Saturday, April 10, 2010

Phoenix Recap

So this is what it feels like to enjoy your job!

I stared my new job just over two weeks ago, and have been loving my time in my new role. Before I even signed the papers, I knew about an upcoming Phoenix trip and that I seat on a plane, but that's about all I knew.

The schedule was to fly in Wednesday night, meet all day Thursday, meet Friday morning, and then fly out late afternoon on Friday. Well, that was the plan.. but the old saying "If you want to see God laugh... make a plan" rang true for this trip.

Here are some trip highlights:

I arrived in Phoenix Wednesday night as planned, picked up my luggage and headed to the the rental car counter. After signing the agreements, I went to the designated car rental stall to see my wonderful rental car...

Now, don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with minivans, but I wasn't feeling the little red Mazda whatever it was on this trip. Driving back and forth from the hotel to the office doesn't require a car that size, and isn't half the fun of getting a rental car the chance to driving something fun?

Trudging back over the rental counter, I politely asked to exchange the car and Hertz came through for me with a little Mazda 3. Much better for my needs on this particular trip, and cute too!


The hotel was lovely, as far as business hotels go, and being my first say at a Hilton Garden Inn, I was pleasantly surprised. Paris and her old daddy-o run a nice business class hotel chain. Here were my diggs for two nights. I was loving the palm trees out front. You don't see those much in the north. Ever.


So... on to the part where the good Lord laughed at my so called "plans" to be home with my husband on Friday night. I was supposed to leave Phoenix around 3PM Pacific to head home getting me back around 10PM on the east coast. I woke up to an e-mail on Friday morning telling me that my flight had been delayed to 4PM Pacific which was no big deal. That e-mail was followed up by two more e-mails telling me the flight was delayed until 6PM, and finally the last e-mail updated the departure to 7:30PM.

Do the math, my friends. Four-ish hours in the air + a three hour time difference = Me landing at 2:30AM and a very, very groggy MrMarried having to be my shuttle service.

But... Friday was not wasted. Not even a little bit. My colleague brought his wife to Phoenix for a little long weekend after our meeting was over. They were staying at the Four Seasons, and being the wonderful people that they are, they invited me to come spend the day with them at the pool. Awesome. I was so excited to bond with my colleague's wife. She rocks.

We lunched and soaked up some sun poolside and had a blast.

Spicy Chicken Quesadilla Poolside. Delicious and it looks like art!

The Four Seasons Scottsdale. Not a bad place to be flight delayed, eh?

Not too bad for a first business trip with a new company. Happy travels if you have any upcoming excursions!

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