Killing Time Blog

Its Tuesday night, I’m sitting in another hotel room watching American Idol.  I’ve just went to the hotel pantry and bought a Stauffers tv dinner and diet coke (I don’t like diet coke).  Traveling for your job always sounds sexier than it really is (or at least it is for me).  It sounds great to say… yea I was in Rome, Phoenix, D.C., for business.   

You would think that there would be power meetings, a few drinks for networking, a gourmet dinner at 4 star restaurant.  Maybe a little nightcap in the city’s hottest spot.  It doesn’t usually work out like that.  My work travel usually involves getting into some city late at night or worse on a Sunday.  The work day is filled with agonizingly long meetings where the lunch is usually a sandwich from some deli.  Usually the day lasts until 6pm or 8pm leaving you with barely enough energy to find even a Friday’s  so usually you just order room service.  Or in the case of this hotel, you get a tv dinner out of there refrigerator. 

When I was in Rome, it was 10 or 11pm because the Italians don’t show up until 9am, then they must have coffee, argue until lunch, 2 hour lunch, then argue after lunch, take break for an afternoon cappuccino, then we finally could actually do work. If you stay the weekend like I did in Rome you end up walking around a Romantic city by yourself because everyone else is local and go home to their families.  It so much fun to watch the romantic couples kissing by the beautiful fountains while you’re beating the crap out of the gypsy boys who tried to pick your pockets. 

Finally you’re able to get home on the last flight out, because they want to suck every bit of productivity out of you on the last day of meetings, and the flight arrives late.  You wander the parking lot in tears because you’ve been looking for your car for an hour because you can’t remember where you parked it.  Finally the airport police find you and after you can stop sobbing long enough to explain nothing really bad has happened to you, they help you find your car (in the next terminal).  Ok so this is only happened once and I was really tired. 

So I here I sit waiting for one of my myspace friends to reach out and save me from my misery.  In the meantime, I’m voting for Jordan Sparks and LaKeisha! 

p.s.

I’ll miss my yoga class and two soccer games and I only have 14 days left to get in shape for Greece!

Travel Diary – Greece, Mykonos – Part 2

Day 4 – Santorini / Mykonos

 

We get up early and take a ferry (hydrofoil) to the island of Mykonos.  There are four NATO battleships docked in port.  This sounds like the beginning of a good story doesn’t it?  So Tonya, what did you do in Mykonos?  The Navy!  Alas, it was not to be.  Mykonos, for whatever reason, is a huge hot spot for gays.  There were so many gay men on the island that I could not longer tell the difference. 

Our hotel is 1.5 miles from the town of Mykonos, a hike we take frequently.  The reading on the pedometer said that we walked about 43.2 miles for our entire trip but I think we should get extra steps for the steep cliffs and the donkey doo avoidance tactics. 

Day 5 – Mykonos

 

Up early and time to take the adventure up a notch (we at least as far as it goes for us).  We rent ATVs to tour the island.  Daily keeps complaining her’s wont’ go but she wont let go of the brake and Dara keeps kicking hers like it’s a horse or something.  We set our sites on a beach called Super Paradise.  They also have a beach called Paradise but why would you do that when you can have Super?  We got there on small country lanes (good not traffic) but the approach directly to the beach as a nearly vertical incline about 1000 ft.  The donkeys didn’t seem like such a bad idea right then.  Inch by inch we make it down and it was worth the effort.  I was more worried about how we were going to get back up!

 

Super Paradise is secluded bay with white sand beach and crystal blue water.  We pick the ideal spot for people watching and baking in the sun.  The people on the beach were very interesting.  Most of the Europeans wore teeny-weeny bikinis without the tops.  That goes for both men and women.  Not so attractive on the men I might add.  Makes me appreciate a pair of board shorts.  After roasting in the sun for a couple of hours, a dip in the sea sounds just the thing.  The water is so freaking cold that I can’t believe there isn’t ice crusting on the top.  I can’t get in any further than my feet.  Daisy gets hot enough to take the plunge but I could never brave it.  This freezing water may explain why the European man can wear their bikinis without any visible display of their manhood.  If I was a man that water would have shrank me to a raisin.  Not sure the explanation for the men who didn’t get in the water.

 

Super Paradise was so super we didn’t make it to another beach.  As the sun grew low over the cliff, we packed up the ATVs and headed back to town.  Nice dinner at a restaurant called Avra (go there if you happen to be in Mykonos), a few drinks with new friends from Vancouver and we turn in.

 

Day 6 – Mykonos

 

We had decided to take tour of the island of Delos, the most sacred island of the Cyclades.  It’s the site were Apollo (god of the sun) and his sister Artemis (goddess of the moon) were said to have been born.  This was the most disappointing part of the entire trip.  The islands was said to be the ruins of the ancient city but they mean ruins literally.  It was just acres of boulders strewn everywhere.  To add insult to injury the tour company charged us 48 Euro we could have gone on our own for 17.   On the island is the sacred mound where they were born which we hiked in skirts and flip flops but it did offer great views of the surrounding islands.  

That evening the Gods made it up to us by helping us find the best food I had so far in a little mom and pop place that only cost 7 Euro.  We also lucked out and got balcony seating next to a group of lads from Her Majesty’s Royal British Navy at the hottest club on the island.   One of those boys is so fine I can barely look at him.  He takes a shining to Daisy, damn my luck, but she’s faithfully married, damn his luck!  In the wee hours of the morning after a fantastic night, we stagger slightly inebriated to the taxi stand and back to the hotel.

 

Day 7 – Mykonos / Athens

 

Today we are off to Athens.  Leaving the islands is sad.  Athens is sort of what you expect out of a big international city;  traffic, crowds, noise, trash.  If it weren’t for the fact that I wanted to see the Acropolis I would have happily stayed on the islands and skipped Athens altogether.  I’m not drinking after Mykonos.  I’ve had some much wine, eaten some many olives and Greek salad that my tongue feels like its been licking sandpaper.

 

Day 8 – Athens

 

We reach the Acropolis early, which is a good thing because by the time we left the place was swarming with tourist like ants on a popsicle.  I’m glad I saw it and I can check it off my list but its not quite as impressive as I thought (hoped) it would be.  I still prefer the Coliseum in Rome. 

We do a nice end of trip dinner at a quaint restaurant and have just a wee bit more wine (it’s a celibration!).  Can’t over indulge we’ve got to catch a 4am bus

I’m on the plane now reminiscing about the trip and trying to get it down on paper before I forget.  It was all in all a fantastic vacation.  I can’t wait for next years.  The Greek were very friendly and courteous unlike some European countries.  The Greek men were interesting.  The older men were definitely better looking than the younger men.  They all had kind of a sparkle in the eye, a definite charm and crinkly eyes.  I love crinkly eyes.  

I added 6 words to my multilingual vocabulary: (phoenetically spelled)

·        Kalimera – good morning

·        Kalispera – good evening

·        Kalisnichta – good night

·        Paracolo – Please

·        Efharisto – Thank you

·        Ne – Yes (you have to watch out on this one)

 

The Greek were very amused and sometimes impressed using their language.  The problem is I don’t know a single complete sentence in any language!

            Signore, Ou es la banyo?  Danke, Kalispera!

Swiss Miss

 

You know as soon as you make a personal commitment to something the universe sets out to test your limits.  I’ve made a commitment to be more positive, to believe that you get what you expect.   I was pumped about going to Switzerland this weekend.  We had dinner plans with friends for the first night but the rest of the trip was going to be a fly by the seat of our pants and just pick a point on map and go.  It didn’t exactly turn out like that The trip started with a  little glitch even before we left.  In getting organized the night before, I went to find my camera and noticed that it was gone.   It soon became clear that my camera was gone for good.  This would be the 3rd $300 camera I bought in 12 months!  The first was trashed in Australia, the second was stolen.  This one was now missing too.   I’m ready to lose my temper (and do for about 10 minutes) but I regroup and focus on the positive.  Maybe my camera has been stolen and pawned and some young kid can now afford a nice camera and gets a college scholarship.  Yes, I know not likely but I’ve got to belive something good is coming out of this. On trip day things seems to be going much better.  We’re traveling non-rev but the flight is wide open so we should be fine.  We go to the airport early to check in (for non-rev you must do 4 hours before flight).  This gives me time to run to store to by my 4th camera.  The good news is that I can purchase the same camera I had for only $200!  At the rate I’m buying this camera, I’ll be able to get the camera for free if the prices keep dropping. We head back to the airport for a little lunch before the flight.   The airport is almost deserted so we fly through security (Security check #1).  Yes lunch at airport is over priced but I love watching people in airport.  (p.s. Terminal D at DFW is awesome place, you should definitely visit if you can) Its so much fun to speculate about peoples lives.   After lunch, we go to the gate.  Right away they call our name “Ms. W – please see the agent at counter of D23″.  Yea!  I’m sitting in first class – 3G!  Life is sweet.  Just sit back and relax until they begin boarding. At boarding time they haven’t yet started boarding but that’s not on unusual.  Its international flight, it could be late bags, caterings who knows.  Then we get another announcement, “Passenger W please see agent at ticket counter”.  This is not a good sign, especially when you’re non-reving.  The ticket agent whispers to us, “The flights been canceled.  There’s been incident with the plane”.  Apparently, the baggage fleet clerk hit the engine with the baggage cart and cause 4ft hole in the plane.  My first thought his they should feed him through the engine but I’m trying to be positive so I think, can’t we can fly with on only one engines.  A little quick thinking and we tell the agent to roll us to the Paris flight.  We can either stay in Paris or take train to Switzerland, either way we can’t go wrong.  We try to get the only hotel reservation we made to change but my powers of persuasion were to no avail.  That’s ok, we’ll stay positive.  It was only $80 and one of the known risks of Priceline.  We check in at the Paris ticket counter and ask if they will transfer our bags.  They look at us strangely and say, “No, you’ve got to pick up your bags from bag claim and re-check”.  We ask what baggage claim and they say D29.  Back through security we go and talk to bag claim agents at 29.  They tell us our bags won’t be out for 4 hours!  Our flight leaves in 45 minutes!  They send us to ticket counter.  We rush up stairs but now the ticket counter must have 300 people.  We’ll never make it in time but we stand in line anyway.  I spy another passenger with their bags from our canceled flight and tell Vic to go ask him where they got them.  He tell us that they are at bag claim at D16, but we need to go through security.  I should’ve questioned this but we didn’t so we jump out of ticket counter line and get into line for security. We make it to the X-ray machine and my bags scan.  (Security check #2)  I’m putting my shoes on and waiting for Vic when they decide to call out her bag.  The screener asks, “Do you have a pumpkin scraper in your bag?”   The obvious answer is hell no but we patiently wait why they search the bag, scan it (twice) and then proceed to have their personal conversation.   They of course find nothing and we take off at a spring for D16.  At D16, they say that bags claim is outside of security!  They try to be helpful but we can’t do anything without claiming the bags.  Ready to give up, we leave security to go get our bags and call for ride home.  As we’re passing through security we notice that there are very few people in line.  If we haul ass we just might be able to do it.  So we take off like Olympic sprinters.  There’s are bags at D16 bag claim (they were there the whole time) and we high tail it to security (Security check #3).  However, in the two minutes it took us go to up/down the escalator and grab our bags they closed two of the scanning machines but we hang in there.  I make it through security and I’m half way down the concourse and don’t see poor Vic.  I back track to find her still in the security line.  I’m thinking not the damn pumpkin scraper again.  But no this is a new issue, because we aren’t checking our bags they have all our hair care, lotion, perfume, etc and these can’t go through security.  The apparently missed all mine.  They escort us back out through security.  This time we just head to the door and wait for some one to come pick us up. Here’s the positive things that I got from this experience I’m positive our security people need more training I saved a little money by not going Our friendship will stand up under stress Got to completely chill this weekend Spent some quality time with my son and my mom Mavs won even though I wasn’t there (good omen for playoffs)

Dear Dirk – Mavs vs. Sacremento

 

I hope you are feeling better.  I’d bring you some chicken soup but that can be dangerous.   Last time someone brought me chicken soup I got pregnant.  You should take the time to rest and recuperate.  In fact, as soon as we secure the home field advantage I think that you and the starters should just sit it out until we near the playoffs.  We can recruit fans to play.  We don’t need to break every record this season.  Need to have something to look forward to next season. I’m sort been in a funk lately with some odd dates, too few sunny days and our loss to Phoenix.  That was worse than any bad date or cloudy day.  I couldn’t watch the last the last couple of minutes it was simply too painful.  But I’ve recovered!  A win by the team last night and a couple of sunny days and a new found attitude.  You get what you expect and I’m only going to expect good things! Yesterday was a great day:  early yoga, a soccer game, a cleaning thunderstorm, and amazing light show in the sky.  I laid on the bed with a nice breeze blowing throw the windows watching the game.  I dozed to the sound of pounding on court, the refs whistles, and the swish of basket after basket.  Josh, Jet and Jerry did a fantastic job.  I think I heard Jet is #5 in the league for 3-pointers. I love hearing the stats for the team and the players.  It’s the nerd in me.  Some are very obscure and those I love best.  I decided to run some of my own status.  Here’s what I found (these are valid!) No games lost on Tuesdays or Fridays. Monday is the worst wining percentage (42%).  Worse when we are away (25%) Winning percentage 100% for teams who home jersey primary color is Lt. Blue, Blue, Navy, Green or Red. We’ve won 94% of the games when I was there (strongest statistic of all!)