The fastest longest week of my life

Sorry Sarah if there is a grammatical error in my title :)

All right, back to business: my week.

Last Thursday: Fly to Orlando for a site visit. I flew first class (absolutely adore first class btw), and have a great flight. The only odd thing is I woke up in the morning and felt like I had been hit by a bus in my right jaw. The rest of the day I could barely open my mouth, nonetheless get food in there with any ease. It was just strange. But, I digress. I have my driver pick me up at the airport and drop me off at the Caribe, where I decide to relax and order some room service since I had just worked two fifteen hour days and was extremely tired. All the while, missing the kittens. Flash forward to about 8 o'clock when Mary phones and says she has the opportunity to get tickets to see Kenny Chesney, would she mind if she went. I was supposed to rent a car and drive from Orland to Jacksonville, and then she was bringing me back to the airport Sunday morning. After thinking about it, I said that if I could switch my ticket for the same price as rentals and gas, I would just go home, no worries. Which is what I did.

Friday: But...here's the kicker. I had to push up meetings (not a big deal), and get another driver to the airport (again, not a big deal), and had a connection through Houston (big deal). I was delayed by about an hour from Houston, which was sucky but you deal with it, right? Just as we're about to land in Milwaukee, they shut it down and we were redirected to Madison...for two hours....gross. I finally got home and got to cuddle with the kittens and just enjoy our beautiful weather (yeah right).

Last Saturday: I decided to get up early (that's not true, Mozzarella decided that for me), and went to my cousin Jeffrey's soccer game. It was freezing, I was wearing sandals, and it was muddy. Gross. But, I made it through and Jeffrey, the amazing soccer player that he is, scored three goals and helped them tie the game. After that it was lunch and shopping for Brooklyn Bridge's wedding shower gift. That night was my friend Gangsta's (aka Brian) birthday, so I met up with him and his crew for a comedy club and drinking. It was a good time, and perhaps my new crush was there.....

Last Sunday: Drive Gangsta and my new crush back to their cars, and then proceed to nap. Rudely awakened by Tianna (not really), and go to my aunts house. Eat ice cream, come home. Pack. Pretty uneventful day actually.

Monday: Go to work (late), goof around (not really), get a iced chai latte (my new obsession), and then go to the airport. Off to Pittsburgh! Pittsburgh is surprisingly nice. We did the inclines, drove around the city, checked into our king deluxe rooms, enjoyed our complimentary cheese platters, and then head off to dinner at the Church Beer Works. Cool little restaurant, great pizza, great atmosphere. It actually is in an old church. After that we were so tired, it was off to bed. Found this cool show on PBS about the USS Nimitz (an aircraft carrier) and during the show they were in Guam, so it had me hooked from the beginning!

Tuesday: This was the longest day of my life. We did breakfast at the Westin, did a site tour, and then went to the convention center. We were there a LONG time, but their convention center is really cool. It's the only green convention center in the country, and as the American Agricultural Economics Association, that ranks pretty high. After that went to about 6 more hotels, saw about 30 hotel rooms (once you've seen one, you've seen them all), and basically saw how the other half travels. Pittsburgh has nice hotel rooms, if anyone needs a recommendation. We did lunch at the Renaissance (which, in all honesty, I did not enjoy), and were off to drive around the city a bit more. We then went to our hotel rooms for a bit to get ready for dinner, which was at Eleven. FANTASTIC! We kept getting free food from the chef, and started off with cheese and crab cakes, and then moved onto our main entrees. Deliscious! Dessert was fantastic as well. Oh, and I found a red wine that I like :) Then it was off to bed, as I was a tired puppy (or should I say kitten?).

Wednesday: Wake up early, go to breakfast in Pittsburgh at Pamela's Diner. I had these banana and chocolate chip pancakes that were out of this world! It was pretty much straight to the airport from there, where I was going to Cincinnati. Arrive in Cincinnati and take my time going to baggage, as I needed an iced chai latte (natch). As I'm walking there, I hear my name paged...um, calm down Venus, I'm on my way. I was literally two minutes away from meeting my contact, Venus. Meet up with her and she starts driving me around Kentucky, and we go to lunch at the Brio Tuscany Grill. Great food, had the mushroom ravioli pasta and a caesar salad. After that it's more driving, and then to the hotel to check into my junior suite :) We meet up a little bit later to walk the convention center. It's also a nice convention center, not as green as Pittsburgh's, but no one else's is. After that it's dinner at Nicholson's, a Scottish Pub, and a show. We saw the Alvin Ailey dance troupe, and it was fantastic. Any of my avid readers (all 4 of you?) would have loved it! Then it was beddy-bye because this girl was tired!

Today: Wake up, and do breakfast at the Hyatt along with a site visit. They have a very nice hotel, and it's all but connected to the convention center. Their cute little concierge, Kami, literally ran off to get me a red bull. Fantastic service! He kept bowing-it was adorable. From there we go to the Hilton, which is where I stayed, and do a site visit of their property. They have a historic Hilton, and the ballrooms were beautiful. Great meeting space, and I wish I could use it to host an event! After that, I have an hour to gather my belongings before Venus picks me up. She drives me around the city some more, and then we do lunch at her favorite chinese place. We walk in the old chinese guy says "How are you sir" to Venus, which was kind of funny. He then hands me a menu and I say "Thank you" all perky-like, and he says "No, we thank you" back to me. Too cute for words. After lunch she drives me to the airport, as really, there was nothing left to do. I sat in the airport for a bit, texted Tianna because I was bored, and then got on the plane.

And now I'm home. The kittens were so happy to see me, and I was just as happy to see them, trust me. I didn't have any socks left in my hamper, but found them hidden throughout the house, which was nice of them. Right now I have a lap full of Cheddar, who is trying to get me to go to bed so he can annoy me for 7 hours :)

So, friends, that is my week, and that is why I have not posted anything lately. Hope that explains.

And to anyone who got this far, thanks for reading :) Much love.