Planning perks
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 | Food, work
So, back from the business trip.
April 13th’s Sunday’s BIG booth event (the last Texas event) we staffed and provided samples throughout the event time. We had to cut slices of cheese for sampling and my colleague and I had horrendous blisters in just a few minutes in starting the whole cutting process. This was a wine and food sampling event so the attendees enjoying our sampling got more and more interesting as it got later and we learned that the amount of wine available to the attendees far outweighed the food.
We had food, so we had long lines and by the end of the day, lots of tipsy slurry individuals coming up to ask us about our samples. Hilarious and disconcerting at the same time. Over 5 hours with no real breaks and no chance to eat anything since we left the hotel that morning we were ready for a break. IT was, overall, a good event. All went well for the most part and I appreciated working with my colleague who is a serious and hard worker.
We then hit 2 shipping places to get our collateral shipped back to Portland and while the customer service rep at the second shipping location had a serious bad attitude, we got it done, shipped and then we headed to dinner.
We had mexican for dinner, I was pretty beat and didn’t care really where we went for dinner, I just know I really wanted a good quality drink. It was a cooler day too and the Sangria truly hit the spot. I ordered two and had cheese tacos even after I scarfed down an almost entire bowl of tortilla chips and salsa, yes I was hungry.
Luckily American Airlines was on time and running smoothly for us Monday the 14th. I got up by 4:30am and we left by 6am and made it to the airport to drop off rental car by 6:25, although with a small heart attack while trusting my instincts driving to the Austin Airport. I had a moment of hesitation and pulled off the freeway to check directions and turned on the GPS and low and behold I was going the right way. I just needed to trust myself better.
I think that’s what makes driving with a GPS extremely frustrating. You loose faith in your intuition and question all your decisions. When the signs aren’t obvious then you rely on the GPS which only led me to taking wrong turns and taking an extra 10 - 20 minutes to get to destination. ANYWAY, I digress. We had about a 4 hour plane ride from Austin to Seattle. No free snacks only soft drinks which is where most airlines are going to to keep costs down. Which makes sense.
We had about an hour at Seattle. We checked the monitors for the correct gate, well that was wrong so we were sent to another gate only to learn that our plane is getting re-inspected so there will be a delay. Oh well, I’d rather be delayed to ensure our safety, FOR SURE!
So I’m getting back into the swing of things at work. Traveling with my work colleague was good, I learned a lot more about her and about me and about working with her, which is good since we’ll have future trips together.
So while Monday was spent unpacking and doing laundry I stayed up as late as I could before I completely passed out and woke up ready to take on the day on Tuesday.
To celebrate making it back safe and sound Ryan and I ended up being at work until 6pm on Tuesday and I really wanted a black & Tan so we decided to meet up at Moon which was good.
I certainly enjoyed my black and tans and spending time with Ryan 
BEST OF ALL, when we decided to leave to catch the bus home, dearest neighbor Miranda happened to be swinging by and what do you know picked us up with her momma and transported our smokey, beer laden butts home. Talk about lucky and how nice it is to have friends as neighbors! THANK YOU MIRANDA and MIRANDA’S Mom!
SO, today my work colleagues and I conducted a site visit for an event we are planning for work that will be taking place in October. We got to tour the Widmer Breweries’ event spaces. They had two spaces in which we could conduct the event and the “brand” manager who we spoke to was just delightful. He really wants to work with us and have the event at Widmer, which would be AWESOME! But, best of all, in parting he gave me and my 2 colleagues each a half rack of beer to take home. Talk about closing a deal! I mean that was soooo incredibly generous. We are in awe and one of my colleague’s doesn’t even drink beer, so her hubby will be a happy hubby this evening.
It’s just another testament to the many perks I am enjoying in my new role. I’m definitely feeling incredibly lucky.
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