Delays

More travel delays yesterday coming back from Atlanta. I suppose there was some severe weather hovering over LGA because all flights going to LGA were delayed by 2 hours -but not JFK, EWR or HPN. I can just see a cartoon black clowd living on top of the small airport. Turns out that I still can get annoyed with travel delays and was a bit jittery on the flight over; I couldn't wait to debark the plane.

All bad things, however, seem to have an upside. First, while sitting in the lounge, I came across two defense attorneys from out west. They both were between 45 and 60 years old with clients who were very wealthy. In fact, a good amount of our conversation revolved around the outrageous spending habits of their clients and their clients claim that they do not have enough money to pay off loans which they owed. We conversed about current television shows (we agreed on Curb, disagreed on Entourage and suggested Californication) and new technology (voicemail is on its way out, fax is somehow still used for those who receive and ignore too many emails). All in all, a great way to kill 45 minutes. On their way out, they commented on my bag, "Looks like you've been everywhere and have everything you need in that suitcase"... He is right.

Karma would prove to even out upon my arrival at LGA. While waiting in the giant Taxi line, a towncar drive came up to me and asked me if I wanted a ride. Usually this means a ride to manhattan at a much higher rate, but there was something about this fellows tone which was different. He then mentioned that he had been stood up, waited a half hour, and now would lose a fare if he left. I told him my destination and the usual rate and he agreed to it. Not sure why he chose me out of the 100 people in line, but I jumped in the car with him. He introduced himself as Bill and we talked the entire ride back. I was still a little suspicious, but he was very congenial and we found the neighborhood where I was headed. He had plenty of suggestions too - calling out small restaurants that I would never have known about. Bill also spoke very highly of his family - his wife Irene and their seven year old son which they had when they were 46 and 41 respectively. On my exit from the car, he gave me his card and told me to call him whenever - the fare would be the same to LGA to or from - just needed some time to schedule it.

I gave him a call today to schedule my pick up for Monday morning.

Currently Listening to: The Tallest Man on Earth

In-light-e(ve)ning.

Two strange occurrances today that are worth briefly pointing out.

1. I got back to my hotel room this evening and sat on my couch with sportscenter in the background (important note - huge suite this week in the Westin - suhweet). Perhaps it was lack of sleep or just working at a quick pace over the past few days, but I was out cold. I woke at 7:30. A weird thing about Atlanta, and it took this event for me to realize this, is that 7:30 AM looks very similar to 7:30 PM during the summer. I shot up, looked around and thought it was time for work. I stumbled around for about 2 minutes to get my bearings and realized it was still the evening. Phew!

2. After my time mix up, I decided to go for a run. My usual route is north up Piedmont to Piedmont park. Now, it's important to note the direction, because running in any other direction starting in downtown Atlanta will generally result in slum tramping. At 10th and Piedmont, where Piedmont park starts, there is a gay Bookstore. I noticed this a few weeks back and was very intrigued - what made a bookstore gay? Was it the orientation of the owners? Was it purely the content? Well, I had been looking for a running book for the past few days (as noted on a previous post, I do not have a book that I am currently reading) so I decided to jump in, thinking that a bookstore is a bookstore - there is a good chance that it has a best seller section or something. This was not the case. Almost every book in the bookstore had some sort of sexual twinge, gay or straight, and very focused on social styles and acceptance. It was interesting - seeing titles such as "Mad Men Unbuttoned" made me think - is this about the underlyings of the making of the show? Or was it literally men scantily clothed like the characters on the famous show revealing parts of the male body that I only want to be familiar with on myself?

Unfortunately, I did not find my running book.

Currently watching: Mythbusters
Currently reading: Work documents and expense reports.

Losing Control

Tough time today at work - I lost my cool with a senior of mine and was reprimanded for it. We settled it, and it turns out that my outburst forced a conversation that needed to happen to get past a hurdle, but the entire situation put me off a bit. I'll react a little more to this in another post - I still need to reflect on it.

On another note, there are tons of street chess players in downtown Atlanta. I suppose that a large homeless population correlates to a large street chess population - what else do they have to do? I briefly considered sitting down to play with them for a game. I think I will try one day soon - what do I have to lose?

Currently Watching: The Colony - horrible show.
Currently Reading: Nothing - forgot to buy a book this week.

Moved out

And I'm officially off. Well, our lease ends next week but my belonging are now dispersed along the east coast with the majority at my parents. On one hand, it's strange to consider that I've actually moved back to my parents house. But on the other hand, one step further away from the norm, of what everyone expects you to do. Let's see how it rides.

Tough travel week

I've experienced my fair share of difficult traveling and inconvenient mishaps that prolong arrival over the past years, but none ever ring as uncomfortable as the trip you just took. You always harp on the bad, never really take a step back to think about the good: I arrived safely.

Well, true to form, I had an uncomfortable experience, and like everyone else, I want to take the few lines and just call out some issues that I had. On my flight from dc to Atlanta, my flight was delayed one hour while sitting on the plane at 630 am, then cancelled due to mechanical issues. What luck! To make matters worse, we had a major pow wow at our client starting at 1pm. Hmph. I was able to, however, get on the one flight that would get me there on time at the last minute.

On the return leg to LGA, the loudspeaker told me, with no reason and with 10 minutes left of the flight that we were going to land in Philadelphia to refuel. WTF?

Right now I am waiting in lga for a shuttle to pick me up and giro my parents where I will have dinner with dad (brats and beer) then head up to Boston to move out of the apartment once and for all. Wish me luck.

New Pictures!

Take note of the albums on the right side of the page - there are plenty of pictures, both good and bad, but they provide a different perspective of my excursion. Who knows - you might be in a few!

Also note -all of these pictures are taken with an iPhone 3Gs - the quality may be lacking but its a small price to pay for not having to have another gadget on my person at all times.