Going home....

Currently I'm in Bainbridge, GA. Today is the last day of work before vacation for 2 weeks, and as you can imagine, I'm more than ready! So much to do today, yet here I sit, blogging. Ah well, it will come together.

We are working til 10pm, then in the morning dropping the rig off for service/storage near Atlanta, GA. Then its hard cruising to Columbus, OH to pick up my son, AJ. That will occur on Sunday morning, followed by an 8 hour drive t

o home in IL. whew! We'll be there for 2 weeks, but I have a distinct feeling its going to be a whirlwind. Between DH's ex being a complete psycho bitch from hell, DH"s mother losing her brain over it all (she called this morning at 0530) plus all of the 'family functions' my in-laws feel compelled to have, I don't know that we'll get any rest. But, it will be good to sleep in my own bed for a few days, LOL.

Anyway, here are a few random pictures to keep you entertained:

Opp, Alabama

Do not ever go there....ever. This is but one of many armpits of the USA I have been to. However, this is the first one I will strongly advise any reader to please not stop in this town for anything, no matter what. Here is my story......

This town is small, and rundown. Not the first one like it that we have been in. We are staying in the Best Western, which is new (thank the gods). However, the young boy at the front desk was lonely (its all I can figure). I asked a simple "yes" or "no" question, and the boy launches into a 10 minute retort. *sigh* He then proceeded to nervously tell us about our room, and wished us the best. We were to let him know if we needed anything. He then (as we were walking away) pulls out a map that someone had made on the computer showing the restaurants and gas stations around. Hhhmmmm....He starts asking what we like to eat, showing us various places, recommending the Mexican Restaurant. Ok, we drove by there and it was closed. This map also showed a WalMart just up the road......IT WAS 12 MILES UP THE ROAD IN THE NEXT TOWN!! Are you kidding me? But let me digress a bit....

We drive several miles, not seeing said WalMart, decide it doesn't exist, turn around and go to the Subway in town. I should have turned around and left as soon as I crossed the threshold. All I will say (so I don't get arrested for being a complete racist) is that the people running it were mising the red dot on their forehead. I stepped up to the counter, and the girl mumbles "one minute" because she is busy putting raw bacon into a container next to the tomatos. Again, I should have left because she proceeded to not just set it aside, but slowly put the entire 5 layers from the cookie sheet into this container. DH asked me "Are you ready to order?" (really loud) and she finally finished her ohsoimportant project to help us. I had to tell her "Foot long, on white bread, ham and cheese" THREE TIMES......she then got out the bread and slapped it onto the counter, looked at DH with a questioning look, and waited. He had to tell her TWICE "Foot long bmt on wheat"......after she cut open the bread, she just grabbed whatever cheese was handy and was literally THROWING it on the sandwich. DH piped up and said "pepperjack for me" and she proceeded to do the same. She then placed 6, count 'em...6 pieced of ham on my sandwich. Ham sliced so thin I could see through it. She then took the pre-measured amount of meat for DH's sandwich and just slapped it on. I had to tell her to place my cheese properly on the bread. I then told her I wanted tomatos.....mistake. They were almost green, and the stems were still on the slices. I immediately told her to take them off, because they looked awful. I received another blank stare, and again I repeated "take them OFF, they are GROSS"....she then grabbed them into a handful and threw them back into the container from whence they came. I said "ok, lettuce" pfffttt.....that was strewn all over, then I asked for lite mayo, which was squirted on as if she was having a seizure. Same with the chipotle sauce. ugh. DH had to go through the same bullshit treatment.....we should have walked out.....shouldn't have even ordered. Instead we expressed our disappointment as we left, although I don't believe she cared. \

We proceeded to the motel, thinking we would ask the front desk boy where the WalMart actually was. What did we find? A relative of the Subway worker.....gggrrrr....she was talking on her cell phone, and didn't get off even after DH stood right up at the counter. It wasn't until he started to ask her the question did she set the phone down....not hang up mind you....just set it down. She then informed him that WalMart was 12 miles away. Ok, where is the next town? 12 miles away....GO FUCKING FIGURE. We made it to WalMart, grabbed a couple of subs and a cheese tray, hit the 'self check-out' and were outta there. Stepping into the motel, we threw the Subway subs into the trash.

I am hereby boycotting Subway. There quality has gone to shit, ingredients and service are shit, and I am now done with them. I highly suggest you do the same. And for goodness sakes stay out of Opp, Alabama!!

Finally outta there

Yep, finally out of New Orleans, and the whole state of Louisiana. I wasn't very happy there, and more so disappointed. In my humble opinion, the only real gem in all that filth is the Garden District. Gorgeous houses, quiet, tree-lined streets, and enough foliage to refill the rain forest. So quiet, and tranquill! Unlike the French Quarter, which, despite the nice shops (albeit way over priced) it smell of vomit, piss, and rotting trash. Not to mention the wafts of alcohol coming out of the bars, and the panhandlers trying anything to make a buck. Its all very stressful, despite the street bands/dancers, and small parks scattered about. Over all I just felt dirty there, and as I said, highly disappointed. The thing is, its not Katrina that did it, it was like that before the hurricane.

Anyway, today is Montgomery, AL, tomorrow is Opp, AL, and then on back to Jacksonville, FL, rounding out next week in Macon, GA. This weekend we are getting a motel room at the beach, and hoping the gods smile on us, having a nice relaxing weekend. I'd like to get good and burnt before going to IL for our 2 week break, LOL. On the 28th we are picking up my son in OH and rolling on to the house. Sis in law will have the A/C on, so we should be good to go. I can't wait to spend a week or 2 of getting up whenever I damn well feel like it. AJ is old enough to fend for himself on breakfast, and then we can do whatever we want with our day. It should be nice! I'll try to blog then, but may not have time (ha ha) or feel like it.....we'll see.

I'm sure I'll write again this week!

It happens everywhere.....

Some things you think only happen in a certain state, city, town, or store. Some you think only happen in a certain country. But as I've found out this weekend, some of the same things happen on both sides of the world. I find it funny how my dear friend Jayne had a horrible experience at a pristene resort, and here I sit, in a 'high end' hotel, getting ready to throw down the gauntlet on the bitch wagon. Seems Jayne and I run in parallel worlds, despite the distance.

The story...

After a horrible work week last week, complete disorganization not only on the part of our bosses, but on the part of our contacts at each site, and adding to that the lack of power at each location, topping it off with our generator in the trailer deciding it needed service so it stopped working in the middle of a 95 degree day. This was on Friday at 10am when it decided to have its temper tantrum. Calling the office, our fleet manager was able to locate a place that works on this type of generator, therefore he scheduled an appointment for us for Monday. No problem, you would think. I mean, Monday is a 'comp. day' for us, which means 3 day weekend, which means we were really trying to plan something. HA. Those plans squashed, we then decide that after such a long week, we'd rather make the 1 1/2 hour drive on Monday, and not on Friday. Ok, no problem, if we had been scheduled to work that day, we would have to get up anyway. However the place servicing the evil generator wants us there as early as possible......they open at 730am. *sigh*

Ok, we think....lets use our Rewards Points and book a really nice room at a really nice hotel. Done. The place we book is new (only a few months old) and in an upscale region of Baton Rouge. We drive to this 'luxury hotel' on Saturday morning, with the promise of an upgraded room and breakfast buffet. We arrive and received the upgrade, and at first were treated like royalty. We were given our room key and proceeded to 'ooohhhh' and 'aaahhh' over the upgrade. Living room with seperated bedroom, awsome bathroom, towels that smell fresh, comfy bed and enough pillows for a sheik. Little did we know what was coming.

We were told "we hardly have any children at all here, so the quiet you are looking for will be no problem". I recalled those words as children ran screaming through the lobby. Ok, I took a deep breath and kept telling myself I was on the 5th floor, and all would be fine. And it was, until Sunday morning, when we opted not to sleep in but instead got up at 800 to run down for the long anticipated breakfast buffet. And what to our wondering eyes did appear????

NOTHING. ZIP. NADA. ZERO!!

There were coffee dispensers, a few small boxes of cereal, and a pitcher of juice. We stood in the lobby in shock, like deer looking at the headlights of an oncoming truck. WTF? Where was the food? Were we early? Late? So we asked the girl behind the bar, who quietly replied "No buffet this morning." WHY????? "not enough people in the hotel, chef's decission". UMMMMM.....WRONG ANSWER. So we promptly went to the front desk, where the girl gave us the same answer. Are you kidding me??? "Yes, but you can order off the menu" we were told. It was then that I noticed that vacant look Jayne had described in her blog about her hotel clerks!! The really sad part was, out of 70 rooms in the hotel, 39 were filled. Thats over half full!! So how could they justify not enough people? Whilst trying to find the answer, we went ahead and ordered off the menu, as we were famished. In that time, we noticed at least a half a dozen people come down only to attain the same look we had...dazed and confused.

Finally, the front clerk came over, after chatting with the chef, and told us he would be right out to talk to us. Great. So after a heated discussion between DH and the chef, and nothing solved, (except some free sausage) we were obviously not happy. However, the front clerk told us to charge it to the room and she would remove the charge. Ok, $20 off....woohoo. We then quietly plodded up to our room. DH was on the phone in no time, calling the complaint department not for this hotel, but for the franchise known as "CHOICE HOTELS" whom we gain our points through. They could have cared less. We got nothing out of that phone call, except..."call back if it gets worse" BAH....whatever.

Moving on....I went yesterday and had my nails done. Nothing new there, every 2 weeks I get the acrylic filled and new polish. This time around, I needed the old ones removed and a new set. I also needed a pedicure. So they set me in the chair, nails soaking and feet getting the workover. After 2 people worked on my feet (so many people were coming in to the salon, they were bouncing around trying to accomodate everyone at one time), and an hour later, I was moved to a manicure station. The nails had not budged, so another person added their take on things. By the time it was all said and done, 4 people had worked on my fingers, and they were sore. I paid and left. When I woke up this morning, after everything had time to 'set up', I noticed that the acrylic was pink, which I specifically said that I DID NOT want. And there were more air bubbles in the polish than I could count. Which puts us back at Sunday....

.....after the breakfast fiasco, we came to our room, got cleaned up, and proceeded to head out for what we thought was a short errand. We were only supposed to drop off our laundry and get my nails fixed. This adventure started at 10am. We didn't get home (hotel) until 5pm!!!! It took another 2 hours to fix my nails (they had to be taken off and redone), not to mention the time spent just trying to find a good salon that waqs open! So much for my weekend of relaxation.....today (Sunday) my plan had been to lounge around in the posh hotel room and be lazy...even get in some time poolside. It never happened, and now I feel this room has gone to waste, and my much needed weekend of relaxing is gone as well. I think I'm just as stressed/pissed now as when I started this adventure. So you see, it happens everywhere.

I can only hope this next week goes better than the last.

Getting older and being a "late bloomer"

Yes, it happens to all of us, we get old. And it seems that maybe this job has aged me a bit more than I'd like. All I really know is that I MUST wear makeup every day. No choice. I've also come to accept the fact that I will have this 'gut' forever. Unless I pull off the Powerball Lottery, and get the "Mommy Makeover", I'm stuck with it. Now I know there could be worse things in life, but at the moment, this is enough for me thanks.

I'm also what they call a 'late bloomer'. Nobody taught me how to put on makeup, when I wore it I just slapped it on how I thought it should look and went on my way. However, since being on this job I've had opportunities I've never had. One of them being a makeup make-over. I went to a store called Sephora (I highly recommend any makeup they sell, especially the Urban Decay line as well as the Two Faced line) and told them to teach me how to wear it. So they stripped off my old WalMart shit, and proceeded to make me presentable. It was unbelievable. I promptly spent $200 on the basics. This wasn't hard, as they aren't cheap. But as I've blogged in the past, you get what you pay for. Cheap make up does just that....makes you look cheap and trashy. So upon freshly turning 38, I've finally learned how to wear my face. I've also invested in a straightening iron for my hair, combining it with the Sephora hair straightening serum, I officially take an hour to get ready in the morning. Quite a change since it would usually take about 20 minutes at the most in the past. And that, is what you call 'high maintenance'.

Now if I can just get my hair to grow faster...HA!

I want to extend my sympathy to my dear friend Jayne (link to her blog via mine) after her horrific stay at what should have been a seriously high class resort. You poor dear, going with the full intentions of friendship and relaxation, only to be reduced to Pizza Hut and shitty service, not to mention people fucking with her Harley......good thing she didn't catch them, they wouldn't have lived to sit on another, thats for sure!!! So Jayne, my heart goes out to you darlin', and I hope your next adventure makes up for this last one! Love you!! xoxox

I could....

I know I haven't written in awhile. I've been meaning to, really I have, but I feel like I'd just be whinning.

I could....

....bitch and rant about how my illusion of New Orleans have been sadly dashed, and I realize there are 2 decent areas to this city, one being the Garden District.

......bitch and rant about how so many people down here just don't give a damn about themselves or the city.

.....bitch and rant about how I will never understand why people do the things they do....vandalism, fires, looting, etc.

......tell you how after my 38th birthday 2 days ago I am realizing as each day passes that I want to live on the fringes of civilization, away from all of the completely lazy, irresponsible, non-caring idiots in the world more and more.

......bitch about people who stay in motels with no regard for anyone else.

......rant about maid service at motels.

.......bitch about people who have not enough common fucking courtesy to return a simple phone call, or even make one to pass along news that just MIGHT be helpful to others.

*sigh*

Yes, I could go on and on and on, but I won't. Seems alot of my blogs are of me bitching and ranting about shit. So I'll end with this bit of nicety...

DH took me out to a nice restaurant on my birthday. We had an excellent meal, and topped it off with a spoiling of banana cheesecake drizzled with caramel. Thank you love, you made my day. :) xoxo