Lifeinthekeyofme

I flew to Milan for some scheduled meetings for work, and by Thursday I was ready to leave. Not sure if Milan just wasn’t my thing or I was feeling under the weather, etc. The final conclusion was that Milan was not my type of city, it reminded me of Bakersfield. Yeah, that Bakersfield. The Duomo was beautiful, and the shopping may have been incredible had it not been for me working ’til their closing hours. The trip was summed up into: meetings, walking back to hotel, walking down to bar, walking back to room.

So I woke up to a twitter feed full of discussions about Volcano eruptions that Thursday, and didn’t really put much though into it. By mid-day I realized that my flight might be in jeopardy, when I arrived to the airport I knew I was royally F#@#@! I was then told during check-in that I had 2 options, fly into Paris or Frankfurt. I don’t know French but I definitely don’t know German and I did know that you could get to London by train (yeah, I’m smart I originally thought the airline was doing us a favor by trying to get us closer, and offering to help locate a rail solution when arriving to Paris—that was the thought until I arrived in Paris. There was no one to greet us, no information and no manned desk. WTF!!??

I know what you’re planning to comment up to this point, perhaps “could be worst places to be stuck”, or “lucky you, I’m in Nogales”. That’s not the point, but I agree. So I was temporarily displaced in Paris for a total of 4 days, 3 nights and Paris is expensive. Most hotels (including the one I stayed in) was well over 160 euros a night, calculate that here. I finally found a one way ticket on Eurostar to get me home late at night on Sunday, a ticket that cost 223 euros…., if you want to feel bad for me, go to that link again.

I’m back in London now, and I plan to stop whining as well (for now).

Enjoy Paris:

But I have made it to London! Delta Airlines has the worst customer service ever, and still I take them hoping something will eventually change (doubt it). I had the fortunate? luck of sitting next to a Yankees fan wearing his hat, I was wearing my Sox one, there must have been people on that plane who had no idea of the irony. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous so far, sunny skies with the occasional moody cloud passing by. For my first Saturday of my stay in London, I met up with Kasey & Ben (recent transplants) to check out the Chris Ofili exhibit at the Tate. I was familiar with this “dung” work, but had no idea of his fascination with afros and vaginas. I didn’t take photos of those 2 particular subjects of his paintings.

After the Tate, we headed out to a favorite pub of theirs and on our way went by Buckingham Palace and Parliament and took the mandatory “tourist” pose while looking at Big Ben. The night ended up at a local Wandsworth pub, dinner (fish & chips)…2 more people added to my foursquare friends and a good night sleep. Cheers

Opening Day, ESPN Sunday Night Baseball and everyone has that same thought flowing through their minds: “this is our year!”

Same applies to me and being the superstitious person that I am, I will refrain from forecasting where we will stand 161 games from this day.

funny how much life can fit in these things

I am on the cusp of reaching 9 months of living in New York City. So what am I doing to celebrate? I’m leaving! Without going into long details, in the next 6 weeks + I will be away from my new home and stopping by in Utah, calling London home and visiting Milan for work.

So why all the travel? Let’s just say that I’m seizing an opportunity that I would have never jumped on 5 years ago, let alone last year. Sure, there’s going on vacation for 10 days to another country (I’ve done it in consecutive years)–but to spend almost 2 months outside of my comfort zone–not my style.  And since it’s not my style, I’m taking baby steps with this situation. I’m staying with a dear friend in London, quite possibly one of the few people that I can coexist with for a long time without getting annoyed (we even did a road trip down Highway 1). I also will be working remotely, so there will be daily focus on things to keep me occupied from going stir bat shit crazy.

I also plan to celebrate (and host) a Cinco De Mayo party, and I’m sure that the UK is so culturally diverse, that Cinco de Mayo parties are common—but I know how to throw a party.  Be ready London, oh, and let me know if you want to meet up for coffee, err, I mean tea

And NYC, to quote my friend Tammy, this Summer will be “epic”.