business trip

greetings from toronto!

i am on my very first business trip. although i am basking in the glow of my very own hotel room all to myself with a great big king size bed, i must say today was one of the toughest, longest days of my life.

it all started at 4:30 this morning. three of us were scheduled to go on the trip, me, my boss and another reporter. we all had car service reservations to pick us up at 5:30. but at 4:30 i got a call, which i answered, saying that the car could not pick me up because of the weather.

i called another car service i know of in nyc, and they said they weren’t sending out any cars until 11. i looked outside…it wasn’t snowing, but it had overnight, more than the day before. i checked the flight and it was still on. so what to do?

i got ready and headed out the door, hoping to catch a cab. i walked down to one of the main drags in park slope, and miraculously saw a cab stopping to let out a drunk guy coming home from the night. i begged the cabbie to drive me to laguardia and he relented.

on our way, i remembered last minute that i had to stop for cash, and happily we came across a place that was open at 5 am right before the highway. so that was good.

things were going ok, and then my boss called me. he said he and the other reporter were trying to get cabs and would be on their way.

i got to the airport and it was madness. there were so many flights cancelled from the day before, that the lines at check in were out of control. my boss showed up, but the other reporter couldn’t get a cab…so it was just us two. we checked in just in time, and our flight was all on time until we waited on the runway for an hour.

eventually we took off, and the flight was short and uneventful. but because we took off later we missed our first meeting.

this is where the day started to get boring. we bounced from meeting to meeting, cold and totally exhausted and with our luggage in tow. we finally made it to our hotel around 7. i showered and it was the most amazing experience ever. it was so great i plan to do it tomorrow morning too!

it’s a pretty upscale hotel, so the products are so nice. they are some brand i’ve never heard of but it probably canadian. they are organic, i can tell, because they have names i can’t pronounce like amaranth conditioner, or are really weird, like whole wheat lotion and barley body wash.

the hotel is super nice and my room is great. i have never spent the night in a hotel room by myself so i’m trying to take it all in. i've decided that it’s a lot like living alone. if my apartment was the size of this hotel room, i wouldn’t be too upset, actually. the bathroom is so much bigger than my current apartment’s bathroom, and there are two chairs, a king size bed, two bed side tables, a bar area, armoire with tv and desk and chair. and a closet…which is more than my bedroom now has!

all its missing is a kitchen.

so after my amazing shower, i wrapped myself in a hotel bathrobe and … well then got dressed and went to a nice dinner with my boss.

time to sleep, because i have to wake up at 7 tomorrow for another filled day! our flight is supposed to leave at 5:15, hopefully there will be no delays and i’ll be back in new york and ready to relax for the long weekend.