On the road again...

It's been almost five months since I had more than a weekend away from home--I think my last long trip was the back-to-back conferences in Kansas City in October. There have been a number of trips to Long Island since then, but nothing longer than a few days (except for when I was stuck in the blizzard after Christmas). Anyway, the travel burnout has worn off and I have really been looking forward to this trip to California. I have a week away each month this month, next month and in May. Not to mention a bunch of events coming up. All of this to say, my dear 10 readers (or so), lots of adventures to share, I'm sure!

This week I'm in California. I'm spending the bulk of my time in San Diego, though I'm making a quick trip up to LA for a meeting and attending a conference in San Francisco next weekend. I came out a few days early to visit with my friends Brian and DJ. Here we are outside the Balboa Theatre with my friend Joan after seeing Hal Holbrook's Mark Twain Tonight!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I have a few stories to share from my trip out here. It started on a warm Friday afternoon in DC--not super sunny, but warm enough to let you know that Spring is coming and to be outside without a jacket. I headed to DCA to begin the journey--my itinerary included two travel rule "violations." The first was flying in the "wrong direction." If I have to connect, I like to fly in the direction that I'm ultimately heading. For example, on this trip, my final destination would be San Diego--and my itinerary included a connection in JFK--therefore I'm flying North when I really want to go West. The second violation was flying through JFK. Not a fan. Anyway, I checked my bag and was waiting at the gate at DCA when I heard Delta announce a need for volunteers on the flight from DCA-JFK. I volunteered to be bumped, earned a $400 travel voucher and a first class upgrade on my flight...and was re-routed through Atlanta but would arrive at the same time as my original itinerary. I'll take it!

As I boarded the flight to Atlanta, I found myself seated next to a businessman with "Diamond Member" luggage tags. "Diamond Status. You must not be home very much," I commented. "No, I'm not," he replied. He continued the conversation, sharing that he commutes to DC weekly for his work in IT for a major hotel chain. Remembering a recent conversation about internet access in hotels, I couldn't resist asking, "OK, what's the deal with charging for Internet Access? When is that going away?" Very soon, he let me know. It's about time. Anyway, we had a friendly conversation about our respective jobs and Charlie Sheen. As I de-planed in Atlanta, the gate agent spotted my cardigan and said, "Banana Republic! I've had my eye on that sweater, I love it!"

I was checking my work email during my layover and discovered two interesting emails--one from my first class neighbor, who Googled me to find my email and say it was nice to meet me (I suppose that's networking in the 21st century) and another from a reporter from the Wall Street Journal that wanted to interview me about work. So, while on my layover, I had my first interview with the Wall Street Journal. I thought that was really cool.

On the next flight, I found myself seated near two National Guardsmen returning home from Officer Candidate School. One guy across the aisle had a stack of gossip mags--I was intrigued and said, "OK, I have to admit I would never in a million years have guessed you'd buy and read all of those gossip mags."
"Well, I've been away from home for three months. If I want to have a conversation with my wife, I have to know what's going on with Justin Timberlake," he replied. I thought that was really sweet and funny--and after I offered to share my Entertainment Weekly, he passed over his stack. The guy seated next to me suggested we read them together. It was completely random and very funny, reading gossip mags and commenting on dresses with a military guy. Reminded me of my days at Blair when we'd sit around at lunchtime reading US Weekly.

Another strange thing happened in Atlanta. After we had all boarded the plane and were getting ready to taxi, the Pilot announced some mechanical trouble with the plane. So, we all had to de-plane. Impressively, we were all boarded and on another plane within an hour, although we sat at the gate for a long time--long enough to read two gossip mags.

No word yet on whether the article I was interviewed for will run. I'll keep you posted.