Ahhhh the joys of traveling ... then moving!!!

On Monday I left for Montreal. Business trip. Spent the week in a meeting room(s), discussing requirements, schedules, plans, swimlanes ... and all that other fun 'stuff' business analysts do lol. Topic of conversation being the internal systems of helicopters. Interesting yes, stressful yes, fun at times ... did I mention stressful ;-)

Anyway, to decompress, a couple of evenings after dinner, I ventured down to the spa area of the hotel, and enjoyed the jacuzzi for awhile :-) I had the whole place to myself the first night, tried out the jacuzzi first, then the steam bath, then back to the tub again :-) absolutely AWESOME! Definitely my favourite part of traveling. Then, the second night I went to the spa, after I'd been soaking for about an hour, enjoying the bubbles, total quiet and Cosmo, the timer on the jets turned off, and I was getting out just as a couple came in. They were mid thirties I'd say, french, both on the Plus size side. I don't say that to be rude, simply trying to give you an accurate visual of their overall appearance. They walked over to the Gym area first, and I noticed they were checking it out as I went into the change area to get out of the bikini and into some sweats for the trip back up to the room.

About 5 min later when I came out, there's the couple, standing next to the tub, right in the middle of the 'family spa' area, him preparing to strip and she was already stripped naked to the waist, in front of the video surveillance camera! People! There are change rooms designed for this!!! I don't consider myself a prude by any means ... but it sort of took me by surprise, seeing the naked chick just standing there lol. Being the polite Maritimer that I am, I look her in the eyes and smile and try not to notice the fact her boobs 'n all were ... well ... right THERE as I walk on out of the room and try not to sprint to the elevator lol. I'm really kind of glad I got out when I did ... It's one thing to be naked in a hot tub with someone you know ... it's something entirely different being in the bubbles with naked strangers lol.

That would have to be one incident I'd offer up for 'interesting highlight' of the trip :-) Well, that and the image of the new employees at the facility we were visiting, forced to do a karaoke version of My Cubicle as their initiation welcome in front of the rest of the entire staff , using bananas as microphones lol.

Friday night, after being up at 6am, a full day of meetings, dinner at the airport, delayed on the runway, my plane finally landed home in Halifax at midnight. I had promised my best friend that I'd help her move yesterday. She is moving out of her house into an apartment with her son after a separation, so before I left, we made plans that I'd go there instead of home when I arrived back in town. By the time got my luggage, got out of the airport etc, stopped for coffee and had to wait for a passing train (yes, at 12:45am!!) it was 1am right on when I arrived at her house.

Unfortunately, she had just started a new job this week, and hadn't been able to get much packing done before I got there (and we're talking packing up an entire 3 bedroom house!). So ... we chatted and caught up on the week's events until 2, then started packing up the house and did so until 6:30 am slept for 3 hrs, then continued to pack for the rest of the day, while others loaded the truck as boxes were ready. I finally dropped her off at her new apartment at 5pm, was running entirely on fumes at this point, drove an hour home again, and crawled in the door last night shortly after 6:30pm. Exhausted!!! My body ached, and naked strangers or not, I'd have given anything for that jacuzzi right then ;-)

One interesting side note about Fri night ... On my way to her place, I was debating on whether or not I should have just gone home and started out fresh for her house the next day, but I decided to keep going anyway. I got to Tim's and ordered a couple coffee's for us each, figuring it would be a late night, the total of the order came to 666 (Damn! I knew I should have thrown in the timbits!!). Uh oh ...maybe that's a sign I should have just gone home LOL. About 30 seconds after I left the coffee shop, I came upon the "Stop" "Stop" "Stop" flashing red lights of the train crossing warning. Which at 1am, with an overtired imagination, looked eerily like flashing red eyes after just paying 666 for the coffee lol. I had to wait about 10 min for that freakin' train, so of course the imagination kicks in ... "666 ... red eyes flashing at me ... maybe I SHOULD just go home" LOL. Then last night, when I dropped my gf off at her new place, I got out of the truck, turned around and there's this black cat sitting there looking at me. Wasn't there when we pulled in. That third creepy 'event' was enough for me that I pet the little sucker for a few minutes, and on the way home, stopped at the corner store and picked up a lottery ticket on the 24 million LOL.

Hmmmm ... that reminds me ... must go check those tickets now and see if I get to retire from further business trips :-)

P.S. and one of my biggest peeves of traveling .... those pretentious little snots that you get stuck sitting next to on the plane, who can't help but discuss in loud voices with their travel companions all the important work (NOT!) they're doing on their blackberries, and the important meetings they have .... give it up a-holes ... it's really not that impressive and we, the passengers stuck sitting around you having to listen to your frivolous bragging, don't give a crap about what you're doing ... you only annoy us, you really don't impress us .....so perhaps the next time the pilot tells everyone to turn the electronic devices off ... perhaps you'll include your mouths along with that too and let the rest of us travel in peace! (yes, I used headphones to tune them out for the most part ... but unfortunately you have to have those off for periods of time too ... and can't block out the 'noise' at all times).

Sure, I could have shut them up in a heartbeat discussing what I do .... building and supporting information systems for military helicopters is a pretty cool job ... but I don't feel the need to brag about my work .... I'd just rather travel in peace!

And now ... I'm going back to bed until my kids get home! I'll unpack later .... :-)