TVJunkie

Happiness Is ...

Now that I’ve had a chance to get some sleep, relax, play with the cat and even unpack and do laundry, I can take a step back and reflect on the madness that was September. Looking back … I guess it wasn’t all bad.

First of all, I got to go to Vegas and see the bitches. Vegas, my home away from home, is always good. AB and I got to chill out and just “be”, and we also got to ride the monorail up and down the strip a couple of times just for fun. We’ve already decided that next time .. we are totally bringing one of those super tall drinks on the monorail with us (the ones that look like giant bongs). I’m all for the cheap thrills.

Then there was Rhode Island. Beautiful, and although I didn’t get to see very much of it, once I got there, it was the least stressful business trip I’ve had in quite awhile. If I have to go back, and I think I will, I want to do it before it gets too cold.

Most recently, there was New York. Now, all my life people have told me that I’m a perfect fit for New York. Time and time again people have said to me that if I ever went there for any extended period of time, I’d never want to come back to California. I gotta say. Way wrong there. While I didn’t hate New York nearly as much as I did Nassau, Bahamas, I sure as hell didn’t love it.

There’s always a chance I would feel differently about the experience if I hadn’t been there for work, but I doubt it. I’m a Southern California Native. I like my personal space; I don’t like the rat race and the pushing, shoving, traffic, honking and general unpleasantness that I experienced in NYC.

Obviously, my experience is tainted by the fact that my trip was 95% work combined with an unpleasant head cold, but I was happy to at least find the time to meet an online buddy (OLB) for drinks, have one very nice business dinner, and re-connect with an old friend from Los Angeles who had moved to NYC just shy of 2-years ago. Oddly enough, all the good stuff happened within my last couple of days there.

Much like Rhode Island, I’m sure I’ll be returning to NYC for work soon, probably October. When I do, I hope to make better use of my time .. maybe get to see my new Loan Shark OLB again, as well as my LA Buddy. Having time for some theatre would be super nice. And now that I’ve met the three NYC based people from my department, there’s always the possibility of having some laughs with them. We’ll see. (I’m desperately looking for a silver lining, here.)

Until next time ..man ..it is SO frikkin’ good to be home.

Kiss The Ground

It's official. I hate Taxi Drivers. But, anyway ...

Have I mentioned that I dislike American Airlines? Yeah. Shitty flight home, right down to the movie which was "XMen - The Last Stand". About 30 minutes into the movie, the audio got all funky and I couldn't hear a word of the dialog. Instead I gave up and finished up my book. I did manage to nod off a couple of times, but my head was pounding and I kept having mini coughing fits.

Once I got home and dragged (literally) my suitcases upstairs .. I was greeted by a note on my computer chair from my mom letting me know that while she had cleaned the cat puke off the carpet and chair mat, she left the cat puke on the chair for me to do. Can't say I blame her. Poor Shiba. I don't know if she over-ate, or just got spooked and puked up her food, either way .. baby left a mess.

I have piles of mail and piles of magazines and piles of laundry and piles of piles to go through.

But .. you know what?

It's good to be home.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

And I'm not talking about the Holland Tunnel or the Lincoln Tunnel .. I'm a day away from finally coming home. Cross your fingers that no one tries to send me elsewhere first. I'm pretty sure that Bossman knows I'll kill him if he doesn't let me come home.

Oddly enough, the latter part of the trip has been better. Saturday, as you may have read, I slept the sleep of the dead. Sunday I went out for a bit and got a henna tattoo of my mom's family name on my wrist. It doesn't look good. It's kinda blurry. Monday, I played hooky from work and tried to sleep in and then go shopping, but work called and I had to rush back to the hotel to take care of some things.

Monday night was good. I was supposed to meet NY work colleagues at a restaurant in the Hell's Kitchen area for dinner. As it turned out, an OLB was available for drinks, so we met at the same restaurant before the scheduled dinner. The bartender had just 'invented' a strawberry-vanilla martini, so I was more than happy to taste test them. (and they were good) I always enjoy putting faces to names. We had a good 1.5 hours to chat before the dinner crew showed up. The place was a little noisy, so sometimes it was hard to talk. The fact that my head cold has resurfaced didn't help with my hearing so well, either. Hopefully, if I have to come back to NYC, this OLB and I can get together again.

Dinner was okay. By the time we were seated, the restaurant was jam-packed and noisy as hell. I couldn't hear the table conversation, so I stuck with talking to the guy across from me, and the new hire who was next to me. Food was good, dessert was fanTAStic, and we didn't get out of there until around 11:30pm. I think I had three drinks at the bar and one with dinner, so guess who had a headache Tuesday morning? Yeah. That's right. Me.

Tuesday, I fibbed a bit to Bossman and said I was busy with something when I wasn't. Know why? Because he wanted me to go to Connecticut for the day, and I didn't want to. I did do a lot of work from the hotel, so I feel okay about it. Around 5pm a friend of mine called who lives in NYC and he wanted to know if I was free for dinner. I had spent the day in my PJs, and was feeling really crappy with the head cold kicking into high gear, but I haven't seen him in years so I sucked it up, took a shower and headed out to Williamsburg.

It was nice seeing him. We got pretty caught up on what lead up to him moving from Los Angeles to New York 2-years ago and how things are going now, etc. He's living in a very cute studio apartment with a coveted washer and dryer inside. We joked about the washer and dryer being a good pick up line. "Heyyyyy, I have a washer and dryer at my place. Why don't you come over? We'll order up some Chinese, have a couple of drinks and do your whites."

Actually, we did order up some Chinese food, which I'm sure was very tasty, not that I would know since my head was completely blocked. All in all, it was a good visit, and at least I know I have a good friend here for the next trip out.

I have one more big meeting today, and then I fly home tomorrow.

Home.

I can hardly wait.

Bliss

Sleep is bliss. Absolute bliss.

Friday was yet another long day. Once again, the blisters on my blisters now have blisters. We finished up around 8pm and I got back to the hotel by 8:30pm. I was too tired to even order room service, so I stopped at a friggin BLIMPIES and got a meatball sandwich and went up to the room to collapse.

After watching a couple of hours of bad TV, I could finally keep my eyes open no longer and I fell into a deep sleep. I'm talking 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, deep. I didn't even wake up until 10:30am, and I had to hurry up and order breakfast before the cutoff for breakfast orders. As I waited for my breakfast to arrive, I opened the shade to the outside world to find .. it was pouring rain. Oh, well. I didn't want to go for a walk anyway. My feet hurt, yo! So, I finished my omelette and promptly took a nap.

Once I woke from my nap, I turned on some horrible Lifetime movie and was able to watch for a bit, before I drifted off into snoresville. Shut up! It's not like I saw logs. It's a cute snore. A baby snore. An "awwww, isn't that cute? she's wiped out" snore.

At some point, I heard a wispy noise from the hallway. I got up to look, and Housekeeping had slipped a note under my door saying they would honor my "do not disturb" sign, but if I wanted anything to give them a call. I could hear someone in the hall, so I looked out of the peephole in the door and I saw a Housekeeper in the hallway, head tilted to the side, staring at the bottom of my door. I think she was looking to see if I had taken the card she slipped under the door. I was surprised she couldn't see my TOES as I was standing right up on the door looking out at her. She stared at the bottom of the door, I stared at her, and then I decided I didn't want to play the game any longer and went back to bed.

Tomorrow, if it's not raining as predicted, I'll take that walk... maybe do some shopping... we'll see. I'm waiting to hear what changes to the work schedule are in store for me. Truth be told, I've had quite enough of New York for now. I'm ready for home.

Side Note: If you've ever considered starting a blog, or switching your blog service, check out this new site from six apart called VOX. It's actually pretty cool!

Here's the thing about:

Housekeeping Tips ... If I leave a tip and then come back to my room and things aren't right (room hasn't been vacuumed, TP low and no 2nd roll, shortage of towels), don't be expecting another tip until the room is right.

New York Traffic ... It sucks. The end.

The New Job ... It fell through. I'm hearing a couple of different versions of exactly "why". The "why" isn't necessarily important any longer. What's done is done and cannot be UNdone.

Ow! Ow! Ow!

My blisters have blisters. We did so much walking today, I think I've seen more of NYC than most people probably do in a week of sight-seeing.

By the end of the day, I had completely lost my sense of humor... and that did not go unnoticed.

Had we not ended the day 2 blocks from my hotel, someone would have needed hospitalization. And it wouldn't have been me.

I'm just sayin'

Tomorrow, Bossman is picking me up at 0730 to take me around to our NY offices, etc. Like I care. I want to rest. I want sleep. I want a foot massage.

First Impressions

My cabbie from the airport to the hotel didn't speak a word to me. I made one attempt to engage him in conversation which was met with an uninterested response. I decided to settle back and take in the ride. Besides. My cabbie looked like Don Cheadle. Don Cheadle driving like a madman through the streets of Manhattan. It wasn't until Barry White came on the radio that he showed some personality and started whistling.

As we drove through Manhattan, I kept thinking .. um .. "ew". Traffic .. people .. noise .. traffic .. horns honking .. people .. traffic .. ick. From the outside, the hotel didn't look very promising. That turns out to be an okay thing. As I got out of the cab, a staff member took my bags and gave me a ticket for them. I went up the stairs to the lobby, then upstairs to the second floor to check in (the concierge is on the first floor). There were 2 guys at the desk and no one in line. This turned out to be quite the advantage for me, as one guy poured me a glass of champagne while the other guy checked me in. We had a really fun chat and one guy asked me if I wanted a refill for the trip up to the room. Hell yeah!

The room is small, yo. I mean, "cozy". There's no work desk, which is going to make the 2 weeks here .. you know .. for WORK .. a bit of a challenge, but there's wireless internet in the room for less than $10.00 per day, so that's not bad. There's also a flat panel TV, which took me a good 20-25 minutes to set up, since someone had fucked up the settings. I finally got the TV working, and realized I didn't have my bags yet. I called downstairs, and had my bags within 5 mintues, along with tons of apologies for being late. Despite the fact that the hotel boasts in-room safes in all the rooms, for the life of me, I can't find the safe in my room. I think it's invisible. It's an invisible safe. I got the good room.

At first, I wasn't happy about being put on the 3rd floor. You see, there's a restaurant/bar on the first floor, and it's open at the end of the hall on the third floor which allows the noise to travel upstairs. It was pretty noisy last night, but not so much that I couldn't sleep. I thought about changing rooms today, but I realized the reason they put me on the third floor was because this is where the business center is. When I checked in, one of the guys at the front desk commented on the length of my stay. I told him it was for work - and we talked a bit about my job. So, I think he put me on three because it's close to the business center. He was too nice to have done it to me for anything other than helpful reasons. And it may just come in handy. I just hope it's not super noisy tonight.

The room is clean, the bed is comfortable, the noise from outside isn't too bad, the BOSE alarm clock is nice, the mini bar is STOCKED (if I dare to take anything from it - at $10/bottle of water, I doubt I will), the bathroom is small with a pedestal sink, so there's no 'girly counter' for all my crap - but there is a glass shelf and so far, everyone has been super nice.

My breakfast was complimentary - even though I think that was a mistake as the room service guy asked me if I was a "grand guest". I nodded, even though I didn't know what the fuck he was talking about, and he said the breakfast was complimentary. We'll see if that's the case next time.

I slept like a rock, which is unusual for my first night away from home, and finally dragged myself out of the room around noon for a walk. I walked, and walked, and walked. I finally ended up in Little Italy where there was a big block party thing going on. The Festival of San Gennaro .. on Mulberry Street, no less. I had amazing chicken parmesan and the best cannoli's EVER. And I found out after I got back to the room that the festival will be going on for several more days. Coooool.

By the time I hoofed it back to the hotel, I was so exhausted, I walked right past the hotel .. twice. When I got back up to the room, housekeeping hadn't made their second trip through the area but since the room really wasn't a mess, I didn't care. They did call to check to see if I wanted anything, and were very nice when I said 'no'.

Now I'm watching some awful movie on Lifetime, and I will turn in early as I have to be across town by 6am and I honestly don't know if I'll make it.

Nite bitches!

American Airlines Sucks

The flight from LAX to JFK was long. And it made me realize something. I hate American Airlines. I had forgotten that. Even as I typed the words, I remembered what a nightmare AA was when I was in New Orleans as Hurricane Ivan approached and then got stuck in Dallas coming home. Customer Service reps were rude and not at all helpful. I was stuck in Dallas and told to 'grab a cot' and sleep in the airport. It went on and on.

Let me start by saying, just a week ago when I flew from Vegas to Rhode Island on Delta, I was annoyed at the whole "no meal, just a snack" thing. I mean .. if you're going to be on a plane for almost 6-hours, I don't think a sandwich is asking that much. Shit. I'll never complain about the FREE snack box again.

American does serve snack boxes. If you want to buy one for $4.00 or $5.00 (I'm not positive on the price because I didn't get one. But you'll be happy to know they contain Goldfish crackers, some sort of processed meat thing, pasteurized processed cheese food, crackers and a cookie - from what I could see). They also sell meals, but won't guarantee they will have what you want from the 3 choices since they only carry a limited supply. Know what else? American won't give people in coach bottles of water. Hell, they won't even sell them as the poor woman seated next to me found out after pleading with three different flight attendants to sell her a bottle of water. Damn, even Delta had those baby-sized bottles of water for passengers. Not American. They'll give you one of those little cups of water, but you can't have a bottle. Business gets bottles, so does First. I know because as we exited the plane, there were partially consumed bottles littering the Business and First sections .. stuffed in the seat back pockets by people who actually were served meals. (So, just to recap: You can't bring water with you onto the plane, and you can't buy water once you are on the plane. Ok.)

American also doesn't have those drop-down screens for watching movies. They are old-school with the one screen at the front of the coach cabin. You know. The one you can't see because of the ginormous head on the dude in front of you and the asshole that decides to stand in the aisle for half the flight.

One of the flight attendants was so busy squatting in the aisle and chatting with this one geriatric couple, that when a passenger attempted to get past her to get to the restroom .. and stumbled .. the flight attendant didn't even bat an eye. She offered a half-hearted "oh, sorry" and just went right back to chatting the granny and gramps. This is the same flight attendant that took money from the couple in front of me for their alcohol purchases, said she'd be right back with their change, and they had to flag her down 20 or 30 minutes later. They hadn't even opened the beers they purchased. The flight attendant didn't have their change. So the couple gave her the beers back and took back their money.

That's some fantastic customer service, right there.

Once we landed, the American Airlines experience continued. Now, since you can't take fluids, lotions, creams, etc., onto a plane, almost everyone has to check at least one bag. We waited and waited and waited for out bags to come out on carousel #2. Several announcements were made that our bags would be on carousel #2 .. the electronic board was lit up telling us our bags would be on carousel #2 .. everyone was clustered around carousel #2 waiting .. waiting .. waiting .. for about 30 minutes. Guess where out bags went? Carousel #3. No announcement. Just started tumbling out. They never even bothered to change the electronic board.

Maybe I'm spoiled? Maybe I've been lucky with my other flights? I dunno. I do know that American will be my LAST choice from now on.

Not Enough Hours

More and more I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day for everything I need to do. Realistically, there are plenty of hours, I just move slowly these days due the the feeling of being completely overwhelmed. I'm completely buried at work, and frequently don't feel like I'm making any progress in getting through everything. When I'm not in meetings, I'm on the road. When I'm not doing either of those things, I'm sitting at my desk, staring into space wondering how and where to begin.

As I look around my apartment at the absolute mess it has become due to the fact that I'm never here, and when I am, I'm too beat to work on it .. I realize I have GOT to get my act together. If I don't, I'm going to see my place on the news one day, with some cheesy ass local reporter talking about how some local agency has agreed to come in here and clear the clutter and send me out for psychological counseling I obviously am in desperate need of.

In other news, I now have a motivating factor to get my ass moving. AB is coming for a visit. I have until Thanksgiving to make this place decent. I think we have a pretty good plan. AB will fly in from Vegas on Wednesday night or Thursday morning .. we will have Thanksgiving at my parent's house (AB gets to meet Mamasan and Papasan!) .. we'll hang in SoCal doing .. whatever .. until Saturday when I'll drive us both to Vegas. Then I'm staying in Vegas for a few days before driving home solo - probably Tuesday or Wednesday.

I'm looking forward to it. And, hey, aren't there usually some sort of Twilight Zone marathons on the SciFi channel on Thanksgiving?

:)

PopoZão

No, I'm not advocating KFed and his nonsense. Allegedly, PopoZão (Po-Poh-ZOW) is Portuguese for "bring your ass". My roomie and I have decided it's shorthand for "People Suck".

Someone calls my roomie and is annoying as hell? He mumbles "PopoZão".

A terrible news report on the TV? ... PopoZão

I'm driving home from work and traffic is backed up because of a fender bender and the involved parties have left their vehicles in the street, exited their vehicles and are walking around in traffic talking on their celphones? ... PopoZão

TPTB at my current employer pull the plug on the lucrative job offer? ... PopoZão

Bossman is out of town, so the rest of the troops screw off all day, if they even bother to show up? ... PopoZão

Bossman emails me a memo that Drama wrote and asks me to re-write it to our standard format? ... PopoZão (in this case, it's not Bossman that sucks, it's Drama for being a loser.)

My plans to take Friday off since I have to fly to NYC on Saturday for work go out the window when I find out that I have to cover for Drama .. again? ... PopoZão

My trip to NYC changes from 4-days to 7-days to 13-days, and the hotel rate goes from $329/nite to $534/nite because of stupid-ass "fashion week"? ... PopoZão

2-weeks away from my Shiba Kitty? ... PopoZão