I spent most of the past 2 weeks away from home, first for work, then for holiday travel. 

My first work trip was to Atlanta.  I liked Atlanta, but was reminded why I like living in a small city: traffic makes life less enjoyable.  The nice part was I could walk to my conference from my hotel, via a quick jaunt through Centennial Park.  Pretty nice, eh.  The downside of this trip: A water main break left my hotel without water for 12 hours.  No water on a work trip is no fun.  Imagine being unable to shower, flush, or washing your face with bottled water.  I knew there was a reason I didn't think camping sounded fun.  The kind people at Marriott comped us with ... oh wait, they didn't comp us anything, they just offered free bottled water. What the crap.  I smell a free night, Marriott!

My second work trip was to New Orleans.  I have a soft spot for all the city went through with Katrina, and I found some hilarious t-shirts while there (no, I didn't buy them) with creative disdain for FEMA.  That said, I found the city largely repulsive.  It didn't help that my first morning, I was greeted in my bathroom by 2 Southern-sized cockroaches.  I knew I was a deep south resident by my reaction-- a scoff, instead of the scream it would have elicited last year!  I was in the French Quarter and Garden Quarter, and felt that whenever I left the conference site, I was surrounded by people with hangovers or those working on getting hangovers, and all were disheveled.  There were strip joints everywhere, and walking down Bourbon Street I actually commented to a colleague that I didn't realize some of the things advertised there were legal.  It reminded me of the red light districts I had seen in Europe.  The streets smelled like a combination of puke and pee.  Made me want to yammy (and reminded me of Prague's stench).  That said, the architecture was beautiful, and reminded me of France (duh).  The waterfront was nice, except for the fact that we happened upon some teenagers smoking the ganja, out in the open.  What a city.  Cafe du Monde, famous place for coffee and bignettes (sp?) did not disappoint, at least.  If you're thinking of a nice place to relax, I don't think this is the city for you.  I'm heading back in January for another work conference, and I'm hoping that if I can find my way to a jazz club, I'll have an improved opinion of the place. Adding to my frustration with the city was the unexpected 6 hours I spent at the airport.  My plane was supposed to depart at 7:20 pm, but weather problems in Texas had us leaving at 10:30 pm.  I was exhausted, ready to be celebrating the holiday, and couldn't believe they kept pushing our flight back. I have a new pet peeve-- airports that shut down before the last flight departs.  All the food stands and magazine places shut down around 7 or 8, leaving us without anything but some vending machines until 10:30. 

My last trip was back to Atlanta, for Thanksgiving with 3 of 4 siblings.  It was too bad #4 couldn't make it with her family, but I am looking forward to lots of quality time with her at Christmas.  Time with the family was fun, the obligatory sibling spats and disagreements included.  I slept on the couch, which worked out better than I thought it would.  I think my conference exhaustion might have helped some. Has anyone seen Dan in Real Life? 

The thought that we're hitting December this weekend is alarming.  I'm off to Charleston for a wedding this weekend, so perhaps I'll post again after that.  I loved Charleston the first time I visited, and I'm looking forward to a return visit (with a friend who lived there for a bit, to boot!).  I'm hoping it erases the filth of NOLA from my mind.