Off to the east…

Well, not the Far East, but east none-the-less.  I was home for three days and then I was lucky enough to win an award from my company and they are sending me to Texas to pick it up and attend a ceremony.  So this trip is much different than the one I am just recovering from.  More "fun" type of work than "easy" type of work.

This may be a boring read for many since there isn’t cool new stuff to see, but it will give me an avenue to relay a travel experience I hope none of my lovely readers ever experience and is the second time for me.

I arrived in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and hopped off the plane with my minimal carry on (just a laptop and ipad really).  I was able to finally get TSA Pre-Check flying out of San Diego and it was much quicker (if the scanner isn’t malfunctioning so bad that it is picking up the change in someone’s pocket 15-feet away).  Didn’t have to remove the baggie of liquids (if I had any), the laptop, or my shoes.  I highly recommend using it if you can.  Anyway, back in Texas:  I head to the baggage claim area (they have one for every gate or pair of gates it seems).  Follow travelers on my flight gleefully, almost mockingly, trapse away with their bags, but mine?  Mine and three other passengers seem to have no luggage.  Sure enough, the conveyor belt stops signaling the end of bags and the raising of the middle finger to me and hopes of stress-free travel.

No problem, right?  This happens often enough.  I head over to where two … human beings are sitting.  I state that I just landed and all the bags seem to have been delivered, but mine is missing.  I’m asked my flight number and am told that hasn’t landed yet.  Um… riiiiight.  Well, I’ve been here for about 20 minutes and I assure you that I have landed.  He says that they’re probably not done unloading.  The “helpful scale” on which I’m judging these two … humans (I don’t even want to dignify them as being employed in a capacity to which they are obviously not fulfilling), has now broken through the lowest levels recorded in eons.  He says that he’ll call down “to the ramp”, which I take it to mean the area where the gorillas shuffle bags from plane to cart and back again ad nauseum.  After a quick conversation, he says that he’s been told that they haven’t finished unloading the plane.  Umm… the other 98% of the passengers have already walked away with their bags and there are only four people waiting for bags.  Try again.  One of the … humans … walks away to see what is going on down there.  He comes back stating he got nothing but attitude from the ramp people and promptly called his supervisor.  He’s moving up the scale now.  After getting a call back from the supervisor, he informs us that the ramp crew was on a shift change and our bags should be en route any time.  As if on cue, the carousel whirrs to life again and four bags magically appear, one of which is mine.  So, the shift change caused a 40-minute delay in four bags.  You want to know what’s wrong with America?  Unions.

After that fun, it was a 30-minute long wait for a car and then figuring out the labyrinthine ways of DFW airport.  I <3 GPS navigation.  Check in at the hotel: 2 minutes.  My third hotel in as many weeks and they’re increasing in “meh” each time.  Oh hey! I can get ice here!  It’s a good thing, because it’s 102°F.

I unpack and meet a co-worker in the lobby later for dinner.  He used to live here and we head to a “good chain” steakhouse that won’t set us back $100 each.  I had the Cowboy bone-in rib eye.  It has been a while since I had rib eye and it was nice to know it is still really good.

We chat over dinner about stuff we have worked on together over the years but have never met (he lives in Melbourne, FL currently), colleges we work with, etc.  A fun night to be sure, made even better by his insistence that he buy for “all the work that you’ve done for me over the years.”  Fine; I get beers tomorrow.   Speaking of beers: I did get a chance to stop by a local beer joint to browse their bottles and walked out with a beaut:

So I have no idea how big a production tomorrow will be or how big a deal these awards are (fairly if they’re willing to fly people in to get them), but I will update tomorrow if I get a chance.