Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Soul Food

Easter Sunday. Picture it people. Girls in their pastel dresses and white bonnets. Boys muddy from getting their sunday clothes dirty. Easter Eggs scattered throughout the yard. Chocolate bunnies with missing ears... Got it? got that picture in your head? Good... Now insert me into the middle of it wearing my jeans and t-shirt that I have been wearing for 3 whole freaking days! yes. That's right. Everyone else was pristine in their Easter Sunday best and my Easter dress that I had ordered was in Tuscon Arizona! 3 whole days without my clothes makes for a very frumpy, frazzled girl. But I still had a great Easter. In fact, I decided to make dinner Sunday night. We barbequed.

I decided to make 3 cheese baked macroni and cheese. Yum. I had visions of soul food dancing in my head. Forget sugarplums. Give me the barbeque, mac and cheese, and some chocolate cake. Yum! So I had the vision. I even made the grocery list. I even made sure that the grocery store was open before departing to ensure that victory would be mine. So we departed for the grocery store, list in hand, and purchased the ingredients. Jet lag and cosmic misfires aligning, we got all the way back to the house only to realize that I had neglected to get macroni! How does one make mac and cheese without the macroni? So I had to go all the way back to get the key ingredent. And then it was really yummy!

Thursday, April 05, 2007

The Revolving Door

Wow what an exhausting trip. But I am no worse for wear. Fear not for I am good. I'm making the most of my whirlwind tours until I came face to face with my new arch nemesis, the revolving door. No. This not some profound nemesis like in the movie Sliding Doors but an actual revolving door that decided to twart my ability to get precious hours of sleep. When I arrived at the hotel in Brussels Tuesday evening, the revolving door was the only one swinging. The hotel was quiet. All of the NATO politicians were nestled in their beds dreaming up new little policies for governing millions. Even the cleaning staff had departed hours ago.

Of course me, I just wanted to sleep. It had been a harrowing day of activity with tons of to and fro meetings. The install and meetings went well but even that wasn't enough to keep me energized throughout the night. Mr. Sandman decided to blast his sleeping draught at me like an epic blizzard. I had made it through. I was about to reach my goal after taking trains to gatwick, london victoria, heathrow and flying to brussels. Literally feet away from my absolute final destination, I was stopped dead in my tracks. You see precisely at midnight, the revolving door stops spinning. It powers down. No workie, comprendo? A few seconds before, I had stepped into the revolving door to make my journey to the hotel checkin when I saw it start to slow and eventually stop, trapping me inside. It took nearly an hour for me, laughing becuase what else is a sleep deprived girl to do at midnight trapped in a revolving door, to get out as the hotel staff had to call an electrician to power the revolving door back up. I made the night staff's night by that little stunt. Bridget Jones has nothing on me!

I am attempting to publish this on the blogspot which has automatically determined my IP address is in Belgium. Thus ALL THE FREAKING MENUS are in DUTCH. I should take a picture as you probably don't believe me... but here I am typing away with menus labelled, Veroffentlichen, Einstellungen, and Vorlage!?!

Monday, April 02, 2007

Travel Plans...

Here's an update for you. I know how much you love hearing my crazy schedule. So here goes. Hold on tight boys and girls because this is a wild ride. Tonight, in order to make an 8am appointment tomorrow, I have to take a train to Gatwick. This journey will probably be an uneventful train ride lasting approximately two hours. I'll get off at the airport, approach one of the many hotels in the area, check in, and sleep. Mind you this is after a full days worth of meetings that I am callously neglecting right now to write up this little tidbit. After I get up in the morning, I'm going to start off my day right with a nice running session because I am going to need it to keep my nerves from going haywire. So I have an 8am appointment in Crowley to do an install. This install should take about 2 to 3 hours to complete. Once that is done, I get back in a taxi, go to the hotel, pick up my bags, take a train to Victoria Station. Once at Victoria Station, depending upon time, I'll either leave my bag there or hitch an underground train to Paddington. Then zoom across town yet again for a meeting at Canary wharf. This meeting is going to last at least an hour and a half. Note time delays and travel times that this meeting is probably going to last until 5:30 pm. Lovely huh? I'm not even getting started yet. Once that meeting ends, I hop on the train to zoom back out of town. This time I'm destined for not Gatwick. No we couldn't have made it that easy but Heathrow where my 8pm flight will be anxiously waiting to take me to Brussels. Once at the Brussels airport, I deplane, get my bag, eat some dinner, and collapse into yet another hotel bed to start my day again at 5am tomorrow. Yippee.
Oh and by the way, my 2 and a half days in Brussels are easy cheesy.. Just get up at 5am, go running, drive 2.5 hours to little podunk customer site, train them on product usage and boring network performance stuff, and then drive the 2.5 hours back to the only decent hotel. Rinse and Repeat. Lovely huh? You think I'm crazy don't you? Well I am beginning to believe you're right.

Oh and I have a new set of goals and vision statement. I am taking steps to live the life I've always wanted! I can't wait to weigh 140lbs by August 18, 2007! I'm going to love being energic, fun, adventurous, and fun! Much love !