Friday, August 20, 2010

Work!

Current Location: LIC, NY

Been 10 days - apologies. But an eventful 10 days to say the least - hence the lack of upkeep on the blog.

The theme of the last two weeks has been: work! We've been closing out our project in Atlanta so my dedication has swayed to the "work side" of the work/life balance. Still, the usual travel has occurred - Boston last weekend and this weekend is NYC.

Boston: First, travel delays seem to follow me every week to the ATL airport. Last Thursday I ran out of my clients building - leaving a meeting - to catch a plane - I had about an hour until my flight was supposed to embark. I entered a cab, told the cabby my perdicament and he got me there with 30 minutes to spare. I walk in, look for my flight on the departure monitors - Three flights were heading to Boston that evening but only two displayed, and mine was not one of them! I then recieve a phone call from delta informing me of the newly declared 2 hour delay to Boston! Apparently it was due to weather in the north with our plane - coming from DC - was delayed initially. I sat down next to a fellow heading to Philly (The passengers to Philly actually got on their plane and then were asked to debark due to the weather) who decided to be chatty. Although grumpy due to the delay, I entertained the conversation and he proceeded to tell me how his friend was just informed that he had a year left to live. Moral of the story - 2 hour delays aren't so bad.

The 2 hours, however, slowly turned into 3 - Delta decided to bring in a new plane from the hangar and had to clean it. Now, usually I am one to defend the airline attendants - I know that its an inconvenience to the patrons to be delayed, but it's not the employees fault - there are standard operating procedures that they follow and like all of us, they are running a business. My gripe can be conveyed by switching loyalty, but rarely will I ever expel discontent verbally. This, however, seems silly to me - the manager knew that our plane was not going to be able to take us, so they should have brought the new plane in an hour earlier. However, if this delay did not occur, I would not have been able to see a man who looked like he was 45 kiss a girl who could have been 23. It seemed possible that they were father and daughter, so I initially let it slide. Curious me, however, decided to talk to them a bit and I quickly found out a few facts: 1) She was in college 2) She was headed to Boston for a family reunion and 3) (said by the 45 year old) "Her father loves to have us over - this is my second time going up but this time I don't need to bring my golf clubs which makes the travel a heck of a lot easier"... wtf?

After all of this (and the whole time I felt bad for my sister who would have to be woken from her sleep on a thursday night because I was so delayed) we step onto the plane. I find my seat (middle seat again - really getting shafted on Delta lately) and start talking to the man in the aisle. Quick description - he looked and sounded like the depiction of michael jackson from the simpsons. We start discussing the delay and the captain comes on. Everyone knows, as a rule, that the captain never speaks over the PA until the plane is about to take off - so I knew a delay was coming. "Hey folks - Good news is that we got you the plane to get to Boston. However, I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but the flight crew just timed out. There is another crew coming from Tampa, but it's going to be at least an hour"...wow. So MJ and I kept talking - turns out he is a millionaire who has developed 4 platforms for accounting departments at law firms all over the world who started out as a musician in Connecticut church. Crazy. I got to Lexie's at 1AM - what a trip.

Boston was a great weekend - Lexie and Chris' new home is beautiful in Harvard Sq (there are a few pictures that will be uploaded soon). I spent Friday night initially at a happy hour at Grill 23, then with a few friends in Brookline setting off fireworks and drinking. The next day I headed to Mattapoisset (essentially the Cape) for an old client celebration party and saw my old team. Activities spanned from Tubing to Bocci and finally met a friend's husband (who I would eventually see at 5 AM in Logan two days later). My old supervisor's Chocolate lab came along for the ride (see pictures) and he has grown a ton in the past year! Sunday was spent watching TV, reading Brokeback Mountain (great book but definitely surprising since I hadn't seen the movie), furniture shopping with Lex and Chris (never again), comsuming fuddruckers for the first time (definitely again - thanks Chris!), watching Inception (fantastic - edge of my seat), and closing the night out with an episode of Mad Men. The flight to Atlanta was on time as usual and ran into Kim Rziemen (Lexie's friend) and Brian (husband of my ex-colleague).

Atlanta this week was all work and no play, but definitely worth it in the end. The flight out, somehow, was only 30 minutes delayed! What's more is that I ran into a friend who went to my highscool, college and now works for a competitor sitting two seats away. We talked for a solid 30 minutes, then I transitioned my attention towards a Belgian girl next to me that works in the "Deco" department of perfume bottles - I always wondered how perfume companies come to the decision on a hot pink colored container with two twists in the glass that make it look like a runover swan - and it still comes out beautiful.

Bill was there to pick me up last night - great feeling to see a familiar face when you land. If anyone needs a ride in NYC - let me know and I'll pass along his information.

I've also decided to try and add a new element to my posts - notable people that I've met since the last post. Here is my first attempt - I wonder if this will be neat to look back on in the future?

Currently listening to: Jeff Buckley
Currently Reading: Metamorphisis - Kafka.
Recently met people whose names I remember: Brian Cline, Hossain (new member of the genzyme team), the Marstons, Matt (Walker's friend who creeped out some of my friends at a party in Boston), Carine Schulte (airplane companion).

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