One of the aspects I enjoy most about my job is the travel. I’m usually gone about one day a week. Sometimes it can get old but for the most part I love it. I think you can learn a lot about yourself when you’re on the road, alone. For instance….
…I prefer my breakfast buffet without hair in the food.
…I enjoy sleeping through the night without the sound of two people going at it in the room adjoining mine.
…I like clean sheets. Period.
…The more I travel the more I realize I don't have patience for delays or reservation errors.
I travel to New Jersey about every other week for work on my &*%$ client (name withheld to protect the innocent). Usually I go for two days and spend two nights there. My first unfortunate visit took place on Sept 13 & 14, 2005.
I arrive in New Jersey at about 9PM, straight from NYC. I go to check into my room at, I swear to God, the largest Sheraton I have ever seen in my life. They scan my card and inform me that I don’t have a reservation until the following night. Super. Well, I am not about to head back to NYC. Sadly, the hotel is completely sold out.
(Pause..wait for it..potential solution...maybe? yes!)
*Ma'am (eww) I have a “training room” available*
..Um..A what?..
*You know (really??), a training room...with conference tables*
..Is it communal?..
*No, it’s basically like a guest room*
..Ummmm...ok..I guess that works (fear, alarm, annoynance, tired, fine)..
I approach my room (let's use that word loosely) and open the door. Hmmm...not too bad. Bed, check. TV, check. Shower, check. Bathroom, check. Telephone, check. Not so bad. Not so bad at all.
At this point I am starving and there is no menu in the room (ahhhh, the reality sets in). So I walk to the restaurant. Mind you, my floor is all conference rooms. I’m half expecting to wake up the next morning to workers setting up a breakfest buffet for a meeting. Anyway, back to the restaurant. I place my order and give him my room number “TR2”. One hour and 15 minutes later and my cobb salad has yet to arrive. Sweet. I call down.
*Ah..yes..we have your order but we couldn’t find an extension for you?...*
Again, sweet. They arrive, drop off the food and ask me to sign for my room. It’s on there I say, “TR2”. MASS confusion.
All in all not a bad night and I was even able to jot down a few thoughts on the dry erase board above my bed before dozing off.
Second trip to Jersey. Sept 28 & 29, 2005. Arrive from the city around 8:30PM. Go to check into the Wyndham. No room. Completely sold out. See a pattern? They call the Wyndham down the road to check availability. I do have a room there but not until the next night. Nice. What is the deal. Luckily a coworker was arriving from CA that night. So, lucky me, we got to bunk up together. No worries. Two beds.
My third tale takes me to Harrisburg, PA for a meeting. No relation to New Jersey. I mistakenly think I’m in the clear. The meeting is at 11AM on a Thursday in February. I catch a 6AM flight from LaGuardia…with a layover in DC?! Looks like I’ll be traveling in opposite direction from my final location. Whatever. We’re in the air. It’s looking good. We begin our decent into Dulles (DC). The captain comes on to inform us we have like 0% visibility but they are going to try to land it (is it too early to start drinking???). On a side note…either land the plane or don’t…I don’t need the blow by blow that you can’t see. We circle. And circle. And circle some more. Turns out el captaine does not, in fact, have x-ray vision and we will be redirected to Pittsburgh until the fog clears.
Being the resourceful little traveler that I am, I pull out the map in the back of the United magazine. Great news. Looks like Harrisburg is only a few hours, by car, from Pittsburgh. Perhaps I can just catch a new flight seeing as I will be in the same state. I buzz the stewardess. While I have nothing against the stereotypically “valley girl”, I can’t say I’m reassured that my travel plans now appear to be in the hands of one.
*Like, hi, what’s up?*
(Me): Ah, yes. I have a meeting that begins in two hours and since the meeting is in Harrisburg I was wondering if I could just connect from the Pittsburgh airport versus having to go back to DC first?
*Meeting in two hours? Ahhh, ohhhh, good luck with that. Once we land they’ll totally let us know whether you can de-plane or whether you have to stay on until we fuel and go back to DC*
(Me): Super. Thanks.
We land in Pittsburgh. No one is getting off. Looks like we’re refueling and heading back to DC. At this point, I won’t make the meeting. Oh well. My coworker will be there, it could be worse. I’ll just catch the next flight back to NYC once I land.
I arrive in Dulles at 11AM. My original return flight from DC to NYC was 7PM that night. I’m not concerned. How hard can it be to get an earlier flight? They leave like every 30 minutes. I wait on line at customer service only to find out that they can’t put me on an earlier flight. This is rich. I have 8 hours to kill and Dulles is no where near downtown DC. I fly standby for two flights…one of which has a defunct wing (again they announce it to everyone as if we really want to know) the other flight continues to be delayed until well after 7PM. After 3 coffees, two meals,5 magazines and my cell phone battery giving out, I board to head home.
I have never ever in my time here in NYC (ok, so it’s only been a year) been so happy to land in the city. I jump in a cab and instead of having him drop me at my apartment I go directly to Best Cellars to pick up a bottle of wine.
Bring on the next trip!
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
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