Tornado??

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...... Here I am, back on the road.  Out of shape even more and tired as hell.  Break was good.  Got some cool stuff and enjoyed most of the break.  My travels started back up Sunday and were a little rocky.  I got into Seatac at 630 for my 800 flight and lines were ridiculous for security, checking in, food, and in general.   I ran to my gate after i realized i had 15 minutes before scheduled departure, only to arrive and see that it was delayed an hour and a half because some flight attendant didnt show up and they couldn't find a replacement......strike one United Airlines.   Well I was meeting friends in Alabama for dinner and had to call them and tell them I would be late because due to this delay I would miss my United flight in Chicago to Birmingham......strike two United Airlines.  After arriving in Chicago and a much needed Quiznos sub, I board the plane, and we sit on the tarmak for about 30 minutes with the crew figuring out the weight balance of the plane.  Well it was too heavy and they had to unload some of the luggage off so people can fly to Birmingham.  After they took off the luggage they came on the plane and sad they needed 4 people to get off the plane.  2 people volunteered to go, but 2 were gonna be randomly selected and kicked off/removed from the aircraft.  Some foreign guy was picked and didn't go quietly......god he was pissed but who wouldn't be.  Next a woman was picked and she went quietly but looked very unhappy.  After another hour of delay from "weight problems" (Jenny Craig?????????)  we land in Birmingham and United took my god damn AV case off the plane so we could fly.....strike 3, and I officially HATE United Airlines.  Needless to say after the days events it was on par with everything.  It isn't a problem, I can fix it, it just involves more work and PR with the hotels.  

  After a long day, I just wanted some food.  Well I went out to dinner with some old Alabama friends and had an awesome dinner and time with them.  it was really good to catch up with people i hadn't sat down with in 8 years.  We discussed just about anything and everything over some drinks and really good food.  A bonus was that we got it all for free because one of the people I was with, it was her sisters restaurant that we ate at.  It was incredibly good to catch up.  After that I went to bed and had a good seminar the next day, and had another awesome meal catching up with another old Alabama friend who hadn't seen any of the Desserts in like 12 to 13 years.  Birmingham has some legit restaurants.  Its actually kind of a nice city, not one i would live in though.  After that I went back to the seminar and checked to see if my bag had arrived.  No it had not.  It was coming on a flight that arrived when i was taking off from Birmingham.  United sucks.....just sucks....  After that someone came storming out of the seminar room asking what the sirens were for......shrugging my shoulders, i'm like "Sirens?"  Well there was a tornado 15 miles north of the city and was just shredding all sorts of shit up...... so they sounded the sirens.  It was not a close call, but interesting enough to see how people reacted.  

After taking off from B'Ham (without my AV case....United Airline bitches....) I arrive at DFW in Dallas and proceed to hop into a "Speedy Shuttle" van.  

Okay I got a joke.......

 What do 2 screaming Mexicans, 1 tense Chinese businessman, 1 Bat out of Hell Malawi shuttle driver and 2 white bread Americans have in common??

They were in a "Speedy Shuttle" in Dallas about to die...

  The drive literally was these 2 Mexicans yelling in Spanish at the Malawai driver and the Businessman clutching his seat and my speaker and I thinking we were going to die.  He ran 2 red lights, we were almost t-boned in an intersection, and took literally 30 minutes to go 3 miles because he kept getting lost and would yell gibberish at random times and flail his arms (and wrists????) in disgust.  We gladly made it to our hotel in one piece and fell asleep.  

  Tonight I travel to Cleveland and am hoping to make it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but for the 3rd time in a row, wont make it....... shit.....  I also saw a really nice sunrise this morning which has become a frequent occurrence in this job.  I have come to find that thats a benefit to this job.  Seeing the sunrise makes me feel like i started my day early and am accomplishing something.  Its a feeling of....goooood...nesss??  Whatev.  I've picked up my shot glass from Alabama and am gonna get one from Texas today.  Deuces from Dallas, Texas....