As I Sit and Reflect..........

Here I sit in the Dallas Love Field airport at 5:57pm on a Thursday evening. I could have been on the 4:15pm flight and already been home and getting ready for my Zumba class but no. here. I. sit. It's my fault, TOTALLY my fault.........so here's how it went down........The Good, the BAD and the Drag.....lol

So to give you a little history - I'm now on a project here in Dallas, TX. The project has it's challenges, however the work "afterlife" is pretty sweet. For instance.....my coworker Nikki and I went out with my bestest gay last night and his ex. Where can you get pictures such as this?!: So had a great night....and a great week with my gal Nikki. We were at the airport here in Dallas today being silly and racing each other in the security line to see who could win. I zip through my line and with a victory dance totally rub it in that I was the winner! (yeah me!) The TSA workers were laughing at us. We gather our things and head down to the gates. Nikki walked with me to my gate and then we said our goodbyes.

I sat in my gate for about 30mins or so listening to Obama's stimulus speech at Caterpillar (which was pretty cool by the way) and making phone calls to arrange a super fun evening with my friend Connie. (Fun to me these days is going to an exercise class called Zumba!! - pathetic I know). I get in line to board the plane - me an my A40 (Southwest) and proceed to walk down the jetway to the plane. I carry one of those roller bags, so as you travelers know, rolling a bag down an airplane aisle is pure torture so I retract my handle down and pick up the bag. Except it felt like 10lbs. lighter. Uh oh.........

Yup.......no laptop......

::::::FREAK OUT MODE::::::FREAK OUT MODE:::::::FREAK OUT MODE:::::::

So I suddenly kinda hyperventilate..........and as usual, in a panic I call Paul. (Mr. Calm, Cool and Collected) Told him what happened and he said, "No problem honey, don't worry I'll call you back in about 5 minutes". Oh I love that man.

So I find a seat (window of course - my preferred) and sit down to catch my breath. As I sit there I'm thinking the entire time "Should I really leave the airport?!?!" I mean I do have a Zumba committment tonight!? lol So Paul calls back and he was able to get ahold of the airport lost and found and they had reported that they had a Dell computer turned in a little bit ago, however someone claimed it already. Mine was a Lenovo laptop. Damn.

I wasn't hearing what I needed to, so I decided to deplane. I told the stewardess what my dumba$$ did, and I needed to go see if anyone had found it. She said no problem - and I rush off the plane......(thinking there MIGHT be a slight chance that I would actually get back on that flight home - yeah right.)


I went down to security and they were super nice looking in every nook and cranny to find my missing laptop and no dice :( The nicest security guard named Scott Thompson took my business card and make/model and said he would call me if anything showed up.


::::::::BREAK DOWN::::::::BREAKDOWN::::::::BREAKDOWN::::::::::::


I went into the bathroom and had a "moment" to myself to think about what I had done. Thoughts of "OMG this is soooooo not Dave Ramsey and I'm going to have to pay for a $2000 laptop", and "Damn! I made really good progress on that Training Style Guide today?!" and "All my passwords and information are on there!??!"......breathe......breathe.......breathe........

So I call:
(1) Mom to tell her I wasn't going to be arriving at 5:00pm
(2) Paul to see what I needed to do
(3) Suzanne so she could look up a number for me to call such as 1-800-DUMBA$$

Everyone of course was so super sweet to calm my nerves (thanks guys). Suzanne advised I needed to call my manager Michelle (which I was so afraid to hear - geez!? I didn't want to have to call her and tell her I am such a loser!!!) So I did. I left Michelle a voicemail telling the events of the day......

5 minutes pass.........

RING RING - "Mrs. King? This is Scott - I have your laptop"

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I then asked him if I could give him a hug and he said "sure" LOLOLOLOL

He met me at Gate 1 and I ran up to him and gave him a HUGE hug! haha He laughed and said that someone picked it up by mistake at security and turned it in at Gate 15. So THANK YOU to the nice citizen who returned my laptop - I owe you FOREVER! And a HUGE THANK YOU to Scott Thompson the nicest security guard EVER.

I called everyone back to let them know it was found. I had to call Michelle and just laugh in her voicemail - I'm sure she thinks I'm the biggest dork in town. In the meantime my wonderful husband had already (1) signed us up for LifeLock (an identity theft service) and (2) started to change all online passwords to our accounts...........what a guy.

So needless to say the moral of this story............

Don't play "I'll race you through airport security" with your girlfriends.

SIGH

I Did It!!!!

Ok - I'm a pro now - I have a super cool background AND I know how to comment back now! So watch out peeps! :)

My lack of skillz..........

Ok so I tried to be all cool and update my blog page with trendy backgrounds and such, but I just ended up deleting all my lists, polls, etc from the right hand side of my page. So if you voted before please vote again since I lost all the info. lol

Sorry - I'll get better at this!! :)

Oh and I don't really know how to respond to comments you leave - so don't think I don't read them, I just don't know how to comment back!! hahaha

Thanks for reading!!

The Perfect Execution......

Hello and Happy 2009!!! I haven't been traveling since my stint in Nashville, however I have a story that I HAVE to post.

It was Christmas Day and it was around 9pm. All was quiet, nothing was stirring not even a mouse.....haha

We were all sitting around at my Mother-in-Law's house just talking, eating, talking, eating (you know how Christmases are) and I suddenly got a great thought!! We haven't taken a family picture yet!? So I made everyone get up and get ready for a picture.....there were a few grumbles, but because of my persistence and spirit - they gave in :)

So we lined everyone up and I got the camera ready so I could b-line to my spot within 10 seconds. So everyone was smiles so I hit the button and ran...... 3-2-1 pause FLASH. I went back to check the picture and a few people's eyes were closed and Joe (as usual) was doing bunny ears. SIGH. So here we go again........timer set for 10 secs.......initiate.....3-2-1 pause FLASH. This time I made up some excuse as to why it didn't turn out, because I looked ridiculous, so that was a vain picture. lol.......so ok this is it.......I wouldn't be able to have them last past 3 pictures.....

So last time.........timer set for 10 secs........initiate.......3-2-1 EXTREMELY LOUD FART FROM PAUL and FLASH. This is the result......
I think my mom's face is PRICELESS. She said she could feel the vibration behind her. And the look of total concentration on Paul's face absolutely cracks me up. If you zoom in real close you can see him kinda biting his lip as to really nail the perfect toot. After we calmed down from the roar of laughter and tears we took a real picture (mom's eyes were closed, but I was over it) and it came out quite nice.

So yup, that's my hubby - Paul the Christmas tooter......he's SO proud of his story I don't think a day has went by that he hasn't mentioned it - LOL
I can't wait to tell our kids the year that daddy "let one" - 2008......SIGH

Pictured: Me, Paul, Mom, Joe, Linda, Carol, Amy and Amanda

Farewell Music City.......

******WARNING******* This is a long blog packed full of pictures - so you're warned :)

Welp - Myself and 4 other consultants were told on Monday that we were being rolled off the project due to budgetary constraints (which I totally understand and predicted), so today is my last day here in Nashville?!!? As I did for my blog in NJ, I wanted to pay tribute to Nashville as well.

I was fortunate enough to have my Mom visit Halloween weekend in October and we had a BALL!! We had a super fun doing the following: (1) Country Music Hall of Fame (2) Tour of Studio B (which was AWESOME!) (3) Grand Old Opry featuring Little Jimmy Dickens 60th Anniversary with the GOO - Trace Adkins and Brad Paisley (4) Saw the Peking Acrobats on the General Jackson Showboat (5) Country Music Stars Home Tour - by bus not like actually going into their homes - lol (6) Jacks BBQ (7) Trolled the Honky Tonks on Broadway (7) The Loveless Cafe.........Man - after typing all that out it seems we took a week of vacation!?! Here are some pictures of our trip:

Jack (owner of Jacks BBQ) - we just happened to run into him - I have SUCH an intuition!

http://www.jacksbarbque.com/

Mom trying on some shades - whatcha think?

Mom and "Jackson" - super fun!


Opry - good times :)

Trace Adkins, Lil' Jimmy Dickens (in his "flashy") and Brad Paisley

And ya'll didn't know the REAL headliners of the evening!?! It's Yee and HAW! (She's so gonna kill me for putting this online for the world to see - tee hee)

Lastly - the Loveless cafe......it was a 70 degree day, convertible top down and some good eatin' homemade chicken and biscuits! Mmmmmmm
_____________________________________________________________________________________

So now onto a different topic: Chicken Tortilla Soup Thursdays......

All employees at our client site are all a twitter when Thursday comes. Down in the lunchroom, the staff brings in special concoction of Chicken Tortilla Soup. I think there must be some “secret sauce” in this stuff because people go crazy!!! I notice the mood in the office each Thursday mid-morning….people have this silly grin on their faces and they get all giddy….I’m serious – it’s funny!! I swear it should have been a Seinfeld episode……

So here’s a picture of Vanna…..er…..I mean my friend Jaime showcasing the coveted Chicken Tortilla Soup…..

And the end result – a happy Chicken Tortilla Soup eatin’ dude!!

Things I will miss about Nashville:

• Hanging out with my friend Suzanne and her showing me some cool eats in the Nashville area! (we also went to the Obamarama benefit before the election!! - see pic below)
  
• The fact the the Mt. Juliet Panera Bread has Tomato Soup EVERY DAY - Mmmmm
• Marvina at the Nashville Airport Manchu Wok (where I got my Orange Chicken on every Thursday on the way home - seriously it's the best ever! Who knew?!)
• Folks I work with (all of 'em)
• Don the "grandpalike" checkout dude at Hertz - he used to tell me every week "Honey if all customers were as nice as you I'd sure be better off" lol
  
• Celebrity sightings
• The Honky Tonks
• Chicken Tortilla Soup Thursdays
• Renee the super nice Delta gate agent......we've had some laughs
  
• Gigi's Cupcakes - OMG soooooooo delish!! - http://www.gigiscupcakesusa.com/
  
• Samauri Sushi - http://www.yelp.com/biz/samurai-nashville
  

Things I will NOT miss about Nashville:

• I honestly can't think of anything???

A few last pictures to wrap up Nashville:

Suzanne and I at "Obamarama" - don't they make a cute couple?

I don't know if you can tell or not - but my t-shirt says "Obamarama" which was cool since that's what the benefit was called - I soooo rock - everyone wanted my shirt - lol

"Get The Heck Outta Here" Dinner at the Opryland Hotel
(j/k) - sorry the waiter cut off your face Jaime...

Thanks Nashville for all the fun times in my short 3 month stint here......Who knows maybe I'll be back again?

Now where will my travels take me? I think I'm heading back to NJ ::singing the "Going back to Cali (Jersey) song::

December 15th - Thought for the Week.

Does anyone ever wonder if the airport employees that drive those loud and obnoxious passenger carts hear that constant beeping 24/7?!?!

DISCUSS........

Mr. 12A

On my flight from OKC to ATL I was sitting in the Exit row seat, 12B (tip – if you sit in an Exit row during the winter time and you’re in a window seat, you will freeze your fanny off!! If you’re cold natured like me take the aisle seat – trust me…..) anyhoo….I sat next to this guy who clearly doesn’t travel very often but was trying to pretend he was some important businessman. So he has his “clipboard” with a bunch of landscaping sketches (which I have to admit were pretty nice) but what was so annoying is he wanted to make sure that EVERYONE saw them, so he made sure at every chance to flash them around. So of course the stewardess had to point out how nice they were and he responded that he’s in the landscaping business.

As you frequent travelers know, when sitting in an Exit row you are required to give a verbal “YES” when asked if you are willing and able to assist incase of an emergency (how many of you can recite the “schpiel”? ha) So 3 out of 4 of us say “YES” and Mr. 12A just stares at her. So the stewardess says, “Can you hear me sir?” lol So I look at him to tell him he has to say YES aloud so she can move on. So he says YES and we’re on our way……..sigh – amateurs…

I usually just chill during takeoff so I had my head leaned back and eyes closed. He then turned on his light, sigh - BUT he was very nice in asking if the light was going to bother me. I should have said “Yes it would” - LOL But I didn’t…..So he scored a few nice points for that one.

During the entire flight he’s incredibly fidgety – I swear the man had adult ADD. He kept bumping my arm to write down important “businessey” stuff. The man should have won an academy award for his acting skills. He would shuffle through his papers and “take notes”. I have to confess I was trying to sneak peaks to see what was SO important and I chuckled to myself when I saw him looking at price lists on perennials for $2.00 each. (I was then thinking to myself – Call me crazy, but you know most important business folk have laptop computers and not paper and clipboards.) So this continued for a good while until the drink cart approached. He asked for a beer and tried to pay with a $100 bill - SIGH. Now us frequent travelers know that the staff never has change and they encourage exact bills. So he then just “happens” to have a $10….::puke puke::

Sip…Sip….Shuffle……Shuffle…….Fidget…….Fidget……THEN……I can feel him looking over shoulder while I’m reading my OK! Magazine!?! And I mean it’s not like he’s trying to hide it either, he was LEANING into me and looking at the pictures and trying to read my article on Britney?! So after about 15 mins of his head in my lap reading my mag I gave a “glance” which I think scared him – tee hee…so that stopped.

So the stewardess comes down the isle with the trash bag…….he leans over me and spills my ENTIRE Diet Coke down my leg (which was on my tray mind you – so that shows you how much he was violating my space!)……SIGH. So that goes to show you how fast he sucked down his $7 beer, since mine was almost full. I’m not sure if he even apologized, however at this point I’m just like whatever….get me to Atlanta!

Oh! And he also went to the restroom FOUR times…..and his breath smelled of garlic, onions, and dead donkey…..I swear people – think about what you eat when you have to sit in super small quarters for hours with other people or at least pack some breath mints so we don’t have to smell your funky donkey breath……

Anyhoo – Mr. 12A, you don’t have to pretend you are some big business man, just relax, read a magazine (you obviously were interested in mine!), draw up some more sketches, something! – we could care less and take some Ritalin® next time!!

Travel Tunes

These are a few of my top 2008 Fav Songs.......some are oldies but goodies :)

From Justin to Amy.......

OK OK OK OK........see why I didn't start a blog? It's just the pressure of keeping it up, so I avoid it.....for FOUR months........lol
My fav blogger friend Jen has given me a little grief about it and I felt this story was SO super blogworthy.......so here goes......

So I'm now on a project in Nashville, TN and I travel on Sundays from OKC through Atlanta and into Tennessee. Atlanta airport is the place to see celebs - I've seen Al Sharpton, Jack Hanna (adorned in his khaki's) and Sandra Bernhardt. So this week I actually had a celebrity on my flight into Nashville!!

I'm sitting in the waiting area and I saw this guy who resembled American Idol Season 1 runner-up to Kelly Clarkson - Justin Guarini and I just wasn't sure if it was him or not - his hair wasn't as big as I remembered?!? Ok so I confirmed my suspicion when I saw this:
I'm sitting there chuckling to myself as I'm in Zone 1 First Class......(who's the celebrity now Mr. Guarini?) I immediately was thinking to myself, "OMG I have to call Paul!! Then I hesitated dialing as he's not going to know who in the heck he is?!" So I call my bestest friend Mark and of course he's cracking up at me, then I call my friend Suzanne and she double dog dared me to take a picture - so it was ON!

I board the plane (ahem one of the first to board mind you - Zone 1 remember?) and I get my camera out so I can pounce on him when he comes through. I waited until I saw the Zone 4'ers come on (sigh) and he rounded the corner......I got up my courage and was like, "Hey Justin - I'm a big dork - can I get my picture with you?" And he was like "You wanna wait until we get off the plane or now?" and I'm like "Well I have my camera here and I know you'll be busy once we land so do you mind?" and he was like "Sure!" so I snapped (and could my face have been ANY SHINYIER!?!?) ugh......
I was upset that I didn't get his hair (as that's kinda what he's known for).......but I was noticing he's quite a handsome young strap and has a cute lil' tooshie :) The folks around me asked who he was and I explained and they still mostly didn't know (You see only my gay friends and my friends teenage girls only would know who he was) and of course everyone in 1st class is usually 50+ year old business men.

When we arrived back in TN he was pretty much to himself and nobody was really paying any attention and then finally a high school bowling team caught wind of him and asked for his picture. I was shocked that a celebrity would have to get his own luggage (guitar case and 1 bag) and he went to the public parking exit - so I'm assuming he had a car there? I mean, me being of celebrity status - even I have my name displayed on the #1 Gold board at Hertz?! lol

Ok so after all that excitement I decided to look him up on MySpace and was feeling a little guilty that I was snickering at his non-celebrity status as he went to Afghanistan and visited the troops. And I also found out the reason he was traveling to Nashville is he's in Season 3 of a show called "Gone Country" - ever heard of it? Yeah me either. But I Googled it and it's a show that has celebrities compete to become a country & western singer. Apparently last season Bobby Brown was on there - lol. Here's a blurb from who will be on this season - "Those who'll vie to create a hit country single with show host John Rich (one half of Big & Rich) are Miss USA 2006 Tara Conner, former Monkees drummer Micky Dolenz, funk master George Clinton, "21 Jump Street" actor Richard Grieco, '80s pop star Taylor Dayne, Prince protégé and drummer Sheila E and former American Idol runner-up Justin Guarini. "
So I'll have to watch the show just to see how it turns out - they are currently filming according to this article.

Justin - if you're reading this - I'm sorry I doubted your "celebrityness" and I hope you win the Gone Country show ..........

PS - My friend is working on a video of our "encounter" so I'll post that here soon...... LOL

Leaving New Jersey........

Wow -

My very first official blog!!

So most of you know I've been here in lovely Lebanon, NJ on a project with a pharma company since June 11th, 2007. So here I sit in my room in the Crowne Plaza in Somerset, NJ on my last evening here. I went to dinner with the girls at Chelsea's for my last hoo-rah, and ironically there were fireworks (I'd like to think it was a big send off celebration for me - but anyhoo).......so reflecting on my time here I thought I would make a list of things I will miss and NOT miss about NJ.

Things I will miss about Jersey:

• All my IBM girlfriends on this project: Maribel, Donna, Suzanne and Yaz
• Maribel's laugh and her facial expressions - they are priceless, she could never play poker (well she could play but she wouldn't be very good at it - ha)
• Donna's funny travel stories, our "smarmy sightings", our crafting talks and the active, fun things she does in her fine state of Utah
• Suzanne and her "6 second delay", her pirate outfit and our "Daily IM off's"
• Yaz and her "toothbrush"
• Giovianni's Pizza (yes it's that thin crust NY style - mmmmmmm - scrumptious!)
• The fact that on NJ Highways Semi's cannot drive in the left hand lane.....
• The Crown Plaza and the free cheeses in the concierge lounge (haha - free cheese)
• The gate man at Hertz that sees me on my way each Monday
• My "Pink Salad" at Kirsten's
• Playing putt-putt and kicking my friend Donna's booty!
• The fact that I'm just a hop-skip-and-a-jump from NYC
• King's grocery stores
• The landscape and scenery in the fall....
• My dry ass turkey sandwich on my Continental flight back to OKC
• Watching travelers try and grab the last BOLTED IN plastic tray from the cart before going into security at the Newark airport (I tell you it's HILARIOUS)
• My 3 guaranteed good items from the work cafeteria: (1) Tuna Sammich (2) Turkey Club (3) Grilled Cheese ooooooo yeah and topped with Homemade Flik Chips

Things I will NOT miss about Jersey:

• NEWARK AIRPORT - I think in the 1000 flights I took out of this airport, I MAYBE was on time like twice
• Newark Airport bathrooms - any of them - ugh - nasty
• Donna stealing my identity (hahahahahahahahaha)
• The fact that drivers would rather rip your bumper off your car or kill you than let you over on the highway
• Guidos - please refer to http://thepandapage.com/2008/04/09/62-a-field-guide-to-internet-people-guidos/

Gee - you know it's funny, when I arrived in NJ I thought there were way more things I didn't like about it. But now that I'm leaving I see that there were many more things about Jersey that I loved.......::tear:: Oh and notice most things I'll miss are food related (ha)

So goodbye Joisey - I will truly miss you......

Not Pictured - Maribel (she hates her picture taken), Moi, Suzanne, Donna & Yaz