Who needs sleep?
I just got home a few minutes ago from the business trip and it is after 11PM. My options are to either blog about the trip now and go into work late tomorrow or go to sleep now and post trip stuff later. That's an easy decision, right?
Here is a recap of the trip
Work - Um...yeah. It was, well, work. The end. Well, I did learn that I will be travelling more in the future. Given the extra work I picked up a couple months ago, my manager wants me in Philadelphia between 2-4 days a month. I think it's part of his plan to convince me to move there, but it was definitely helpful to attend some of the monthly results meetings in person instead of being the only person on the phone this time around. Until this trip, I was travelling to the Philly office for one day every 5-6 weeks. I am also joining a few others on an off-site trip to Pittsburgh for three days sometime in the next month or two. Fun stuff.
Fun - Nothing beats 3.5 hours of sleep the night before the trip. I had trouble falling asleep Monday night since I was so angry after the Red Wings loss on Monday night. Another early playoff exit. Boo urns. Anyway, a friend of mine in the PA office scored two tickets to Game 6 of the Flyers-Sabres late Tuesday afternoon for face value ($130). We scooped them up and went over to the rink after work.
I ordered a cheesesteak at the rink for dinner, since apparently you must order a cheesesteak in Philadelphia. Since there was a long line, they were sort of pre-made (like within 5 minutes of ordering). There were four groups of steaks clearly separated at the stand depending on your cheese and onion preference. I find it funny that the cheessteak I ordered had the wrong cheese and lacked onions, even though the cashier grabbed a steak from the appropriate section. How hard is it to get that right? Seriously! That stand does not hold a candle to Pat's King of Steaks. That's for sure. Of course, I didn't notice the error until I got to my seat, so I just ate the sandwich anyway. Grr.
As for the game, the seats were amazing. Row 11 behind the net the Flyers defended for two periods. The crowd was absolutely buzzing before the game, and Flyer fans are especially vicious. Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller was getting taunted with 'U-S-A' chants (since the Flyers goalie was named to the USA Olympic team over Miller). I definitely added a couple anti-MSU cheers in his direction (since Miller played goalie at MSU when I was in college). Unfortunately, the Flyers team never showed up. They got absolutely destroyed. 7-1. And it's not like the Flyers went down fighting either. They played with no emotion. You think if a team is ending your season like that on your home ice, at least you'll go down fighting to keep the game close or just plain fighting the opponent. The Flyers did neither, and boy did the crowd let them hear it. The booing was especially vicious among the 3,000 or so fans left at the end of the game. They started chants like "We want a refund" and "E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!". It was pretty ugly. Philadelphia sports fans are a unique breed. They have not had a champion team since 1983, and it really eats them up. The people sitting around me were very drunk and bitching about another lost year for Philadelphia (since the Phillies, 76ers, and Eagles are not very good right now). There is so much angst in that city. I feel bad for them.
One thing that I hate about this trip is that the flight home takes forever. Philadelphia's airport cannot handle their air traffic in the evenings. The plane usually departs from the gate on time. However, once we get in line for take off, the captain will tell us that we are like 35th in line for take off. It takes 45-60 minutes of sitting on the runway before we can take off. Every time. And I can't listen to my iPod during this time. It's so damn annoying. That's the reason I always get back after 10:30PM. The good news is that my manager is cool with booking a later departing flight and an earlier return flight on future trips since I'll be in the office for two or three days instead of just one day when I travel. That will elimintae some of the frustration from these trips!
That was the extent of my fun while I was there. I am seriously sleep deprived right now, so I should go to bed.
Here is a recap of the trip
Work - Um...yeah. It was, well, work. The end. Well, I did learn that I will be travelling more in the future. Given the extra work I picked up a couple months ago, my manager wants me in Philadelphia between 2-4 days a month. I think it's part of his plan to convince me to move there, but it was definitely helpful to attend some of the monthly results meetings in person instead of being the only person on the phone this time around. Until this trip, I was travelling to the Philly office for one day every 5-6 weeks. I am also joining a few others on an off-site trip to Pittsburgh for three days sometime in the next month or two. Fun stuff.
Fun - Nothing beats 3.5 hours of sleep the night before the trip. I had trouble falling asleep Monday night since I was so angry after the Red Wings loss on Monday night. Another early playoff exit. Boo urns. Anyway, a friend of mine in the PA office scored two tickets to Game 6 of the Flyers-Sabres late Tuesday afternoon for face value ($130). We scooped them up and went over to the rink after work.
I ordered a cheesesteak at the rink for dinner, since apparently you must order a cheesesteak in Philadelphia. Since there was a long line, they were sort of pre-made (like within 5 minutes of ordering). There were four groups of steaks clearly separated at the stand depending on your cheese and onion preference. I find it funny that the cheessteak I ordered had the wrong cheese and lacked onions, even though the cashier grabbed a steak from the appropriate section. How hard is it to get that right? Seriously! That stand does not hold a candle to Pat's King of Steaks. That's for sure. Of course, I didn't notice the error until I got to my seat, so I just ate the sandwich anyway. Grr.
As for the game, the seats were amazing. Row 11 behind the net the Flyers defended for two periods. The crowd was absolutely buzzing before the game, and Flyer fans are especially vicious. Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller was getting taunted with 'U-S-A' chants (since the Flyers goalie was named to the USA Olympic team over Miller). I definitely added a couple anti-MSU cheers in his direction (since Miller played goalie at MSU when I was in college). Unfortunately, the Flyers team never showed up. They got absolutely destroyed. 7-1. And it's not like the Flyers went down fighting either. They played with no emotion. You think if a team is ending your season like that on your home ice, at least you'll go down fighting to keep the game close or just plain fighting the opponent. The Flyers did neither, and boy did the crowd let them hear it. The booing was especially vicious among the 3,000 or so fans left at the end of the game. They started chants like "We want a refund" and "E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles!". It was pretty ugly. Philadelphia sports fans are a unique breed. They have not had a champion team since 1983, and it really eats them up. The people sitting around me were very drunk and bitching about another lost year for Philadelphia (since the Phillies, 76ers, and Eagles are not very good right now). There is so much angst in that city. I feel bad for them.
One thing that I hate about this trip is that the flight home takes forever. Philadelphia's airport cannot handle their air traffic in the evenings. The plane usually departs from the gate on time. However, once we get in line for take off, the captain will tell us that we are like 35th in line for take off. It takes 45-60 minutes of sitting on the runway before we can take off. Every time. And I can't listen to my iPod during this time. It's so damn annoying. That's the reason I always get back after 10:30PM. The good news is that my manager is cool with booking a later departing flight and an earlier return flight on future trips since I'll be in the office for two or three days instead of just one day when I travel. That will elimintae some of the frustration from these trips!
That was the extent of my fun while I was there. I am seriously sleep deprived right now, so I should go to bed.
posted by GaryGinew at 11:14 PM
2 Comments:
Mwaa-ha ha ha! Good thing you stayed up late to post last night, so you could get all those comments throughout the day! Ha!
You all suck. As a punishment, I am not going to put up a post tonight. You all need to do a better job paying attention to ME.
(Or maybe I just have nothing to write about tonight)
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