I’m in San Antonio for work. It’s much better than I thought. I have basically had two free days (Saturday & Sunday) and I leave Monday morning. This is the final sprint of the craziness that has been my life for the past two years. Sure, there will be other busy times, but 2 years is a long time grind and I can’t wait to be home.
So, last Friday I finished all of my school work. Wade and I celebrated with the BEST CHAMPAGNE IN THE WORLD…LITERALLY!
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| Armand de Brignac. PGA Masters Limited Edition, 2011. |
I mean, this was the taste of victory. I can’t even begin to describe how special this gift was to me. There really are no words, but Wade knows and that was such a wonderful thing to experience together. So, raise a glass and let’s toast to many more ocassions that “Ace” approrpriate.
After the weekend, I had a vendor ride along with me all week. He was very kind, but I get so tired of having people in my car. After 4 days of that it was time for me to head to San Antonio. I got here around 2, after the most terrible flight I have ever experienced. It all started at the airport. I flew Southwest so my flight departed from Love Field. I typically love flying out of Love Field because it’s smaller and much easier to navigate. I parked on level 2G in garage A (that’s more for me…just in case I forgot) and took my luggage inside. I didn’t check any bags and I had printed my boarding pass before I left home, so it was just a matter of getting through security and then finding my gate. Well, security wasn’t an issue, but almost immediately after passing the checkpoint, I was hit with a wall of heat. As I lugged my suitcase up the ramp into the terminal, I saw a man standing in front of an industrial fan and thought, “hmmmm, that’s weird.”
It quickly dawned on me that there was no AC, but surely it was only in this part of the terminal. I was wrong. The whole airport didn’t have AC. They were passing out free water and people were constantly wiping their arms and face with napkins. It was miserable. After an hour of that I boarded the plane and I swear that it had to be a tin can. I really thought I was going to throw up because we were all over the place. The pilot couldn’t seem to get the thing leveled out. I have never been so happy to land somewhere that wasn’t home. I took a cab to the hotel, which is the Westin Riverwalk…very choice. I ordered room service for lunch and waited for my colleagues to arrive. Once they did, we hit up the bar and I began my proseco tour of the Riverwalk.
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| A little fuzzy…so appropriate. |
Our VP was down there and he’s a huge Rangers fan, so he picked my brain for a while. Eventually, our CEO (who is British) joined us. They asked Will (my boss), Tony (my counterpart in South Texas), myself and our VP of marketing to join them for dinner. We went to a little steakhouse right down the river and enjoyed a fine meal (I had salmon) and some good conversation. We were there for about 4 hours. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel bar which was, now full of dealers and people from our convention. I’m not quite sure how it all happened, but we were thisclose to buying a ping pong table and having a tournament in Martin’s (the CEO) suite.
It was a fantastic night and it ended at 11:30, which was probably a good thing. I woke up at about 6am on Saturday and started to plan my free day. I did have to set up our booth while the guys golfed. The previous night, Craig (VP of Sales) said that he didn’t think I could set it up by myself because it usually takes two guys to do it. My liquid courage prompted me to tell him, “that’s exactly why I’ll be able to do it myself. Anything that takes a guy, divide that by two and that’s how many women you need to do the same task.”
It was crowd-pleaser, but I was a little worried that I bit off more than I could chew (what’s new?). Well, I set up that booth in 20 minutes…no kidding. I got that done and headed to the pool which is on one of the lower levels of the roof and overlooks the Riverwalk.
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| The view from my lounge chair. |
I didn’t stay out there very long, but I did venture out into the city and just walked around. I really enjoyed it and told Wade that we need to take a weekend trip down here. I had to be at our “show” at 5PM, so I got back to the hotel at 4 and got ready. Even though it was only two hours and essentially the only work I’ve done and will do on this trip, it was a beating. Mostly because of this guy:
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| Yes, folks! That is an Elvis impersonater. |
It just dragged on and on. Finally, at 7:30, we tore our booth down and made plans to meet in the bar to go to dinner. Will, Tony and I wanted some dirty Mexican food. Grease? Yes, please. And, after all, we were in San Antonio. Somehow we got roped into going to dinner with Martin and John (VP of Mktg) and although they are lovely gentlemen, they are a bit snobbish and wanted nothing to do with Tex-Mex. After walking past a million restaurants on the Riverwalk, they finally decided that they would settle for Landry’s. Unfortunately, at 8PM on Saturday night, most of the restaurants in this tourist area are packed…weird, huh? It was a 2 hour wait. After following them down and around the river we ended up at a rathole and still waited 1.5 hours for our food. It was gross and I was ready to be HOME, or at least in bed at the hotel. We didn’t get back until 11. The conversation kept dragging and it was all business-talk. It was worse than school. I was so relieved to be done with that.
I didn’t sleep well last night. I had crazy dreams. Not good or bad, just very vivid and certainly the kind that makes you sit up and think for a second. I threw in the towel at 7AM and ordered breakfast (organic egg whites, multi-grain toast, and a bowl of berries) and did my expense report for the week. I’m spending today at the pool and have a black tie dinner this evening. Work’s not half bad, really! Well, folks, I’ve missed you and I’m looking forward to more blogging.
Blessings!