SERIOUSLY overdue update

Hi my (hopefully) loyal readers!

It's been a long break, I know. Here's the update.

After we got back from Eastern Europe, I flew to San Antonio for walker's (my brother) high school graduation! Then I was back in Chicago, and very excited to get back to my forbidden fruit cotton apparel. In fact, I dont think i've worn any of my wickaway clothes from the trip once since i got back. I have moved into an apartment in Chicago and am enjoying living alone and getting to know my new city - which has been easy since i was unstaffed for the 5 weeks after i got back! So basically, I've been getting paid to not work. It's a rough life, I know. Unfortunately, the employment gods have turned against me once more and I am back on a project (but only for the next few weeks....and it's local).

I have visited several new airports since my last update, so i'll give you my thoughts on those. i know i know - you've been DYING to know.

Istanbul, Turkey (IST) - The Istanbul airport was pretty crazy. Our flight home to the US was at like 5am so we had to get there at the crack of dawn, which obviously was so much fun. To even enter the airport, you have to go through security, which we hadn't seen before. They have huge xray machines for the bags (since you have to run your checked baggage also) and then once through, you're in the main check in lobby. This raised several questions.

First, I think you're allowed to check weapons (guns, knives, etc), aren't you? So what's the point of security to get into the airport if you can still bring a gun inside and then check it later? Maybe these xray machines weren't looking for guns, but more for bombs and chemicals? I dont know - i didn't really want to get into that conversation with the charming non-english speaking man carrying a machine gun (although i'm sure he knew "gun" and "bomb" and i would have gotten the special turkish treatment for even saying those words)

Second, this airport is pretty nice (considering). They had an incredible lounge that we hung out in (thanks Lufty) pre-flight, and the breakfast buffet in that joint was just riduculous. Really everything you could ever want - including a close replica of the insanely yummy doughy cheese balls from the Zagreb train station. We downed some liquids, grabbed some rolls & mini-nutellas, and parked it. The rest of the airport was very modern and clean (granted there was hardly anyone there it was so effing early).

Third, not sure if this was a poor translation or a cultural difference, but there were some signs in the restrooms that were extremely strange. They said (in Turkish, with an English translation below). "Please help us conserve water, flush twice". Anyone??

Split, Croatia (SPU) - Not TOO much to see here - but still an interesting experience. We took basically every available form of transportation in and out of Split while we were there since we were there twice (train in, bus out, ferry in, plane out). The airport is REALLY far from the city, but Croatian airlines offers a bus service 1 hour before each flight (and you pay the equiv of like....well i can't remember but it was less than $10.00 US). The bus takes about 30 minutes (so of course you're freaking out that you are going to miss your flight, then you remember that everyone on your flight is on the bus with you....so doubtful they'll let the plane take off empty). Anyway - once you arrive at the airport, you check in, check your luggage, then go through security and you're....well, that's pretty much it. Once you go through security you're in a space with like 10 chairs (literally.....), and then a door outside (where you have to walk to the plane and go up the roller stairs). there's no water fountains, there's no shops, there's no cafe, there's no banos. The airport was pretty modern otherwise. very clean and everyone was very nice. although the security lady gave me a hard time when i had to leave the secure area to use the restroom before we boarded. i mean, what do they expect? They trick everyone into waiting in this empty room and then keep you there for like an hour. it was very crowded and we were seated near a couple that was....VERY in love. like as in all over eachother. charming.

For those of you who want out other thoughts on Croatia - you should check the other blog...we had lots of wonderful experiences there!!! There are also some thoughts on the FRA airport, and Budapest airport (even though we didn't ever get past the main lobby there....long story), and probably Dulles (though i can't remember much since i'd been flying for like 23+ hours at that point).

Hmm - otherwise...since i've been back, I've spent time in the DFW airport, the PHX airport, SAT airport, ORD airport, and BWI airport. All places i've blogged about before, from what i can recall.

Next up - several new airports for me!! I fly to CHS (Charleston, SC) on friday and will be there for a week. After that - BOS (Boston) airport (which i've been to but it's been years), and then TUL (Tulsa airport) whcih i go to every year and highly doubt i've blogged about despite it's exotic locale, then I'm goign to Thailand for a week, so i'm sure you'll get some good tales out of that adventure!

After that - I start school and will have to start traveling on Miles instead of with real money - thankfully i have a lot of those to tide me over until i start making a paycheck again. :)

So - I've had some questions of what I should blog about while i'm in Business School (since i wont have the exciting traveling lifestyle anymore - yay). Any ideas??????

The Trip!!!

Hi all my faithful readers!! I am SO sorry...i meant to post the link to our Trip blog on here before i left,but slipped my mind...SOOOOOOOOO here it is now. this should give you plenty of reading material as i compose my next brilliant airport observation (of which i have MANY from the trip!!!)

http://caraandabbyineurope.blogspot.com

Major updates

I've been MIA for awhile. Here are the highlights.

1. I've moved! (yes, again) I'm now living in Chicago. yay. due mainly to....

2. I'm going back to school in the fall. yay! More info to come...

3. Me & Cara leave for our big trip in precisely 12 days. Melissa will be accompanying us on the first 1.5 weeks or so, and Jac will be meeting up with us in Krakow (roughly days #5-8). Cara & I will be blogging while we're there (WAY more often than i do now...). And i'll definitely update before we leave!!

4. Travel Comment of the day...Ohare bathroom doors go all the way to the floor, which is unusual. Also - they have those plastic toilet seat covers (the kind that swirl around to cover the seat...not the paper kind you take out of the dispenser and place on the seat yourself). i enjoy this. however, ohare has a major lack of both electrical plugs & water fountains.

5. Also - i know i have spoken about the bathroom facilities in the PHL airport. well, there is a long hallway that goes between terminals that has a neat bathroom feature. its by the ABP and the Express Spa, for those of you familiar with PHL. The bathroom stalls are roughly 4x size of regular stall, and has a step (like a 1 foot tall step up) for you to rest your things on. now, its still made of tile, so its kind of still the floor, but its raised up, so i feel like its' LESS dirty than the floor. logical? or am i just convincing myself.....anyway - i place my computer bag and my rollerbag on the step, and feel like they're staying cleaner. also - these huge stalls have individual sinks & mirrors. whic means you can wash your hands & face & brush teeth, reapply makeup and fuss over your hair in relaxing solitude. :)

6. General Comment of the day...why why why do men insist on wearing leather jackets???? ok i know some of you will disagree with me here...but hear me out. There are definitely some leather jackets that are LESS awful than others. see this guy (below). the blazer cut is infinitely more flattering than the bomber cut. now, i think foreign men, trendy metrosexual men, and gay men can pull this off. Regular frat-guy types cannot and should not try to wear leather jackets.

But then there are the plan...potato sack...awful ones. like...below. WHO thinks this is flattering?? (hint - no girls do).
Women out there - lets try to get the word out. I know i dont have many readers, but i think if we put out minds to it, we can rid the world of these crimes against fashion...starting with bombers.

**My apologies to these lovely male models. i'm sure you're nice people, but perhaps you should think twice before agreeing to wear something disgusting when you know it will be put online.

What a wonderful gift!!!

SO has anyone read "the Secret"? you know, that ridiculous theory of 'if you put it out there, it will come back to you'? I've kind of always thought it was a joke. but apparently I was wrong.



THis morning I logged into my Smith Barney Account (which is only used for my Accenture shares), and guess what i found? A lovely gift waiting for me. Smith Barney felt like I deserved some kindness and love, and nicely transferred $577, 366,234.25 into my account! Just for fun! Becuase I deserve it!



Any suggestions on how we should spend our new money???

I'm gonna fly like an Eagle? (Guest Blog - Jackie)

First off, let me say that I everytime I fly the American Eagle puddle jumper from DC to Boston, it's as if the travel gods take all frustrations out on me.

My first AE experience included this crazy flight attendant who I SWEAR was fired by the airline right before this flight. She was slamming things in the galley, spilling drinks all over the place, and had locked the bathroom because it was broken (ok, this is not technically her fault), but I ask you, is it even legal to fly a plane with a broken toilet?! Regardless, this first round with AE was enough to make me vow never to take them again.... until, that is, US Air decided to price gouge.

So.. enter my second experience... I head to DCA (Ronald Reagan airport) last night around 5pm (flying Sunday night b/c of multiple morning meetings today). I check in for my flight and am told by the automatic machine that I need to speak with a gate agent for a seat assignment (not unheard of). When I get to the gate agent I'm told they "appear to me in an oversold situation... and they will be asking for volunteers to give up a seat and, only then, they MAY have room for me. Well.. after 6 loudspeaker attempts to get 2 people to give up their seat to Boston, I'm called up to the podium. Thinking I'm being called up to pick up my new boarding pass, I'm STOKED... this, however, was not the case.

Things play out as such:

AE Guy: So... we're not getting people to volunteer, and you're the last one to book this flight (5 days in advance, but whatever). We're going to have to bump you unless you volunteer.

Me: What does this mean?.... do you mean that if I volunteer to give up a seat I TECHNICALLY do not yet have, I get the $200 voucher?

AE Guy: If I bump you, it's $100, if you volunteer, it's $200.

Me: What flights do you have to get me out of here?

AE Guy: Do you live here?

Me: Yes

AE Guy: 8:05am tomorrow?

Me: Uhm... no, I have morning meetings which is why I planned on flying tonight in the first place...

AE: Guy: 10:10am, 3pm, 6pm, 7:15pm, but you connect at LaGuardia...

Me: No connecting. Let me make a call and I'll be right back. *** I call my manager and leave, on his VM, my plan to fly Monday night ***

Me: OK

AE Guy - let's do it. Book me on the 6pm tomorrow night..... and.... who's paying for my parking

AE Guy: ***shakes head to indicate no***

Me: I sure as shit don't think I should have to pay for my parking (yes, verbatim)

AE Guy: How about this... I'll give you $250 in vouchers and $10 meal ticket for the airport - that should cover your $10 in parking

Me: Done.

Post signing away on the voucher and what not, I have this brilliant plan that I will grab some food at the airport and take it home with me to enjoy while watching the Oscars. As you know, however, airport food is less than awesome. I wasn't in the mood to sit down and a have a meal at the airport (hello, I had Oscar fashions to view), so I hop in line at the fail safe "Panda Express." Don't act like you don't also love their Orange Chicken. It's delicious. Anyway, so my total is $9.85, and I had the woman my shiny, new, $10 food voucher.

Things go as such:

PE Lady: You can't use this here, it's good for this airport only.

Me: I know... I just got it at the American Airlines counter...

PE Lady: No, you can't use it here. You can use it in Jacksonville only.

Me: Jacksonville?! I JUST got this voucher here! Why Jacksonville?P

E Lady: Because that's what it says, Jacksonville.

Me: WHERE DOES IT SAY JACKSONVILLE?!?!

PE Lady: Right here ***pointing at text on the voucher***

Me: That says "JACQUELINE"... it's my name

Man in Line: HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA

PE Lady: Where does it say Washington?!!?*** I scan the crap out of this voucher and find it... it's SO small***

Me: Right there...P

E Lady: Oh.

So... in short, I hate American Eagle and would advise no one to fly them.

I have no good stories left

so i was in Delaware last week. It was boring and it snowed a lot. and (like an idiot) i packed my tall side-buckled black wedge-heeled boots (they are basically the sassiest thing i can get away with at work...any hotter and i'd be looked at suspiciously). I did not count on having to walk roughly 2 miles a day in them. my feet (needless to say) hurt. but i looked hot, so it's a fair trade.



the buildings i work in in downtown Wilmington are actualy about 4 huge buildings (each a city block) that are all connected via 2nd floor walkways. so you can see all the street activity every time you walk around. but all the things we do are in different buildings, so i did a lot of walking. anyway - i dont think i'll have to go back for a while, which is exciting. I've just finished a 7-week traveling stint to multiple cities and have a little break for a few weeks. i know i shouldn't rub it in...most of my friends that travel are still going every single week, so i feel lucky to have my schedule, although in my defense, it's way harder to go to a different city every week than to go back and forth to one each week. anyway - moving on.



i'm back in denver now - just spent a lovely weekend with the fam. i saw atonement this weekend and gotta say....not TOTALLY impressed. i haven't read the book so i can't provide too much brilliant analysis, but i didn't really think it deserved all the critical acclain it's gotten.



also - i just (finally...i know) saw Juno. i liked it. but...(i hope what i'm about to say doesn't earn me eternal hatred and scorn from those Juno crazies out there)...i thought some of the writing was straight up ANNOYING. like...the writer was trying a LITTLE bit too hard to make the dialogue sound young and hip. but hey, what do i know...i'm not a 16 year old....anyway - she won the Oscar and flashed all of us home-viewers her undies. I guess that's not unexpected from a former stripper...

Anyway - in MAJOR exciting news. Jackie is going to be a guest poster on our blog here to discuss her recent airport delay and triumphant win over the evil workers at DCA.

SA & TV

Hello everyone! Happy Valentine's Day (and Happy Birthday to our little romance-baby Jackie...who is currently celebrating her bday in Brussels after a mad dash around Europe for the past 2 weeks for work - poor baby)

Anyway - i'm in Denver, having just spent a week & a half in San Antonio with the fam. Here is the rundown of being in SA for 10 days.

Highlights:
Saw 5 concerts at the rodeo.
Wore my boots more than I ever have (and they're finally comfy!)
Ate delicoius rodeo food (corn dogs, lone star light on TAP)
Spent mucho QT with the fam
Had an unhealthy amount of tacos
Went on nice healthy, relaxing walks more days than i was expecting
IT was betwen 60-80 degrees every day

Lowlights:
I lost my camera
I gained 30 pounds

Now i'm back in denver for the rest of the week, and going back to Delaware next week (exciting).

I dont have a ton of new information to share with you all, but thought i would leave you with some new Television Show recs (based on my excellent taste). Maybe next time i'll discuss old tv faves (the ones i've been watching for more than the past 2 months or so)

- Make me a Supermodel (no explanation needed - this is basically a re-tooled version of ANTM, but with more realistic modeling scenarios & it happens essentially in real time. All of the action on the show takes place about a week behind when they air it. So the show tonight will feature everything that happened in the past week or so. At the end of each show, the judges pick the bottom 3 contestants, and you (the public) get to vote online or via text (like Idol) for who gets the boot. then next week, that person gets booted at the start of the episode, and the cycle repeats. Bonuses are that 1) it's co-ed, 2) it's realistic - ie they tell them they're fat, etc, 3) tyson beckford is a host. this show is on Bravo on Thursdays

- Rock of Love (season 2). Ok i admit i never watched the first season, but i saw an ep of this one in a hotel in phoenix and OMG i'm addicted. these women are absolutely insane. Its genius. They're basically trying to out-trash eachother and win the (oh so worthy) heart of Poison's Bret Michaels. There are some chicks on this show that are just wayyyyy out there in crazy town and he eats it right up. There is also some extremely entertaining fashion and hairstyles on the show. it's basically an x-rated version of the 'bachelor' (which had gotten boring anyway). this one is oh VH1 on sundays.

- How to look good Naked. This sounds like porn, but it's not. it's hosted by Carson Kressley (of Queer Eye fame). He takes a different girl/lady every episode. Usually she's a little overweight (but not always) and has major body-image issues. He spends a week with them making them realize they aren't fat and disgusting and are beautiful and wonderful and perfect. by the end of the week, he's convinced them of their hotness and they usualy agree to a nude (tastefully nude...and strategically covered) photo shoot. really, a great feel-good show. also - often times he takes them for a bra-fitting (bc most of them are squeezed into the WRONG bra) and he calls the woman at the bra place the 'bra whisperer', which i find hilarious. This show is on Lifetime (not sure of the day)

- Millionaire Matchmaker. Full disclosure - i've only seen this once and i didn't even see the whole episode, BUT it was pretty entertaining. I need to watch a little more before i give a review. but it's on Bravo also if you want to check it out.

that's all for now!!!!!!