Long Day Made Longer By Airline Snafu

When traveling to the East Coast, I don't often get the luxury of adjusting to the time zone differences. In most cases, I'm expected to start my day bright and early on Eastern Standard Time, and act like any other good local. Today kicked off at 5:30 a.m. Eastern, which my body still tells me is 2:30 a.m. Pacific. (You might have noticed my odd 3:10 a.m. timestamp on this morning's blog post)

After a full day, we headed to New York's Kennedy airport to fly to Boston, in what should have been a simple puddle jump. Originally targeting a "wheels up" time of 7:00, we first saw the flight delayed until 8:25 p.m., for arguable weather-related issues, and later, upon boarding, endured a delay on the tarmac of more than an hour, without updates from pilot or crew.

As the natives grew restless, and some threatened to leave the plane regardless of consequences if things didn't turn around in "the next five minutes", one of the flight attendants broke in to announce a further delay of 20-30 minutes, as our little flight had been pushed in a lengthy queue of planes set for international destinations. At number 45 on the list, we weren't going anywhere soon. This was met with further complaints. The lady next to me demanded to write a complaint to the airline about the "inexcusable farce", while others turned on their cell phones or Blackberries in protest, updating loved ones who were likely waiting at Logan airport, assuming normalcy.

Regardless, we eventually took off, arriving in Boston after 11:00 p.m. at night, when we should have gotten in a full three hours earlier. The flight in between? Not all that easy either, with moderate turbulence throughout, and a canceled cabin service, as we were all on lockdown, banned from leaving our seats or access the overhead bins. Super fun, let me tell you...

So now 18+ hours into the day, I've come home to a mountain of e-mail, more than 500 RSS items in Google Reader, and a world's worth of news to take in, ingest and review. Sure would have been nice to already be done with it all.

Back on the Road (In the Air) Again

Not too long after getting back from the last trip (to Colorado), we're taking off again, this time straying further from home by heading out to the East Coast, taking in New York and Boston. Early prospects show the weather in New York to be mild, not cold, but showers are anticipated on Thursday, and we might see snow flurries in Boston on Friday.

Regardless of the weather, this will be yet another test for how quickly I can adjust to jet lag. As my typical tendency is to stay up way too late on the West Coast, padding three hours on the clock isn't going to do us any favors tonight, as I'll probably be staring at the ceiling or reading RSS feeds in Google Reader around 2 a.m., rather than getting some much-needed rest. All part of the travel experience, I guess.

Of note, we're flying Delta instead of United, my typical carrier. My prior experiences with Delta were pretty good (as noted here), so I'm optimistic, but we'll see.

Also of note, I literally put my money where my mouth is this morning. Before leaving the house, I put a significant chunk of cash into eTrade stock. While I wish I had done so below $4, which was the opportunity on Monday, I think this trade (not investment... trade...) will pay off well. We're averaged in around $5.50 a share.

Full Travel Schedule This Week

It doesn't seem all that long ago that I was in New York for a week, participating in a trade show. Yet, after a few weeks back on the West Coast, we are hours away from heading to the land of ice and snow, taking on both Boston and New York before heading to the Lone Star State by the end of this week. I've never been to Texas, so that should be interesting, even though I'm just there for a day.

Maybe I'll bring a camera. In the meantime, I'm definitely bringing the laptop, so we will try to keep up.

Nail Clippers

Know how there is always something you forget on a trip that just annoys the heck out of you until the problem is solved? Whether it's toothpaste, socks or shaving cream, it always seems like there's just one thing that prevents me from having the perfect trip experience. This week, it was nail clippers. Yet, the uniqueness of New York bailed me out.

At events, the way you present yourself is critical - so making sure I didn't have long, dirty or jagged nails when shaking hands and greeting people was actually a pretty big deal. On Monday, it was already bugging the heck out of me, as my subconscious reminded me something was wrong with the world. But on Tuesday, the answer came in a very New York way.

Walking back from breakfast, I stopped at one of the sidewalk vendors who offers a plethora of quick-fix goods, from phone cards to gum and soda. After plunking down $2 or so to get some gum and a roll of Certs, I looked up to see nail clippers hanging from the ceiling. Perfection. For a single buck, I had the answer, and New York had come through again.

I love this city. Yet on Thursday, I head back to the West Coast, leaving the land of instant fulfillment and 27-degree weather behind. But boy, my nails do look good.

New York Dusted With Light Snow

Late last night, the snow flurries started to come down. Now on the 27th floor of the Sheraton, I could see them outside the window being pushed to and fro by the wind, seemingly going upward as much as toward the ground. Unsurprisingly, very little has stuck. You can see a dusting of snow on the roofs of buildings below, but that's about it. All that's guaranteed is that today is supposed to be cold.

Life In the Big City: New York, New York

Though no surprise to you or me, my travels to New York went fine.

I was able to upgrade my seat on the Los Angeles to New York leg of the trip to business class and that was much preferred over United's "Economy Plus" option. Despite the fact my chair was just a tad broken, and there were no power ports anywhere to be found, it was alright. I plan to follow up on that in a different post in the near future to be sure. Regardless of whether I flew in coach or cargo, we made it.

The weather here in New York is pretty good. It's in the mid-30's and actually feels good, so long as you keep moving. I'm staying only a few blocks from Broadway, meaning a short stroll will get me to some of the best-known sites in the city, from Radio City Music Hall to NBC Studios and the Time-Life Building. As I've now been here three times in the last two-plus years, always staying in this two-block radius, I'm pretty comfortable with it, feeling I can walk in any direction and make it back with no trouble.

Though I'm still on Pacific Time, I knew I should grab food before it got too late. Though New York is billed as a city that doesn't sleep, I wanted to make sure enough things were open, and headed out, finding Famous Famiglia Pizza on Broadway. It was outstanding. New York pizza is great to begin with, but I honestly felt I could eat there every day and not get bored. Great stuff.

I also ducked into the Virgin Mega Store on Broadway, like I do each time I come here, and headed to the Dance & Electronica music section. Like every other time I've been here, I get very tempted, and buy nothing. It's better for my budget to just window shop, but the energy in there is tremendous.

Despite my concerns over New York's weather, on the first evening here, I have no complaints. Weather forecasts expect the temperature to drop into the 20s, with potential flurries over the next few days. If that happens, I'll let you know.

Soon Off to the Frozen Big Apple

Early Saturday morning, I'll be catching a flight to New York to participate in a trade show for work, and will be there through this upcoming Thursday. Unlike most of the tradeshows I attend, I'll also be taking on the role of tradeshow coordinator, subbing in, meaning I get to work with the union folks to put up and take down the booth, install and uninstall equipment, as well as meeting and greeting potential clients.

With that said, I'm not exactly excited about this trip, given the frigid weather in the Northeast of the country this time of year. My WeatherPop has been taunting me by saying New York City is in the 20-degree range now, and expects sleet on Sunday. While we here in California have been whining about 40-50 degree weather the last few months, 20 degrees and sleet are just unheard of. Hopefully, I can stay indoors, somewhere warm, and with high-speed Internet. If I don't get that necessary luxury, you will be sure to hear about it.