks, but no thanks, will wait to make sure the flight is canceled. At this point the bar closed, so it’s me and the book in an airport where there was nothing else but disgruntled passengers.

This time at 10, I was seated by the information desk and they said they had no announcements, that they would have some decision made at 11 pm. At this point I was just tired and hungry. I told the attendant to book me on the morning flight just in case this was canceled. I called the hotel again to make sure they had free rooms, and waited. Finally at 10:45, they announce the flight is cancelled. My one grievous question is why not cancel it at 9 pm? DCA was closed, there was no point in keeping us waiting. Pfffff, anyway off to the hotel I went where I finally was able to fall asleep at 1 am and woke up at 5 to be at the airport at 5:30, to catch my 6:30 flight.

The joys of traveling …

104 degrees under the Sun

I know the heat wave is everywhere, and I feel for the people in DC, but here it is indeed 104 degrees today. It is crazy; I guess we call this phenomenon summer. Last night I drove to the hotel and had no energy, so went toe the puny little gym in the first floor and ran for 40 minutes, then went for dinner. But I had no energy for anything else. Also for the first time I used the AC in the room, and I stay at one of the most air-conditioned hotels I have ever stayed !!

How are y’all coping with the heat ?

Funny how

-> Even at 5:00 am it is hot and humid in Washington, while it storms.

-> Even if you are the only person in your team that flies in on Monday and then drives 1.5 hours, you are still the first person in the office at 8:45

-> Even if you packed the afternoon before, you forget the charger for the work laptop and realize it when you are setting up shop. Now I am afraid what else I forgot, hopefully not socks again.

-> The security line gets longer and longer every Monday, I am assuming it is summer and now there are more than just business travelers, but at 5 am on a week day?

-> Fifty percent of the passengers on my flight have preferred status.

-> In a city with hundreds if not thousands of cabbies, today I got picked for the third time by the same Armenian one.

-> In a city with a zone system I get charged a different amount for the exact same journey from home to the airport and airport to home each week. I am sure the people in accounting are wandering how the tariff fluctuates.