Traveling is such an adventure

I try and get home sometime between my Dad and Mom's birthday every year. Their birthdays are only a couple weeks apart, so we usually try and celebrate them together b/c I can only get a couple trips home a year. Since I've been traveling so much I decided to take advantage of the fact that my company will pick up my flight if I don't go back to DC first and make the most efficient use of my time. I book a flight leaving Thursday afternoon because that's when I always fly back from NY.

Now that the stage is set, let me tell you the rest of the story. I have a two hour working session with my clients late Wed afternoon. We are doing process design for a new IT process and I won't bore you with the details. Anywhoo...I screwed up so bad that I thought I was going to be asked to leave the client. My boss explains to me that I need to fix this tomorrow (Thursday) and I need to get it done now! My flight leaves at 2:40 PM and I'm in meetings all Thursday AM. Soooo...like the good corporate slave that I am, I change my flights to Friday stay an extra day and fix the problem. Which BTW, wasn't totally my fault as I was using work from another team in my company, but I didn't validate it and I'm the one on the hook. Back to the story...flight changes, fix the problem. All taken care of right?

10:30 PM on Wed, I'm done working and check the weather for Friday. HOLY SHIT!!!!! We're getting 6 - 8 inches of snow on Friday. I'm thinking I'm never going to get home for Dad's bday and I've already disappointed them by not being able to get home on Thursday.

I wake up to a winter wonderland on Friday AM. It's pretty, but have you seen the airports in NY during snow and bad weather? They get screwed up very badly very quickly. So I head to the office for my early morning meeting to rectify the Wed screw up. And........




the people coming to my mea culpa meeting AREN'T there b/c of the SNOW!!!!!! ARGH!! Ok..c.onf call, make everyone happy and call the car company to come get me and take me to LaGuardia praying my flight takes off. There is already a three hour inbound delay at LGA, a 5 hour delay at JFK and a 7 hour delay at EWR. Let's see, three hour delay at LGA, three hour layover in Charlotte for the last flight to Florence = missed flight home. Now I'm royally pissed b/c I'm never going to get home to see my parents.

At least I'll be able to get to DC if I can get to the train station.

But we have a happy ending, my flight takes off 1 hour late and I make my flight home. Now I just have to make sure I make the 5:45 AM flight out Monday AM.

5:45 AM flight. WTH was I thinking?!?!? Oh yeah, Daddy's girl has to go home for Daddy's birthday. I'd hate to disappoint. Plus I got a GREAT card. I knew he was going to cry! :)

Across the pond

I'm soooo freaking excited. My other half and I are finally taking that trip to London we've been talking about for years! Flying Virgin Atlantic premium economy which is first class on most other airlines. Using points for an awesome hotel near the Kensington Palace, going to see a soccer game and tour all kinds of neat things using the London Pass. I cannot tell you how excited I am to take this trip. I've never been to London and I've heard awesome things about it. I'm going to Harrod's, (hate on me all you want Terri, you've been there), Hard Rock to add to my shot glass collection, the Kensington Palace, London Tower and all kinds of stuff that I can't even begin to list.

Ok..I'm done being insane and am going back to my normal self. Updates to come as we get closer to trip date.

Be careful what you wish for...

because you just might get it.

Holy crap what have I gotten myself into?!?! I BMC'd about working governtment and wanted to go back to commercial work. Ok. I put my trnasfer in, wham, bam thank you ma'am I'm transfered with a nice 10% raise. This is all good right? Right!? RIGHT?!?!?!?

Well...not exactly. I knew there would be days where I worked crappy hours and travel is part of the gig (I like this part for the most part), but holy crap I'm tired of working this many hours in a week. My days are minimum 10 hours and usually 12 -14. I'm working weekends and traveling and giving up parts of my life I don't want to.

I flipped out this weekend b/c I volunteered to be on Terri duty post surgery (my pleasure chica....love you!) but based on her previous surgery I expected her to be still drugged up until 7 PM again. But oh no, she has to get new doctors who don't over sedate her and bam she's out by 2 PM. WTF?!?! There goes my carefully laid plans for Friday. :) So I lost 5 hours on Friday that I ended up having to make up on Sunday. Too much work, too little time. My assessment raise better be HUGE. B/c unlike some people I'm not getting a bonus for all this work.

Bastards. Or maybe it's just PMS. Whatever, chocolate makes everything better. :)

I love my job

Not. That is all.

I "heart" NY

I'm a convert. It's official, I'm a NY convert. I love this place. OK...now that I'm done fawning all over a city, I'll explain why. I spent the weekend in Manhattan with my other half as I managed to mostly recover from that lovely little virus I had last week. So I used points and stayed here. This place was very cool and I had no problem getting there from Queens without a car. It took a little while, but then again driving anywhere in DC takes an hour.

The view was fantastic and we had an upgraded room overlooking the Hudson and the skyline was absolutely gorgeous (even if it was the NJ skyline).

Friday night we wandered around, found a pizza place, ordered a pie, walked two more blocks to get drinks from this really neat little grocery store, and took it all back to the hotel to veg and just hang out. OMG...that pizza was fabulous. The crust was almost like soda bread and was extremely tasty.

Had a little sleep in on Saturday, but we did get out around 10 AM. Two subways later and about a mile walk we ended up at the MoMA because I'd never seen any Monet's in person. And let me tell you they are more gorgeous and interesting in person. We wandered around and ended up in the Arms and armor wing which was totally cool as well. Swords, armor, guns, helmets, shields and at least one suit of armor from Henry VIII. TOO COOL!

Back down to the NYU area b/c we wanted burgers and fries...at which point our carefully laid plans derailed. Leaving Blue 9, we ran into some of my other half's soccer friends. Into Nevada Smith's for one beer. Yeah right! Five Jamison's on ice later, I'm dying for some more food and we part ways with the friends. Gyros here we come. Once he finally figures out that we've walked about 9 blocks too far and we have to turn around. We end up here and I have the best gyro I've ever had. Split a hooka and about an hour later after hanging out talking to the owner we grab a cab back to the hotel. Because sometime in between finding Cinderella and leaving the temperature dropped dramatically.

I had a great time, spent some money, walked a lot, had great food that wasn't dramatically expensive and spent QT with my other half. Now I'm a convert. I soooo want to move here.



Just need to make more $$$ so I can afford my habits in this city. What do you think about this little place? It's only $6.1 million freaking dollars! We passed this walking to the MoMA and just for grins I got the address and realtor's name. HOLY SHIT! I'm never gonna make that kinda cash, but I'm sure with enough roommates we could afford it. :)

Downside of traveling (hack hack hack)

So my blog is called travelin girl adventures for a reason. I travel. ALOT! Mostly for work, but sometimes for fun. Hoping to do more of the fun stuff soon. Swiss Miss I so want to go to Austria with you!!!

Anyway, I finally succumbed to the bane of all travelers. I'm SICK! As in fever, hacking cough, chills, night sweats and all around feeling like poop! And this totally sucks b/c I'm supposed to spend next weekend in NY with my other half on our first mini vacation since I moved in last June. Life's been crazy over the holidays with work and other obligations and we haven't gotten to see much of each other. So we are really looking forward to playing tourist in Manhattan all weekend. Now I don't know if its going to happen.

Of course I have no choice about work. I have six weeks to finish up a project that we kicked off this week and there is a ton of work that needs to happen before the end of six weeks. So I have to be on site next week. Sick or no sick. Thank god for Motrin (vitamin M for those in the know).


It's the only thing allowing me to feel human right now. (time for more drugs...brb)





Ok...next dose of Motrin down the gullet. Back to traveling and being sick. I'm trying to decide how sick I need to be before I work from home and how much trouble I'd get into for doing so. I'll decide tomorrow night because my flight back to NY doesn't leave until Monday AM. I can always cancel at the last minute if I have to. I'm done complaining now...at least I'm not having surgery like some people.

Now I'm going back to sleep. I'll be happier later. :)

Christmas with the "Clucks"

Christmas rocked this year. It was great to go home, I got to see all the family and spend time with my Dad since he had his knee replacement. Mom kept the clucking to a minimum this year. She actually got all the groceries prior to me arriving, the sheets washed and the Christams tree was decorated before I got home.
Ok...enough of the sappy emotional stuff. I got LOOT this year. Dad went all out and I love my watch. He did good and Terri can live to see another day since she helped him pick it out. Thanks Terri!!!! I knew you'd come through for me.

This was our Christmas tree and I swear every year we say we aren't going overboard and this is what the tree looks like each year. And its just us! Eight adults and no little children.

And my brother and his girlfriend did absolutely awesome getting me my present as well. Check this neat little item out. Perfect for those of us who travel all the time. :) It's a travel pillow that folds out and becomes a feather cover for the hotel pillow. This is too cool and I'm totally loving it. I got other stuff as well. Mom has been buying this crystal for me and I can't remember the pattern name, but every time she goes antiquing and finds another piece she buys it for me. Of course I have no where to put it because I live in a 700 sq ft condo with my other half and my cat. There is no room at the inn. Tee hee, a little Christmas humor for everyone.

All in all, Christmas with the Clucks was a roaring success and I'm sorry its over now and I'm back home. But then again after four days with my family I'm ready for a break. Hope everyone had a happy holiday and here's to a great New Year's!