Penny for Your Thoughts

You only get a cent:

Why the F*@& is it so cheap to fly to Seattle all of a sudden?!?!

I hate my job/i love my job

I hate my job when... flying from Chicago on Friday and then to Norfolk on Monday is $200 more expensive with New Orleans in the middle than with Seattle in the middle.

I love my job when... I can spend a chunk of my morning chilling at panera wiring blog posts and scribbling journal entries.

A Food Journey

So much of the time I have been relegated to eating only the worst foods--hotel cuisine, airport cuisine and the American chains preferred by many of the presenters I travel with. So when I get someone who eats adventurously along with me, or find myself with someone who will let me leave for the majority of the day, I end up becoming the foodie-on-the-road that I want to be. Here's a brief chronicle of some of the tasty things I've enjoyed over the last couple weeks:

State College, PA

I found myself with a presenter who was willing to go out to Indian with me, even though she'd never had it before! It was a decent place, although it's chai did not reach the "bottomless" qualities of Ceadar's and Taste of India. College towns are always some of the best places to find decent food, because they've got cheap, ethnic, and independent shops along with the safety-blanket chain stores like Subway and Panera. The next day at lunch time, I wandered into a place called The Green Bowl, and OH DEAR GOD it was an all-you-can-eat, make-your-own stirfry bar. Like mongolian gril but better... more sauces, better meat (shrimp!), brown rice, and oh so tasty everything. I had two bowls, one of which included tofu, and was completely satisfied.

Baltimore, MD and Richmond, VA

I ran into some other PM's in these two towns immediately after State College, and was gaurenteed some decent eating. KN and I went over to Wegman's grocery store for lunch, gorging ourselves on amazing things and learning that taking photos in a grocery store is evidently strictly forbidden. We shared a lovely chocolate cake, and I had some amazing soup and satisfied my constant olive cravings.

That night we drove to Richmond where we met up with another PM, WW and his presenter. Somehow I had managed to get all 6 of us to agree to going out to an ethiopian restaurant that my previous week's presenter had turned down. Nile Ethiopian was great to us, giving us some extra food on top of what we ordered so that we could taste lots of different options. I know it looks like dog food, but it was soooooo good. Aside from the weird coked-out employee that showed up and tried to join us, it was a fun night!

Virginia Beach, VA and Raleigh, NC

About the only thing I hadn't had was seafood, so over the last two days I've filled that craving. In Virginia Beach, at a restaurant overlooking the moonlit beach--Waterman's, I had scallops, crab and shrimp sauteed in butter and full of YUM. The hush puppies weren't too shabby either. Then last night I went to a place I'd been before, Fishmonger's Oyster Bar, in Raleigh to score some more southern-style seafood. I captured this meal about halfway through, but damn if those shrimps (and fried green tomatoes) weren't mighty fine!

Tonight I will surely have to resort to airport or hotel food since I'm getting in late, but tomorrow I might be able to go down the road to Taj for some good Birmingham Indian food.

I'm definitely not the same size I was, and I keep trying to run or walk to keep some of the restaurant calories off. But the weight seems to be going to all the right places, so I'll continue to relish local food as long as I can.

Penny For Your Thoughts

3 cents worth:

1. If you treat me nicely I will go out of my way for you. Treat me like crap and I won't want to come to a full stop when I drop you off at the airport. Tuck and roll b!&@*#.

2. I <3 70 degree southern weather, an adorable shopping center down the road, and a chance to regain my mental sanity.

3. I'm going to be very happy when I can stop feeling like ranting all day. Just remember... Nothing is worse than 8 hours in Reno or working for a full year with the dynamic duo.

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 :)