Starting Off on the Wrong Foot

AT HOME IN HEATH: THE TRIP WITH NO NAME STARTED OUT ON THE WRONG FOOT

It’s not unusual for someone to go on a long weekend to brighten their outlook on life, but along with failing to inspire me to come up with a better name than The Trip With No Name, things seemed destined to get more frustrating for this recent road trip.

Booking a Room

After I ordered tickets for Living Proof in Wichita, KS, I sort of ignored the hotel information in my confirmation packet.  I’m such a huge fan of Expedia and Trip Advisor that I assumed I’d be able to get a great room at a bargain price which would blow away the conference’s negotiated deals.  I was wrong.

What’s worse is that my assumption led me to put off making my reservations.  I mean really, who was going to go all the way to Wichita for a Bible Study?  Well, it turns out thousands and thousands of ladies from all 50 States were going to make their way to the city and thousands more were going to watch on simulcast.

But I didn’t know that, so I waited until about a month before the conference before I finally sat down and researched rooms in Wichita.  I quickly found out that the conference had negotiated some pretty amazing deals, but I also found out most of them were already booked.  My first inclination was to find a room within walking distance of the arena.  Total fail.  Then I cast my net further.  I ended up getting the conference rates, but they were at a DoubleTree at the airport.  Not the end of the world, but not exactly my vision for the weekend either.

An Exciting Invitation

As I continued my planning for Wichita, I received an invitation to a media event from one of the local museums.  I’ve been blogging about local attractions for quite awhile now, but until recently I hadn’t made it to their media list.  I have a few publicist in New York and Chicago who send me invitations from time to time, but my budget doesn’t exactly cover flights to the Big Apple or the Windy City.  Gas to the Dallas Arts District is much more affordable.  Since Deb and I weren’t leaving until after she got off from work, I’d have plenty of time to pop by the museum and write the article, right?  Well, not exactly.

A Mixed Up Week

I don’t exactly live in a rut, but I do seem to get along better when things happen according to routine.  The week of the trip had nothing routine about it.  Monday was a holiday and my videographer client was having a picnic for all of us who work for him.  It was just the beginning of a strange week.  Tuesdays are the day I usually go into the videographer’s office, but Bill was having dental surgery, so I went in on Wednesday instead.  As I pulled into the garage Wednesday afternoon I had the realization that in a mere 24 hours I’d be picking up my bestie and we’d be heading north.  I hadn’t even thought about what I was going to wear and I hadn’t done the laundry either.  It was going to be a long evening.  At least I’d picked up sushi on the way home, so I didn’t have to fix dinner.

Dinner was easy, but other things challenged me. Things like my dog, who chose that particular day to have gooped up eyes.  And things like the certified letter notification that had been in the mail.  Those never have good news, so I promised Bill I would go by the post office on the way to the museum.  It should have been easy.  The media event didn’t start until ten.  It would be a cakewalk – right?

Good Morning Meltdown

I’m an early riser.  On the morning of the trip I was in my office about 5:30, even though I’d been up late getting ready to leave.  The first thing I did was open up my email.  As I perused the inbox, it seemed as if an email from my husband was the most important item, so I clicked on it.  Suddenly, a weird article about some celebrity opened up.  At first, I assumed I had just clicked the wrong thing, but it was quickly apparent that something was seriously wrong.

My husband is not an early riser.  At 5:45 he would not have welcomed a hysterical bedside visit, so I ran Norton while I tried to work around the fact that I had no computer.  I did have the laptop from work, but it’s not optimized for all of my sites and passwords, nor is it synched to my printer.  So I limped along hoping everything would be alright.

Norton got through at just about the same time my husband woke up, but I had a sneaky suspicion Norton had not killed the beast on my drive.  A few clicks confirmed my fears.  Then, I broke one of the sacred laws of our house.  I told Bill about my problem before he had his coffee.  Then I spent the next hour or so trying to get ready to leave while I coached Bill through saving my computer.

Things only got more interesting, but I’ll tell you more about it next week.