The Start

  Well here i am, in Billings, Montana watching HBO and hungry.  I'm starting this blog a few weeks after i began my job at BER as a traveling liaison and have had some cool experiences on the road.  I have gone backstage at an Ingrid Michaelson concert (total woman powerfest, I felt like a douchebag for being there) pretending to be a reporter for The Stranger in Seattle and met Ingrid.  I also began to keep up the journalist identity and interviewed a couple of the openers about the tour, and that is when the d-bag title really came out.  I have lost my cell phone in a taxi in Atlanta, GA and miraculously got it back.  Went to Boston and randomly ran into an old friend in a dunkin donuts, and some other crazy things.  I have also met some interesting people on planes and stayed in some hotels that are pretty posh, and others that would make a homeless person cringe.  I have recently found it is almost impossible to workout on the road and  stay in shape.  I workout when i can and havent gotten out of shape but have found it hard to watch what i eat since i am traveling nonstop and need to eat on the fly.  Last week the speaker i was with asked me if i used to have a 'weight problem' (within the first 10 minutes of knowing each other mind you), because "i look like somebody who use to be fat and lost all the weight".  I responded, "Not that I know of" which is the nicest thing on the list of responses and jabs at this POS i could think of.   This person was kind of interesting/weird and I would have been more than glad to fling  smart-ass remark at them but i would get fired resulting in a hunt for another job in this wilting economy .  

It has been a ridiculously busy past couple weeks and have been many places.  So far I have been to Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Illinois, Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio, Texas, Alabama (Home Sweet Home), Missouri, Arizona, Maine, and this week I can knock off Montana, Utah, Idaho, and Hawaii.  I get asked on a daily basis what I do, and here is my best description.  Well my business card says I am a Program Manager for the Bureau of Education and Research and travel ALOT. I fly and drive to all types of cities in the US with a speaker and help them set up seminars for teachers.  These seminars provide the teachers with job security in their districts and schools while at the same time explaining to them new methods of teaching while giving them updates to the education system in the field they teach.  What I do specifically, is wake up early, make sure everything is set up, sign everyone into the seminar, do a lot of paperwork, explain to the teachers how they get credit for being there, get the speakers lunch and cater to them in any way possible, plan that days travels, and other specific never-ending minutia that goes along with my job.  Another popular question is,"Do you like that?"  My opinion changes weekly and depending on my mood and the type of day everyone gets a different reaction.   So far I miss my friends, my apt, my family, and relaxation... but I am okay with everything and know its all good BRAH!!!!!  

Maybe I will have a better post tomorrow and something this week, but I am tired and have to get up early.  

Deuces from Billings, MT....