The week in brief!

So Sunday was practically the longest working day of my life. Faced with option of "Go home now" or "Get put up in a hotel" I opted for the free night at the Hyatt Place. Lovely hotels btw. I went home Monday and after still being insanely exhausted proceeded to sleep most of it away.

Tuesday I managed to sleep through an important package delivery (grrrr....) even though I had Jimmy Johns DELIVERED so I wouldn't be out of the house when it came. Epic fail. I also hung out with a few friends, listened to This American Life (my favorite NPR radio show), and cleaned up around the house.

Wednesday I left for Miami for some additional training for work. The important part of this story is that I get almost 1700 United miles for the trip which puts me under 7k to go before I secure platinum status for next year. Sweet. Also I am staying at the Crown Plaza here in Miami. They have given us a nice little letter I would like to quote for your amusement:

"
[In the header they have included the logo of a different company with similar name]

Dear [Similar company name] Crew Member,

[skip some boring stuff...]

In conjunction with your team at [wrong company name again]...

[skip some more stuff] Please take note of the following arrangements for your transportation to/from the [name of training facility]:

Transfers from the hotel to the Training Center will depart promptly as below:
[note that we are in a list within a list now though I missed out on the first one.]
-7:30AM - Meet in the Hotel Lobby
-7:30AM - Meet in the Hotel Lobby
...
[Not sure why that is there twice or why we are randomly capitalizing things.]

[Then they go on to list pick up times for the 11th and 12th which, given I am here on the 17th and 18th, is very useful. Also they stop capitalizing the word hotel. The once again act like I work somewhere else. They THEN ask me to check out early on the 12th since they are full for the following night and want my room to be cleaned. Oh. Wait. I'm still not here til almost a week after that. My personal favorite is at the end.]

... 10% discount on all food and beverage throughout the hotel (does not include alcoholic beverages)... just let us know you are with [wrong company AGAIN] and will happily apply the generous discount...

... Sincerely,

..."

It is unsigned by the way. They are generous AND modest. The breakfast AFTER discount for a continental spread is $13.50. I can't imagine why I would want to miss that! I took the liberty of editing it (I removed the names... except the name of the tacky hotel...)





ANYWAY Thursday I had my first training day which was long but fairly exciting. I also discovered I am going on a trip next week that will get me the last 7k to platinum for United! WOOO! Marc and I promised to throw a party if we both hit platinum this year and now it will be so!

Today I will be taking my exam and doing my practicals. Wish me luck!

The week in brief

I have been in Amsterdam all this week as well and I have to say I really do love it here. I will sadly be leaving tomorrow afternoon to head back to work. As much as I do not want to leave it will allow me to get started on my Thanksgiving preparations. That really needs to happen so I am excited to get to work on that.

Also I will be going to Florida for some new work training. Wish me luck! It is a little stressful since we all have to score very well in the training exam. But I haven't heard of anyone not passing so far so I imagine I will do just fine! I still get nervous about these things though. I think it has to do with entering into a slightly unfamiliar situation and having lots of time to imagine all of the horrors and things that could go terribly wrong.

In other news Marc has been eating all these vegetarian meals and while I have not asked him to join in my less meat lifestyle (and he is not an extreme carnivore anyway) it is really nice that he is doing that. It is always a good feeling when loved ones support lifestyle decisions that way. Thanks :)

The blog hit over 200 views this week woo! I have kind of hoped for more BUT I also didn't want to put it out there before I had a decent number of posts and this week was when FB got the link so HOPEFULLY my blog is now going to start getting passed around or however that happens. Go and work your social networking magic!

I went exploring last night with one of our friends in downtown Amsterdam! Well it was probably less exploration for her and more for me. I, however, thought it was really cool and exciting. Finding my way to her office was sort of my first big solo adventure here. Baby steps :) Plus shopping was nice and we had nice drink in an adorable little cafe afterwards.

The one problem that arose came from my new touch card. It is a preloaded pass you use on the trains, trams, and metro. When you are entering the platform you touch it to check in and then when you get off you touch it again to check out. It then deducts the cost of your trip from the balance on your card. The problem arose when I forgot to check out. If you check out too late (something like 4 hours later) they charge you €20. The trip I was taking usually costs €2.30 or something. So after realizing my error I once again donned my it's really cold out side attire and trooped back to the station to touch my card and come on back. No big deal :) AND lesson learned.

Until Monday TTFN and have a fantastic weekend!

Monday... Recap? Also a Story!

Kinda missed Friday's post there. By "kinda" I meant "most certainly." I will attribute it coming down with a quick but nasty head cold that rendered my desire to troop to Starbucks for internet insignificant in the wake of sleep. Sidenote: I know it is 2011 and I don't have internet at home. Anyway I intend to throw in a short recap RIGHT NOW, just before story time so everyone can sleep well tonight. Phew.

Picture time! This one time I dressed up like a pirate. Maybe this year I should be a ninja so they don't get jealous....

Last week I was working most of the week. Which for me meant time zone hopping. Normally this is not much of an issue and I just sleep it off. For what ever reason this particular week I went a quarter of the way one way around the world just to go halfway the other way the next day. I find that it is much easier to adjust your time forward than backward when travelling and the halfway was backward. This may have contributed to the timing of my cold. Now that I have resumed my forward march however I am 95% recovered and returned to you, my adoring public.

I was introduced to foreign dollar stores this week. This is not something I would ever imagine to be the amazing gem it turned out to be. While I spent more than I probably should have, my kitchenware has improved greatly due to this. That is worth the lugging this crap at least a quarter way around the world.

Speaking of travel, travel, and more travel, Marc and I have been planning my visit for next week and if everything goes according to plan then I will be at his, or as he is quick to correct me "our", house on Halloween day (my favorite holiday!). The one hiccup is that work keeps changing plans and I am sort of caught waiting til the last minute to book my travel stuffs and that makes me nervous since I am coming from somewhere I have never left from via train (the method I will be taking to our home). Not only that but they quite possibly do not speak English. This is fine of course and I have navigated the world without translation many times and I myself have a very slightly diverse language base so I *shouldn't* be worried. I would however like everything to go right and to get there as soon as at possible! Wish me luck :)

Finally, in a quick update to a previous post, I have been such a good little not very much meat eater! Yay!

On to Story Time!

Today's story is in relation to my up coming venture through the semi unknown.

I have mentioned in the past how I was a fairly fearless and extroverted child. Well the year I started kindergarten was no different. Up until this time I had been going to preschool and my parents had been driving me. Needless to say I found my reliance on their help in the act of transit irritating. So when I first discovered I would be going to kindergarten all those years of watching that big yellow bus that all my new friends were already so accustomed to I was, of course, not about to waste a smidgen of time with my parents. I immediately insisted on taking the bus to school from the first day.

My wonderful and protective mother was hesitant.

"You are sure you don't want me drive you?... It is your first day. How will you find your class room?"

I looked at her with all the seriousness of a determined 5 year old.

"I want to take the bus."

So my poor mother put her reservations aside and signed my up for the bus. Now in my school district, that year, the buses were labeled by insect. I don't know who thought this up or thought that a preteen boy would be thrilled but I, as a five year old adventurer, was super pumped to be on the majestic BUTTERFLY bus.

The big day came and I waited by the stop. Mom was staring out the window to be sure I made it on. Not only did I confidently stride right on to the bus but chose a seat right next to an enormous sixth grader and just started chatting away. Now I am not sure if she would have anyway but that certainly sealed the deal. As well all know preteen boys are evil. My mom hopped into her car and followed the bus all the way to school.

After she had parked and tried to catch up she finally found me happily sitting in my class room all ready to go. Silly mom.

It turns out though maybe she was right about the bus. It was not actually dangerous it seems while ON the bus but I picked up some colorful language on the way home. On the second day of school as I was preparing to prove the previous day not a fluke I seemed to have *erm* misplaced my backpack. In my mounting frustration I MAY have shouted, "Where the hell is my back pack?!?"

That went over well.

Now all of this has me thinking about how great it is to be a kid. Five year old me would be approaching next week without a second of trepidation and/or worry about the possible disasters that could strike. Truth be told, adult me is probably channeling my mother in the fact that the worst that will happen is I miss connection and catch the next one and maybe have to wait a few hours in a train station. In this day of cell phones it is not like I could not just text Marc to look it up, or call the train service, or go on the internet with my smart phone and look it up myself...

Please tell me you like me channeling me to combat channeling my mother. I do.

Friday Recap!

This week's picture is of me dressed up to go to a costume party as the March Hare from Alice in Wonderland. I did the makeup myself and this picture must have been when I returned home because what the hell is the ribbon about. No idea.

On that note I have been travelling for the last 16ish hours so if I seem like a crazy today you have been warned.

So this week Marc and I returned from my family gathering/my friends wedding. It was a great time and fun was had by all. YAY! My family gave me a dining room table (which Marc cleverly ripped in half so we could fit it in the rental car) and I have been arranging and rearranging my great room to find a good set up. I love doing that. Inevitably I end up sitting on the couch staring around the room for an hour at a time deciding if I like and and what else I need. At this point I have no chairs for the table but for whatever reason I still went out and bought fall place settings. They look wonderful though.

Other than that I lounged around my days off at home and tried to be cheap and cook all of my own meals. Go budget action!

The big news I have is that after 5 years of a faux facebook marriage to a dear friend of mine Marc and I have now made our relationship facebook official. So congratulations to us! You can start sending us gifts to commemorate the occasion. I don't mind.

Now I am back at work and after a day of arguing with United (even though I was flying Lufthansa...) I ended up sending them a nasty letter where at one point I asked if they were mailing me things via carrier pigeon. Which if they actually were I would so be ok with it taking 8 weeks to get my premier exec card. Sigh. Oh well.

Have a wonderful weekend all and I am off!

Stuffs and Things

So I think Fridays should be the days I talk about current events in my life. Also I will pick a picture of me to post every Friday. Some very current and some maybe not.

This weeks photo is me standing in the engine of an airplane. I picked this photo because I am cool enough to have stood in the engine of an airplane. Just look at that photo. Awesome.

This week I finished book 8 in Simon Green's Nightside series. They are Si-Fi Fantasy Noir not really mystery novels. They are all easy reads and nice sort of young adult to early adult books.

On next Wednesday my boyfriend will land in Chicago so that we can drive up to Wisconsin and meet half of my family and go to a wedding. This particular wedding is for a special friend of mine from junior high. She is the last girlfriend I had before coming out. It should be lovely and she has been a great friend to me over the years and the whole trip should be great. My boyfriend is acting like he is not nervous to meet my mother however every time I tell him I told her something in regards to his spectacular wonderfulness he sort of groans and mentions how high a bar I am setting. So now I am doing it on purpose. He has also given me permission to start calling him Marc in my blog. That is his real name even. What a great guy!

This week I worked with a crew where many of the lovely ladies are instrumental in the union committees. It's good to get a closer perspective to what these lovely gals have been up to. I'm so proud of all the work that is getting done there even if unions are not really my thing. I have a flair for efficiency and unions are the exact opposite. However, I am able to see a system that is failing to the employees, especially because I am one, and recognize why they are important. So you go girls!

In mentioning work I have made two resolutions involving work over the past two weeks. The first one is that when I am travelling for work but not actually working the flight I will no longer be travelling in uniform. I wear that same suit over and over and I am overtired with it. This is not common but it is allowed at my company so now I really feel like I am just getting paid to ride on planes. Yay! The second resolution is to pack as light as possible unless I am sure to be bringing back shopping conquests (not unheard of). It is so nice to carry light small luggage instead of lugging giant bags everywhere I go. I need to buy a little 18" roller and do away with my 22".

I also started the blog you are reading right now!

Have a nice weekend and come back Monday. No really. Come back. Read. Comment.