Road Weary....

Again, it's been a long time since I wrote in the blog. I'm sure, given my history with writing in journals and trying to keep track of my life, that this may turn into a growing trend (unfortunately).

As for life events, I have been EXTREMELY busy with work. The end of the year is always tough, as well as the stock market has been trying to resemble a roller coaster that tries to throw everyone out of their seats any chance it gets. Makes for a busy time. On top of that, the government has put additional regulations on the types of accounts I work with, causing our clients to make a mad dash (since they procrastinated their getting ready for the new laws) to make their accounts in line with new rules. I've been to Arizona twice in the past two weeks (one day in Tucson and 5 days in Phoenix) and will be headed to North Carolina for a week here in the next month. It's good that Sarah is an introvert, and likes her solitude, because she gets the house to herself a lot. I like short business trips, but having a couple of them in a row is a little nutty.

I had a "unique" experience with a certain airline on my last trip. I headed to the airport to catch my 6:00 AM flight, and got there in a reasonable amount of time. I hit the airport gates at 5:00, and parked my car, then waited in the lot for about 20 minutes for some dufus to get out of his car so he could get on the same shuttle. So I got to the counter to check in at about 5:25. The airline said I was too late to check my bag, and that I needed to talk to an attendant (this was at the self service kiosk). I went over to the attendant and told her of my plight, to which she said, "There's no way we can get you on this flight. The next direct flight to Phoenix is at 8:45." Now I had appointments with clients scheduled at 8:00. Not good, says I. I asked if I could just get my bag on a later flight and take the one that left at 6, getting to Phoenix on time, but heading back to the airport for my bag later. "No." (People at the airlines really need a course in customer service). So, I called my contact in Arizona, told them of my problem and checked in for the later flight. I then proceeded through security, up to the gate and sat there for ten minutes watching my original flight sit at its gate, then back away and leave. Why couldn't I be on that flight? Hmmm?

In the end, things worked out well. I was able to reschedule everyone and had a happy trip.

I was able to see my cousins in Arizona, whom I hadn't seen in about 2 years. They're all fun and stuff.

What was really interesting, is that I got used to the warm temperatures. It was 93 degrees on the day I left Phoenix, and came back to the 50's here in Texas. I'm freezing my bum bum off! I can't believe how much of a wuss I have become!

In other news, It's looking more and more like I won't be coming to Salt Lake in December after all. My company bases their budget on the S&P 500, which is down about 35% so far this year, so we're all tightening the belts a little on spending. We'll have to see what happens. They rescheduled the training to the days that Sarah and I decided to go on vacation. Yeah, that's great timing.

We ended up choosing to go to the San Antonio, where we have a new location open up for our condo network. We're going to head down there for a couple of days. It'll be good to get away and not have to work. Crazy!