I have been at my job for about six months and I absolutely love it. At this stage in my life I consider this my “dream job.” I feel I have freedom to be creative and take initiative with the various projects I work on, there are lot’s of perks (hello travel), and a great group of people to work with (I <3 my coworkers).
I traveled to Baton Rouge Louisiana in Feb 2010 and I had a layover flight both legs of my trip. On the way to LA I laid over in Atlanta, on my way home I was supposed to layover in Nashville.
So I made it to Louisiana at about 6:30pm. Time to pick up my rental car, drive to the hotel, and find some food.
(Below is the sweet car I drove, very awesome and fun, but I do love the car I have right now, but only because it's paid for. The picture of the palm trees is the view outside my hotel room, very pretty and nice, I still can't believe it actually snowed the day I took this picture, I guess snow likes to follow me).
The meeting is at 9:00am the next day – mind you I lost an hour with the time change. You may need a little background as to why I am in LA in the first place. One of the main responsibilities I have is to research nationwide textbook adoptions. When we choose to participate in a textbook adoption there are usually a publisher meetings someone needs to attend (cue Brenda).
These meetings take place at various state capitols and involve publisher’s reps and the Instructional Materials Bureau of a perspective state. The meetings range from two hours to four hours. I attend the meeting to take notes and meet and greet with the IMB personnel during breaks so they know who I represent (I usually correspond with the IMB for the adoption process which can last up to a year).
A picture I took of Baton Rouge's Capitol Building
Once the meeting is over I usually have time to enjoy some sight seeing. Depending on what region I am in I will find some ethnic food to enjoy. Recently in LA I was able to eat some Popeye’s Chicken & Biscuits (Ok time was running short so I didn’t have time to find a good Cajun place, but still).
Time to fly home, I return my rental car, arrive at the airport well in advance only to find that my flight is cancelled. I wasn’t too upset since I figured I would make it home sooner or later. I was talking to the guy who was looking for flights. He wasn’t having much luck since every flight out of Baton Rouge was cancelled. I know there are a lot of flights between MSP and SLC so I asked if I could be routed through Minneapolis. He said, “man I didn’t even think of that” I am thinking “seriously, you are going to take my advice” and sure thing he did. I was able to fly out of New Orleans Airport.
I had to take a taxi to New Orleans to head up to Minnesota. I crammed in a taxi with a grouchy New Yorker and a nice Midwestern family man, luckily the New Yorker sat up front and didn’t say a word to anyone. It was about an hour drive to New Orleans but we made it. I had 50 minutes to check in for my flight and get though security but I made it.
I arrived in MN at about 8:30pm and was able to stop by my mother in-laws house to surprise her, and it definitely worked as my sister in-law opened the door with a look of shock on her face. I was so happy that I was able to surprise visit my parents and they were definitely happy to have me home for a couple days.
MN has snow! Check out these piles, and check out my DQ dip cone :-)
What a great trip I had and I now look forward to layovers and bad weather. Just kidding, but still I learned that just keeping my cool and not overreacting over a cancelled ticket enabled me to think clear and be respectful to the person trying to find me a trip home.
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