A Year in Travel

Yes, I am a bit late getting this out there, but I haven’t really had a chance to sit down and really think about what 2008 was like for me.  All-in-all, I have to say that it was a good year; no complaints, really.  No one in the family passed away, unlike in 2007, and, thankfully, my employer has managed to do well in this recession.

So, what was the big thing for 2008?  Well, I traveled a shit-ton.

• Florence and Venice, Italy – This was a friends and family vacation that spanned over New Year’s.  It was great, except for Alitalia losing my luggage for six days.
• Chicago – I met up with my friend Jordan and some of his friends for a weekend of fun in the Windy City.
• Las Vegas – My company sent me to Las Vegas to work on our data center there.  I got to spend time with my friend Bryan, as well.
• Kansas City – I went to go hang with my friend Mac for an extended weekend.
• Minneapolis – I went to go hang with my friend Jordan for an extended weekend, as well.
• Toronto – A bunch of friends and I went to Toronto’s gay pride celebration and had a total blast.
• Washington, DC – I went with Dad and Jake (nephew) to check out the nation’s capitol.  It was my first time there and got to hang out with my friend Mike who lived out there, at the time.
• London, England – I spent a week in the UK with my friend John.
• Detroit – A vendor asked me to come up and give a presentation about how we use their product.  I also got to hang out with my friend James who showed me a little bit of Detroit.
• Saint Louis – My friend Bryan and his boyfriend Skip invited me out to spend the New Year with them.

Of course, I did manage to do some other things, but this was the year that I wanted to take a bunch of little trips, and I did.  I love to get out of town, honestly, and I plan to do a lot more this coming year in 2009.

Next up will be a weekend cruise with some friends.  Stay tuned.

Recent Happenings

Recently, I’ve been taking care of a new cat named Charlie (pictured right).  He was a stray that was hanging out at my parents house recently, so I decided to take him home and sort him out.

As it turns out, he belonged to one of the neighbors, but they kept him outside all of the time, which is definitely not healthy for cats, so it was no shock when I took him to the vet to learn that he had a parasite.  Thankfully, the treatment was extremely easy and now Charlie is a healthy boy.

In work-related news, I took a trip up to Detroit to attend a one-day conference put on by one of our vendors.  They invited me up there to do a 90 minute presentation about what we do at work, how we use the vendor’s product, and how to use the vendor’s online self-service tools.  Overall, everything went very well, and it was a lot of fun.

Lastly, last month I went to go see Shiny Toy Guns at the Music Mill up on the north side.  It was my first time at the venue — very nice.  The show was great; they played all the songs I loved, including some new ones on their recent album.

That’s all for now, folks!

My Trip Back From England

I arrived back from England on Monday in the evening.

The trip back from Heathrow to Dulles was very uneventful.  I bought an Economy Plus ticket with United, and ended up without someone sitting next to me.  (This happened on the way to England, as well.)  While these seats are only a $69 for a cross-Atlantic flight, United fails to sell out the section.  This enabled people to move to more comfortable seats, allowing me to have my own space.  I loved it!

Here’s a picture of Cape Cod. It was the first bit of American land I saw coming back.

I wish I could say such positive things about the trip from Dulles to Indianapolis.

The very first problem was the lack of air conditioning in the plane during boarding.  We were told this was due to a faulty ground A/C unit, but that we’d be OK as soon as the engines were started.  This wasn’t a big deal and I could deal with it.

As we started to cool down and push away from the gate, we hit a bump, and were informed that the plane ran over one of those wheel-stop blocks.  Doh!  Someone apparently forgot to remove all of them before the plane was ready to depart.

We waited for 30 minutes for the ground crew to bring a ladder for the pilot to get out and meet the mechanics to inspect the airplane.  As it turns out, the plane didn’t run over anything; it was the tractor pushing us out of the gate area.  Thankfully, there was no damage.

Finally, after restarting the engines, taxiing to the runway, and sitting in line for a while, we took off and headed towards IND.

During the flight, I had the displeasure of sitting in front of a twenty-something douche bag.  Though he wasn’t much taller than me, he apparently needed to jab his legs into the back of my chair throughout the entire flight.  To make matters worse, he couldn’t sit still to save his life.

I desperately wanted to turn around and punch the shit out of him, but I digress.  I’m not one for violence and I certainly didn’t want the pilot to land the plane to have us escorted off by the police.  It wasn’t worth it; however, I found quite a bit of solace and satisfaction just thinking about it.

To make things more annoying, the head flight attendant wouldn’t shut up.  I think he really enjoyed listening to himself speak.  Instead of being professional and announcing like every other flight attendant, he would go on and on, adding bits of commentary throughout everything.  He seized every opportunity to talk.

The worst bit was him talking about 9/11.  He felt the need to also recognize the serviceman sitting in first class.  I love my country and am proud to be American.  I’ve had family members in just about every major military conflict in the last century, but, for the love of Madonna, this was silly.  As they say, there’s a time and a place for everything, but this wasn’t one of them.  Is it so much to ask for some peace and quiet in what is already an uncomfortable situation?

Eventually, the plane landed, although a good 30 minutes late.  Poor Mom kept calling me to find out where I was, but my phone was turned off during the flight.  She finally drove around one last time, and met me outside of baggage claim.  At that point, all was right in the world.

London, Thus Far

Just thought I’d update the blog a bit this evening while I have a some time and post some photos.

Below is the London Eye, which is located along the south bank of the River Thames. There were some fantastic views of the Central London.

We also paid a visit to the Tate Modern.

Yesterday, I went down to visit Rey in Brighton, which is located right on the English Channel.

The trip is coming to an end soon, sadly, but there’s still more fun to be had this weekend. I’m not due back in Indianapolis until late Monday afternoon. Till then!

To London, I Go

Tomorrow in the very early morning I will be departing for another vacation in Ye Olde London. I won’t back home until September 15.  I might update the bog while I’m away, but I’m not committing to it.

Here are a few pictures from my previous trip there.  Enjoy!