Inside the Head of a TV Junkie

Mike and I will be heading to Las Vegas for a fun time this weekend.  I’ve always wanted to see KA and they have some attractive summer prices at the moment.  The plan is to hit the road on Friday at about 1pm so that we get to Vegas in plenty of time before the show.  I do enjoy going to Las Vegas.  I’m not really a gambler but I love people watching and the alcohol that is readily available around every corner.  Not sure exactly what else we’ll be doing while there.  I’ve been to Las Vegas so many times that it’s hard to think of new things to do.  It’s been over a year since I went last and things are always changing in Vegas.  I’m sure we’ll find something new to see!

Oh, for any of you who watch “Last Comic Standing” on NBC, you’ll recognize this phrase from a T-Shirt worn by one of the contestants. “What happens in Vegas… stays burned into God’s memory for all eternity.”

I dare anyone to watch this video and not smile. You may want to visit YouTube and watch it in higher quality.

So let me just preface this post by saying that we were SHOCKED when we first saw this ad on Irish TV. This came on after 9pm on the free basic TV station. I’m sure young children would not be watching at that time but still, yikes! In my opinion, this is how PSAs should be made. If they aren’t shocking and memorable, what’s the point?!

So the town that I’m staying at here in Ireland doesn’t have many free internet places or even an internet cafe. I have been relegated to only using the internet at my friend Marcella’s parent’s house. I don’t want to sit there being anti-social so I’ve done no emailing or blogging! I’ve been going through massive withdrawal symptoms. Last night, Paula and I were at one of the “cheeriest pubs in all of Mullingar” named Canton Casey’s. We met this Scot and his Irish friend and I mentioned my internet issues. They both suggested that we head on over to the Annebrook House Hotel, sit in their lounge and order a drink. The hotel offers free internet. This is where I’m writing this post now. It’s 1:06 in the afternoon. Paula’s writing her postcards that we’ll post on our way to lunch drinking a coffee. I’m sitting here, going through my important emails, writing this blog post and drinking a Guinness. OMG, the Guinness is so good and I’m going to be missing it something horrible when I get back to the states.

There will be a few more posts about my trips here in Ireland in the coming days. Pictures galore and more stories than you can shake a stick at. If you’re interested, please return and to read them. We leave for home tomorrow and I’m kind of bummed. We’ve had great luck with the weather and I’m most definitely not looking forward to going back to work. For now, enjoy the three photos below. Slán agat (Irish for goodbye).

As you probably read in my last post, I was stuck in St. Louis for 5 hours with nothing to do, nowhere to go.  One good thing about this city is that they have a light rail system that connects directly to the airport.  So, the great adventure began.  Once I was able to check my bag, I headed to downtown St. Louis on the MetroLink (total cost $4.50) to check out the baseball stadium, Gateway Arch, and the mighty Mississippi.  Photos below.

—From Wednesday—

I’ve been relegated to people watching, which isn’t so bad. I’m sitting at a Starbucks next to the charter fights counter and the Midwest Connect counter. Some of these people act as though they have never flown before. Granted, that could be the case, but probably not for most of these people. They don’t have their IDs ready, they don’t have their ticket information available, and they don’t know when their flight is even supposed to leave. WHAT? Then how do you know to be at the airport now? It’s semi ridiculous. Also, there are the classic gigantic bags that people are insisting they can carry on to the plane. I’m sure that these Midwest Connect plans are super small and probably don’t have the normal overhead capacity. Why would you argue with a ticket agent? They obviously know if the bag is too large and they’re not going to give you a boarding pass until you check that beast of a bag. Too funny.

I guess another thing that doesn’t making getting stuck at the airport so bad is the fact that I have time to write these posts. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping regular with my posts. Sometimes it’s more difficult than others. Oh, and I guess it’s good that I’m here because I’m getting some good material for this blog.

I was on a business trip yesterday to St. Louis and the conference was over early. I did some quick checking on my phone to see when the next flight out of STL to PHX was on Southwest. I see that the next flight is at 12:35, which is a bonus because it gave me about an hour to get to the airport and switch the original flight (17:25). I get to the airport and head to the counter to switch my flight. BAD NEWS! Since the flight wasn’t late and my later flight wasn’t overbooked, I would have to pay the difference to get on this earlier flight. Granted, my company would be paying the difference but there are limits that you have to keep certain charges under. Sadly, the difference in the flight cost would far exceed the allowable limit. I found myself stuck at the airport until my flight later in the day. How can St. Louis have such a crappy airport? There is literally nothing to do or see here and, since my flight was more than 4 hours away, I was not able to check my bag. I was stuck on the wrong side of security until at least 13:25. The worst thing? The Wi-Fi at STL is not free. WTF. Why do airports not provide this for free for passengers?

Here is my list of things that I enjoy and dislike about business trips. The good stuff first:

• Making nice with the customer. Most of our customers love us so they are always fun to hang out with. There is usually alcohol involved here as well. Not a bad thing.

• Dinner on the company. When the company pays, it’s good.

• A hotel stay in a pretty decent place. Our company treats us well in this regard, no sharing of rooms either, another plus!

• Visiting the customer location and figuring out how they do business. Getting as much info on how the customer operates is exceedingly helpful in my line of work.

• Visiting new places. I get to visit new and different cities that I have never visited before.

Now for the bad:

• Usually short turn around times. I’ve yet to be at a customer location longer than 24 hours. Yikes!

• Sitting in the airport. Not fun!

• Visiting crappy places (yeah, I know I said new places could be fun, but sometimes they are hell.).

• Visiting with the customer – Yeah, again, I know it was in the positive list but sometimes this is also not fun. Sometimes the meet and greet can spill into the wee hours of the morning, making the next day’s business difficult to get through.

• Time zone changes. I get up at my normal time, fly to the new location, and then have to wait up 2 or 3 hours earlier than I normally wood. Fun? Not so much.

Those are my pros and cons about business travel. I haven’t done much of it but I’ve done enough. I do enjoy the whole experience overall and I wish I was able to do more. Do you have any business travel horror stories? Those are always fun.

Baile Átha Cliath, Corcaigh, Cill Chainnigh, Cill Dara, Luimneach, and Port Láirge?

My trip to Ireland is quickly approaching and I am not sure exactly where to visit. My friend Marcella lives in Mullingar, which is about an hour away from Dublin (Baile Átha Cliath). Of course, we’ll be visiting that great city but I would like to wonder around a bit. I figure the country is small enough that it would be crazy not to see some other places. Has anyone been to Ireland and have suggestions? Here are the places I’m pondering…

• Cork (Corcaigh)
• Kilkenny (Cill Chainnigh)
• Kildare (Cill Dara)
• Limerick (Luimneach)
• Waterford (Port Láirge)

The time is approaching when I take my spring vacation from work. Now, my employer gives me 10 vacation days and the ability to carry over that many from the previous year if I have any remaining. I could potentially have 20 days. Anyone who holds on to their vacation days like that is crazy. I don’t think I could survive not having a break from the daily rigors of my job.

When I graduated from college, I took a thirty-nine day trip to Europe with a really good friend. It was probably one of the best things I’ve ever done. The idea behind that trip was that it was most likely going to be a long time before I could have a nice long vacation once I started my life in the “real world.” I figured that I should get in one last hurrah. Well, my first job out of college afforded me more vacation time that I thought I was ever going to get being a new hire. I got 2 weeks up front with the ability to carry over just as many plus every holiday under the sun and some floating holidays thrown in for good measure. That first year I didn’t really use my vacation time to the fullest and only took one week (to visit my friend Stacey in Canada).

My next job, I wasn’t so lucky. I had to beg them to give me 2 weeks up front instead of waiting the standard year before being able to have vacation days. Throw in the fact that we hardly got any holidays, my vacation outlook was bleak. I lucked out in the fact that I had already planned on going to the Olympics in Torino, so that helped me to convince them to give me the days up front. After that trip in February 2006, I made a two fold promise to myself.

I will never take a job that doesn’t give me at least 2 weeks paid vacation up front and I will travel outside of the United States at least once a year.

Kind of an ambitious promise… but, so far, I’m doing really well. When I started this new job back in late 2006, I made my paid vacation time a condition of my employment and then proceeded to plan a trip in March 2007 to Scotland with my cousin. Now it’s 2008 and I have a trip planned to Ireland in just 3 weeks and a trip to Costa Rica in September. I’m doing pretty well.

You’re probably asking yourself, how does he do it? Well, let me just share a small tip on how you save for vacations. I have an account open with ING Direct that I auto deduct a set amount of $$ from my checking account every 2 weeks. I don’t use this cash for anything but travel related expenses. When you ignore an account, you’d be surprised at how quickly the $$ can grow. If you find yourself struggling to come up with the needed funds to take a break from life, give my tip a try. Anyone have other money saving tips?