Cars and Taxis and Busses, Oh My!

So I learned in Lima that in order to cross the street here, you just throw caution to the wind and hope that the cars slow down. Also, there is no flashing red hand on the crosswalks... there is a time and a green walk symbol, and when that hits 0, the light changes immediately. Also, cars honk constantly, taxis honk at everyone they pass when they are available, and car alarms are ALWAYS going off. This noise continues all night long, constantly. My stash of earplugs is proving to be way more useful than I had even expected. The honking is definitely more annoying than the base bumping from the discoteque down the street.

Taxis in Ica and Huacachina are ridiculously tiny little three-wheeled things that look straight out of a cartoon and feel like they are going to fall completely to pieces as you buzz through the streets at speeds they don't appear capable of reaching. Dune buggies are terrifying pieces of equipment that threaten to cease to function at any moment (increasingly so the further out into the desert we got) and yet they bomb up and down the dunes like it was nothing.

Arequipa has similar tiny taxis but they are a little less breakneck about the speeds they travel at, and there appear to be stoplights at some intersections here, but never a walk signal or an angle at which you can see the other light, so you still have to throw caution to the wind and be honked at.

The busses on the otherhand have been lovely. I'm booked on the nicest line of busses in the country, so while I feel a little un-cultural for not taking the cheaper lines, I definitely feel WAY safer. I actually slept on my overnight bus, mainly because I took a pill, but also because I feel somewhat safer than I expected to (thus being willing to take a OTC pill). Mind you, I still have all valuables tucked into as far into inside zipped pockets and I sleep clutching my onboard backpack like it was a teddy bear, but at least I actually feel somewhat safe.

It's a Love/---- Relationship

I've been too down on my job lately. Part of it is the ever-changing state of the economy and how that has impacted life working for BER. The thing is, this job is only horrible if you can't find the shining moments you get every day.I am out on the road with a presenter who most PM's are not fond of, yet by sheer force of will I had a great time with last year. She's a ton of fun, but since she's a little more high strung and from Jersey, she can come off abrupt and rude. Plus, she's on the more high-maintenance side of the presenter spectrum, so you have to learn to expect the little requests without feeling miffed. Luckily this week I have a lot more energy than last week, and we're in great places. Last night we were in Charlottesville, one of my FAVE small towns I've been to, and after the seminar we dashed up for the last tour of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house. EEEE! I was so happy to get to see it since I've been forced to drive past the signs about 4 times last year. Then, as it was about 5pm, we went back to main street in Charlottesville for dinner at a tasty french bistro. This was after supping at Hamilton's the night before, the restaurant we had found last year on our trip to Charlottesville together. Two dinners in my favorite town?! YES please!!These are times when I love my job.

In-N-Out, or Furthering the Fast Food Agenda

What does one do when a 7pm flight gets delayed even further? Go to the airport at 4pm like normal? No. Not in Phoenix.

In the vein of my Chick-Fil-A epiphany, I made a bee-line straight for In-N-Out burger in Tempe by the ASU campus (thanks to MJC's awesome directions :)). Definitely still just fast food, but the fries alone made it worth it. The freshness was definitely a startling discovery... especially watching someone make fries from POTATOES. Who would have thunk it? Really, it was more fun to be able to say I finally ate at In-N-Out than anything else, but it made me giddy all the same.

Then I was off to Popagano park to wander around. I found out the Botanical Gardens were there, and headed over only to find that they were closed early for a luminaria display tonight... that started at 5:30, exactly when I needed to be dropping off my rental car. I glanced through the gates though, and was sad I had to miss it. The cashier directed me to walk up to Hole in the Wall trail, and so I did. I watched most of the sunset from this glorious rock formation, before heading back to the airport.

It's days like this, when I've ditched my presenter (even if they're a great one) and have some time to myself that make me so happy and remind me why I have this job.

A Historical Jaunt in Hartford

From time to time I get a presenter who urges me to go out and do something during the mid-day segment of the seminar. For the most part, this means I go work out, take a nap, or walk around the surrounding area so that I can stay close to the action in case things take a turn. However, the Hartford Hilton was taking great care of us (turned out, there wasn't much going on yesterday and performance reviews were coming up for the staff making them really energized to help us) and there were some things in town that I wanted to check out. The state capital building in Hartford is probably one of the most beautiful that I've seen throughout this journey, and I wanted to be able to actually take a picture of it. Also, Samuel Clemens' family home is located in Hartford (the site where he penned Huck Finn and most of his other popular books), and my english major soul was demanding that I go.

With all that in mind, I made sure to wear something appropriate that morning:

(Camera resting on a park bench by the capital building in Hartford...)

Wednesday's Outfit:

• white and purple long-sleeve v-neck t's, Target ($5 each!!)
• grey cardi, Old Navy
• black pencil skirt, Ann Taylor
• black belt, thrifted
• grey and black herringbone tights, target
• black flats, Mee Too via DSW
• shell earings, Hawaii souvenir

The layers and heavy tights kept me warm while very comfortable and didn't make me look so dressed up that I'd feel extremely out of place at a museum. The flats allowed me to walk around the park surrounding the capital building a bit, and wander through the Mark Twain museum as long as I could. I love my new tights by the way... I have another pair to show off soon as well. I didn't pack any dress pants this stretch on the road because a) they take up too much space, and b) they get baggy-saggy really fast and stop looking nice. So I made a target run on Monday to get tights to add to my wardrobe, and of course found 30 other things to get as well... Thus the new tops.

Yay tights!

More Photos:

The capital building was gorgeous in the filtered sunlight of the day. The photo doesn't even come close to doing it justice.

Larry and I posing in front of the Mark Twain house (which happens to be across a lawn from Harriet Beecher Stowe's house... American lit of the mid-1800's evidently has a stronghold in Hartford, who knew?!)

I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the Mark Twain house, but it was spectacular. The woodwoork, the stenciling, the furniture, the mantelpiece, the conservatory/"jungle", the billiards room where Sam Clemens wrote so many of his greatest works... and everything done up and decorated for christmas. It made me feel a bit voyeristic, but this was a guy who would have LOVED the attention we give celebrities nowadays, so I consoled myself with that fact as I stood mesmerized by everything in the house.

Of course, the consequence of having so much fun yesterday is that I am exhausted today. A nap it is!

Music to My Ears in Music City

Ahhh, Nashville. How I’ve longed to see you... And you didn’t disappoint!

After a lazy afternoon of working out at the hotel and hanging out at the airport in St. Louis, I arrived in Nashville in time to meet up with Heather and Lisa. We checked into our fabulous hotel (the Homewood Suites, and it was SWEET) and headed out to Broadway to see what was going on. There really was music playing everywhere, even from some speakers inside metal boxes on streetcorners. After some scary horse statues at The Wild Horse and watching some line dancin’ and two steppin’ from a safe distance, we packed it up and headed to The Stage, where we got our own dance on. Lisa and I knew most of the rock songs the band played, while Heather knew all the country ones (and we knew a few...). Singing and dancing along, enticing some fun flirtations and a free beer, we closed down the place and decided that we had started off our weekend quite well.

Saturday, we were off to do some hard-core boot shoppin’. Heather and Lisa both located perfect boots while I, ever the picky and frugal one, decided they neither fit into my wardrobe nor my suitcase. I did find a perfect pair of jeans however, and was quite happy with my purchase. While Lisa and Heather went to find a FedEx to ship themselves each a box of their new purchases, I napped (oh glorious sleep!). When I called them up, they had found themselves priced out of the country music museum ($20, who do they think they are? The MOMA?) and scoping out a more pricey ($40), but more exciting ticket--to the Grand Ole Opry show later that night! With the last few hours of Daylight we wandered around Vanderbuilt’s beautiful campus, and then headed back to prep for our second night out.

Dinner at Sambuca (on the recommendation of a Nashvillian who Lisa met in DC... gotta love how PM’s get around and get things done!) was off-the-charts amazing. Lots of small plates of tastyness--salads, lamb

meatballs, sweet potato melt-in-your-mouth gooey goodness, giant tater tots of greatness, puffs of italian cheese and ham, crab-stuffed avacado, and more, plus wine and cocktails came out to less than $50 a head! Plus there was live jazz. Yah, it really does get that good sometimes.

We snagged coffee to keep our full tummies from putting us to sleep and shopped for a bit more at Urban Outfitters (in which I wanted everything, but thank god for full suitcases!), then it was off to the Opry at the

Ryman theater. While we were sitting waiting for it to start, I wikipedia’d the Opry, realizing that none of us knew anything about it. Nothing could have prepared us though... The sparkley jackets! The honest-to-goodness twang! The folksy old radio commercials every other song! The Cracker Barrel jokes! The amazing and surpisingly diverse music that just kept on coming! “Devil Went Down to Georgia” played by Charlie Daniels himself! Really, we were grinning like idiots the whole time and when the two hours were over, we were half shocked it had gone by so fast.

But the night wasn’t over yet! Off we went to the bars, ending up at Tootsies, a dive the local girls in the boot shop had recommended. The place was jammed, and not necessarily in a good way. It was like a mosh pit of people of every age, shape, color, and creed imaginable. There was Obviously-Implanted Lady, and Douche-with-boobs-almost-as-big-as-hers, Stuck-in-the-80’s Man with curly long hair under his cowboy hat, and plenty of You-can’t-be-21 girls. Everyone was pushing and pulling and crammed into this tiny alley of a bar. We stayed for a bit, and then when we decided to bail, it was 5 minutes before we could make it the 20 feet to the front door. Seriously, a fire code nightmare, but a great story.

The next morning, we warded off of our hangovers with a brisk walk to the Copper Kettle, a great brunch spot (and only #3 in Nashville according to their own sign). Everything you could ever want was there for you... and we definitely took advantage. It really topped off a wonderful weekend. Nashville, I love you.

I Hate My Job/I Love My Job

I hate my job when... the presenter treats me like a personal assistant, asks me to go get her heavy box out of the car for her, and has a tone in her voice that simply says she thinks I am beneath her.

I love my job when... I basically say, "Peace out!" and go for a run on the sunny and sandy boardwalk in Virginia Beach during my lunch break. Don't you dare give me crap for it, I'm driving your snoring and drooling butt almost 4 hours tonight, so damn straight I'm taking an hour and a half for lunch.Damn Straight.

A Million Stories to Tell

The problem with having a blast constantly on the road is that there's no time or energy left to blog about it. Lets just go back in time a bit and see if I can cover some of the fun I've had making the most of my weekends:

Las VegasYou can't blame me for not posting... *cue cheesy joke about what happens in Vegas*

My first trip ever to Vegas was a blast, mostly thanks to the group I was there with. I had the best hotel-roommates ever and we enjoyed both crashing early the first night and getting sleep as well as getting a little crazy with some press on tattoos in our pre-going out prep session for the Saturday night festivites. We walked up and down the strip, enjoying the 65 degree all the more since we'd all come from places that had been below freezing. I could hardly believe how tacky everything was--the gigantic open containers, the clothes, the posters, the cards littering the ground, even the casinos themselves! I gambled a grand total of $1 and lost it in 4 pulls of the handle but managed to find the perfect fake coach purse that I'd been looking for.

When we went out Saturday night, we went to a bar on the roof of the Rio hotel and enjoyed an absolutely spectacular view along with a few minutes of a VIP open bar that we managed to sneak into. I was sadly the first person to be waved off by the bartender when the 10pm cutoff for the open bar hit, but the guy in front of me (who had gotten some drinks) at one point had turned around and accientally whacked my arm pretty well. I guess he felt bad because he ordered one extra drink and handed it to me, without hanging around to awkwardly chat me up!! Best free drink ever! I had brought along a fun little pink dress that I'd bought in mexico and a big black belt that i figured would help bring it to Vegas standards. Turns out wearing anything other than black (and I was in HOTT pink) meant I stood out. After having some serious anxiety about not fitting in by wearing a dark colored shirt-or-dress, I ended up getting so many compliments I was handily put in my place for freaking out.

Generally, it was a blast, and I enjoyed getting to know a lot of my co-workers much better.

Charleston
I decided that I wanted to go to Charleston, SC when I realized I was going to be stuck in the Virginia area for three weeks straight, yet no other program manager was available to join me in picking up another (warm) state. Luckily I have awesome friends who are willing to fly cross country and/or drive 5 hours to join me for a weekend. Kirsten found a fabulous 2 hour walking tour that ended up being 3 hours, and we covered miles and miles while looking at some amazing old buildings. Charleston is a quintessential southern town and theyve done a great job of keeping beautiful old buildings in the old part of town intact and well kept. Of course, Maureen and I wandered a bit of the non-walking tour part of town and there are some typical college housing type buildings near the university. Again I managed to enjoy a weekend in the sunshine and near-60 degree temps with great peeps. We had a fun dinner out, although nothing requiring pink dresses.

Charleston really did surprise me with how extremely beautiful it was, along with how freaking huge (and how close to the waterfront) Steven Colbert's childhood home is.

The Other WashingtonOkay... how the F did I get three 60+ degree stayovers in January and February?!

I rolled into DC this weekend because I ended one week just south of the city and started the next week 2 hours away in Richmond. After dropping of the bags and my rental car, I spent the evening walking the Mall up and down as the sun set. I ended up freezing, but kept going and got some amazing photos (they'll be up soon at flickr.com/photos/arirose) of the sunset. I almost cried at the Lincoln memorial, and did the same in front of the white house. Then I took myself out to a nice dinner and met up with another program manager (a different Kirsten) who was in town with some friends. We went out and experienced all the yuppiness of DC, including a round of 10 irish car bombs bought by some kind of banker who was seirously drunk and trying to impress Kirsten. Damn those things are good... and have a lot of alcohol!

The next day I hit up museums for about 5 hours. I saw the dinos and diamonds at the Natural History Museum, the Star Spangled Banner and first ladies dresses at the American History Museum and some amazing art at the National Gallery and American Art museum. I poked my head in so many places and wandered past so much beautiful architecture throughout the weekend that I was overwhelmed. The capital really is spread out... I walked between 5-10 miles every day, easily. Today I was able to enjoy the sunshine and visit the market for a bit as well as go to a couple more museums before picking up my car and heading south.

________

There's a lot more to be said about things that have happened in the last couple weeks, but I figure the facts of the stayovers are the most interesting to all of you, so I thought I'd start there. Hopefully in the next four days before I come home for break I'll get around to transcribing some of the things I've had written in my journal and give an update on what I've been doing mid-week to keep me from posting anything :)

Penny for Your Thoughts

Six cents worth:

1. Who knew central Pennsylvania was so beautiful?

2. Is it really a compliment when your presenter says he likes that "you drive fast but not carelessly"?

3. I've acclimated. Fifteen degrees is no longer cold.

4. It's amazing how magnificant my own bed seems once I've been on the road more than a week, even though the hotel beds are sometimes so much better appointed.

5. McDonnalds coffee is not much cheaper and definitely not better than Starbucks coffee. And when I ordered, the girl couldn't fathom someone ordering a latte without a flavor.

6. Driving sometimes requires caffine. Sleeping requires a lack of caffine. This is how one becomes sleep deprived.

A Trip to the Windy City

After probably one of the best weeks out with one of the best presenters that I've had so far, I finished my week in Chicago, in one of the worst hotels I've had to deal with. Luckily, I didn't have to stay the weekend in that hotel. I met KAL at O'Hare and then we took the train into the city to stay at the la-di-da Hyatt right downtown. As always, K had a good connection and got us a "Regency Club" room, for super cheap! We got to our room with my crazy load of luggage (thanks for the help toting my big bag K!!) and then went to enjoy the "hot appetizers" in the special lounge for "guests who require an even higher level of service than the Hyatt standard."

We chose convienience over finding a true conniseurs restaurant in the sub-freezing temperatures and found a deep dish pizza place nearby to grab dinner. After dinner, we went wandering around just to see a bit of what surrounded the hotel and see if we could find a bar. Both of us gasped in pure christmas travel joy at the sight of a beautiful old building which had been lit red and green at the top. Across the river we found a gigantic statue of the American Gothic figures in front of the NBC building (and Chicago Tribune sign!) but no bars. So we wandered back across and found a place to get a Sam Adams (since that's what people in other parts of the country drink when they're not drinking Bud, I'm still getting used to not being able to get Mac'n'Jacks ever).

By the time we got to the bar we were pretty much frozen solid. Turns out people have long puffy coats for a reason, and not just as a fashion statement. I decided that I needed to buy the flat, wrap-around black fleece ear muffs that I saw on all of the men about town.

We called it a night pretty early, since we were both exhausted, and proceeded back to the hotel for some absolutely fabulous sleep. This bed... oh god. It was spectacular. There was some kind of thick feather-bed top to it, and it just was so cushy i just melted into it. Although, after having had so many king beds to myself I had to remember that I couldn't turn fully horizontal on the bed during the night.

The next day we had breakfast at the Regency Club room and then went out shopping in the decidedly Seattle-esque weather (45 and chance of showers). Throughout our time on the Magnificant Mile I decided two things: 1) Ann Taylor Loft is KAL's store, but generally not mine. With the exception of a ridiculously on sale (66% off!) pencil skirt. and 2) Designer Jeans don't automatically make you look good. I tried on two dressing rooms full, and decided that I didn't like them any more than I liked my previous $50 pair, in fact I liked them a lot less. Sadly, I didn't find the perfect pair of earmuffs but we did find a Noodles and Co for lunch!

We weathered the rain and enjoyed Millenium park (Yay Bean!) and then met up with another program manager who happened to be in chicago the same weekend. She (well, her cousin who lived in Chicago) helped guide us to a little german christmas market where we proceeded to drink gluewhine (or whatever you call it) and wander around. We were icicles again at this point, since the market was outside and the rain was still falling. Back to the hotel we went to try on our new purchaces and get ready to go out to a show.

We'd gotten half-price tickets for "The Christmas Schooner," at a little theater in Belmont. I found the show a little hoaky for my taste, but it was fun regardless. The story is about a Michagan sailor who in the late 1800's filled up a boat with christmas trees and sailed across the icy lake to bring the trees to Chicago. I was sudenly sturck with amusement that sailing a lake could be so dangerous, but one look out our hotel window (and some jibes from KAL) reminded me that those lakes are BIG. In fact, they're Great. :P

In the morning we met up with one of KAL's friends who had moved to chicago and had an amazing breakfast with gigantic cinamon rolls. We then wandered over to check out Wrigley field, and then we were off again back to fabulous O'Hare. My flight got delayed multiple times (thank you Northwest!) but I ended up finally making it to Kansas City. All in all a great trip!!

New Jersey Tackiness

Really...?

Fake frescoes on the ceilings, fake marbling on fake columns, gaudy Christmas decorations everywhere, fake Grecian statues, gold accents everywhere, and even a ceiling panel that has the constellations of the night sky on it. It's like a low-rent version of all things holy.

Not to mention the glorious Christmas music on a loop. Everything from operatic style carols, to children's choruses, to some kind of chintzy organ music.

I am in hell.

Although, when it comes right down to it this week I've been enjoying things more than in the last few previous weeks. In Manchester I got out and drove around town a bit, and my presenter is great fun. Yesterday after the seminar, we drove through "downtown" trying to find a place to grab something to snack on since our flight was so late. We discovered that almost nothing in Manchester is open at 3pm, especially nowhere that you could get a glass of wine. After a few instances of "driving like a Bostonian" (ie backing up and making u-turns/3-point turns in traffic) we managed to find an irish pub that served only pizza. It was good pizza at least!

She drove to town in a PT Cruiser so we had a car in Manchester, and after taking that thing for a spin (or two or three in downtown Manchester...) I ended up getting another one for us now that we're in Jersey (although it's a much better color... Cherry Red rather than Electric Shock Blue). It's much more fun to drive than the gigantic SUV's I've been having previously, even though no matter what color it is, it's still an ugly car.

Next, we get to drive the Jersey Turnpike to Newark. My wallet is drastically weighed down with coinage for this part of the treck... I'm pretty sure I went overboard. I'm guessing I've got about 10-15 dollars in coins. That's what I get for packing them the morning I was leaving. I'll definitely have to let you know how the hotel that is next to the correction center turns out... Yay Newark!

The Seasons

So I had a week of summer two weeks ago, then a week of fall in New England last week, and this week the trees are bare and I got my first snow flurry! It's fun having things change like that as I pass through.

Some days I don't take a lot of photos because I'm simply trapped in the hotel room or on the way to the airport. It's sad not getting a good idea of a city, but at the same time, I can't do and see everything. My exhaustion this week proves it.

I think I have hit the lull point of the new-job process, where I'm not quite 100% at the job, but it's familiar enough that I relax into it... and make a lot of mistakes. At least it's generally okay to make mistakes in life. I still feel bad when things go funky though.

I had an amazing conversation with my Kelly temp today, a man who grew up in Nigeria and moved to the US and then Canada. It's fun meeting people along the way and suddenly finding myself in deep philosophical conversations.

This weekend I need to do nothing on a grand scale.

You Are My Lucky Star…

My mother constantly says I live under a lucky star, and I have to say I agree. When my cab driver picked me up in Long Island to drive us to LGA airport, I left a solid 2 hours to allow for traffic. We made it the 60 miles in about 65 minutes. Before you think anything, just know that we also left our hotel at 5pm. The driver was in as much shock as I was, probably even more!

Sometimes I am stunned at how lucky I am, but maybe I just recognize it more often. There’s plenty of unlucky things that have happened already: my flight was canceled yesterday, my tortillia soup in San Antonio was disgusting, there have been multiple issues with my faxes for work, my projector bulb died, and let’s face it… I haven’t gotten a presenter who liked to go out of the hotel. But for all those things that are bad (the flight and the bulb being by far the worst), it’s always worked out. I got put on a better flight than I was booked for yesterday. My projector problem was fixed in less than five minutes. And actually, for all the bad food and exhausted presenters, I’ve still gotten out and gone into more cities in the last few weeks than I’ve ever managed before in a similar string of time. I even maximized time in Seattle by running off to Leavenworth with some friends to eat brats and take fall photos.

Rochester was a fun city to be in actually. There was beautiful old architecture and lots of newspaper buildings and statues around town. I wandered during lunch and then picked up a sandwich at a shop on my way back to the hotel. Then today in Ronkonkama (Long Island) I met up with another PM and we found lunch in a little part of town called Sayville, which was adorable looking and had AMAZING pizza. This is the kind of life I lead now. Sometimes I just want to explode with happiness and amazement. This is an almost daily experience. How did I get here again?

I really am a lucky girl. I can hardly believe it sometimes. But the more I believe it the luckier I get. I really think it’s half grace, half attitude—half blessing, half my own openness and efforts—never all my own credit, but partly my fault. Or maybe I just like to think so.

Rolling Through

Making the most of the short time I have in a city is sometimes really difficult. When I get into town it's already dark and then I have to combat hunger and fatigue to get myself to move. This week is both easy and hard because I'm flying everywhere... Hard because I have no mode of transportation other than cabs but easy because I've got some great cities.

In Houston I took the hotel shuttle to get some BBQ at Goode Co. The next night in San Antonio, I made the effort to go out and see the alamo and riverwalk on the local shuttle, but I ended up spending money on a cab ride home (although, for <$10 total, it was worth it!). Dallas was a stay at the hotel night, since we were in the middle of nowhere. Phoenix was fun because another PM was in town and so we went out to get some dinner. Then last night my presenter and I went to the hotel bar to chat, drink, and look at some of her amazing photos from her african safari. Today my flight doesn't leave until late so I'm going to be able to check my bags at the hotel and borrow their shuttle to Old Town to wander around the fun parts of Albuquerque.

So all in all, I guess I'm making the most of this job. I'll see how much I can keep this up, especially in colder climates. Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough, or doing my job well because there is no one around to compare myself to. Perhaps that's the best thing of all... to be in a position to not really compare myself to other people. I definitely get feedback messages from my manager to reconfirm that I am not screwing up and in fact am doing quite well. God I appreciate those after not having much in the way of real feedback in my previous jobs... or maybe I just appreciate feeling managed rather than feeling like someone who is supervised by someone who makes awkward the general feeling surrounding them.

Oh, and by the way...

where the hell did all these social skills come from?

...and why have I been relegating myself to being the "nerd" when the only nerdy thing I really have going is the fact that every once in a while I throw out a rather large (but utterly appropriate) word?