Business Trip Part 2 - The Businessing

[And here's the second part. Still tl;dr but whatever]

From there, we stopped in Estes Park and Boulder, Colorado.  Estes Park was recommended by Ape's dad, and the easiest way to describe it would be to compare it to Gatlinburg, TN of 10 years ago. Lots and lots of t-shirt shops selling the same captioned tees, plus local and chain restaurants. There was a nice river running alongside the main drag, and we were a few days too early for the moose migration.  But I just didn't like it much.

Boulder was just because. We stopped at their version of an outdoor mall and walked around with Creature.  It was sundown and more of a romantic time than commerce-oriented. At 9pm, 12 hours after leaving Nebraska, we arrived at our Embassy Suites hotel in Denver.

Once again, we found ourselves in an Embassy Suites, which always reminds me wistfully of AWA. We got this one on a typical Ape steal-o'-a-deal, and aside from being in a kind of gritty location, the hotel itself was as nice as always.  We watched more TV and then crashed.  Why is it that it seems the nicer hotels have a more limited channel selection than budget places?  Same for Internet - most resorty places charge for it whilst most lower-end stops offer it for free.  Ape said it prolly had to do with each kind's target demographic - business travelers staying in the nicer places could fork out for better amenities.  Still cheesy...

Saturday was a typical whirlwind of activity.  After enjoying a wonderful Embassy breakfast, we went back up, got ready and headed out to Cherry Creek to meet a friend of Ape's.  She met us at the nicer mall there with her two young daughters, so of course there were many girly pictures taken.  We looked around for a bit and ate lunch in their food court.

Aside from a number of uppity stores, there were two highlights: a Lego kiosk, where a guy was selling mostly individual minifigs.  LOTS of minifigs.  Each side of his cart was lined with a wall of 'figs. It sure looked like he had representatives from every series.  I wound up taking pics of all of them and sending them to Younger, assuming he'd want something here as his souvenir.  I let him review those while I moved on.

The other "event" store was a Sony boutique.  It wasn't so much the room full of tech toys that interested me here.  It was the live-fire exercise in restraint, as I successfully maintained my composure and didn't grief the help.  I'm not normally a grudge-holder but the multiple indignities heaped upon me by Sony, or one of its tentacular arms, have put me off them.  But I smiled and spoke politely with ever-helpful salesfolk.  And they did have a few games on sale.

Before leaving, Younger called me back and told me what he wanted, so I ran back to the Lego vendor and  picked up an Admiral Ackbar (nope, not gonna!) and a Green Dragon.  We headed back to the garage, drove a short distance to a Whole Foods where we rejoined Ape's friend, and headed to Littleton.

Yes, /that/ Littleton.  We pulled into the Columbine High School grounds, not sure what to expect.  I know I *didn't* expect a festival and car show.  Our only goal had been to visit the memorial commemorating the terrible events and amazing heroism of that day.  Turns out the school was going to make us work for it.  The path we started on took us behind the memorial plaza, but there was no connection.  We did get a great walking tour of the sports field, the running track, and the nice kiddie park.

So, with two loaded strollers, our procession made a u-turn and eventually picked up the right path.  I must say, the design of the memorial is very tranquil.  I promise I'll get the albums and vids of this trip up soon! ^^  In any case, we all spent quiet time reading the plaques for the fallen students and teacher, as well as a rotunda-style assemblage of quotes spoken by various people during and after the tragedy.

After we took in the memorial, we went back to the grounds and took in the festival for about 45 minutes before we needed to leave for dinner.  Most of what was there (and there was a LOT there) was pretty standard festival/bazaar stuff.  A section of business representatives from the area and from larger outfits.  Food and craft tents.  Merchants of all kinds.  But one tent stood out as offering one of the neatest things I'd seen ages.  A vertical chessboard.

Imagine a frame with 64 small cubbies in it, arranged 8x8.  The chess pieces go in as you'd expect, but the twist is a "button" that marks that last move.  I chatted up the seller and he explained the idea was to allow games between people who can't always play face-to-face.  Think chess by mail, except both players visit the same space.  Each moves when they can and the board can be hung out of the way so that it doesn't take up unnecessary space and the board isn't likely to be disturbed mid-game.

Also, a woman looking at boards was doing so with an albino bearded dragon curled upon her shoulder.

Did I mention Colorado is a very liberal place?

Our last stop on our jam-packed weekend was an Italian restaurant called Cinzzetti's to meet with my first-ever boss and her husband.  However, "restaurant" as a description is totally inadequate.  Our friends got in ahead of us and were able to secure a table a bit before we arrived.  This struck us as unusual, because many places won't seat a party unless most of it is present, and, y'know, Saturday night.  So when we walked in the lobby and met my one-time boss, we had to thread our way through dozens of people.  I was trying to figure out what favor they called in to hold a half-full table so long.

Then we made it into the restaurant.  Or at least part of it.  The place was gargantuan.  They could hold a partial table because the place holds 600 people.  Not a typo.  I found a newspaper article in the back explaining that the location was originally a movie theater and office supply warehouse.  They specifically cater to groups, boasting "2 or 200, come on in!"  For once, I don't think it's advertising hyperbole!

So anyways, we all sat and spent a good while catching up.  Like 30 minutes catching up.  We haven't seen our friends since they moved out here though Ape's kept up via Facebook.  Finally, it was time to eat!  In addition to being ridiculously scaled, Cinzzetti's is a buffet and features five main "food bars" - soups, pastas, meats, breads and desserts.  And it was really really tasty!  So we spent a long evening eating and talking, until we just *had* to go.

It really was nice catching up with them, and getting to see recent pics of our respective kids, and hearing some interesting stories about college-bound teen parenting!  They are a really lovely couple, and like us, aren't afraid to be affectionate in public.  Ape and I would have done so as well, but Creature was sat between us /sigh  Oh, one other thing - normally, I feel reasonably clever, world-aware, and well-spoken.  Being with these two though makes me feel like a chronic underachiever.  Never mind a pair of Master's degrees - they're the most ambitious all-conquering people I know.  I really should seek inspiration, but, lazy Mithra.

We make a latish return to the hotel with plans of a little wind-down time before beginning the airport process early in the morning.  Two things stood in our way: a young lady was having her quinceañera and the parking lot was overfull.  So was the lobby.  I sent Ape and the baby up while I camped for an in-lot spot.  I got lucky pretty quickly and headed up, hoping the revelry wouldn't keep us or Creature up.

My other challenge was to get all our junk to fit our meager bag space.  Ape told me what was clean and what wasn't, and I set to work folding and stuffing.  It took an hour but I got all the bags sorted and ready.  Next time I vote for FedExing our dirty laundry back and using the new space for souvenirs.

The morning's drive to the airport and processing therein went much better than when we left home.  We had our "Amazing Race" moment as we went the wrong way out of the hotel and lost a little time getting turned around.  And dropping off the rental was interesting as there was no one to check us in and we were worried about a pre-existing rock chip that they covered in blue painter's tape.  All would be well though.

And our run through the airport was much much smoother.  This time, we got the scanner loaded like pros and I didn't get so much as felt up.  The flight out from Denver was uneventful but we had no time to eat.  So we'd planned to grab food in Houston and eat on that plane.  Do you remember the Amazing Race ep where one team just misses a flight, causing those on the just-rolled-back jet to cheer?  And then they went back to the gate?  Yeah, we very nearly had one of those.

Let me explain.  No, there is too much.  Let me sum up.  (Princess Bride!)  Our flight into Houston arrived on time, but for reasons that were never explained to us, our aisle passenger had MS and needed boarding assistance.  No worries there, as we have an aunt with MS and know how awful it is.  BUT...they unloaded all the other passengers first, then her, before us.  So we lost about 25 minutes of our layover/run to gate time.

So, on finally reaching the terminal, riding the tram and reaching the departing terminal, we looked for our gate.  B84 it said.  And look, the 80s are just over here.  At the end of a football field long hall.  Ok, ok, we're here.  No we're not.  Another hall, to just 80-84.  One more field later, we're in an elevated tower with our gate marked.  But there's no one there.  Ape stayed back to get breakfast so I looked around and eventually got in a customer service line.  The friendly girl told me 84 was downstairs.  O-kay.

I walk down the stairs and find myself in another terminal, with its own gate numbers! Aaargh!  So I find ours and lo and behold, it leaves in 5 minutes.  There's a guy there trying to get a standby seat and it doesn't take a high MND stat to realise he's about to get our seats.  The gate agent keeps asking me if I'm going to board and I keep telling her not without Ape.  We both watch the stairs for signs of her, and the agent continues to make final call announcements on her mic.

When Ape appears with literally seconds to spare, I frantically signal she needs to bolt, which she does as best she can with the stroller.  We get checked in and hustle with Creature plus all our junk to the gate.  Which is at the end of ANOTHER long hallway.  I was really getting aggravated by this point.  I mean, really, we had to be in Dallas by this point!  So we make it to the plane, which is on the tarmac with a rolly ladder next to it.  We quickly break down the stroller and bags and leave them and board.  I think one person got on after us but all eyes were on the disheveled couple with the wee one.

To make matters worse, I really need to go to the bathroom, having had no time since leaving the hotel some 4 hours earlier.  So the flight attendant graciously let me run back to the minuscule lavatory where I hoped they'd let me leave prior to takeoff.

After that near-miss, we had no further trouble with our return.  Ape's sis met us at our airport with the Clones and her mom.  Elder very nearly knocked me over, blindsiding me with a surprise bear-hug ^^  From there, it was lunch with most of our extended fam at Red Lobster, then home to recover and sleep.

Business Trip Part 1

[This is part one of a seriously tl;dr post]

Sometime early on Thursday the 8th, I was told one member of my team (and there are only two of us) was going on Monday to a client site in Nebraska.  My boss said he didn't care who went, and even offered to let us duke it out.  Was he kidding?  Iunno.  We had to sort it out quickly because we had to book travel departing just three days' hence.  Ultimately, it came down to a coin flip, literally.  Which I lost.

I had warned Ape this was a possibility and once I was the designated flyer, we tried to work out a way for her to come with.  We are rarely apart and to make matters worse, she was dealing with an arm injury which made it much harder to take care of Creature.  A day of frantic fare-searching later, we had our plan.  Unlike the five others (!) going from other teams, we would fly to Denver, rent a car, and drive the 5-odd hours into the client site.  With Creature.

So, Monday rolls around, and since our flight wasn't leaving until early evening, I went into work to try catching up on stuff for my other client, expecting the week in Nebraska to be focused on that one exclusively.  Leaving at noon-ish, I got home and Ape and I tried to get some rest before the evening journey.  7+ hours in the air plus 5 on the ground, not including moving through the airports and a layover in Houston.

Our plan to travel as light as possible and avoid checking bags meant cramming three people's things into two carryons, plus a backback filled mainly with our electronics, and a large baby bag.  You'd think we could get through the security line pretty easily.  Nope - despite Ape having traveled with the baby only three weeks ago, we looked like a couple of noobs, trying to get each other, the baby and all our crap onto the conveyor belt.  A very nice woman behind us, whom I suspect was in First Class, actually began hucking our stuff onto the belt!  It was exceedingly nice of her but dang did I feel like a useless Mithra!

To make matters worse, I got to visit the Nudie Scanner 2000.  Also, nobody told me that you were supposed to empty your pockets for that, as well as be beltless.  A TSA guy followed me in, asked for the contents of my pockets and my belt, then made me parade in front of the "backscatter X-ray imager."  Yeah, I don't /care/ what their official position is, they get to play with a nudie scanner all day.  /grumble

From this inauspicious beginning, we had a nice flight on a small plane into Houston.  We ate during our layover, then boarded a much larger plane for the leg to Denver.  This flight, being an evening flight, was about 20% empty, giving us plenty of room.  Things were great, until final descent.

In my four decades on this planet, I think I've only experienced mortal terror once.  That was on the back of a motorcycle hoping like heck my friend wasn't going to do something boneheaded and dump us.  He didn't, but that was really scary.  That was also like 10 years ago.  The descent into Denver?  Thought we were going to die.

I'm no amateur in flight, just in white magery.  I've flown transcon, short flights and long, and been in all manner of planes including tiny turboprops.  As much as certain rollercoasters unsettle my stomach, airplane turbulence doesn't really bother me.  I'd just as soon not have it, but it doesn't usually freak me out.  Plus, I have a trick: During shaky flight, look at the crew and other passengers.  I'd wager on any given flight around half of the passengers are regular fliers.  So if most (or all) of the plane is calm, then the rough air must be OK, right?

Also, most of the turbulence I've been in is when the plane is climbing or dropping through clouds, or passing through a storm.  Landing at Denver was different!  Because most of this turbulence was much closer to ground level.  I'd testify that a lot of the rolling and juking was happening under 200 feet.  Close to the ground.  Within view of the airport.  I didn't like it one bit!  Nope!  I was too scared to notice that the rest of the plane was pretty sedate...

By the time we got off the plane and to the rental car, it was about 11:30pm, Mountain time.  Our poor terrified bodies thought it was approaching 2am, and we still had more than five hours in a car!  In which half our stuff didn't fit in the trunk ><  The girl at the counter tried to upsell us but all we wanted to spring for was a compact.  So we wound up in a 2012 Ford Focus.  Nice car but not for suitcases and a stroller.

I'll spare you the details of our drive, because it was dark and the surroundings mostly featureless plains (which we couldn't see anyway).  I pretty much gave out at about 3am and Ape had to get us the rest of the way.  I was so proud of her, because she hates night driving and she was as bushed as I was.  But we made it to the hotel safely.

Despite checking in at about 5 in the morning, we were greeted warmly and were told we had no room, as one of my colleagues told the front desk we weren't coming.  Um, what?  Also, the hotel was pretty full.  Uhh...  The girl told us we were getting the last room and so we hoped for the best.  I think we were expecting a closet or something, but we somehow wound up in a large room with two queen beds.  And a whole 'nother room next to it!  And an amazingly comfy bed ^^

So, after getting settled in, I got to sleep for like three hours before meeting the rest of the client strike force in the lobby for the ride to the hospital.  I'm gonna skip ahead a lot now, because my days were pretty boring.  But I managed to get a couple of lunches with Ape, and after dealing with a work-only mixer for the client and a "team dinner" where Ape was invited, we had a couple of quiet us-only dinners too.

We also got to watch the finale of America's Got Talent (but no sense), in which Team iLuminate lost, placing third or fourth.  The finale was between Silhouettes and Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr.  He won, and deservedly so, as I thought Silhouettes kinda peaked after their "monument" performance.

Ape spent her days killing time, as this place had Walmart as their big thing.  Really.  Lots of local shops, a couple chain restaurants, and agriculture.  But, she found a library and some nice parks to occupy herself and Creature with.

Eventually, Friday morning came, and with it, our return to Denver.  The rest of my colleagues were flying home, wherever that was for each of them, but we had two more days.  The drive back to Denver was much, much better than the drive from.  We took our time, making a number of stops along the way.  Also, we had fantastic weather and could see many interesting sights near and far.

Some rather charming things about our visit: The hospital itself was new and decorated in a definite midwest/Native American style, but aside from that, it reminded me a lot of the hospital I first worked in.  I often wish I could return to a clinical setting.  And the people in it wore more than just medical hats-most also ran family farms or did other agricultural or hunting related activities.  Very self-sufficient types.

An aside: Since a frank chat with Ape a few weeks ago, we've worked out a few things, and I've been able to move myself out of the funk I was in.  Being given hope for my dreams really helped stop the nulling.  And on this trip, through some surprisingly beautiful (for its simplicity) landscape, I really felt much better emotionally.  To the point I wanted to take lots of pictures, which I did.  But I'm still physically exhausted, and as some of you know, I'm also a pretty lazy Mithra ^^

A lot of the pics are of various farming scenes - fields, equipment, houses and barns. And some animals: Mooo!  There's a bunch of landscape imagery too, with the flatness giving way to hills and rockier terrain as we moved from Nebraska to Wyoming. I kid you not, there were a few times I was wistfully reminded of Meriphataud Mountains.

Cheyenne, Wyoming was very nice after the "quietness" of Nebraska. Although, we passed a number of towns which were a /fraction/ the size of the 5k populace of our original target city. One was under 400 people! And we stopped at a remote outpost for a potty break wherein we were obligated to buy snacks. Which we kinda wanted anyway.

So, Cheyenne... Our target here was a Mexican restaurant called Guadalajara. It was very festively decorated and I have some pics. I also have memories of eating an awesome thing called a tortas.  It was a meat-filled sandwich but between the fresh-made bread and the seasoning on the meat, it was amazing!

...つづく (tsuzuku)

September 11

10 Years of Heartache

10 Years of Heroes

10 Years of Healing

10 Years of Hope

------------------------------

It's been a weird ten years, hasn't it?  Today, Ape and I watched a lot of the Memorial coverage, after having gone to bed watching some of the documentaries Saturday night.  It's still surreal remembering how I found out.

Driving to work at about 9am, in the rain.  Cars pulled over left and right.  me, wondering what was wrong with the road to take so many off the highway - oil? spilled nails?  Finally, I turned on the radio and heard the news.  At work, we all watched around a TV, and I was on the phone with Ape most of the day.

I still couldn't believe both towers fell.  I knew they took a hell of a beating from the impacts, but I figured the tops might collapse around the lower undamaged sections.  But they fell, two massive giants felled by human intolerance.

For me, one of the hardest things about all the coverage that followed, aside from grasping the sheer scale of the human tragedy and the physical destruction, was some of the imagery of the planes' impacts and the jumpers.  Knowing that I was watching human beings die right *then* was and is hard for me.  I know that Death is a part of life, and if you've been keeping up, you know our clan has been visited by the "natural" kind as well as the death that follows an accident.

I'm not a White Mage and healer by coincidence.  I've long been one who attempts to heal all, any way I can.  And images of actual deaths bother me.  News accounts of a gunned-down drug lord, or a school massacre, or a car wreck.  They all bother me, because I feel it in some way, knowing that what was lost is not just an animated collection of organic chemistry and fancy nerves.

People are the most amazing things God made and all of us are worthy of existing.  All life is precious, but, for the most part, it's only humans that seek out to hurt others by killing innocents.

I don't think I mentioned this part, but maybe I did.  Days after 9/11, I wanted bin Laden caught, caged, and paraded through every town in America, beginning with New York.  Whether he cared or not (and one assumes he didn't), I wanted our survivors to let him know how they felt.  It wouldn't necessarily bring closure, but at least it would de-anonymise the attacks.

Of course, the end of the tour would have been the end of the line for him.

Then, a couple months ago, when the news came that he was dead, I saw Facebook posts, tweets, news blurbs and more where many people were celebrating his end, and there was a definite undercurrent of relief and gladness at his execution.  I will not blame anyone for feeling this way - for feeling *any* way really, regarding this monster and his monstrous acts.

But for me, there was a numbness.  I wasn't sure what I felt.  And then, after a time, came a feeling of finality.  Yes, I know there are more monsters out there, but THIS monster was no more.  Next came sadness, at seeing how people were celebrating the ending of a life.  I do not doubt that he, as well as many sociopaths/psychopaths simply need to go away.  But it did sadden me a little to see so much apparent joy in it.

Again, I do not blame.  But as a healer, it made me sad.  This was probably one of the most extreme cases of human wrongness since Hitler and Saddam tried their hands at genocide.  But there are many who die as villains and criminals for much lesser things and even still, there is a loss there that can never be recovered.

We shouldn't build bigger jails, though there is sometimes need.
We shouldn't torture and make to suffer those who have done wrong, though there is sometimes need.
We shouldn't seek to end lives, nor harm life for any reason, though there is sometimes need.

We need a way to heal.  To heal all wounds.  Those of the victims and those of the perpetrators of wrongdoing and in some cases, evil.  We need to heal /before/ there is a change in course to wrongness.

We should strive to build a world where no one feels harming others is the best way to meet their own physical and psychological needs.  Everyone was a child once.  Everyone was new, innocent, and amoral once.  We need to build a world where working together and preventing hate, intolerance and malicious greed is a common goal.

Am I an idealist?  Yes.  Am I floating in the clouds?  Most likely.  Am I wrong to want such a world?

I hope not.  But somebody has to believe we can all find a way to make everyone's dreams come true.