Wake Up Call

I'm in Dallas, and not for the reason you might think (finding out who shot JR). For work. I'm in one of those hotels that will make you an expert in various fields just by staying there. But it hasn't made me an expert in anything. It has, however, made me very frustrated.

Last night, a gas line broke next to the hotel, in front of a Waffle House - seriously. Naturally, this caused the water to go out in the entire hotel. Huh? I did not realize we had no water pressure until immediately after I had used the, um, toilet. So that was an interesting discovery. The polite person at the front desk was busy handing out bottles of water, and explaining it would surely be back on in the morning. Which it was.

BUT -- the water did not come with the most important feature for morning usage, heat. So after a night where I used bottled water for tooth brushing, and couldn't flush the toilet, I had to endure a freezing cold shower. Then - and as far as I can tell, this is not the hotel's fault - as I was carrying a case of thawed beverage mix to the meeting room (part of some training/sampling we're doing), the condensation inside the box somehow poured through a crack and ran all down my dress pants. Fortunately, the hotel room did have a functioning hair dryer. For pants. I can't wait to see what DFW has in store for me tonight, what with my scheduled American Airlines flight on an MD-80 plane - safety & peace of mind! OK, off to the meeting...

Would you light my candle?

I've been in 3 states outside of this one since my last blog: Nevada, Connecticut, and Massachusetts - each progressively newer to me and harder to spell. It's late, and I can only really summarize one of the states. My Nevada experience occurred in Las Vegas, and per Las Vegas CVA mandate, my story has not left the city limits. Connecticut was nothing but a pass thru on the way to Northampton, MA, site of Murray-Esener wedding activities.

Before I get to that, I've also been to another planet recently. Moab. It took a second trip to that place for me to understand that it cannot simply be a part of Utah, United States, Earth. The Slick Rock Recreation area - where dudes in Jeeps compete for knobbiest tires - is one of my new favorite places. We hope to camp there and ride some mountain bikes, or just climb around the strange rocky mounds. Here are some pics. And a video that my lady will enjoy seeing on the Interweb. Yes, we are jamming to the Rent soundtrack.

Murray's wedding was an excellent reason to descend upon the unique town of Northampton, MA - home of Smith College, a naked sculpture park, a beer can hall of fame, and tons of boutiques and gift shops that are WAY more enlightened and clever than you, Mister Man. It was my first trip to what my brain imagines to be the typical "northeast" town. The weather cooperated by being primarily cloudy & rainy, but as often occurs, gave way to sunshine on Saturday, the big day. St. Mary's cathedral and the Hotel Northampton made excellent backdrops to a fun and memorable time with lots of my friends from childhood, high school, and college. A few pics here, and I'll refer you to my friend Megan's blog for more detail and better pics. We did pretty much all the same stuff as her, except the red eye and yoga.

Now that I think of it, something awesome DID occur in the great state of Connecticut. It involved salad, a state trooper, an awkward glance or two, and... well, I don't know if I should share the rest. But I could write a new entry: "Something came up on the way to Hartford Bradley airport"...