Feelin' Minnesota

Well, here I am in the NWA Club Lounge at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, sipping a free Bloody Mary. Gigi from NWA gave us passes to the lounge, and I must say, it's pretty sweet.

The trip went pretty well, with a few exceptions.

Exception #1: When I got to the gate, it was mobbed. Turns out that the flight that was leaving before mine was delayed for 4 hours. Everyone was pissy and bitter, as I'd be. Well, Chickie and Pete's bar was right across from the gate. I watched a lone middle aged woman with HUGE hair stumble out of the bar and to the gate. As she walked past me, she fell on her face (no, I did not trip her). A man who is a much nicer person than I am helped her up and asked her if she was okay. She slurred some unintelligible nonsense and then leaned over and puked a little bit, right on the carpet. Gross.

Luckily, just about then, they made an announcement that my flight was changing gates, so I had the opportunity to leave that scene behind.

My flight took off with no problems and by the time I'd landed and got to baggage claim, my bag was already there. I hopped onto the free shuttle and got to my hotel, the Radisson Bloomington by the Mall of America, by 8:15 - just in time to dump my stuff in my room and hit up the mall.

The mall was about 2 minutes from the hotel, so I got there by 8:30. I only had an hour before it closed but I did a little bit of shopping - I bought a pair of shoes for my friend's wedding at Nordstrom. Then I went to Ruby Tuesday's (ugh) and sat at the bar to have dinner.

And then I got back to my room.

First of all: there was a little nook with two sets of bunk beds in my room, in addition to the queen bed. Very strange. A family with four kids could stay in that room for $150 a night.

Secondly: there was a sliding glass door and a balcony that looked out into an indoor water park. I kid you not. It was cool for about a second but then I realized that it was a lovely night and I had no opportunity for fresh air, because my door opened to a chlorine-smelling enclosure.


Anyway, I did some work, watched a little TV, and went to bed.

This morning, I got ready, then did some more work, and ordered room service for breakfast. At noon, I went down to the lobby and met up with Joel. It was really dark in my room without any sunlight coming in the window. Stupid water park.

The hotel called a car for us to get to NWA, and the driver got lost. It was NOT fun. I told him "We're going to Northwest Airlines, 2700 Lone Oak Parkway..." and he said "Oh, I know where it is." Then he took us to the airport. And then gave us a lot of attitude when we told him he was wrong. Then he got lost on the way to the office, and we ended up being a few minutes late to our meeting. I called Gigi and she was cool about it (she said it happened to everybody) but we got to the offices soon enough.

Our meeting went well. It was nice to finally meet them face to face; I've been working on the account for over 2 years now. They were very impressed with Joel's Omniture dashboards and we all left happy.

After the meeting, Joel headed to the airport but I had hours to kill, so I went back to the mall, but didn't buy anything. It was too overwhelming, plus it was starting to get busy and I hate crowds. Then I went back to the hotel to get my stuff and came to the airport.

My flight boards in about 20 minutes so I'll have to leave this cushy lounge soon.

All in all, not bad. People out here (except for our driver) are very, very friendly.

Bienvenido a Miami

Well, I didn't get to go anywhere as exciting as Hong Kong so I apologize in advance for this blog being boring as hell. But since my flight back to Philly is delayed, I have some extra time on my hands, so I am going to blog anyway.

Honestly this wasn't the smoothest trip. Nothing horrible happened, but there were a lot of minor inconveniences.

First, the aircard I got from IT didn't work. No biggie, though, I just bought wireless at PHL.

We boarded the plane on time, but took off about 45 minutes late. Why? Well, first, they had a problem with a microphone, so they got a replacement, and then the replacement didn't work. Then, after that was all taken care of, the jetway got stuck onto the plane. They literally couldn't get it off. Last summer, when I flew down here with Rich, we flew US Airways as well, and that time, we took off late because the air conditioning pack (whatever that is) wasn't working. I think that US Airways has a list somewhere of ridiculous excuses that they use when the pilot is late or something. Weird stuff that nobody would even question because it's just so damned weird.

We made up the time in the air and got to Miami only about 15 minutes late. Then I went to baggage claim, where I proceeded, as usual, to start to freak out when my bag wasn't the very first one out. As Ray can attest to, I am very impatient, so when I don't see my bag right away, I get frustrated, but more importantly, I start to worry that it got lost. It's totally neurotic, I know, but I can't help it. Anyway, my bag finally made it out (after almost everyone was gone) and I went to catch the free shuttle to my hotel.

While I was waiting for the shuttle, a little old lady started talking to me. She was freaking out because she called the Days Inn for a shuttle and they weren't there yet. She was totally panicking and said that could barely see, so I had to read all the shuttle signs for her. It was like:

"Is that it?"
"No, that's Avis."
"Is THAT it?"
"No, that's the Holiday Inn."
"Is THAT it?"
"No, that's the employee shuttle."
Etc.

Finally, I asked her how long she'd been waiting and she said 15 minutes. I was like, "Uh, maybe you should wait before you start to panic, then." Then my shuttle came and I left her there. I hope her shuttle eventually came. Poor scared little old lady.

The hotel was nice, especially my room. I took pictures and then realized that nobody would be interested in seeing them. It wasn't THAT nice. I did some work (which took forever because the wireless connection at the hotel kept crapping out and because I was having VPN issues) and ordered room service, then went to watch my Buffy DVD special features disc, but the DVD player on my laptop wasn't working. Instead, I watched some "Sex and the City" (which I never get to do at home because of the boy) and then went to sleep.

This morning, all of the elevators weren't working. Walking down ten flights of stairs ain't no big thing, but walking UP ten flights of stairs, well, it sucks.

Then, I found out from Chad, the account director on Carnival, that our meeting was changed from 3-4 to 4-5, but nobody had told me or Josh. Meanwhile, Josh had shown up at the hotel and was waiting for me in the lobby.

So we sat around in the lobby for like HOURS, and ate lunch in the hotel restaurant. My hotel was called the Sheraton Miami Mart, because it was connected to the Miami Mart, which is basically a small mall full of really tacky shops selling tourist crap, slutty looking bathing suits, ugly handbags, etc. I went into an accessory store where all the merch was 2 for $7,50 and couldn't find a single thing that I'd even want to spend that piddling amount of money on. But, William, please note: there was a Starbucks attached to the hotel.

Steve, the senior account manager on Carnival, picked us up and we had our meeting. It went well - probably the only thing that was 100% smooth on this trip. Which is good, since that's what we came for, after all. They seemed receptive and enthusiastic to what we'd planned for 2008.

Then, Chad drove us to the airport, where I found out my flight to Philly is at least an hour delayed. Sigh. I'm also kind of panicking because I didn't realize that the parking deck at PHL was run by PPA, and I have two unpaid parking tickets (they are not just unpaid, I am appealing them both, but I haven't heard back from them and so I remain not paying them. Non-violent resistance). Anyway, I am so scared that there will be a boot on my car when I get there. I backed into my spot so that my plate wouldn't be totally visible when the PPA drives by, but I'm sure they are hip to that stealthy tactic.

Cross your fingers for me.

Hong Kong Observations

Trip is Over
Well, I'm back at work but not entirely back on U.S. time. Our journey is complete and I am disappointed that I will not be able to blog since the excitement in my life has subsided for now. I figured I'd take one last opportunity to post to our travel blog with my closing thoughts on our trip to Hong Kong.

Mac Tonight Still Employed
Its refreshing to know that Mac from the Mac Tonight is still gainfully employed. He is here in Hong Kong promoting McDonald's 24 hour service. I was unable to snap a pic of the advertisement with Mac that I saw on the side of a bus because buses in HK drive about 80 mph down little streets. If you forgot Mac, here is what he looks like.


Facial Hair
This was Williams observation but I find it very interesting. No men in HK have facial hair. Not sure why but I spent most of the day Friday looking for a guy with facial hair. This new obsession most likely distracted me from finding funny signs but it was to interesting to ignore. William was the only guy I noticed in HK with facial hair. On Saturday I finally saw a guy with facial hair whom I wish I took a picture of. He kinda looked like the guy in Kill Bill that trained Uma Thurmond. I think he might have been homeless. So, in translation, only homeless guys have facial hair.

Baseball Hats
Guys don't seem to where baseball hats here. Maybe it's illegial and that is why the cop in the airport told William to take his off. I did see some teenage girls wearing the trailer trash mesh hats when we were in the mall yesterday so baseball hats don't seem to be banned all together.

Litter
While the city seems to have a constant smoggy haze hanging over it and many of the buildings are pretty dirty and shack-like, HK is surprisingly litter free.

Chop Sticks
While I'm sure the fish heavy diet of the Chinese plays a part in why they are so thin, I think more of it has to do with Chopsticks.

Hong Kong Rich
With the exchange rate being about $7.80 to $1 American, one could get the impression he was rich. William and I referred to this as "Hong Kong Rich". We were very disappointed to learn that they just raised the prices of products so pricing was equivalent.

Crossing Signals
Every intersection in Hong Kong has a crossing signal that has a clanking sound that rings when it is safe to cross. This clanking sound gets faster as the signal gets closer to changing to red. It really adds suspense to the situation. For me, the sound translated into a little old Chinese man saying hurry, hurry, hurry over and over again.


Disappointments
There were a few things about the trip that were disappointing.

Toilet Technology
Watching the Simpson's travel to Tokyo led me to believe that Asia was far advanced when it came to toilet technology. Sadly, my toilet did not make any sight seeing suggestions and while it didn't say so, I don't think it was happy to receive my waste.

Avenue of the Stars Omissions
The following stars were omitted on the Hong Kong Avenue of the Stars.

• Hong Kong Phewy
• Long Duck Dong - AKA - Gedde Watanabe
• China the Wrestler - While not Chinese, she should be acknowledged for her representation of the country.

Chinese Game Shows
Again, this is probably more of a Japanese thing, but I was excited to watch game shows hoping that they would be funny like the Japanese shows I have seen. Unfortunately the Chinese do not share the game show genius gene that the Japanese possess. I was only able to find one game show that seemed to be a low budget Price is Right rip-off.

Historical Sightseeing
I was disappointed to learn that most of the sightseeing in Hong Kong was either man made sights or shopping locations. Hong Kong doesn't seem to have a well preserved history, or if they do, they don't promote it well.

Overall it was a really good trip. I don't think I would ever would have ventured to the east if it wasn't for my job. It looks like we will be going back soon so we will be able to add to this blog in the future.