Looking back on my four year rotation in the “Excellence” organization at Microsoft and contrasting it to this last year in customer service, I have decided that I do enjoy a certain amount of business travel and travel in general. I like meeting new people, experiencing new cultures and tourist sites, and visiting a place as a tourist. for me, travel is often an exhilarating adventure. I don’t mind the cramped airline seats or the jet lag.
The shared van ride service arrived very earlier than scheduled. I was, however, able to make myself some sandwiches for the long flight before rushing out the door. The vehicle was not the usual 9-person van: it was a stretch Cadillac Escalade! But there was no champagne (just water) and the entertainment center was not working.
At the airport I had no clue where to check in. My awesome relative who had a servant book and pay for my plane tickets used American Express travel who have one record locator number and itinerary. The servant in turn used an adjunct service to put several tickets on one reservation with a different number. The main ticket is booked through Continental airlines, who booked the Seattle leg through American Airlines. American in turn use Alaska Airlines to get me to Newark. Having flown once before I know that you should always check in at the carrier airline. So inside the terminal I saw the departure board and discovered I was on Alaska flight 8. I checked in without a problem and printed my boarding pass at the machine. In Newark, the Continental check-in counters were really slow and inefficient. I could not print my own boarding card because of the odd arrangement and they had a very difficult time finding my ticket. I hope it goes more smoothly when I return and again when I fly on Continental this summer
I really dislike TSA security.
Cool art on display at the airport.
in the sky-bridge chute
The flight to Newark had a lot of turbulence but it is a bright sunshiny day and I got to look out the window at our beautiful country as well as the snow-covered regions of Canada over which we flew. I finished listening to the audio version of Crucial Conversations which is better than I expected. I also read Farewell Waltz by Milan Kundera (the guy who wrote The Unbearable Lightness of Being). I didn’t like Farewell Waltz that much. It gets exciting at the end but I didn’t like any of the characters or identify with any of their situations or attitudes.
I started listening to harry Turtledove’s In the Balance, which is an odd alternate history where space aliens invaded the earth during the 2nd world war. In the 1980’s I liked some of Turtledove’s short stories. I am so far disappointed with the quality of the writing. I don’t like it so far but there is some good humor and the only other audio books in my phone are business books.
The battery life of the laptop, phone, and Bluetooth head phones have been perfect so far. Everything stayed functional all during my ride in the van, the wait in the departure lounge, the entire flight from SEA to EWR, as well as the hour-long-line at Continental check-in and the short wait at security. The phone battery was complaining towards the end but it kept working until I plugged it in at the departure gate. When the electronic devices are topped off I shall go buy a book and some water. It appears the Lenovo can recharge quickly but the other devices take longer.
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