up in NYC!!! back to the cold. was in dulles yesterday -- was nice to see the old gang. we had a 'pocket session' with judy zimmer our director of airports. apparently our station has issues. personally, though, it's the same old same old stuff. saw michael cashier (my new boss) and he told me that our group was no longer going to PBI anymore but to IAD. man -- i thought we were going to be away from the cold for the entire month of feburary. we'll see how long they need us.

right now i'm in the EASYINTERNET CAFE -- a huge internet cafe in time square. trying to catch up on my emails because glen doesn't have a phone line in his house. oh yeah -- he has a great little studio in the middle of the village. bitch pays $1200/month for it .... and he can afford it. ;-)

today, i didn't get out of bed until well after 2:00pm. i think i'm going to roam the city for the rest of the afternoon and buy a knit cap or something. it's cold up here. maybe i can hook up with jay and glenn for drinks, etc.

okay -- 4 more days! i'm not really liking it here in tampa. we just got word that we need to be in west palm beach from 2 feb until 3 mar! wow -- a whole month. at least it's not too far from fort lauderdal where i can hop on a flight direct to washington, dc. the crew here is great tho -- today was their first day on the ramp. ahem -- they're going to need some help. bless their hearts.

jen is giving drama -- what else is new, right?

i finally settled on my new toy for the week. i returned the sony mini disc player today. was too much trouble to have my music files converted to something called ATRAC3. the program basically creates new files and just clogs up the hard drive. i ended up getting a rio sport mp3 player. has 128k of memory which roughly translates to about an hour or so of music time. it costed a little bit more ($179) than the mini disc thing ($149). we'll see if it's worth it.

sports. totally a word that has no relevance to me. as i'm sitting here now in my hotel room i've been watching the news and just noticed that in the first 15 minutes of the telecast -- the entire spotlight has been on the tampa bay buccaneers. uh -- aren't we like going to war soon or something??? i know -- it's such an important thingt to the city for their hometeam to go to the superbowl, but the whole thing just doesn't mesh well with me.

anyway - i just got back from universal with jen. we ended up using the 2nd day of the passes i got initially for me and mark when we first got to orlando. it was fun. i was surprised that i didn't get sick or nauseated. i must have had a really bad day a few weeks ago. i was the total geek and insisted on watching all of the shows. we ended up on the studios side and after gulping down a venti sized latte from starbucks -- we just got a bit too giddy. i won a spongebob square pants plush thinggy from a midway gaming booth. of course i had to hang it from my neck most of the afternoon. oh yeah -- while there i got to see the 'old gang' from the sales and marketing team that i used to work with. we had lunch in islands of adventure. too bad the company (universal) is seemingly in perpetual reorganization. my old team and department are no more. :-(

tonight was the first time i saw american idol. too much!

i'm totally not having enjoying my stay here in tampa. nothing bad per se -- just not having 'fun' ... as if i'm here on a vacation. fell asleep after i got to the hotel and woke up around 11:00pm or so. now i'm just W-I-D-E awake. sitting here just surfing the web and watching the jenny jones show. tonight's episode: TEENS TOO YOUNG FOR SEXY GEAR. it is just sooooooo common. i think every show she does has to do with makeovers or something. these little girls looking crazy trashy and now they just look like they walked out of the 'rave girl' store at the mall. awwwwww.

i was looking around today for a new toy. new palm pilot? a portable dvd player? an mp3 player??? hmmm. i forgot how it felt to be able to spend money. meanwhile -- i shouldn't be.

found out where chambers was. it was a nice space -- like warehouse big. had a nice bar setup with cool staging for the strippers and the drag show. the strippers were interesting -- they had both 2 guys and this girl with abs of death! last night there was a bridal shower party of sorts with some drunk girl acting like a total freak. she ended up changing towards the end with some kind of bathing suit with life savers stuck to it -- i swear - she must've been a stripper herself because she was working EVERYONE in the room -- mind you the room was filled with lesbians and gay boys! the night itself was kinda boring. the drag show was boring. the music was irritating. they had a video dance bar upstairs but it was just way to 'pop' for a nightclub for my personal taste. we ended up leaving after 2:30am -- no one was there after the drag show let out. the host went under the name natasha richards. she irritated me because her routine was some no doubt song but she came out in some kind of flower-vine getup and her lip-synching was just lip moving -- she could have at least try to mime the words, right???? he hosting abilities were just as bad. i'm sure she could do better, but it must've been a tampa thing. i swear -- the drag queens in orlando were much more exciting. :-)

enough drag show fodder for now -- i'm sitting here right now waiting for the last flight to arrive. it's just me and frank. i was feeling really crappy today. i think the cold weather down here is messing me up. that plus the bed at the hotel is giving me weird body cramps. my head hurts. was feeling a bit nauseated earlier. not sure if i'm going to go out. we'll see in a couple of hours.

had the day off yesterday and just got in the car and drove around. got lost around tampa and got caught in traffic. somehow found myself in st. petersburg about 30 minutes away -- was kind of interesting because of the really long bay bridge you end up crossing -- i think it was about 3 or 4 miles long.

ended up capping the evening off with happy hour and dinner at some mexican restaurant beside the hotel and then off to some club with mark and jenny called KARMA. it wasn't all that. nice interior tho -- but no one was there. in hindsight -- kinda cheesy music too. anyway -- we got the scoop on things to do tonight after work -- some place called CHAMBERS. hmm -- it's not listed anywhere. we'll see.

stuck here at the airport waiting for the terminating flight to come in. it's really quiet in the terminal -- no one is really leaving -- i guess all of the other airlines are just waiting for the late arrivals as well.

looks like mark is stuck in atlanta -- poor thing. the woes of traveling non-revenue i suppose. apparently there were some weather problems somewhere in the country and flights ended up getting cancelled. as a result -- alternative flights get filled up.

just remembered that i talked to melanie from universal yesterday. they had a major sheakedown in staffing again -- ie major layoffs. looks like they reorganized sales and marketing and my old department was more or less abolished and merged into another part of sales. some of my old colleagues got the ax. basically all of the outer market sales force and the latin american sales team were let go. it's sad. when i was working the company a few years ago -- my original department (travel industry marketing) was merged into another (travel industry sales). after i left my immediate director got canned and a few of the outer market sales reps were let go. now -- the entire midwest and northeast got axed except for one in new york. man -- it makes you wonder how the company is going to make up the areas that were cut out of the budget!?! i need to contact my old sales reps -- check up on how they are doing.

settled in in tampa. staying at the courtyard by marriott near the airport. i remember working for them back in the day (91-93) and the concept hasn't changed much. this particular property isn't as busy as my old one. it's okay.

got badged and took a little tour of the airport yesterday. it's has a cool layout and according to our boss there -- jetblue is has a big presense there even though we only operate 4 flights a day. we'll see -- my shift starts today at 3:00pm.

mark finally arrives tonight. rodney came in last night. i know for a fact that i'm going to go stir crazy here -- thank goodness i've got some 'sistahs' to hang out with while in town.

finally getting my laundry done from my past few weeks in florida. it totally sucks when you have to pay per load! the hotel only charges $1.00 each time -- but the dryer gets you because one 30 minute session doesn't cut it. argh!

weather has been pretty cool~cold down here. cooler than you'd expect in florida. at least the sun is shining.

still not sure weather or not i'm leaving earlier than expected. mark is going to leave in the AM. the tampa orientation is on tuesday. it would be kinda inconvenient to go back home (on another airline at that) and the turn right back around the next day. that would really suck. hmm.

had dinner tonight with jen (old school chum from bowie) and jen (old work chum from universal) and jen (bowie's) friends. was really nice at this old family italian restaurant near the airport. it was YUMMY! thank goodness we have a car. it's so much more convenient for us. oh yeah -- thank goodness it just me and mark on this trip too. i could only imagine sharing it with the 7 or 8 other guys with the bluecorp.

i'm gonna miss this station. nice people. hard workers too.

i feel like shit. i think i have the 'bug' everyone is getting this time of year. i guess the cold weather in florida plus going in and out of air conditioned environments don't help either. oh yeah -- getting pummelled (sp?) on the rides at islands of adventure while already feeling woozy might have contributed as well.

went out to pleasure island with mark last night. got back around 3:00am ... had to work at 5:00am ... showed up at 5:30am. oops. i may have had one too many skyy blue's. i had the worst hangover this morning ... as if i got drunk off them!?!

i think we're being sent home earlier than expected. no big deal -- we're going to have to be in tampa by the 14th anyway. not sure if i'm going to home or just stay here until needed. i'm going to talk it over with the general manager here. after all -- the 14th is on tuesday anyway. i might as well just drive to tampa from orlando -- i think it's about an hour and a half drive. not too bad. too much trouble to go all the way home and then just go back down to florida, right?

oh yeah -- been having some stomach problems today as well. mark's mother's baked ziti leftovers got me 'going' ... lactose intolerant (the ricotta cheese is wrecking havoc on my system). it was good though -- bless her heart. ;-)

just watched the premier of OZ in my hotel room. no DICK in this episode. what's up with that???

just got back to the hotel after eating at bahama breeze. yummy. i was craving a margarita and it hit the spot with the 'island' theme menu.

we had to work the early shift today (5:00 am - 1:30 pm). it was tough getting up early after going to the mall at millenia and then off to virgin megatore in downtown disney. worked the ticket counters mostly today. loads weren't as busy -- it was a good relief. after work though, me and mark ended up going to the 'roach coach' in the taxi cab parking lot. i had pork fried rice -- good portions for only $6.00!

we're going to try to move to another hotel this week. the hyatt is great, but we don't have refrigerators to store drinks and stuff. EVERYTHING we do here cost extra money. there is totally a 1 liter bottle of water that costs $4.50 if i use it!!!

got wednesday and thursday off and we've got 2 day passes to universal studios. it'll be nice to visit the parks again. i think i'll be able to wrangle up some of my old coworkers for lunch in the park on thursday. so i guess we'll do the studios tomorrow and then islands of adventure on thursday. we'll see.

finally got to orlando tonight after trying to fly up to jfk on united express. airtran pulled through and i was able to get all six of my bags thru plus get upgraded to business class! they're really cool to us.

met up with a few of the crew here and actually worked the boarding of the last flight -- they seem pretty nice. we were told to report for work around 9:00am. mark finally got in himself from oakland and we decided to meet up for breakfast for 7:30. i'll try to start early and pick up the rental car first.

mike cashier took me to fulton's crabhouse in downtown disney. i had salmon and crab and lobster bisque. yum - yum!

happy new year! i spent it in the most utterly depressing of places .... the 2nd metrorail car on the green line right about to hit prince georges plaza. it was oh so lovely.

getting ready for a new assignment in orlando, florida. i can never sleep the day before i travel. i guess i'll be up for a few more hours.

here's a sight for you to visit.