Recently in On the Road Category

And now I'm back! Did you miss me? I spent a lovely few days out in the San Francisco Bay area visiting my friends Laila and John and their little boy Noah. Laila and I talked until we practically lost our voices, covering as many topics as we possibly could in the time I was there. Sample topic range: Writers everyone loves whose books we just can't get into to which people from high school looks seriously different now to the joys of making risotto (Laila makes an awesome risotto) to why healthcare reform matters.

Noah showed me the joys of the Penguins of Madagascar cartoon and beat me at Wizard Stratego. He also tried to explain Bakugan to me, but I have to admit, I didn't get it. They took me to the Marin headlands so I could see the Golden Gate Bridge and then they took me to the movie theater so I could see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I'll leave it up to you to decide which one of those was more important. We lounged around their lovely house, relaxing and just hanging out.

It was a great visit. Laila and I have been friends since we met in biology class on the first day of our freshman year of high school, and no matter what we're doing together, we have a good time. Few people seem to understand me as well as she does, and I wish she didn't have to be so far away.

Proof that I did one touristy thing:

Buddha at the bottom of a big rock: (Whoops, I'm jet lagged and sleepy! Buddha is no longer sideways)

Mr. Gecko:

So my mom and I went to Portland to visit my brother. I tried very hard to stay on East Coast time, but all I really seem to have accomplished is to make myself tired in two time zones. So you’ll have to make up your own clever title.

I did, however, have a wonderful time. I love the Pacific Northwest. It is just so different from the East Coast and everything that I grew up with. I miss my brother quite a bit, so it was wonderful to see him. And I like his girlfriend, so I was pleased to get to spend time with her.

Three things I learned about Portland:
1) The people are really nice and helpful. Almost creepily so, although they seemed sincere about it. It started at the airport when a guy insisted on helping me find the correct baggage claim, and continued for the whole trip.

2) Oregonians don’t speed. They are all very law abiding, possibly because the roads around Portland are confusing. I was going to a place on Tualatin Rd (or possibly Tualatin Drive) and I kept having to turn right to stay on the same road.

3) Nothing is pronounced the way I think I should be. See Willamette and Tualatin for starters.

As for touristy stuff, well, Powell’s City of Books is one of the coolest places I have ever been. It really does cover a full block! I could have spent an entire day there, I think, wandering the aisles in some sort of book-induced ecstasy. Alas, I didn’t have a whole day, but I had a good time while I was there.

We also visited the traditional Japanese garden. If I lived in Portland, I think I would buy an annual pass to this place. It was so lovely and tranquil and peaceful. I actually felt more connected to the rhythms of nature while I was there. The breeze blows, the trees sway, the water drips and pools and flows. Here are some Koi who live in the garden:

Also, if you ever visit Portland I highly recommend you take an afternoon and go up the old Columbia River Scenic Highway. It runs along the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge, and it is spectacular. There’s one beautiful waterfall after another every couple of miles. We drove up to the top of Larch Mountain, and my mom very bravely hiked up to a scenic point at the very top. She has bad knees, so it was a struggle for her. It was totally worth it, because you could see for miles – Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, even Mount Rainier, way off in the distance. We finished up at Multnomah Falls, which is the most spectacular falls of them all. Then we went up past Bonneville Dam and over the very high Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Locks. My brother was NOT a fan of the bridge, but I thought it was very cool.

A view of the river from Vista House:

As I read up on the city before my trip, I kept reading that Portland was a city of restaurants, and we certainly ate at some good ones. I think Mother’s Bistro downtown was my favorite. I also discovered a new favorite drink – strawberry lemonade. Experiments at recreating this drink will begin this weekend. Mostly though, it was just nice to hang out with my brother, and even to spend a good chunk of time with my mom. By yesterday she’d had enough of me and my quirks, and I’d had enough of her and her quirks, but it was a good trip.

...because I had dinner with 'mazing Amy (aka Silver Girl) and you did not. She is every bit as smart, funny and pretty as her blog would lead you to believe. Dinner with her was a welcome break from official business dinners. Instead we traded stories and filled in details not necessarily covered on our blogs. I liked her very much. For two people who have lead pretty different lives, we managed to find a decent amount of common ground. And she has an excellent sense of humor. After reading my post about purses the other night, she thought maybe she'd dig up one of her old LV bags just to see if I'd notice. Not only would I have noticed...I would have thought it was damn funny.

As nice as the evening was, and actually, as good as my day was -- I made a ton of sales at the booth today, quite shocking -- I am ready to go home and sleep in my bed and get back in to my old routine. I've had just about enough of getting up at 5:30 and standing on my poor tired and sore feet all day.

Thanks, Amy, for making my last evening in Vegas a fun one!

Text from Becky this morning: "Good morning sunshine! How are we this morning?" Possibly sent in response to the previous post. Possibly sent in response to tipsy text message sent by me from the casino last night. Not that I would send a friend a drunken declaration of my plan to win money and get a purse like hers. For the record, I am feeling just fine.

I only go to one or two trade shows per year, but today while talking to a couple of our new people, I realized that I've learned some stuff over the years.

1) people will be convinced that because you're at a booth, you know the answers to everything about the show, even if it has nothing whatsoever with what you do.

2)people will be convinced that whatever you are storing behind the booth is much better than what you've put out. It never occurs to them that it is just boxes of the exact same crap that is already on display. I had a guy dart behind the booth and snatch an issue out of a box this morning, and then look mighty surprised to see me standing there giving him a quizzical look. Yeah buddy, this is where we keep the real investment advice. All the rest of the stuff is just for show. Um, hi. That thing you just took? There are 200 of them hanging in a bin on the wall two feet away from here. All free.

3) This is the first year I've worn flats. I HIGHLY recommend it when you are standing for 12 hours per day. Even if someone did say to me today, "wow, you really are short without heels on aren't you?" Yep. Vertically challenged and proud. My own mother recently had the same revelation while looking at my vacation photos. But my feet, while still sore, are approximately 1 million times better than this time last year.

4) You can go out and drink and have fun with your co-workers. 2 drink limit, stay hydrated, and get to bed early. I wrote my goofy post last night, read a couple of chapters of my book, and was in bed by 11:00. That allowed me to be up at 5:30, perhaps sleepy, but mostly ready to go. Tonight I plan to be asleep even earlier as I am so tired I'm practically floating. I did have a nice business dinner tonight, but it was all professional and alcohol free. See? Am responsible.

5) Don't take the rude people personally. A guy was so anxious for his free newsletters this morning that he half shoved me out of his way. Someone else had me call customer service to look up the expire dates on his newsletters, and then announced he was going to cancel most of them. But way more nice people come along and tell you interesting and sweet stories and totally make up for the jerks. I love getting to meet our customers in person.

6) If you start getting bored, make up stories about the people you see going by the booth. Blue shirt guy was a bush pilot in Alaska. Pony tailed man was a folk singer with a minor hit. And so on and so forth.

7) Never underestimate the power of a mid-afternoon Starbucks run. I have never been happier to see an iced grande skim chai coming my way.

Now I must go soak my feet and then it is bed time. Do I know how to have a good time in Vegas or what?

Greetings from lovely Las Vegas, Nevada, where I am currently attending a trade show. Attending? Exhibiting at. I have just come from a delightful dinner with my colleagues. The food was nothing to write home about -- a tofu napoleon, specially prepared by the chef, but eh, boring -- but the margaritas on the other hand...worth every penny! I had two, and I am most definitely tipsy. We had an awesome dinner though. Best dinner at one of these functions ever. Then the plan was to go gamble so my boss can afford a David Yurman watch and I can splurge on a Louis Vuitton purse. My friend Becky has one, my boss just got a really nice one, and every third person in Vegas has one. Now I want one! It's not going to happen though. I am the world's crappiest gambler. I never even get to be up and then lose it all. I just lose it all immediately. I'm down $30 already!

I hardly slept at all last night because the world's loudest and probably most expensive mini-fridge kept me up last night. Then I stood at the booth all day and had two margaritas. Damn I'm tired. Hopefully the booze will drown out the minifridge. Think the hotel would notice if I unplugged.

Ok, have to be at a 7:30 presentation tomorrow, bright-eyed and bushytailed. Good night!

Work re-entry was brutal today. There was traffic and then I had a solid block of meetings from 10-3, and oh yeah, we moved in to our new offices over the weekend. So I had to adjust to cube world in addition to changing time zones and trying to get back in to work mode after a week off. I don’t know where anything or anyone is. I can’t print. I can’t find my security card. I didn’t even get to start unpacking until after 4, and there are approximately 500 emails I have to read through. I finally started to hit my stride by the very end of the day, so hopefully tomorrow will be better. Rather than bitch about work all night, I thought I’d share a few pearls of wisdom I gained from my trip.

1) Even though England is cold and rainy, no one there wants to turn on the damn heat. If you are, say, a naïve American who brought a bunch of cute springy outfits, you will freeze and end up wearing the same pair of jeans every day, while coming up with creative ways to layer different combinations of the tops you have with you.

2) Americans really are the fattest people in the world. You could always tell the Americans before they even opened their mouths, and not just because of their clothes. There is a sleekness, a roundness, a softness to the way we look that gives us away.

3) We may be the losers in the fat department, but we have the best teeth. Good God there are some messed up teeth in this world!

4) American public transportation is a joke. I think New York City comes closest, but nothing in this country can compare to the level of convenience, the number of options, and the coverage of the city offered in London.

5) Which is good, because there is no way I could ever drive in London. First of all, the whole wrong side of the road thing is very confusing. The cars never come from the direction you expect. Second, every car is driving way too fast. Third, the roads are twisty and narrow and you spend a lot of time making up lanes as you go.

6) It turns out that I am way more of an American than I ever realized. I was prepared to go to London, fall in love with the city, and start daydreaming about becoming an expatriate or something. As much as I enjoyed the sense of history that is everywhere in London, I love my shiny new country. I love my house with central heating and multiple decent sized bathrooms. I love my laundry room, completely separate from my kitchen in every way. I love our wide roads and easy to follow traffic patterns. I love that even though I bitch about real estate prices in DC, they are nothing compared to the London prices.

7) Lilt soda is very yummy. I highly recommend it. Too bad you can’t get it here.

8) They have flavors of potato chips (aka crisps) that I’ve never heard of before. I accidentally ate some roasted chicken ones (although they really didn’t taste they way I remember chicken tasting), but I also enjoyed cheddar and onion and truly tasty salt and vinegar, and I saw many, many others.

9) What they call chips (French fries) really are super tasty. John kept saying we had to get authentic chips, and once we did, I saw why.

10) Glad as I am to be home, I’m already looking forward to going back some day. So even though I don’t want to live in London – I’d have to strike it really, really rich to live there , I think – part of me did fall in love with the city.

There’s more, I’m sure, but I’m still wrestling with jet lag. I’m doing better than last night, when I conked out on the couch at 10 like it was 3 am, but I’m pretty darn tired.

…and it was lovely. My friend Julie and I haven’t spent that much time hanging out just the two of us in years. Her son Ben is a sweet natured and adorable little boy. And after the hectic pace of the last couple of weeks, I desperately needed a couple of days to relax. As it turns out, life moves very differently for a woman who is still breastfeeding an infant every two hours. You just can’t do all that much. Plus, Julie’s husband Mark fell and fractured his ankle a couple of days before I arrived, so he wasn’t very mobile. So we gabbed, and played with the baby, and went for walks in the park – two parks actually, one of which was Flushing Meadow Park, where they have the US Open, and which has been the site of two World’s Fairs. My parents went to the 1964 World’s Fair there and it was a little odd to think of them, younger than I am now, walking in the same place I was walking. Oh, and we watched Harold and Kumar Go to WhiteCastle on their ginormous TV. It was, as you might expect, was an occasionally funny but mostly stupid stoner movie. We made it more fun by actually going to WhiteCastle following the movie (they had burgers, I had fries.)

The one lame part was that my cold was still in the picture. I was a little worried that it was Hideous Cold of Death II: The Recoldening, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it is just my original cold going for an overblown, extended heavy-metal type ending. So I’m back, mostly healthy, definitely relaxed and diving back into my week. Which will include: a visit to the fertility specialist, dinner with my dad, and a separate (and probably far more enjoyable) dinner with my friend Becky, house hunting, lots and lots of work and more. Right back into thick of things I go.

I really wanted to participate in National De-Lurking Day, but this is the first chance I’ve had to blog all day. Now it’s 10 o’clock and everyone is probably busy watching the 2nd hour of Alias. Anyway, if by some chance you haven’t heard by now, Sheryl came up with the idea to encourage lurkers to de-lurk, just for the day and say hello. So, if anyone out there wants to de-lurk at this late hour, please do.

That is, if anyone is still reading after I haven’t posted in six days! For which I am truly sorry. Here’s what’s been going on, since I last wrote:

Wednesday: Woke up depressed about my dad. Ate many peanut butter Hershey kiss cookies. Eventually decided that my relationship with my dad has always sucked and will continue to suck until the day he dies (which suddenly seems much closer) and all I can do is try to accept that fact. Had a nice dinner with my friend Laila.

Thursday: Spent the day frantically searching for a dress to wear to my friend Carri's wedding on Friday. Ended up spending way more money than I wanted to, but at least I had something to wear. Came home to the excellent news that John’s final grades were posted and I am now married to a college graduate. Yay! Got pizza and cheese fries to celebrate. Had stupid fight with John about whether or not the suit he wanted to pack for the wedding was too casual.

Friday: Got up insanely early to fly to New Hampshire, after getting no sleep because I am a freak and woke up once an hour all night long because I was worried about oversleeping. Drove to my friend Jules’ house and got ready for the wedding. John’s reaction to me in the wedding outfit made it worth every penny. Drove to Marblehead for the wedding, which was lovely. My friend Carri looked beautiful and so happy. The church she got married in was built in 1714 and modeled after a church that Christopher Wren designed in London after the great Fire of 1666, which you probably only care about if you are a geek like me. Then it was back to NH to ring in the New Year with Jules. And celebrate her birthday, which is January 1st.

Saturday: Got up early. Played with Jules’ adorable baby boy Malcolm. Longed for child of my own. Flew home. Picked up naughty doggy who has managed to destroy my mom’s winter coat, which I am now going to have to replace.

Sunday: Try to do all of the things I didn’t get done on my vacation. Fail miserably. Go to yoga class, which is awesome, as always.

Monday: While walking the dog, realize I have to speak at the 2005 Kickoff meeting we’re having at work that afternoon. Swear a lot. Go to work and try to remember what I said I’d talk about when we planned the meeting weeks ago. Somehow pull off the presentation.

Tuesday: Struggle to focus on work. Fail miserably.

Wednesday: Did I take a vacation? Where did this huge mountain of work come from? Can I take another vacation?

So, this past weekend I went to New Hampshire for this dedication my friend Jules was having for her son Malcolm. A dedication is kind of like a baptism, except that they don't actually baptize the baby. I had never heard of such a thing before, but I'm not much for religion, so that's no big surprise.

On Saturday, Jules and her aunt and uncle threw this huge Octoberfest party which they have every year. Jules, Melissa(who actually lives in DC, but who I never see) and I were charge of the kid's tent and activities. There was a moon bounce, and water balloon toss, and scavenger hunt and a pie eating contest. There was also a raffle, which I won! In a neat twist, my winnings were just 70 cents less than the cost of my plane ticket. We had a great day, and I got to see lots of people who I hadn't seen in years. And when it got late, we kicked all the kids out of the moon bounce and went in it ourselves. Moon bounces rock!

Sunday was Malcolm's dedication, which was wonderful. It was held in a state park in Rockport, MA, right on the ocean. New England loses to DC bigtime in the spring, but nothing beats a New England autumn. And the ceremony was lovely. A little sad, of course, because Malcolm's father Leo died before he was born, but otherwise, just perfect. The minister really got to know Jules and understood what was important to her, and went out of her way to make the non-Baptists feel welcome. The reception was at Jules dad's house, where I ate a lot of seven layer dip, a delicious Dulce de Leche cake, and got to see even more people I hadn't seen in years. And play with Malcolm and his little cousin Annabelle. And then Jules and Melissa and I wrapped up the evening with some great takeout and even better conversation.

And then --ugh -- a night of very little sleep between a fussy baby and a sick dog. Jules and I were roommates for years, and her dog Keisha was our dog really, and now she's old and has pneumonia and was up coughing a lot. Which meant I was up, worrying about her and feeling bitter about the fact that I wasn't getting any sleep. But I managed to get up at 6:30 to catch a plane back to DC, and made it to work by noon. I highly recommend the Manchester Airport, but I must warn you, if you buy a bagel, they will insist on x-raying it when you go through security. Does anyone else have a problem with eating a freshly x-rayed bagel, or is it just me?

Well, first there was jury duty.

Then there was the frenzy of trying to get caught up at work after being out for jury duty.

Followed by a very busy weekend.

And missing more work due to a seriously unpleasant bout of stomach flu. Let's just say there was an incident that involved me racing into the house, and shoving past my confused hsband and dog while shouting something along the lines of "Outta the way! Can't talk! Not feeling well!" and leave at that.

A lot of really big, important deadlines at work. Which I made, dire illness and all, thank you very much.

A fun dinner with my friend Laila.

And then a fabulous trip to New Hampshire to see my friend Jules and her baby boy Malcolm. John is anxious to use the computer and I'm kind of tired, so I'll have to tell the story of my trip tomorrow. But if you were wondering, that's where the hell I've been.

So, I spent last weekend in the Hamptons. That makes me sound so chi-chi, doesn't it? I'm totally not, though. My friend Ariane's parents have a house out there, and we got to stay there for free.

It was a wonderful weekend. The weather was awesome, and the companionship superb. Getting together with three of your closest friends from college is the perfect antidote to three weeks of stress. We all converged on New York to celebrate my friend Ariane's shiny new clinical doctorate in physical therapy. That's Dr. Ariane to you! Plus, my friend Julie is about to have a baby. And Jules was there with her wonderful 10 month old son, Malcom. There was wine and laughter...the composition of a silly write-up for the alumnae magazine...playtime with the baby...advice about babies...more laughter...fun in the sun...and a whole lot more. All in all, a fabulous weekend.

The drive home, on the other hand, was hideous. We left the Hamptons at 10:45 am. I arrived home at 10:45 pm. Yep, that's right. 12 hours. That's T-W-E-L-V-E. The breakdown went something like this:
West Hampton Beach to the Belt Parkway: 2 hours.
Hours sent sitting on the Belt Parkway due to an accident that didn't actually seem to block any lanes: 1
Time wasted going north on the NJ Turnpike, until I said "Why are we seeing signs for the Holland Tunnel?" and then turning around: 30 minutes.
Hours spent sitting in rest stops with a sick baby, waiting in line for the worst pizza I've ever tasted, waiting in line for gas (why won't they let you pump your own gas in New Jersey?) watching Malcolm nurse, watching him throw up, and worrying about him being sick: 4
Other hours in New Jersey: 1
Time wasted sitting in line to get through stupid toll booth in Delaware: 40 minutes
Amount of time it took to get from the Maryland border to Rockville once I started driving: 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Time spent at nighttime pediatric clinic with baby: 1 hour. They were great. And very reassuring about how Malcolm was going to be ok.
Time spent getting lousy fast food dinner, medicine for Malcolm at CVS and driving home: 30 minutes

It was rough, but Jules and I actually got to spend a lot of good time talking. And I was very glad that I could be there for her when Malcolm was sick. I got to see the other, not so fun side of parenthood. And I still want kids!