Today’s been sucked up by coast-to-coast travel to Baltimore. Random tidbits of the day:
- This morning I stood behind a lady who used seven bins in the TSA security line: jacket, sweater, shoes, laptop, purse, quart-sized baggie of combustible fluids, and her purse.
- During an hour-long flight delay in Chicago O’Hare — no doubt caused by the perfect weather — I bought a bagel and milk at one of the stores with a “if you don’t get a receipt, we’ll give you $5” policy. The lady at the register, who had mostly ignored me during the transaction, wasn’t too happy when I took advantage of the offer. 🙂
- In O’Hare, I ran into a coworker (on a different outbound flight and different end destination) whose near-TSA experience was being called out for using an illegal gallon-sized baggie and (gasp) containers with unlabeled quantities of fluids. The TSA dude had claimed that he hadn’t officially been instructed, and normally they’d throw the whole bag away, but he’d be nice and let her pick a quart’s worth of stuff to keep.
- The guys at Enterprise Rental Car facility in Baltimore were exceptionally (almost too) friendly, shaking hands and offering their business cards and email in case we had any problems or questions.
- Though we thought we smelled Male Answer Syndrome, their directions to the hotel were accurate. We could see the hotel, but had to make three loops around I-95/Route 100 to find the secret, serpentine and unlit road leading to the building.
- A block from the hotel (as the crow flies, it’s a mile drive) is a strip mall offering bail bonds, jewelry, tattoos, spa/massage and cheese-steak sandwiches. (No word on TastyCakes.)
- Since it was late, we didn’t venture too far from the hotel for “dinner.” This limited our choices to Arby’s, BK, and the Golden Arches. I dropped my Royale with Cheese, spewing milkshake all over the floor. The staff was nonplussed when I apologized for the mess, offering to clean it up. (One of the Seven Habits of Anal Parents?)
- Maryland has sweet tea
- The hotel has free wireless and a nine power outlets in the “study.”
- I’ve had the local news running in the background. Political commercials are an order of magnitude much more vicious than anything I’ve seen running in my corner of the country this term. Wow!
Tomorrow: Jet Lag. I also have a customer visit at a secure military research facility. While I am permitted to bring my laptop (only after providing its make, model and serial number), my phone and camera are not allowed.
Seven days to NaNoWriMo.