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.

What The Heck?

What the heck is this? It is blooming all over El Paso.... it is like a flowering desert bush or something. Very eye-catching riding down the road and very pretty!

I Spend 33% Of My Life Waiting

So here I sit in the El Paso airport waiting... waiting...waiting... and waiting some more... the story of my life! This trip's itenerary has changed so many times I have lost count. After discovering some serious issues yesterday on our job site here in El Paso, I had to call our company travel agency last evening (since our Denver office was already closed at 7pm EST!) and change my early flight this morning. I was supposed to fly Frontier early this morning to Denver (which probably got delayed anyway because of the snowstorm they had this morning) and then connect to Atlanta. I really need to stay longer this morning so I could attend our bi-weekly Progress Mtg with the Owner/Engineer on site. I wound up having to buy a one-way ticket on Delta to Atlanta for early this afternoon for the cheap price of $915!! Crazy I know! Well, I went to the meeting and was packing up to leave afterwards only to find out that there was a hostage situation on the interstate somewhere between the jobsite exit and the airport exit. With the border wars going on just a few hundred yards away from here, who knows what kind of craziness this hostage situation involved! So I had to take the "transmountain" route the back way around the city and up through the mountain range. Needless to say, I drove like a mad woman trying to get the airport at least an hour before my flight time... and then I get to the ticket counter. And wouldn't you know- the flight is DELAYED! Over 2 hours!! And because of rain/thunderstorms in Atlanta... WHY me? Why does this always seem to happen to me? Especially when I am so ready to be back home... rain, wind, snow- you name it- one of these conditions ALWAYS delays my flights!!! And always when I am by myself on an out-of-town work trip... weather is not my friend I tell you.
This whole day has been turmoil for me... I stayed up way too late last night trying to prepare for this big on site meeting earlier this morning and then all of my worrying put my stomach into knots. And unfortunately, I had to use the jobsite porta-john when my upset stomach turned worse- NOT fun at all. It is bad enough having to use it but for that ritual? And then when we got into the meeting with all the project players, they dropped a big ol' bomb on us and informed us that the Owner's electrical/instrumentation people need two additional weeks at the end of of our Project Schedule to complete their work on integrating the new system to the old one. That would extend the project until the first or second week of May! And they want our written "plan" submitted ASAP for the duration of the project work- great- it is a good thing I worked on it half of last night! Now I just have to put my butt into high gear tomorrow in my office in Atlanta and finish it before the FedEx man arrives. Why is it even the best laid out plans just never happen the way we intended?? One of my life's biggest mysteries...

Death By Airport Sprints

I am writing this from a crop duster airplane headed from Denver to El Paso. I am starving to death and winded from the 1/2 mile sprint I just completed trying to get from my late arriving Atlanta flight gate A25 to my connecting flight gate A58. My sprint became a life or death situation as I was running just past the half-way point of my path and I could actually hear someone paging MY NAME over the Denver International Airport intercom!! What a horrible pronunciation of my entire full name! I was frantic... even more than I already was... As I bolted past the cowboy on the moving sidewalks almost knocking him down, I could hear my own haggard breath heaving as I ran. I am sure he was surprised to see this much taller, much heavier woman running by him in an almost full-blown sprint with laptop backpack on and carry-on roller bag flailing out from my side. I then realize that the gate is down another level of escalators and run down those too. I finally run into another straight hallway of gates and see mine far in the distance... I run even faster. I get there and the door is closed with two airline employees standing there staring at me as I drop my bag, bend over and attempt to catch my breath. The guy on the right says, "are you Kelly ____?" I gasp for air and nod yes. He replys that he just took me off the list... I must have forcefully stated that he just HAD to put me back on it... and that I just RAN to get this flight... all he wanted was the magic word... "please"... Easy enough... "Please, sir- let me go to El Paso tonight".... and he did. I head out the door and see the crop duster across the parking lot from the gate... and then I have to sprint again to get on the plane before they pull up the stairs and seal the door on it! By the time I run/climb the stairs and am standing in the aisle of the plane (heaving of course) EVERY person on the plane is staring at me... very weird. The flight attendant says "welcome- you made it" and I say "yes, I did!- Thank the Lord for my boot camp training!!". And they all chuckle. So here I am... sitting on a crop duster that is only a little over half full, a kid has been kicking my seat for the past 20 minutes and I am staring out my window at the HUGE propeller next to me... only a 1 hour flight though... Halleluyah! I could eat a small horse and drink a gallon of water right now...no wonder- I just realized that my sprint was at the mile-high elevation- now I know why I was breathing so hard...

Rejuvenating Time

I was supposed to fly to El Paso yesterday for work. I am hoping this is my last trip out to the job site there since I am supposedly starting a new project here in Atlanta in May or June. Well, wouldn't you know that my flight from Atlanta to Denver was delayed due to their early morning snowstorm yesterday and the delay was longer than my scheduled layover there. So I had our travel lady in our Denver office push the trip 24 hours. So now I am flying out today- fingers crossed on that one! Since my flight to Denver was/is not until early afternoon boths days I got to sleep in some and take my time packing, etc. here at home. It is funny how much I truly enjoy being at home at times like today and yesterday. There are so many things that I get to do around the house that have been neglected for so long because of my non-stop daily schedule. For instance, I finally ironed that pile of wrinkled clothes that have been laying on top of the chair in our bedroom for months... some of the shirts were short-sleeved! Those are left from Hubby last wearing them early last fall! I made a long overdue trip to wal-mart to get toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc... I got to take my time and actually SHOP. Of course, my mind always goes to that place where I wonder if I could actually quit my job and be a stay-at-home wife/mom.... I think I would really enjoy it at first... but, then once all of my projects are done, I would probably die of boredom! Who knows...
By the way, I did pass my black belt test a couple of Saturdays ago... I have just been slowly decompressing over the past week or so since that stressful Saturday. Since I have not been back to the karate studio since that day, I have had a chance to do some long overdue things for myself. I washed all of the "gear" in my karate bag, I have been dealing with all of these joint aches that I have ignored during those last 3-4 weeks before the test (my right hand and elbow are the worst- especially my thumb and middle finger joints), and have just been taking it easy in regards to getting some more sleep and relaxing. Since my Grandmother's hospital/rehab stint is finally over and I am traveling this week for work, I will probably not head back to the karate studio until this Saturday.... that will be officially 2 weeks since my test and I am positive I will be ready to start back by then.
I still have a list of things "to do" when I get back from El Paso on Thursday night. Hopefully, it will all fall into place...

Good Ol' Hell Paso... I Mean El Paso

I arrived home last night from my 3-day trip to El Paso for work. I left on Monday morning bound for the armpit of America and what a trip it was! First of all, I was pulled out of line at airport security in the Atlanta airport so they could inspect my bags for a suspicious item. When the guy proceeded to inform that I had a “vibrat__….” I could not contain my shock at what in the world he could be referring to… and since my shock filled my ears instead of listening to the entire phrase, I would have known he was talking about my vibrating neck pillow that Hubby gave me for my birthday! I was so embarrassed… supposedly the mechanism that makes the vibrations looks something like a terrorist bomb?
I make it onto the plane only to find out that I have a middle seat… Crap! I hate middle seats! And wouldn’t you know I had a lady 1.5 times bigger than me on the left and a man with a major case of OCD on the right (both elbow rest hoggers mind you) so I had absolutely NO arm rests for the entire 3 hour trip! I was so restless and uncomfortable the whole trip. I could not get off that plane fast enough…
I stayed a much nicer than normal hotel with a great fitness center… too bad my key card did not want to cooperate with my entering the fitness room…
El Paso weather was gorgeous… lows in the high 30’s and low 40’s and highs in the 60’s… and VERY windy! I browsed through some really nice sporting stores after work each night. And the groceries there are so much cheaper than here in Georgia- a ½ gallon of milk was only $1.00!! Yet, gas was much higher than here… the QT on the way to the Atlanta airport before I left on Monday was $1.99/gallon and in El Paso it was $2.44/gallon… glad I didn’t drive too much…
My Superintendent took me to lunch for some authentic Mexican food after our meeting on Tuesday… very tasty and VERY spicy! I almost cracked up when I used the ladies room at the signs posted on the back of the stall door.

Yikes! Do they really do that here? My last night I enjoyed some really good barbeque and then attempted a short shopping trip through wal-mart… bad idea… I must have been the only English-speaking person in that store! It feels very odd to be standing in the men’s section and hear all Spanish around you.
I really like the El Paso airport… the rental cars are at the airport so no shuttle buses to ride on. The Delta employee at the ticket counter informed me that Atlanta is their only destination from El Paso… how convenient? My gate is the first one just past security…, which worked out really great since I got held up AGAIN at security for that darn pillow! I think I will have to dissect the mechanism out of the pillow before my next trip…
The plane was only half full on the way back to Atlanta… I took note that we had several military troops on the flight. I was honored to strike up a conversation with one of them who was sitting in front of me. We talked off and on the entire way back. He told me how much he loves being in the army and how he was on his way to see his fiancé. They are marrying on January 1st… and then he will be deployed overseas. He answered all of my crazy questions about their guns, their exercise routines, their tanks, vehicles, etc. What a great guy! I wished him much luck on his way to Mayberry, NC… and then onto the unknown… How fitting since Veterans Day was Tuesday…

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.

Winds Of Change

The winds have changed for me at my job… I have been assigned a new project… in El Paso, Texas…. Hhhhmmmmm… interesting… El Paso, the armpit of America as some folks like to refer to it. I was given the green light last Friday afternoon (while I was hanging the geriatrics crowd back home) and when I showed up to the office on Monday the flood gates were wide open. I have been in full throttle since Monday and have not stopped yet. I have 4 huge tasks that have to be completed by this coming Monday and let’s not forget that this IS a holiday weekend! It’s a good darn thing we did not have any plans for the 4th because I would be up the creek… I am the Project Manager and have no budget for a assistant… wouldn’t ya know? But, hey, this new project assignment gives me something to do at work… and that is the best news of all.