After getting home from Denver late on Tuesday night, I slept in on Wedneday morning (until 9:00 a.m.)
I got up, went to the drycleaners and picked up my suit and a shirt Christine had taken in for me. I went home, and started packing again.
Christine and I went to the airport around noon on Wednesday, 4/20, with Jack in tow. I checked Christine and Jack in at the Southwest counter, and accompanied them to their gate. They were heading to Dallas. Around 1:30, I left them to find my gate. I was heading to New York. Both of us boarded our different flights at 1:50 or so.
Christine’s parents picked her and Jack up at Love field in Dallas about an hour after she took off from Austin. I meanwhile flew to Chicago for a connection to New York’s fabulous La Guardia airport. The wireless internet stuff at O’Hare wasn’t working… typical. I hate flying through Chicago.
On the connection from Chicago to New York, I met the owner of the Monroe Salt Works. We talked about his business, his products, and advertising. It was neat to meet him, and discuss his business and how he got started. He reminded me of Raymond alot too.
After a short cab ride into the city, I checked into my hotel. The Hotel Pennslyvania. The Hotel Pennsylvania is across the stree from Penn Station, and Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. It’s an old hotel, in a crappy neighborhood (Hell’s Kitchen is just west of the hotel), but it’s also a block away from my company’s offices in NYC. It’s also a typical New York hotel: $200/night is the basic room. $250/night gets you a decent room with a window that gives you a view of the building next door (anywhere from 6 – 12 inches away from your window), and $300/night if they’ve sold half of their rooms. If you spend more than that at the Hotel Pennslyvania, you’re getting robbed… go stay at another hotel in Times square, or, there aren’t any rooms in the city anywhere, so you should be happy you have a room at all.
I actually had a decent room with a King size bed this visit, and a key that gave me access to the Penn 5000 club louge (yes, that sounds a little weird, but that’s what they call their “exclusive club”). I got a free cup of coffee and turned in for the night.
On Thursday morning, I woke up on my own at 5:45 a.m. — travel really screws up my internal clock, and it’s never predictable — so I got dressed and walked around outside a bit before heading to the office. I prepared our conference room for my future clients that were going to be visiting at 9:30 a.m. before getting together with my boss and co-worker to game plan our presentation. At 9:35 I called my client to find out if he was on his way… he wasn’t. We were supposed to be at his office. (This is typical of this guy… our emails specifically agreed that he’d meet us at our office, but… that wasn’t accurate, and it was probably my fault).
After a decent presentation with the client and his staff, we headed back to the office. I grabbed lunch at a little sports bar around the corner with another co-worker that I’m heading to Cleveland with next week, and we game-planned that meeting a little.
I visited a bar after work with yet a different co-worker after work on Thursday. This bar was a little dive on 3rd and 28th or so, which was around the corner from his apartment. It was fun… he knew the owner and a few of the regulars, and we hung out until 7:30 or so, waiting on his girlfriend. After that, I turned in for the night.
On Friday, I spent the day trying to coordinate a future trip to Denver, while also trying to figure out where a few other deals I have in front of people are, before heading back to La Guardia.
My flight left New York late, arrived at Chicago late, and into Austin even later. I got home around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.
On Saturday morning, I got up around 10:30 or 11:00 and drove to Dallas, so we could all celebrate Grand Dad Frank’s 60th birthday. We’re driving back to Austin this afternoon.