So with no need for further explanation, you get the picture. Traveling earlier this week for a quick one-day with a lovely client, two workshops back-to-back. Flight, despite its customary lack of room, very pleasant, including the incredible good luck of sitting next to a Microsoft exec who, after hearing my woes with Word, hands me a "magic card" (his words) marked "Quick Assistance," which allowed me to call a Microsoft support line, be greeted by "Kathy," who with some instructions, enabled me to trash a few troublesome files and presto! I can drag-and-drop text again. Thanks, Steve Resnick!
OK, we land. Progress to the shuttle bus at this airport, which is approximately the size of Massachusetts, arrive at car rental. No hybrids, no Garmins. Off I go in a car that doesn't use a key. A terrible light goes on. One I've never seen before. I pull over, search the glove compartment in hopes of looking up the light problem, but there's only a CD in it. A CD. I return to rental place. Attendant gives me the "boy, are you stupid, lady" routine, says it's, of course, as everyone knows, the tire pressure light, then says he'll feel the tires for me (no comment) and that I should just ignore it because the tires are just fine. Now it's getting dark and I'm watching the time and I'm about to be late for the dinner so I take off. (He was right, I am stupid.)
This is a city, if you can call a metropolis the size of, say, Dallas-Fort Worth a city, with no lights on their road signs. Or signs with the number of miles to the next destination. And no match between the printed maps and the number of miles apparently ahead.
This post is getting too long. A purported 45-minute journey takes two hours. The exit numbers don't match the printed exit numbers - as in I am supposed to get off at 465E but the numbers are like, Exit 81 and 82. I end up on a one-way street with no exit other than the Chuck-E Cheese (is that how you even spell it?) parking lot. My room key (key, ha!) at the hotel doesn't work. My breakfast doesn't come via room service ("there was a problem with your order so we didn't know what to do" - uh, er, call me?). I can't get the trunk of the car open (remember, only a CD in the glove compartment).
Skip to the event, which is great. Very nice people, good thinkers, and a wonderful time is had by all.
Then I'm leaving and ask the locals for directions back to the airport. "Take 35 East. No, take 35 West. I don't know. You can take 35 East or West." Finally, it's decided I should take 35 West. I do. No problem other than it's growing dark again and I can't see the road signs and there are no signs to the airport until 1.5 miles before I get there. Arrive in about an hour's time at airport. Pull into car rental and am asked about car. The light is still on so I explain what happened. "Well, *that's* not the tire light," says the attendant. "Who told you that? You never should have been put in this car." Result = $40 credit.
Then I get on the shuttle bus back to the terminal.
Wrong bus. Turns out there are three American terminals. Silly me.
Skytrain to proper terminal.
Grab a sandwich.
Get on plane.
Have whole row to myself.
Ah, the enchanting life of the consultant.
OK, we land. Progress to the shuttle bus at this airport, which is approximately the size of Massachusetts, arrive at car rental. No hybrids, no Garmins. Off I go in a car that doesn't use a key. A terrible light goes on. One I've never seen before. I pull over, search the glove compartment in hopes of looking up the light problem, but there's only a CD in it. A CD. I return to rental place. Attendant gives me the "boy, are you stupid, lady" routine, says it's, of course, as everyone knows, the tire pressure light, then says he'll feel the tires for me (no comment) and that I should just ignore it because the tires are just fine. Now it's getting dark and I'm watching the time and I'm about to be late for the dinner so I take off. (He was right, I am stupid.)
This is a city, if you can call a metropolis the size of, say, Dallas-Fort Worth a city, with no lights on their road signs. Or signs with the number of miles to the next destination. And no match between the printed maps and the number of miles apparently ahead.
This post is getting too long. A purported 45-minute journey takes two hours. The exit numbers don't match the printed exit numbers - as in I am supposed to get off at 465E but the numbers are like, Exit 81 and 82. I end up on a one-way street with no exit other than the Chuck-E Cheese (is that how you even spell it?) parking lot. My room key (key, ha!) at the hotel doesn't work. My breakfast doesn't come via room service ("there was a problem with your order so we didn't know what to do" - uh, er, call me?). I can't get the trunk of the car open (remember, only a CD in the glove compartment).
Skip to the event, which is great. Very nice people, good thinkers, and a wonderful time is had by all.
Then I'm leaving and ask the locals for directions back to the airport. "Take 35 East. No, take 35 West. I don't know. You can take 35 East or West." Finally, it's decided I should take 35 West. I do. No problem other than it's growing dark again and I can't see the road signs and there are no signs to the airport until 1.5 miles before I get there. Arrive in about an hour's time at airport. Pull into car rental and am asked about car. The light is still on so I explain what happened. "Well, *that's* not the tire light," says the attendant. "Who told you that? You never should have been put in this car." Result = $40 credit.
Then I get on the shuttle bus back to the terminal.
Wrong bus. Turns out there are three American terminals. Silly me.
Skytrain to proper terminal.
Grab a sandwich.
Get on plane.
Have whole row to myself.
Ah, the enchanting life of the consultant.
Were you in Dallas? That entire city is so difficult to navigate that even with GPS you'd get lost.
Posted by: Amanda | Friday, 21 November 2008 at 08:59 PM
Thank you, Ms Amanda. And here I thought the GPS would have changed everything (possibly not the breakfast delivery but, hey...)
Posted by: jessica lipnack | Saturday, 22 November 2008 at 05:30 AM