So Far, Not So Good

Perhaps I got a little full of myself when I had such a great day on Saturday. I think karma has decided that I deserved a little smack down because so far, this trip to DC has NOT been stellar. And, yeah, I am only on my first day, but I'm ready to throw in the towel and if I could only stay in bed the rest of the week in my hotel room, it might actually approved. But, let me start at the beginning....

My Flight -

It was a jam-packed flight and I knew it was going to be bad when 1/2 the flight loaded when they called for the Priority Access group. Now, I splurged on myself and paid the extra money to get the bulkhead seat, so I was still feeling pretty positive. When I got on, I noticed that the air was a little funky, like stale bathroom, so I was pretty happy that I wasn't in first class and having to face that for 3 hours. I get to my seat and there is a guy on the aisle and I'm by the window, I have my fingers crossed that maybe, just maybe nobody will sit in the center seat....yeah, that didn't happen. First across the aisle from us a lady and her son and their companion realized that they weren't actually sitting together so for some reason they gave the 9 year old the bulkhead seat without him actually understanding that he couldn't have his computer out until after takeoff and he couldn't keep it on the floor at his feet. So they completely blocked traffic until they finished their conversation and got settled. Finally, the center seat person arrived.... A lovely lady with her one year old son, who traveled on her lap. He was a cute little kid who managed to kick me almost the entire trip. If he wasn't kicking me he kept grabbing at my shoulder. I accept my fate and hunker down with my book and wait to take off. We finally head out to the runway and start taking off. Now I've been staring out the window up to this time, but I kinda realize that the kid next to me is pretty quiet, so I glance to my left to just see how everybody else on my row is doing. I'm glad to know that the mom read that it is good to have a baby feeding during take off to help with the pressure in their ears; my sister did this with Kathleen when we flew with her when she was a baby. Unfortunately, this lady was not feeding this cute little boy with a bottle....she was breast feeding him....without a privacy blanket. Yep, you read that correctly boob whipped out on the plan with the kid clamped on. Do NOT get me wrong, I'm completely okay with natural feeding, but I think there needs to be some sort of privacy blanket or something. I felt really bad for the guy sitting on the other side of her because he was totally blushing as the boob being used was the one closest to him (ergo, I was being kicked by the kid). So, we get in the air and the lady pretty much took over all of our space, she ended up using my tray to hold her drink because she had the kid on her lap. She pulled a brownish banana out of her bag and ate it next to me. Again, I have nothing against bananas, but I don't like the lingering smell. Time went on and we finally approached landing, well, you guessed it the kid got his treat to help with the ears we landed, but this time she switched boobs, so this time it was the one closest to me. I didn't even mention yet the fact that the flight was bumpy and late and I swore at one point that the little yellow oxygen masks were going to drop from the ceiling and I was going to be forced to elbow the lady if she tried to take my mask and give it to her kid....Luckily, that didn't happen. (I did have one sick thought though when the kid's little bare baby foot was kicking me.... Wouldn't those make the cutest little keychains, kinda like rabbits feet, except they wouldn't stay cute and plump once removed from the body....) So, all in all, perhaps one of the most uncomfortable flights that I've been on (aside from the one where the woman went into seizures in the aisle right next to me.

Additional Travel Day Issues

1. Stood in line 30 minutes to get a cab and ended up sharing one with a stranger.


2. Stood in line to check in to the hotel.


3. Was given the worse room.... I am in the room RIGHT NEXT TO THE elevator on the backside of the building so that I have no phone reception on either of my cell phones.

First Day In the Office

Okay, so there really wasn't any one thing that was horrific when I got to the office. In fact, the day ran pretty much as expected, meaning I managed to get absolutely nothing done because I was running around trying to put out fires. However, about an hour before time to leave as I was headed to yet another meeting, I stopped to chat with one of my folks and did something with the heel of my shoe and managed to break it. These were some of my favorite shoes that I've had for a long time. I was surprised that I was able to break is because it was a pretty substantial heel. I left the office and walked back to the hotel. About a block from the hotel, it started raining....not a big deal, but just a cherry to top off the day. I did run up to my room, quickly changed, and ran out in the rain down to Filene's Basement and found a replacement pair of black heels to get me through the rest of the week. I stopped at this little deli next to the hotel that I've stopped at before every time I've been in town and picked up a chicken margherita pizza. After it was cooked and the girl was putting it into the box, she turned around and kinda gave me this look. I didn't think anything of it, although I probably should have. When I got back up to my room and settled in to have dinner I opened the box and realized that the reason she was giving me that look was because somehow as she was putting the pizza into the box, she managed to drop part of it on the floor (or somewhere), so I was a slice short....maybe that isn't a bad thing, but still....
So, do we think the week is going to improve?!?