First Entry...Tampa Trip

The other day, I was reading a friend's blog (the venerable Enn-Dee-See, if you must know) and I must admit, my feathers were ruffled a bit at his "I'm lovin' t3h single life" entry, so seeing as how I'm married, I felt I needed to post a reply. Well, as many such arguments go, I suppose it was somewhat of a misunderstanding between myself and Mister Nihiser, and it really sorta blew over. We're all entitled to our opinions, even if they are mostly wrong. :P

Anyway, the point is, after writing this long exposé on the married life, I decided that I should have my own blog--or journal, or something. So, here it is. Nobody will probably ever read it, but I guess it's some form of therapy. I may talk about any number of subjects, including relationships, baseball, video games, movies, cooking, archery, wrasslin', computers, music, staplers, vacations, contact lenses, paper products, and other things that are generally guaranteed to bore my wife to death. Okay, some of those weren't really topics that I will ever discuss, but if there's enough demand for it...who knows?

Today, I will give an account of my first expense-account business trip. On my first day here at my new place of employment, my supervisor asked me--on short notice of roughly a month--if I would care to go to Tampa, Florida for a week-long conference for a piece of software used by our corporation. Considering that I will really be the administrator for this system (and that it was a paid-for trip to Florida in the spring), of course I said I would be glad to attend. So I sat down and planned out the trip...I got flight numbers for my plane trips, set up the hotel stay, and reserved a company car (for the drive to CVG) and a rental car (for the stay in Tampa). Woohoo! I actually CAN do some things on my own. Also, I got a new memory card for my crappy digital camera, so that I could fill it up and not have to worry about deleting a single picture.

Last Monday (April 11, 2005) was my departure date, so I made sure to get up extra early to get through security. Not really a big problem, since I'm getting used to being at work by 8. You hear all these horror stories about how long it takes to get through security and whatnot, but *knock on wood* I got into and out of the line within 20 or 30 minutes--must've squeezed in between the morning and noon crowds. I had to take my shoes off, take my laptop out of my bag, and empty my pockets, but it really wasn't that bad considering the gun that made it through security at that very airport just a couple weeks earlier. I didn't even have to turn on my laptop to prove that it worked or anything. I think I had around an hour and a half to walk around the concourse before my flight even came close to boarding, so I took some really boring pictures of stuff at the airport. At the terminal, I met up with the other person from our company, and she said her security experience was considerably longer.

Of course, I was a bit scared, yet I have faith in technology. The flight itself went pretty smoothly, and I wasn't too uncomfortable, but it wasn't exactly a plush bed or anything. It was a Delta MD-88 direct flight and I was in the right side window seat, behind the wing and right in front of the engine. Most of the flight, I was too busy looking out the window at the ground. I know it made me look like a slack-jawed yokel who has never flown before, but aerial and satellite photography interests me...and well, I never HAD flown before, right? I mean, I took a bunch of pictures--more than was really necessary--and was really the only one seemingly interested in the view. Well, except for that 6-year-old kid a couple rows up, but he doesn't count.

We touched down around 3PM at TPA--right on time--to weather that was only slightly better than in "Da 'Nati". We claimed our luggage and walked over to the Enterprise counter. I had requested a Full-Size car, because I'm pretty tall, and I didn't want to be scrunched up in the dashboard. So I waited in line for a while...The car I got was a bit nicer than I expected. They gave me a Chrysler Pacifica for the week, which is kind of a mix between an SUV and a station wagon. I was pleasantly surprised by the features and ride of the vehicle.

...I just realized that this post is going much, much longer than I expected, so for now, I'm going to stop...

NEXT TIME: Tampa Trip, Part II; Reds Outfield "Logjam"; and More(?)