One Last "Hoorah" Thru The SW

After a long hiatus from work travel, I was instructed to make one last "Hoorah" trip to the southwest and finalize some open issues on my project in El Paso. So I made arrangements to leave early Wednesday morning before last flying one way to El Paso, one night hotel stay there and then drive up to Albuquerque for a two nights stay and then one way back on Saturday morning. Sounds like a great trip, huh? Uh, wrong! First off, it took forever to get through security so I rushed the entire way to the gate...only to find out when I got there (profusely sweating and all) that the plane was there but no flight crew. Huh? Yep, the crew did not show up until 10 minutes after our departure time. After a battle with one of the airline's finest over whether or not I had to gate check my carry-on, I made it to my seat... on the back row next to the restroom! Yes, I spent the next two hours watching folks go in and out of the bathroom- no snoozing for me! Besides the fact my left shoulder was like one inch from the door handle so I was "brushed" every time someone grabbed the handle. And the smell after the first hour was horrific.
Finally made it to the Houston airport and headed to the gate... only to find out when I got there that they had changed the gate for my connecting flight. Why does this happen everytime I fly this airline? (Keep in mind that I HATE connecting travel trips) Every freaking time I am forced to fly this airline, they are a) always late on departure and/or arrival and b) they change my connecting flight gate EVERY time! And then I find out that my gate is all the way back over where I just got off the plane from Atlanta! Now I am even more furious than before. So again, I retrack my path back over to the other gate. I sit down long enough to eat my protein bar and banana and then board the plane. I arrive in El Paso and am instructed to go out to the lot to pick up the keys to my rental car. I head out and it is blazing hot outside... and there are no attendants around. After baking in the sun for about 20 minutes, the desk guy shows up with keys to a different car... whatever- just gimme the keys before I turn to leather.
My time in El Paso was a total waste considering the subcontractor who we were supposed to meet with that afternoon did not show up. I did get to see the finished project with my own eyes and snap lots of photos.

I barely slept all that night... kept waking up every hour... I felt so badly from lack of sleep that I did not even work out the next morning. Finally made my way to the hotel restaurant for free breakfast. Finally decided on the breakfast burrito from the limited "free" menu list... I knew when I took the first bite that I was going to regret ordering that burrito with the sausage option. Something felt weird as I chewed the first few bites of it. I doused it with A1 sauce thinking it was just a mental thing.... managed to get thru half the burrito before I realized that I was in trouble. I left my tip and took off to my room. And then I spent the next hour and a half on the toilet. Checkout time was 12 noon and at some point in my foggy mind I told myself that they were going to have to kick me out before I lifted my fanny off that seat. When I found out around noon that my Superintendent was not going to make it to work after all since his wife was out a commission at the doctor for tests all day, I finally checked out and made my way westward to start my trek to Albuquerque. Quick stop at a drug store to buy pepto and toilet paper- just in case- I mean this is a long drive thru the deserts of New Mexico!
A four hour scenic trip thru southern New Mexico was pretty cool. I really do enjoy siteseeing in the car... even by myself! I jammed out to old Michael Jackson hits the entire way... just like catching up with an old friend and with a great view all the way around.
Albuquerque was uneventful for the most part the first night except for my ongoing queasy stomach from the burrito. I checked into my hotel and crashed. Amazingly enough I slept through the alarm and realized that I had slept over 8 hours straight and was now late for work! How is it when I travel to the time zone two hours AHEAD of my own that I STILL cannot get up and to work by 8am their time? I plow through that extra two hours just like I need a 26 hour day to get all my junk done. I worked at the office all day and stuck with basic sandwich meals since I was now skiddish of any thing mexican or "southwestern". After work I decided to make the drive up to the tram that takes folks on scenic tours of the mountain range just outside of town.

I wanted to snap some good photos of Albuquerque since I hauled my big camera out there and who knows if I will ever be back. I had no intention of taking the tram to the top since the views from the tram start were just fine. I found some really cool cactuses (sp?) to shoot with the city in the back ground....

Well wouldn't you know that while trying to snap the "perfect" photo I managed to get tangled up with a low-lying cactus and the shooting pains in my right calf hurt like hell. After trying to ignore the pain, I finally lifted my jeans leg only to find all of these little red prickly things stuck in my leg and how they got through denim to my skin is beyond me! I tried to pull them out but they just kept breaking off at the surface leaving the other half in my leg... now I was worried- what if these things have some kind of poison and I die up here? I mean no one had any clue as to where I was.... and who knows when the locals might find me! So I head back to the rental and cruise back to the hotel. I did get a really up close look at my cactus bites that night and tweezers were the only way to remove them... so I would have to wait until I got home.
Saturday morning came way too early even in their time zone and miraculously enough my flight left on time for once. All in all, my last "Hoorah" trip was well... hopefully my last.

The Dry South West

I flew into Albuquerque for work yesterday and will leave tomorrow to go home. I really love coming out here to visit. I was here in July and now I am here in October and will be back in December the weekend before Christmas. The best part about this part of the country is the colder yet drier climate. My hair has never been straighter! The downer about it is the affects of the dry air on me... my hands and lips are so dry and chapped. I already broke three finger nails and do not get me started about the inside of my nostrils! Let's just say that lotion must be packed as well as chapstick. I forgot a nail file... so shaping up those jagged nails is out of the question. And the static electricity is unbelievalbe... especially if you are wearing a fleece jacket! All in all, I really do love it... but, with any love comes suffering I suppose.

Busy Little Bees...

Let me apologize for not posting since last Friday… we are just so darn busy! Busy, busy little bees we are…
We made the trip home this past weekend to celebrate my Mom’s 60th birthday. The cookout we had for her was fun and we had a great time seeing family and friends. We drove back Sunday morning and enjoyed a lazy day hanging around the house. When I finally finished preparations for the work week, I jumped into the shower only to discover that we had no hot water! Hubby finally went to the water heater and discovered a leak… along with several inches of water in the crawlspace… So off to work we go on Monday with no showers. Hubby managed to line up the same guy that installed our HVAC system, but their schedule had them only committed to replace the water heater by Wednesday morning… and with Hubby going out of town this morning, leaving me here alone with NO hot water was NOT going to work! I was really bummed out about the whole situation when I came home last night, but Hubby turned those sad thoughts around when I got home and discovered him replacing the unit himself! God Bless my having such a Handy-man Hubby! He said that we were saving loads of money by replacing the unit ourselves but, he has no idea how much I appreciate having the hot water so soon! The most frustrating part of this whole deal is that we just had to pay several hundred dollars a couple of weeks ago to have one of the sink drain pipes unclogged. It just seems that one thing after another keeps having to be replaced or repaired week after week… very frustrating!
Anyhoo, today I attended a pre-bid conference for an upcoming project that our company is going to bid next month. It was almost a day of déjà-vu for me because the project is in Villa Rica and just so happens to be across the railroad tracks from the manufacturing plant that I built with my previous employer back in 2002. The trip out to Villa Rica from our home was the same drive I drove everyday for an entire year…. Very odd to drive it over 6 years later and see all the changes along the way. After going to the conference and seeing all those other 18 contractors there… (Yes, 18!) It just reminded me again how times are tough right now and any project less than $40 million brings out every contractor under the sun! I really do not think our price will be competitive at all but, we are still going to bid it… at least we trying I suppose.
My little project in Texas is about to get off the ground running the last week of this month so I will be traveling again next week back to Albuquerque. I am actually a little excited about the trip since Albuquerque is such a nice city and the weather there is wonderful this time of the year. We shall see…

Tripping Thru The Southwest

I made it back from my extreme work trip to El Paso to Albuquerque to Denver back to Albuquerque and then home. Averaging only 4 to 5 hours sleep a night and all those plane rides really took a toll on my neck and shoulders… I am still aching as I type this. I wanted to share a few things I learned about Albuquerque during my short visit… since I have never to been to New Mexico much less Albuquerque there were some things I discovered that just were out of my ordinary world…
1) Albuquerque is really flat… just with a mountain range in the background.
2) The roadways are really wavy… seriously, the asphalt mix is wavy I suppose from the heat burning the road and then the traffic load causes it maybe? On certain parts of some streets you could not go over 40 mph without being airborne!
3) Restaurants there serve Green Chile with EVERY dish!
4) The Dairy Queen had tacos on the menu! And fried jalapeño fries!
5) The sun comes up very early… it was light outside at 5:30am.
6) It is very windy there… my fly-away tresses were flying.
7) All of the street names have words like “El, San, or Del” in them.
8) The overpass bridges are painted in “southwestern-like” colors like: turquoise, terracotta, brick red, and adobe…
9) They do have a minor league baseball team there- the Albuquerque Isotopes.
10) They do not have any popular football teams there. No pro team, no well-known college teams, etc.

All in all, Albuquerque is a great place. I would be in the minority there with my blondish hair though. It does have less humidity and the traffic is minimal. The airport is very easy to get in and out of. El Paso is whole different story… but, we will save that for another day.

I'm A Traveling Fool

I am typing this as I sit at the Denver airport waiting for my plane back to Albuquerque. Yes, this has been a whirlwind of a week and it is not over yet. I was in the Atlanta office Monday and Tuesday. Early Wednesday morning I was on a plane to El Paso. After 3 meetings in El Paso (mostly in preparation for my new project), I rode with my boss back to Albuquerque, New Mexico where he lives and our Southwest Division office is. I checked into my hotel and passed out. I got up this morning at the crack of dawn and headed to their airport and boarded a plane for a day trip to Denver. We bid two large projects today- both in the Southeast- one in Athens, GA and the other in Winston-Salem, NC. Well the planets must have lined up today because we were low bidder on the Athens project- Woohoo! Finally, our division has landed a nice, sizable project. I was definitely a tough job trying to put together two bids that bid on the same day at the exact same hour… but, we did it and it paid off!
Now I am flying back to Albuquerque and will pass out late tonight after I get back to my hotel. Tomorrow is workday for me in the Southwest Division office for my El Paso project. Unfortunately, no airline flies back to Atlanta from Albuquerque in the afternoon/evening hours. So Friday night will be another night there and then fly home Saturday. All this traveling makes Kelly a very tired girl. Imagine that.

I'm A Traveling Machine

What a week this was. I was supposed to have worked in Denver from Monday to Friday. But, that itinerary changed last Friday afternoon…. FOUR different times…and in a matter of two hours that Friday afternoon! I did not know what I was going to be doing this past week AT ALL. When the fiasco finally died down, I wound up only being in Denver Wednesday night through last night. I flew out Wednesday evening, spent two nights and two days in the Denver office for work and then took the late flight back last night. We did not even get to the hotel on Wednesday night until after 12 midnight EST, so that night was shot. I did manage to meet up with two of my buddies from college on Thursday night- we had supper up in Boulder, CO. What a good time catching up! I have to say that my trip back to the airport and getting to the gate was relatively easy this trip- no hiccups. Once again, my seat was in Row 1 on Frontier (not 1st class- Frontier does not have 1st class). I had the aisle seat. And it was all good until my seatmates showed up…a young couple from Oregon…with a baby in tow. And then it happened. The breast-feeding. Yes, folks, this mother breast-fed her child MULTIPLE times during my 3 hour flight from hell… I could have died! Not only did I have to focus on the metal wall in front of me (don’t forget the front row has no view) so I would not be looking in her general direction, but I had to turn up my iPod to cover the feeding noises! And then some kid was flying alone in the other front row and he spent the entire flight practically screaming for the flight attendants every 5 minutes for something. He also delayed our take-off because he locked himself in the front restroom and would not come out. The flight attendants kept banging on the door and repeatedly telling him to come out and buckle up. I have to say the entire flight was quite annoying and I could not get off that plane fast enough.
Next week is another travel week for me and unfortunately a lot more complicated than this week was. Fly to El Paso and then drive to Albuquerque on Wednesday, fly to Denver and back from Albuquerque on Thursday, Albuquerque all day and night on Friday, and then fly back home on Saturday. Wow. That is all I can say about it.