On the road again...

Greetings from where ever the hell I am.

I know it's somewhere in Pennsylvania and I know it's somewhere near Hershey Park, but the particular hotel that I'm staying in is in the middle of fucking no where.

But it's on the way to somewhere because there is an awful lot of people staying here.

Out of the 9 or 10 that I've been to in 2008 this one comes in at #2 as being one of the worst.

I don't think of myself as a hotel snob, but there are a few criteria that I have for ranking the places I stay in.

#1 - Smell - the room should not smell of any of the following things: urine, cigarettes, smelly feet, body odor, mildew and any other unidentified foul smelling things. This is the FIRST thing I notice when I walk into a hotel room and unfortunately it usually sets my mood for the rest of my stay.

#2 - Carpet - it's hard to have a stain free carpet in a hotel room, but I prefer to be able to tell the difference between the pattern on the carpet and some unidentifiable stain.

#3 - Linens - Clean, fresh ones would be nice. I don't think that is too hard to ask for. I do not want to see someone else hair on a pillow that I am about to sleep on.

#4 - Bathroom - Here is another place that I would prefer not to see someone else's hair or a used q-tip in the trash can. Extra points if they fold the T.P. ends into a little point. That just shows class.

#5 - Outside Noise - I am staying in a room away from home in the same building as a few hundred other people. Do I have to hear each time someone opens their door and it slams shut with a bang even if I am on a different floor than they are?

#6 - Amenities - I like little shampoos, give them to me!

#7 - Room Service - This is a nice luxury especially after you have just driven 3 hours, got lost, and cried because you were so tired your eyeballs hurt, but it's not a deal breaker.

#8 - Furnishings - I don't spend a lot of time in the room normally when I travel, but if I have to I would like a chair to sit on that is semi-comfortable, isn't stained with ______ (fill in the blank if you must) and if it's a desk chair doesn't keep slowly sliding down to the floor. (right now my head is just about level with the top of the desk)

#9 - Hotel Staff - We the travelers who have come to your establishment are tired, we're hungry, we're grumpy, we're far away from home...could you at least Smile and tell me to have a nice day? Is that so hard to ask for?

#10 - Location - I know it's convenient to be next to a major highway, but I don't really like hearing trucks roaring past my window all night. Oh...and not near a train track either.

Most of the time I'm just looking for a bed, a shower and something to eat when I travel. It doesn't have to be posh, but clean is good. Some hotels do this better than others. I have been in expensive hotels that were dirty and cheap hotels that were spotless.

This room is relatively clean. There's a bit of mold around the tiles in the bathroom, not a big deal, stains on the carpet, stains on the ceiling (I don't want to know how that got there, but it's impressive), the chair sliding thing is a bit annoying but now I'm so tired I'm giggling to myself every time I make it all the way down to the bottom and have to pull the lever to make it go back up again!

What makes this room #2 is the smell - urine, with a slight poopy diaper under tone and soft essence of mildew.

:::gag:::

I keep telling myself it's only for 1 night...you can do this. Thank goodness for Ambien and ear plugs!!!

Since I'm petrified of some weird trucker person attacking me in the middle of night, I won't tell you the name of the hotel that I'm at or it's exact location. I will just say this...the chain is named in this song:



If you know the song...you'll know the hotel...otherwise you'll just have to listen carefully!

Good night all! Enjoy your bed!

Home again

I'm baaaaccck!

My plane landed at 6:05 AM, I was home around 8:00 and in bed at 8:30.

Gone are the days when you used to fly the red eye home and there would be only 10 other people on the plane.

You used to be able to lift the arm rests up and stretch out across the seats because you would have a whole row to yourself.

Now they pack you in like sardines and you pray that your seat mates are nice because you will be spending the next 5 - 6 hours in close proximity to them.

Generally speaking, most of the people I've sat next to have been OK. There was the toddler with the poopy diaper I had to deal with once, and the very large, very hungover gentleman stuck in a window seat who still had alcohol coming through his pores who couldn't sit still, the over friendly man who talked to me almost the entire 7 hours back from Holland, the tiny Indian nun who took up more space than I could imagine - but overall...no real nightmares.

My seatmate on the way home this trip wasn't so lucky.

I had a window seat and I shared the aisle with two young women who were in their 20's.

The young lady sitting next to me in the middle seat looked a bit nervous. She was kind of fidgety and kept talking to her boyfriend/husband who was sitting in the middle seat across the aisle. We'll call her Manic Middlegirl

The woman on the aisle seat looked kind of like a young professional Type A personality. She had an assorted array of fruits in veggies chopped up in little baggies, she was reading some kind of finance magazine and she just had that kind of closed of look about her. Let's call her "Miss A".

She was getting a little annoyed with the chatter between her seat mate and her boyfriend.

Red eye flights are interesting because they don't serve food and they only come around once with a "light snack and beverage" service. At one time they didn't even show a movie during the overnight flights...they would turn off the lights and not bother you until you were close to landing.

Once you take off...you can see people try to get settled in. They either position themselves for sleep or read, listen...but there isn't a lot of movement generally during these flights.

I prefer the window seat for two reasons: I can lean up against the side of the airplane and try to get comfortable, maybe get a little sleep and I don't have to get up and down if anyone else needs to use the lavatory.

Miss A looked like she was ready for sleep right away. She put her magazine and little snacks away, reclined her seat and closed her eyes.

Manic Middlegirl - who upon hearing that "Fools Gold" would be the feature movie for the evening yelled across the aisle to hubby/boy for $1 so she could buy earphones so that she could watch the movie.

The tension is building up between Miss A and Manic.

A glare was thrown over to Manic by Miss A as the dollar bill was passed over the aisle.

Movie starts - Miss A closes her eyes again...Manic relaxes and watches the movie.

The flight attendants pass through the cabin with their beverage service...all three of us have a glass of water and we settle back down again.

To Manic's credit...she was actually a lot more relaxed than I thought she was going to be. Once the movie started...she kind of snuggled in and just sat and watched.

Miss A - looked like she fell asleep.

45 minutes later...the flight crew came through again to see if anyone needed anything else, collect the empty cups from the previous pass through and just checked to make sure everyone was OK.

They woke up Miss A, Manic ordered a ginger ale and I asked for a bit more water.

Miss A wasn't happy.

15 minutes later...the flight crew came through again to collect trash.

As Manic passed her glass over to the flight attendant...she must have touched Miss A and woke her up again.

Miss A threw a hissy fit and went off on both Manic and the flight attendant that this was the second time she was woken up and she wasn't happy about it and she did NOT want it to happen again. Both the flight attendant and Manic apologized to Miss A.

As I passed my empty cup over the the flight attendant after this little exchange happened...poor little Manic gave me a look of complete and utter fear.

5 minutes later...Miss A turned to Manic and told her: "I'm sorry I snapped at you, but I'm really tired and it's very hard for me to sleep on planes and once I am interrupted I can't go back to sleep and it happened to me TWICE so that is why I got upset."

Manic said she was sorry again for bothering her and gave me another look of: "Oh my god...get me out of here and away from this woman please!"

For the next 3 1/2 hours...Miss A fussed and fidgeted, turned her light on and off, read through every piece of reading material she had...at least 2 times...very noisily turned the pages...crumpled her water bottle - loudly...got up...sat down...ate her little perfectly cut up fruits and veggies while Manice Middlegirl...fell sound asleep.

Manic didn't make a move until the Captain announced that we were in our final descent and should be on the ground in about 20 minutes.

I had to kind of laugh at the whole scenario and I would have felt bad for Miss A if she hadn't tried so hard to make everyone else around her as uncomfortable as she was. I know she was tired and I know she was upset...but do you have to share your pain with all of those around you?

When we landed...Miss A was up and off that plane like a bat out of hell. Huffing and puffing and clearing a path as she went.

Manic hugged her boyfriend as they met again in the aisle and I followed behind them as she told him everything that had happened.

They were both laughing and shrugging their shoulders..."what a total bitch!" Manic joked.

I had to chuckle myself. It's easier to be the observer in this situation than it is to be part of it. I came into the situation more concerned about sitting next to Manic thinking that she would be the fidgety one and that Miss A would just settle down and go to sleep.

How wrong I was!

Anyhoo - hopefully this will be the last of the long distance trips I will have to take for a while. Flying used to be kind of exciting for me...now it's a total drag - but at least now with this trip I've qualified for "elite" status with Continental!

I don't really know what that means...but I think it's a good thing.

Home again

For a little while anyway.

Seattle was very nice. We lucked out and had really nice weather. Sunny and warm in the day, cool and comfortable during the evenings.

A co-worker and I took a harbor tour the first night we were there and had a beautiful view of the skyline.

It's amazing how it has changed since my first visit which was about 12 years ago. You can see how the high-tech companies like Microsoft have invested there.

Didn't bring the camera...so I don't have any pictures - sorry.

The Smith Tower was kind of a neat building to see.

Built by Lyman C. Smith (of Smith and Corona typewriters) It was one the worlds 4th largest building when it opened in 1914.

On the 35th floor of the building they have the Chinese Room which was furnished by the last Empress of China as a gift to Mr. Smith.

One of the coolest parts about it though is that the very top of the building - the pyramid shape originally housed a 10,000 gallon cast iron water tank which was later disassembled and then the whole space was turned into a penthouse apartment, complete with a Chihuly chandelier! I also learned that a local "Seattle business woman" lives there and able to climb all the way to the top which is crowned by an eight-foot wide glass dome which is illuminated by blue light, except for the month of December, when it is changed to green.

How cool is that?


This trip I finally made it up to the top of the Space Needle where we had dinner one evening in celebration of the birthday for one of my colleagues.

The restaurant spins very slowly so that you get a full panoramic view of downtown Seattle, Elliot Bay, the Puget sound, the Cascades and surrounding areas. It's a bit pricey, but the food was very good. I had prime rib that you could cut with a butter knife. If you want a slow relaxing dinner though...it ain't gonna happen. They want a high turnaround in that place so you are in there and out of there in just over 1 hour. There is actually a 2 hour maximum that you can stay.

The view...freakin' awesome! The sky was a bit too hazy to see Mt. Rainier unfortunately, but we still had a great time!

Seattle is definitely a favorite city of mine to visit: clean, friendly, diverse and small enough that you can see a lot in a short amount of time.

During my next visit I hope to take the tour of Pioneer Square and Seattle's Underground!

It's good to be back home though. Traveling for leisure is one thing...traveling for business is something else entirely. It makes you weary.

For me anyway.

Live from Phoenix...

...it's hot desert sun!

Hmmmmm.

I have cankles. That's where retain so much water that your feet swell into your calves and your ankles dissapear!

It's quite an attractive look actually.

Last night after the sessions were over, I decided to pamper myself with a massage at the spa they have here. It wasn't the best I've ever had, but any massage is good in my book!

Bye-bye cankles though!

This conference does give you plenty of opportunities to socialize and network - last night however, I was feeling a bit anti-social so I ordered me up some room service and took it out on my little balcony to watch the sunset over the mountains.

I gotta tell ya - it was very pretty. I attempted to take some pictures with my cell phone, but they didn't come out too well.



So, I sat out...drank some chamomile tea and listened to the quiet.

It's very quiet out here. I think the mountains absorb a lot of the noise because there is a highway just down the hill and I can see the cars moving...but I can't hear them really. It's just a low whispering whoosh.

Occasionally the quiet is broken by people walking in and out of their rooms, but it's really amazing how quiet it is.

Did I mention that it's quiet here?

I went to bed early (8:30) cause that's the kind of party girl I am and unfortunately had another not-so good night sleep. I slept well from 9:00 to about 3:30 AM but gave up the fight at 5:30 and decided to have breakfast with the group which starts at 6:30.

Breakfast was - well...not so good. The huevos rancheros were cold, so were the sausages and the cream I added to my coffee curdled. I chowed down on some fruit that was very good and a killer carrot/raisin/brain type muffin and lots of water.

That's one thing about AZ I have noticed...I am thirsty all of the time. The conference that I am at has free water bottles where ever you go so I always have about 2 of them on me at all time. I have this freaky fear that I'm going to be stranded in the desert with no water. Never mind the fact that I'm in a resort...a fear is a fear!

So...what do I do after breakfast?

I face my fear dead on and go for a little hike in the desert!

Slathered in SPF 50, my hiking shoes, two water bottles on me and I was off on my sweaty way!

Any hiking you do out here has to be done by 10:00 AM. After that...you will suffer and die a miserable death. The sun will suck the life force out of you, your body will be vulture food and your bones will be scattered among the cacti.

My hike lasted about 40 minutes.

20 minutes up the hill....20 minutes down the hill.

In New Jersey - we don't have hills...well..the very north west part of NJ has the Skylands which are part of some mountain chain so there are hills/little mountains up there, but were I am from...it's FLAT!

So...I'm huffing and puffing up this hill thinking I am doing pretty good, it's kind of steep - when this "gentleman" who was a tad bit older than I am ran past me. RAN!!!

HE WAS RUNNING!

UP THE HILL!

IN THE DESERT!

sheesh - talk about someone stealing your thunder.

Hmmmph.

It was still a nice little hike. Lots of rocks...and cacti...and some more rocks...and cacti.

I came back down and near my room there is an area that is supposed to be an herb garden. I was kind of curious about it, so off I went to investigate. The only herbs I saw was a hedge of rosemary which smelled absolutely amazing and a bit of thyme.

No parsley...no sage...sorry. That was a bit disappointing, but I found a little table and chairs and decided to sit myself down...drink my water and just listen...to the quiet.

I was quickly rewarded with a sparing pair of ruby throated humming birds duking it out for their territory. Fast little buggers! They were fun to watch. One of them came within a foot of me sipping some very pretty little yellow flowers at the tree I was sitting under. He stopped for a bit...hovered over my head...just as curious about me as I was him I suppose and then zoomed off to his next cluster of blossoms.

Re-hydrated and rested....I climbed the last set of stairs going to the set of hotel rooms that I am staying in.

Air conditioning never felt better than when I opened that door and plopped on my bed.

Ahhhhhhhhh!

I'm going to venture out again tomorrow...it's my last day here and would like to enjoy a bit more of the scenery while I'm here.

Hope you are all having a nice weekend - where ever you are!

Shout out

...to Sam over at Quiet Would Be Nice. We met in a nice little coffee spot down in Philly. Very nice lady...had a nice time. She's like the Mayor of 10th and Walnut...everyone kept dropping by to say "Hello!" I also have to thank her for introducing me to the Dream Garden a collaboration by Maxfield Parrish and Tiffany. It's a beautiful mosaic that was only 1 block from where I work and I never knew it was there!


It's absolutely stunning...if you are ever in Philly...you HAVE to check it out!

It's nice to make a new friend...so that had me smiling for the rest of the day!

Hey Sam!

Another BIG shout out to Kat over at Poetikat's Invisible Keepsakes! She has a little survey going and if you have a moment...please stop in and say hello! She's an Irish lass and you know how special we are!!! I had to admit to her that I don't always "get" poetry, but I like a lot of her poems...they are easy for my simple brain to handle!

Hey Kat!

I'm off to Arizona for a few days. Not sure how much blogging I'll do while I am there baking in the freakin' heat. Last time I checked the temps were already in the high 90's and should reach 100 + while I'm there. And don't tell me it's a dry heat...that's B.S. I don't like the heat....PERIOD! My body is more adept to cold damp chilly climates.

Now I am scurrying around doing last minute laundry and a bit of work before I stuff myself into that little airplane seat for 5 hours.

Be well all...will check in when I have time!

Shaz

Stormy Weather

This was a picture of the night sky over London my last day there. I moved at the very last second that is why the picture is a bit blurry, but I still like the way it came out.

I'm Baaaaaccckkk!

Did ya'll miss me?

Whew! What a trip!

It was good, it was bad and then it was good again.

I am still editing and sorting the photos, but I will share a few for this post just to give you a taste.

My first stop in the UK was a little town in Oxford called Whitney. My friend K lives in a small cottage there and I have to say I was completely charmed by the place.

Here is a view from her window over looking her garden where we sat sipping tea and caught up on each others lives!

Here's another view:



While in Oxford I also visited Blenheim Palace - birth place of Sir Winston Churchill. Good LORD that place was enormous and beautiful.

Here are some pictures of the grounds:


Geez...they must have had some pocket change eh?

We also visited some very pretty wild Blue Bell fields, but unfortunately my camera did not capture it as well as I would have liked it to. (Ok...it wasn't the camera's fault as much as it was the photographer's fault!)

The ugly part of the trip was the sales conference and my reason for going in the first place!!! (I couldn't afford to fly to the UK otherwise!)

We were in Egham which is very close to Windsor and the castle but we didn't have any time to visit and it poured almost the entire time we were there.

I did have a fun night at Wagamama though...even walked away with a cool chili powder dispenser that mysteriously ended up in my pocket book! (I didn't do it...HONEST)

Anyhoo - still recovering a bit from the flights and time differences and trying to un-bury myself from the work/e-mails I accumulated while I was away so I don't have too much time to post now.

I promise more pics later this week!

Be well!

Greetings from across the pond

Have had a busy schedule the past few days and no time to get on line, but I promise an update and pictures soon.

I was in Whitney (Oxforshire) on Sat and Sunday staying with a friend. The weather was warm and sunny and we had a wonderful time.

Got to the conference center on sunday in Egham - it started to rain so I never got to see Windsor castle...bummer.

Now I'm in east London somewhere is a really stinky hotel room that I hope not to spend too much time in.

Off to dinner...will write more soon when I can!

Cheers!

What goes hobble, hobble, vroom, vroom?

Give up?

The hobble, hobble part is poor little M. A few weeks ago, (Saturday - April 4th) M's leg fell through a hole in our attic as she was trying to get something out of a box. I wasn't home at the time and unavailable to help her. She somehow managed to pull herself out of her predicament and climb back down to safety.

Later that evening, she confessed to me what had happened. (Margie doesn't like ladders and they don't seem to like her too much either so normally she doesn't go up one when I'm not around - for pure safety measures only)

She showed me her injuries - first thought...ewwww, that doesn't look good, I hope she didn't break anything. She assured me she was fine...it didn't really hurt that much, but I was able to persuade her to sit her ass down and put some ice on it.

The next day...her leg from mid-calf down to her toes was turning all kinds of purty colors like, red and purple, blue and yellow and a hint of chartreuse on the edges. She had a knob on her knee the size of a baseball.

"You should probably have a doctor take a look at that" I said, "that doesn't look too good to me."

Surprisingly enough, she agreed. (Did I mention M's just a teeny bit stubborn?)

Our family doctor we both love...she's great, but this time I have to say we are both a bit disappointed in the prognosis. She took a look at Margie's knee and said she had a hematoma and to go home...elevate the leg and put hot compresses on it to see if the swelling goes down. No x-rays...no thought of damage to the leg/knee/ankle.

She did order an ultrasound on the area because we had to fly to Puerto Rico and she wanted to make sure there were no blood clots that formed in the leg.

Ultrasound came up clear - we were good to go.

The Doctor added that within a few days the swelling does not significantly go down, to call her back.

So that was on Wednesday - April 9th.

M was a good girl and followed the doctors instructions and we actually did see the swelling go down in her knee, but her ankle was actually looking worse. Fortunately, it is her left leg that is injured so she is still able to drive and get around.

Went to Puerto Rico - she was sore, but OK. She rested it as much as possible.

Came back home...the bruising on her knee was disappearing, but she still had that knob there and that ankle was looking pretty ugly.

She called the doctor again - and this time the doctor tells her to go to a specialist. Sports medicine Doc. The earliest appointment she could get was Wednesday - April 23rd.

We had a lovely weekend - Saturday we walked all over Philadelphia - by the end of the day M was in a lot of pain. She was a trooper I tell ya...but when we got home that night it was clearly obvious this leg was more than just a hematoma and a bit of bruising.

Sports Medicine guy looked at the leg and told her" Oh...I don't like the look of that knee!" Not a good sign when a doctor says that. Took some x-rays, they are inconclusive since she still has a lot of swelling and has ordered 2 MRI's - one of the knee and one of the ankle.

He also gave her strict orders to stay off the leg as much as possible and to use crutches.

M + Crutches = disaster waiting to happen

She's already dropped one crutch on one of the dogs head and now he's traumatized at the site of them - but she's getting around...slowly, but it's OK.

Now comes the Vroom, Vroom part - I have to leave for the UK today on a business trip. I will be gone for 10 days.

I asked M if she wanted me to cancel, she said no, there really isn't much I can do for her at this point and her friend has offered to be around to help her out.

She's right...I know - but still - how can you leave your partner behind when she's going through all of this?

I know she'll be OK, but still - I worry.

Of course there is the whole GUILT thing too. Damned Catholic upbringing.

I battle with this old internal struggle of being the caretaker and making sure everyone I love is OK. Sometimes at the sacrifice of my own self.

C0-dependency is a new word in my vocabulary. Some how I always associated it with people who were clingy and needy and overbearing - but now I see it's something different altogether.

It was an "A-Ha!" moment when my counselor gently suggested that I "look it up and read about it."

Anyhoo - M will be OK. She has a friend close by who will help her out while I'm gone, my daughter is here at the house too, so she will not be alone. She still has to have the MRI's and then wait for the doctor to call her with the official diagnosis and solution and by that time I will be home and we can take care of this together.

In the meantime I will go on my trip and I will call home frequently and make sure everything is OK.

Guilt will not get the better of me.

Home Sweet Home

We're back!

The weather sucked - but the wedding wonderful!

I have to hand it to my new sister in-law. She remained relatively calm throughout the wind and rain and power outages that were happening all around her. The rain stopped for a few hours during the wedding and the sun peaked out a few times for them.

They both looked very happy and completely in love which was so sweet!

Poor M got sick while we were there. It may have something to do with walking around in the rain on Friday and Saturday. We went to San Fran on Sunday - the only day it didn't rain, and the poor thing stayed in the car the whole time because she was feeling so weak.

We hope to make it back to California to see the sun sometime!

It never rains in California...

but girl don't they warn you....it pours, man it pours.

We are off tomorrow to California for my brothers wedding!

We will be there until Sunday.

M just sent me the weather forecast: ...RAIN AND WIND EXPECTED THURSDAY THROUGH SUNDAY ACROSS THE SAN FRANCISCO AND MONTEREY BAY AREAS...

The wedding is in San Jose - which is right in between Moneterey and San Francisco.

oh...and not just a little rain: A MAJOR CHANGE IN THE WEATHER PATTERN IS EXPECTED TO TAKE PLACE IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC STARTING THURSDAY. STRONG ZONAL FLOW IS EXPECTED TO BRING A SERIES OF PACIFIC STORMS INTO THE REGION...WITH THE POTENTIAL FOR AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL AND STRONG WINDS.

:::sigh:::

The last time I was in California, which was about 22 years ago, it rained 8 out of the 10 days I was there.

Darn it to heck.

Travelin', I'm a travelin' man

I'm am off to Kansas City, MO to attend the Military Librarians Workshop. That just conjures up all sorts of strange images doesn't it?

Most of these conference, the exhibits open around 9:00 - 10:00 AM, not these guys!

07:30 AM sharp we start!

If anyone has any suggestions on what a gal can do for fun in Kansas City, please bring them on!