I'm in Florida on business again this January. It rained a lot again, but isn't as cold as last year. So there's that.
The trip has been very productive - but like all travel away from home it has a few downsides. This one is very specific. Toiletries.
Since the TSA cracks down on the volume of toiletries you can take on a plane, I have stopped carrying the remnants of shampoo, soap and what have you.
The hotel has been generous enough to provide shampoo, conditioner and a bar of soap. Tonight, after a tough day where I got rained on a few times I opted for a nice hot shower. I dumped a handful of shampoo in my hair and a worked it into a lather. Suddenly a familiar smell hit me.
I looked at the bottle which described the shampoo as featuring special spruce and cedar oils. Now I smell like Pine-Sol.
That's not the way I wanted to smell. But I guess it could be worse. I just remind people to clean their floors.
Labels: 2008, travel, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Thursday, January 24, 2008 at Thursday, January 24, 2008 | | 
This week is school vacation week in Massachusetts. We didn’t have this kind of February break when I was in school in Indiana. We just had regular ol’ Spring Break.
Watching all of these families tromp around the city makes me think about vacations. Lots and lots of vacations.
See – I have this idea that we should take as many vacations as we can this year, just because.
Then I dig around the internets for excellent travel deals or inspiration for travel. And then I remember who I married. I don’t want to call him the Vacation Nazi, but he’s the man who switches from laid-back type B to hard-core Type A shortly after he boards the plane.
He wants a plan, every day, he wants to get up early and start attacking the city like invading Visigoths.
When we were in London, we walked miles and miles and miles every day – in the rain (the rains where most of the UK was flooded in 2000) and mud. We saw every possible museum, gallery and exhibit. I never got to go to a night club or anything because Deeps is a morning person. Not that I could really do anything at a night club because my feet stopped working sometime around 6 PM.
Paris was the same way, although I thought I could thwart Deeps by refusing to assist in translation from French. But even then he overcame his French-deficit by digging in and teaching himself enough French to read the newspaper and find stuff for us to do.
I begged to have a day to sleep in.
I was unconscious by 10 PM every night, my feet throbbing until we were roused early in the morning to take advantage of the hotel’s free breakfast.
I was thinking yesterday that maybe we should go to Italy on vacation. But after reading over this post, I’m starting to think that I might want to just take separate vacations.
Needing a vacation from your vacation isn’t really relaxing.
Labels: 2007, marriage, travel
By: Alyssa | Friday, February 23, 2007 at Friday, February 23, 2007 | |
Most of the time I did a good job while navigating in Florida.
Driver is a little more overprepared than I am and he had lots of maps printed out and ready to go before we even got to the car rental place.
He handed me a map and off we headed to beautiful Orlando.
As we drove I marveled at the palm trees (a personal favorite) and the number of small fires we saw burning. I’ve read a lot about the building boom in Florida; things are moving so fast that crews are sometimes burning debris as they clear land.
And it was weirdly humid, like it gets in the spring just before it starts to rain.
So I was a little distracted and fell down on the navigating job almost immediately. We reached a large fork in the freeway and I read the directions in a hurry.
Me: It says head toward Disney World.
Driver: Really?
Me: Yeah, right here is where we go.
I read the next line and realized I’d made a little mistake (I'd read the line above where we were actually located), but we were well on the way to Disney World.
Me: I screwed up.
Driver: Oh.
I looked around for a place to turn off, but there was none. We were just blazing a trail to Disney World being welcomed by large signs and beautiful landscaping.
Me: Oh *%&@, we’re going to Disney World.
Driver: That’s now how it goes in the commercials.
Labels: 2007, filler, travel
By: Alyssa | Tuesday, January 30, 2007 at Tuesday, January 30, 2007 | |
Hello!
I’m in Florida right now.
For business.
I’m not kidding.
It’s been raining since I arrived and I briefly saw the sun as I moved from one meeting to the next. I don’t really write about my job or anything, I think that’s best for everyone. But I thought I’d share a bit about my first trip (ever!) to Florida.
The weird thing about doing business in Florida is that everyone assumes you are here on vacation.
Let me make it clear, I’m not here on vacation.
In fact, I’m here with the only other person at my company who is surlier than I am. He asked if I’d blog about him and I said I might. I told him he could pick his blog name. He didn’t come up with one, but after several suggestions we agreed on Driver.
So Driver and I are here in Florida on business. And everyone is on vacation and it is weird.
Ultimately, if I had to be away from Boston and in Florida during some freakishly cool and wet weather, I guess this is a good time. I’ve heard from Deeps that is about 10 degrees and he has some kind of weird cold thing. I’m hoping it isn’t the
Asian Cat Flu.
I hear it might be going around.
More dispatches when I get home tomorrow. I will say this: when I read several of
Carl Hiaasen’s novels I thought he was exaggerating the wackiness of Florida. But from my limited exposure, I’m not sure it’s much of an exaggeration.
I come really like a weird place like this.
Tomorrow: Why is Florida burning? and Oh God, I think we’re in Disney World!
Labels: 2007, health, travel, weird stuff
By: Alyssa | Thursday, January 25, 2007 at Thursday, January 25, 2007 | |
