Okay so I will continue from the last blog update. After flying out of San Jose, Costa Rica, I flew into Austin, TX to see my friends Ashley Walker and Amie Geister. I flew into Austin airport where they greeted me with a shot of Jack Daniels from the bar. I liked that welcome. I grabbed my smelly backpack full of sandy shirts, smelly shoes and shit-filled underwear ....wait what? No, but honestly my clothes were filthy and rank. Good thing I thought ahead and put a box full of clothes in the mail to send to Ashley so I had some fresh ones when I arrived. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, "Man Matt you are fucking intelligent!" Yeah I know, but unfortunately it was Terry's idea. So Amie and Ashley have T-Dawg to thank for my presentable appearance in Austin. What a mommas boy. So we grabbed my stuff and headed straight to Austin City Limits where we enjoyed man cans of Lone Star, Tecate, and Bud Light for several hours while listening to Citizen Cope, a lil bit of Mos Def, a lil bit of Bon Iver, and the headliner, Dave Matthews Band. We did this six to seven hour activity while it was DUMPING rain the whole time. Check out the pictures on facebook, Amie and Ashley wore flip flops. It looks like watered down monkey mess on their feet. It wasnt till a couple days later that a story on the news revealed it might have been more like watered down human mess.....true story, but for another time. Anyways, we woke up the next morning and Amie and I took a tour of the State capital of Texas and got to see Sixth St. up-close and personal while watching the Seahawk game. Sixth street is comparable to Bourbon St. in New Orleans with bar after bar after bar for several blocks. Its pretty cool. After that we found tickets for the Bon Iver concert, got drinks, saw an amazing Bon Iver concert in an cool retro theatre and went home. The next day day we went to Juan in a Million, (a Man vs Food restaurant) had a shitload de comida para pequeno dinero, and explored a bit more of the outskirts of Austin. It really is an eccentric city and it was a fun vacation. Before we left, we hit up Stubbs BBQ, which was needless to say, amazing. Some of the guys from the band Snow Patrol were eating downstairs and sound checking outside for their concert there tonight....I thought that would be the closest I would get to main stream music fame that weekend....nope it got better...
At the airport Amie and I are walking through the airport after having a beer and these two men dressed in all black clothing walk past us at a leisurely pace. Amie looks over at the tall really pale one and says "Gees. Jack White much??" Referring of course to Jack White from the White Stripes, the Raconteurs, and presently, The Dead Weather. Too which I replay,"Yeah and Elvis Costello much?" because the guy next to him looked like Elvis Costello. Small, black hair, dark clothing, thin beard, fedora....ya know. Then I say," Amie, I think thats him." Then a small Japanese girl runs up with her camera and says,"Pweese takah pictaw Jak!!".
Grinning from ear to ear. Then me, being a music lover myself, and apparently a 15 year old japanese girl seeing a music icon for the first time, I say,"Froget it. Amie, I need to get a picture with Jack White." So being the prepubescent Asian girl I am, i grinned from ear to ear, walked up to him and said "Jack I need a picture man." He said "Totally man". I asked him a few questions and he was totally casual and a nice guy. I basically kissed his ass for 25 to 30 seconds. It was great. Afterwards I was pretty star struck. That was a good way to end a three week trip in Costa Rica and an awesome weekend in Austin.
After a week of preparing myself for this ridiculous job, I began my training at BER again. This is my second year of having my first week of training and was expected to help a little as we prepped the newbies for the road. This year, the people doing the job are older. We have PMs this year who range from being 22 to 32. Usually the age range of the managers tends to be between 23 and 26 years, being kids just out of college. I guess with the swinging economy, its desirable to everyone. SOOOOOOO the week went by and we flew to Chicago with our Logistics group. We were there for two days where we meet up with another group and put on the seminar and let the new people get a hands on first time at these seminars. In Chicago, we went to Giordano's, a Chicago style pizza place that has been mentioned in past blogs. One slice will fill you up, seriously. The next night we went to an awesome bar/restaurant called Goose Island that was a block away from Wrigley Field. It had awesome food. Fried pickles, some of the nest wings on the road, amazing nachos and a killer pork sandwich. After that dinner, all the PMs went out and had a few beers (OR 70!!!! AHAHAHAHAH). The scene around Wrigley Field is awesome. If I were to go down there for tickets, and by chance couldn't get any, I wouldn't be disappointed with hunkering down in one of the bars around the field. Cool part of town. After that night, there isnt much else to describe about the week.... except...
Due to budget cuts, BER program managers are now, on certain weeks, taking out two presenters at a time. Doubling the paperwork, doubling the orders, doubling the wake-up time, doubling the work overall. Not to mention the fact that if you are driving with these two presenters and they don't get along (what happened to me the last two days of last week), its a bitch. Most of the presenters are real sweethearts and fun to be with, but every now and then you get one that has an ego and thinks everything is about them. Part of my job is to sit next to those ego-maniacs and listen to them talk about themselves for three and a half hours until we get to our next destination. I can name the car rides where I had to do that. I would purposely stop at a random Starbucks or a gas station just to have a few minutes away. Im sure those speakers wrote in their notes about me...... I think Matt has IBS cuz all he did was want to stop at some random restaurant or coffee stand every 30 minutes on the road to do something. Some of them have even made like deep confessions or told me about family troubles and its like I play therapist/psychologist for an hour or two. Not necessarily giving advice, but just zoning out and drive and pipe in with an "uh-huh" or "yeah". When presenters butt heads with somebody in a conference, its one thing. They bitch about it and move on. When a presenter bitches about another speaker they have to travel with for a week, welcome to a dramatic fifth graders gab session whenever they have exclusive time with me. It wares on a person. Honestly, after two days of that shit....It was the Beatles who sang 'Happiness is a Warm Gun' right? Now THATS over dramatic. In all honesty, I try not to talk about presenters, cuz there a few I really like, and one of them last week was awesome, but some can honestly shove it up there ass. Okay, rant done.
Well, yesterday I was in Minneapolis at a beautiful hotel, and the hotel staff loved me. Not sure if it was cuz I was putting on a seminar that would give them business, but I got a lot of free stuff and upgrades. God Bless the Marriott Minneapolis West. Right now I just got done with my seminar and am typing in my room which has a 42 inch flat screen, a mini bar/fridge that I wont dare touch, an incredibly comfortable bed, and ample space to throw my crap everywhere. They also gave me a key to their hospitality room where I can get free drinks at night with a free meal. Last night I had Thai Chicken Noodles with veggies and swedish meatballs (IKEA good?? I think not) and a glass of milk. No, no beer or liquor. I am trying to watch my alcohol consumption during the days on the road. Trust me, passing up a free drink is hard when the restaurant downstairs serves the same drink for 10 buck, but its easier on the gut. They also gave me free breakfast. The Crowne Plaza Clayton is pretty solid. Its amazing. I stay here again tonight and go to Phoenix tomorrow. We will see what that trip brings.
Hope all is well in the chair youre in.
Deuces from the Crowne Plaza Clayton in St Lunatic Louis.....
No comments:
Post a Comment