What a day

Tuesday that is...

It was only my second time travelling since I moved back to Baltimore. I decided to take the train to NYC. I haven't been on a train in years and even then it's only been once or twice. Since booking the Acela means automatic business class I went that route. So we left the house at 5:30 am for my 6:20 flight (yay) and at the station I find out that American Express has cancelled my ticket. (AmEx has no idea why that happened. Gee, thanks.) I had changed my reservation a week ago to add the train ticket and to change my hotel reservation from Mon-Thurs to Tues-Thurs. I got dizzy listening, but the AmEx lady was trying to explain to me that my itinerary would show my hotel at Mon-Thurs but not to worry she changed it and I wouldn't have a problem. Well I should have just gotten cold chills right there because sure enough they had it as Mon-Thurs. Which means that I missed my first night's reservation and would not only have to pay for it ($599/night) I was now a walk-in and would have to pay $649/night for my stay. Again AmEx couldn't explain this. They showed that I requested the change but couldn't explain why that change was never conveyed to the hotel. This means that the price for my train ticket and my hotel are invalid on my AmEx itinerary are invalid so I will have to write a note and verbally defend the price change for invoicing purposes. Blech.

So the day wasn't a total waste. We normally work this project near the old World Trade Center but were told the day before to report to Jersey City which was easily accessible via the Path train from the Newark Amtrak station. I had never done the Path train but it was very easy and despite my changed itinerary I arrived at 8:58 am. Sweet!

Oh but don't get lulled into complacency, dear reader. I forgot my suitcase at the office and was halfway to Manhattan on the train before I remembered. And, for the first time ever, I forgot my plug for my laptop. We had a thank-you dinner for another client at Tao (one of the best meals I've ever had) which was conveniently located two blocks from the 5th Avenue Apple Store. The store was out of the plug I needed but I obviously needed a plug. I explained that I was from out of town and if I couldn't do my work I could get fired. They couldn't find anything in the back, etc., so I said, "fine, what's your cheapest MacBook? I'll just return it this weekend." They thought this was the strangest thing ever but it drove home the point that I REALLY needed a plug. So (now there were 3 people involved) they walked over to the guy routing traffic to the genius bar, explained my situation and told me that someone from the genius bar could help me but I'd have to wait in line, probably an hour. An hour and a half later there were less than 12 names on the screen meaning they weren't taking new names and the only Jeff I saw was Jeff S. At this time there was a new traffic guy so I said to him, "I'm assuming that I'm Jeff S. as I've been waiting for an hour and a half." Oh no, I wasn't on the list anywhere. I explained my situation yet again and he said they couldn't help me. I stayed calm but got very sad (I had been up since 3 am and it was now 11 pm) and said, "the only reason I've been standing here for the last 90 minutes was they I was told I could get a plug from someone at the Genius Bar." Another Apple employee overheard us and, just like magic, I had a plug 25 minutes later. It doesn't have the normal extension so I can't actually use it from my desk at a conference room but hey, it's a plug.

Usually I walk to my hotel (Hilton Times Square this week) but I was beyond tired so I cabbed it. Normally I never even set an alarm but not only did I set it for 7 am but it took until 7:02 for it to register with my brain.

The rest of the week has gone much smoother. I seem to be here every time Brad and Angelina are at one of their movie premiere's close by and this one was no exception. I'll be home tonight.