Saturday, April 18, 2009

How to avoid one traveling nightmare

You may have noticed I haven't done much blogging in the last few months, and with good reason -- it's been a rough few months!

Quick summary: my work Mac blows up, I can't work, bring my personal Mac into work with tacit (not explicit) permission from my boss, corporate suspects me of industrial espionage and confiscates my personal laptop for 3 weeks, now I *really* can't work, that finally blows over, but I still don't have a workstation; I accidentally burn half my front lawn to the ground; check engine light comes on in my truck, diagnosis seems easy to fix, but I mess up the bolt head on the part trying to get it off, still not fixed; have a *terrible* migraine after losing a game of racquetball, so bad we think it's a TIA (mini-stroke), so I go to the hospital they do $12k-worth of tests and find nothing wrong, though some lightheadedness and headaches linger; 3 weeks later the hair on the sides of my head starts falling out, leaving me looking like I got a bowl cut, maybe caused by slight hypothyroidism which was maybe caused by the contrast dye they used in the CT scan -- or it's all caused by the stress of thinking I could've been about to die? doctors have never seen it before, no mention of anything like it on the internet; despite the fact I got a flu shot, I get a nasty case of the flu perfectly coincident with an out of town meeting to kick off the last of our work on a program, since a week or so earlier it was announced our program was going to be cancelled.

In summary, I hope spring '09 never happens again!

Back to the subject at hand, my flight yesterday from Tucson to Dallas was delayed by 3 hours, which made me miss my flight to Huntsville -- the last one of the evening.

So at 9pm I called the travel services company, and they made me a reservation with a Holiday Inn -- "just catch the shuttle from the airport". So I got on the HI shuttle, and rode for half an hour only to discover that it was the wrong Holiday Inn! Grr!

Lesson? If you take an airport shuttle to a hotel, make sure it's going to the right hotel! Just because it has the name of your hotel on it doesn't mean it's the right one!

6 comments:

The Roberts Rollercoaster RIde said...

What a #*&$( spring!! Are you ok? Is it thryroid? Thyroid isn't so bad, I've had a hypothyroid since I was about 24. Too bad you didn't look me up, we are here in Dallas, and we are WAY BETTER then a hotel!! ;)

author said...

The thyroid test came back as a 3.3. Supposedly "normal" is 0.27 to 4.0, but they're starting to believe that people above 2.0 will be hypothyroid at some point so my doctor is considering treating it. I'm starting to think the CT scan messed up my thyroid since the contrast dye has the same stuff in it that they use for treating hyperthyroid conditions (kills part of the thyroid).

Better than a hotel? Sounds expensive... At least I wouldn't have gotten on the wrong shuttle. =)

Jolena said...

Holy cow Bryan! I thought it was bad the health problems I've had over the past few months, but they only include the first stomach flu ever, a prolonged sore throat, and finding out I was allergic to amoxicillin. Doesn't really compare at all. I hope Summer '09 treats you better!

Ashley Harris said...

Oh sheesh! I hope you are getting to a point of normalcy. Take care!

Benjamin said...

I got electricity and running water during that same time. Maybe my good fortune had to be offset somehow, somewhere. Sorry that mine had to come at your expense.

Lesley said...

Geesh! Benjamin told me to read this post, I can see why. I think he wants me to "buck up little camper." I will stop thinking woe is me (atleast for a little bit).

Does anyone read this thing?

views since Feb. 9, 2008