Post Lebanon, TN Wrap-up

I know it's been a little while since I last posted. My second week in Lebanon was fraught with business traveller nightmares - a day and 1/2 without internets forced me to change hotels to the Hampton Inn, which normally is pretty good choice but, as I had been warned, the Lebanon, TN hotel was not up to par. The internets worked most of the time (I need the internets to put info into an online database for the job...it wasn't just a no-porn emergency) but the hotel was an old style motel, where the rooms are entered from outside. Additionally, my room was far away from the breakfast buffet room which totally threw off my morning routine. I had to get dressed & ready to go and then drive to the front of the hotel and finally hit the buffet. At least the buffet was up to snuff ( I did move at an opportune time and was able to enjoy breakfast pizzas one morning). Anyway, the week was busy but I did manage to visit my aunt & uncle as well as having dinner with Allison in Nashville. To let you know how busy I was all I have to say is that I ate at Subway twice for dinner...and y'all know how much I fucking hate Subway.

The picture is from the window of Cuz's Antiques on the main square in Lebanon. It's a head from a strange creature that an unfortunate teenager ran over in the late '80's. If any of my dedicated readers come across something like this for sale, please buy it for me regardless of the price and I'll gladly reimburse you. I long to have a few side show curiosities around the house. Anyway, the story surrounding the mystery head is your typical warning tale to teenagers who go off at night to have sex in their parent's car - rushing home because the girl was going to late and get in trouble, the couple ran over this unearthly creature in the back woods, leaving us with a physical reminder of how teenagers who sneak around against their parent's wishes to indulge in illicit sexual activities will get caught (because of the accident the kids were found out by their parents), as well as a leaving us with fun local monster. Later I heard that they have a Yeti head in the back of the store but unfortunately I didn't have time to check it out.

I can't remember if anything else note worthy happened that week. I did get a little nervous on the flight home last Friday. The flight was a little delayed due inclement weather in Chicago and we ended up sitting in the plane on the runway for about 1/2 hour. After a while one of the baggage guys came in and said something to the stewardess which caused some brief discussion between her & the pilots. The stewardess then got on the intercom and announced that because they had added extra passengers who had been bumped off of other flights the weight calculations had changed, which meant that we couldn't take off until someone moved from the left side of the plane to the right side. We were in a small plane with a 2 seats-aisle-2seats. I should also mention that the stewardess looked maybe 21 and acted like a goofy 21 year old, laughing during her safety speech and did not instill confidence in any way. I couldn't believe that one dude changing seats was the difference between a safe flight and rolling the dice with the lives of all 48 people on board. I understand that they have to have defined allowances and limits for weight and balance on the plane, and because air travel is serious business putting peoples lives on the line the airline people cannot fuck around, this means that they can't screw with those allowances & limits. This also means that the line delimiting these allowances & limits are hard, so no matter how little you are crossing one of those lines they have to make a change. Regardless, it felt a little weird that 50 year old guy sitting in seat 4a meant imminent danger, and 50 year old guy sitting in 4d was totally cool.

I am in Chandler, AZ tonight (just outside of Phoenix) and will be here until the 15th. The organization I'm working with has only been able to schedule 60% of the normal amount of interviews so my time here should be more amenable to checking out the town and writing more often. Any hooters, I've got to go to sleep. Chau!