What did you just say??

There are certain things that you don't want to hear when traveling.

• "Uh oh, we have a problem" muttered by a gate agent as they run back to the gate just before your plane is supposed to start boarding. Yep, we were delayed. Then back on for the original time and then delayed again.
• "My flight was cancelled!" exclaimed by the coworker with the rental car reservation trying to come in from a different city.
• "I think this is the right way to go but I'm not sure..." insecurely voiced by another coworker who is trying to guide us through the maze of a skywalk system commonly referred to as gerbil tubes.
• "Ladies and Gentleman, today is not a good day for flying" delivered by the pilot on my flight home. Storms plagued the entire flight path and it was rough and bumpy.

The good news is that I made it to my meeting up North and back without getting lost although I'm pretty convinced that the cab driver last night drove in a circle to jack up his fare. The meeting went relatively well considering how it could have gone and I made it home in one piece, safe and sound!

There is no place like home

Whew!  This has been a week.  Traveling always wipes me out.  Being "on" day and night is mentally exhausting and then keeping up with the stuff at the office in your down time can make one woozy.  But on this trip, I had a little added drama to make me glad to be home.

I felt horrible all week.  It started over the weekend with a scratchy throat.  I didn't think much of it since it was 30 degrees and snowy.  I figured I would try to get in to the doctor on Monday morning if I didn't feel better.  Monday morning came and I felt much better so I decide that I didn't need to try to squeeze in a doctor's appointment between work, packing and making a mid afternoon flight. Apparently that was a big mistake.  

All week I alternated between an earache, a headache, or a sore throat.  At 2:20 this morning I woke up to all 3 and realized that my glands in my neck are also visibly swollen.  While I knew my doctor wouldn't make a house call in Arizona, I decided I would try to get a jump on all of the other sick people in the midwest.  I placed a call to the office early this morning and was told that I could NOT make an appointment and that the doctor was only seeing "emergency" patients on Friday.  What exactly is defined as an emergency I asked?  "Oh, you know if you are sick or have a cut or something" was the chirpy response.  

So I guess I qualify as an emergency but I have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow for one of the lottery slots for the emergency sick people.  Wish me luck!

Procrastination Pays

I am the ultimate procrastinator.  If I can put something off until the last minute, then I will do it in a heartbeat.  But in certain areas, I try to behave myself and do things before the last minute.  One of those is when I travel for work.  I really try hard to book my airfare and hotel rooms as soon as I know I have to travel.  But I have been slipping lately.

I knew months ago that I was attending a conference next week.  My new boss had booked her room and airfare months ago.  I have had friends that had to book overflow hotels and it wasn't pretty.  All in all, I know better than to wait.  Yet, I kept putting off making my reservations.  I finally got around to making the reservations around Halloween.  I got a good deal on airfare but when I went to book the convention hotel, they were completely sold out.  Normally, this wouldn't phase me because 99.9% of the time, there is a hotel across the street.  Not this time.

This time, the closest hotel I could find was about 3 miles away.  Every other hotel I could find was within walking distance of each other, but the convention hotel was completely isolated.  I finally picked a hotel a few miles away (and within a straight shot down one road) from the convention location.  I sent out a frantic message hoping that someone else was a procrastinator and needed an alternate hotel (at least I wouldn't be alone).  But no such luck, everyone else got in and I was on my own.  Until the other day.  Luckily for me and unfortunately for one of my coworkers, they had a change in plans and won't be able to attend.  Being the nice guy that he is, he offered me his room at the convention hotel.  Sweet!  I don't have to trek back and forth every morning and night!  I am not a morning person so the thought of having to get up early enough to not only get dressed and ready but drive down the street to make the first session was stressing me out.

We played phone tag all week long trying to work this out.  Today he finally sent me a message letting me know that he called the hotel and switched the room to my name but kept the reservation on his card.  So I finally had a room for Tuesday and Wednesday night.  Great....only one problem, I'm flying in on Monday.  I know Arizona is going to be much warmer than it is here, but after Ann's description of what roams around in her back yard, I don't think I want to sleep outside in the desert.  Luckily, I was able to book a single night at the same hotel for Monday night.  I might have to change rooms, but at least I don't have to schlep back and forth or sleep with the fire ants outside!

Now the only thing that would make this trip even more perfect is if Ann will deliver something decedent to my hotel room for me!  Anything with chocolate works for me!