1) Walk into hotel.
2) Pretend you are very important and can stay anywhere.
3) Smile (very important) ask nicly if there is anything they can do for you, wink
4) Accept their kind offer of upgrading you to the Platinum level of service which includes all sorts of free stuff, including mini-bar items 
I was working in this building today: Center City Shaken.
Basically we heard some loud sounds (which were apparently explosions.) We took the elevator to the lobby (we should not have.) And there was black smoke and fire trucks and crazy amounts of people.
So in the past four weeks, I have flown four times. Two out of those four times I have had problems with US Airways. The first time they lost my luggage. The second time, my flight is about 8 hours delayed and it’s the last flight out. At this point it’s the last day of training and I want to get the hell out of Orlando.
On the advice of what I’m going to call an airline veteran I went to the airport, stood in the first class / preferred line (of which I am neither) and put a smile on my face as I approached the ticket agent. I told her my predicament and asked very nicely if she could put me on the earlier flight (which was leaving in about 30 minutes.) She mumbles, types a whole bunch of things into her computer and out prints a ticket. Woot! My fellow collogues followed my lead and tried the same, they got charged a $25 change of flight fee, hehe, must have been the smile.
Moral of the story, pretend you’re important and people will think you are.
Now that training is over, I am back in Philadelphia and ready to start work on a client in center city. This should be interesting, as I worked for them last year and remember the structure of their organization. However it’s going to be very weird being an associate, not an intern. I no longer feel as if I can do no wrong. I can be fired and out of a job and bankrupt so quick its not even funny.
Rent’s expensive.
P.S. I love fall and sort of can’t wait for it to happen.
So the firm had given us a perdiem to use while we are here over the weekends. The sheer fact that everyone has said perdiem means that everyone wants to go eat at the fanciest of fancy resturants. And I love it.
I’m getting pushed back into that non-frugal spend everything while you have it on whatever you want mindset. Buy shiny things, buy nice clothes, spend upwards of $100 per person on meals, who cares if drinks are $12 each… It’s so much fun, and my credit card loves it. My back account on the other hand might have something negative to say.
So what do you say? Should I say ’screw it, I’m not going to make it to retirement anyway so why bother.’ Or am I diluting myself.
I’m heading up to DE this weekend. Catching a flight back to Philly late on Friday and then heading down to Delaware for some good times Saturday. Everyone starts school again next week so it’ll be fun to catch people before that starts up.
Training is starting to drag a bit, hopefully more hands on stuff will start and I’ll be more engaged. At least I have a breif break this weekend!
Gotta love the eight hour training sessions. They really make being in Florida fun!
I can’t complain too much. This weekend was pretty much spent lounging around the hotel and making use of my per diem. The pool here is really nice, and its a good change of pace from going to classes and being indoors all day. It seems like we go out every single night, and its a huge change of pace from school when we were lucky to get out once a week. It’s really starting to wear me out though, thats why it was nice to just hang out around the hotel for a day or two.
I really miss going out for bike rides. I miss just exploring new places and dealing with all the crazy philly people. They keep things interesting. Theres not too much alone time here, your always with people and around people and it can become very stressful.
I will get to go home for a few hours this weekend. I have a lot of mail waiting for me, and some things to sort out. Hopefully I will get to stop by Delaware this weekend and hang out with everyone one last time before the semester and work starts.
Some of us who will be here in training over the labor day holiday weekend are planning a trip down to Fort Lauderdale. Woot! Maybe I can convince my uncle to let me have the condo for a few days. That would be sweet.
Well, I’m down in Florida for some training. 25 lovely days and nights at the Swan & Dolphin hotel. It’s a little smaller than I remember it, but then again, I was a little smaller the last time I was here. It’s been an okay time so far. Some of the initial classes have been straight power point and borning. But we have been going out around town at night to make up for that. Tonight I am pacing myself, because four weeks of this will send me into a comma.
The trip down was rather interesting. I ended up waiting almost an hour to get through the security checkpoints. (All becuase people hate us.) After getting on the plane I had to sit between two rather large people. The flight was overbooked, but I managed to get a seat in the bulkhead row, so I had lots of leg room. Right after we got in the air I opened the overhead compartment to get my bag, and someone elses briefcase comes flying down and hits someone in the head. I stand there in awe just appologizing to the guy. I felt so bad, but it wasn’t my fault. He says hes okay, but about 30 mins into the flight he starts complaining to the flight attendant that his neck hurts and blah blah blah. She makes him fill out an accident report, and then she turns to me and makes me fill a sheet out with my name and address. I’m like whatever, I think I have insurnace that covers this if I get sued. The guy kept saying it wasn’t my fault, but I’m not going to be surprised if I have a nice letter waiting for me when I get home… Too bad they have to find me to serve me hahahaha.
After we landed I headed over to the baggage claim. (Where all my bags were because I checked everything because not doing so would have been a nightmare.) An hour and a half later I am at the lost luggage counter telling the woman the address of the hotel I am staying at. It was a pretty bad day. All is well now though, I have my luggage, and it wasn’t beat up too bad. It just wanted to take a later flight than me.
