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Hello Miami, Goodbye Toronto

As some of you might now, I continued my third week of travel with a short trip down to Miami for work. Miami was really interesting and I really do want to return. I didn’t get a chance to swim in the hotel pool, letalone the ocean, but I did get to drink a few brews and enjoy the atmosphere of South Beach.

On Tuesday morning I caught a 7:45am flight back to Philly where I ended up sitting in the airport for a while until I finally flew up to Toronto around 2pm. This was my 6th trip up to Toronto.

On a side note, I was supposed to fly back to Philly last Friday but ended up having my flight canceled and I had to stay an extra day. To cope, I ordered a 10oz filet with bleu cheese on top and a few Murphy’s Irish stouts. On a second side note, I believe you could consider me an international businessman as this was my 13th international business trip in approximately the last 2 years. I’m quite greatful for what this job has afforded me dispite the fact that I will work 70 hours a week without flinching and on a third side note my salary will remain the same for another 12 months. That certainly doesn’t please me, but I jokingly say “at least I have a job.” I pray that those who say experience is worth something are smart people.

This will be my last Toronto trip, at least for now. I joked about how I dreaded going up here again and again but this isn’t a bad place to visit. I walked a bit over the last two nights and said goodbye to my places for good beer: C’est What, Bier Markt and BeerBistro. Good times. Someone said to me recently that they would come back to the city for a short vacation. I was shocked, but after roaming around tonight and seeing so much that I didn’t get to experience, especially restaurants, I can understand the motivation.

The last 3 weeks have warn me down considerably, but I do enjoy traveling. I like hotel rooms. I especially love the Marriott Eaton Center Toronto as the price is awesome, the internet is included and it is chic. I like roaming cities. I like roaming alone actually. I like to socialize but I also really like to explore on my own.

Goodbye Toronto.

dotdotdot

• What happens when a construction crew rips 10+ feet of fiber connecting a business to their corporate WAN? Matt’s life becomes life sucks.
• In case you don’t know, work has been a bit hectic and probably will be until Thanksgiving. Oh do I look forward to my favorite holiday.
• Last week I was in Toronto. This week I’m in Toronto but I wasn’t supposed to be. I was supposed to fly to Puerto Rico on Sunday but a tropical storm canceled those plans. Seeing a new country and perhaps some time in the sun would have been good though the thing that bothered me the most was the fact that I got upgraded to first class and I never get upgraded.
• Next Sunday I was supposed to go to Miami but now it looks like I’ll have to cancel that so I can be up in stupid Toronto again. Then I’m supposed to go to Westborough, MA but I can’t get anyone to give me finalized dates on that one. I will need to rebook the PR trip at some point but I’m not sure when.
• I saw my buddy Mike last weekend and it was good hanging out with him. Somehow we ended up playing pong until 5:30am but that’s the way it should be. He is going to Afghanistan this week and I wish him the best (though I still don’t know what our country is doing there). I’m supposed to setup a blog for him so I’ll definitely post the link once it is up.
• I make a mildly sarcastic comment to a Canadian today about their healthcare system just to get a reaction and I was informed that the person’s son had to go the hospital and went to a golf resort for 4 days to recover from a minor surgery.
• I’m staying at a Residence Inn Marriott this week which is nice because it is a suite with a mini kitchen but I only get 5 points per dollar spent.
• Marriott rewards sucks because you need to stay 75 night a year to get platinum status and 50 for gold. That is a lot of stays. After this week I’ll be at 21 with no hope of getting 50.
• The other week Erin cooked eggplant parmesean and it was the first time I had ever eaten said dish. It was awesome.
• I went to the annual poker picnic with my dad the other weekend. It was a fun time as always. This year I played pretty well in the games competition and ended up finishing 4th out of about a dozen people. In poker I think I broke even. It was fun.
• I just ate a Snack Pack and I swear it was smaller than I remember.
• I was going to go and eat dinner by myself tonight for two reasons. Everyone is staying in the city and I decided to stay by the airport both to save money and lessen my morning drive. The second reason was that I needed a break to just have some alone non-work time. I ended up not going out to eat and just made a sandwich. I guess saving money is good.
• I got angry at Avis last week as they charged me nearly $100 because I didn’t return the car with a full tank of gas. Fortunately, I still had my original receipt which proved it only came with 1/2 tank and that’s pretty much where I refilled it to. I could have pushed them harder but they pissed me off and I’ll never rent from Avis again.
• 96% of Canadian beer sucks.
• If I get sick of my job for real maybe I’ll join the US Air Force.

Busy

Saying that I’ve been busy is an understatement. However, I really should have made some more time to empty my brain as there has been a lot of my mind.

• For most of my life I’ve experienced pretty good health. I’d get a cold or the flu most years but never really had any cronic issues. In high school I didn’t miss a single day of school due to being sick (the only day I missed was to visit Penn State). For the last 5 weeks I feel like I’ve completely fallen apart. I’ve had sore throats, chest pressure, pain in my neck, headaches and flu-like symptoms. I’ve had 5 or 6 visits to various doctors and no especially useful information (tests this week said negative to strep and the flu). I’m trying to rest as much as possible and ween myself off of ibuprofen as it makes me sweat profusely. I’m getting tired of being sick.
• Last night I woke up around 5am in a weird state. I wasn’t dreaming, but I was slightly delusional as I could n0t get this particular image out of my head. There was this vision of a spreadsheet and these lines of information on people who were experiencing issues and needed to be resolved immediately. I told myself I just need to stay awake long enough for the images to fade. I did this and eventually fell asleep. I woke up two hours later soaked in sweat but feeling very good actually. I can recall a few times when I was a child and had hallucinations.
• I made perogies for dinner. I took the extra step and fried them with onions. They are perfectly good just boiled, but that fried crunch is so nice. I was able to eat 10 of them which made me happy as I haven’t been particularly hungry.
• Speaking of being hungry, I went out for a lovely dinner with Erin last night to Davio’s in the city. As she had been away in Seattle last week and I’ve been busy/sick I felt like we needed to go do something extra nice. This restaurant has been on my list of places to try out ever since Derrick first recommended it to me over 3 years ago. The style is supposed to be Northen Italian though I’m not sure what that means and I’d describe it as a nice steakhouse. The service was excellent and I can’t tell you how many times they addressed me by last name which was a very nice touch. While I didn’t actually look at the wine list I’d suspect the place had a good one as there was a sommelier on the staff. Perhaps as a means to stimulate business they had a special of BYO no corking fee on Fridays. I brought some random cab which was good, though quite unfortunately my stomach hurt and I couldn’t drink more than a sip or two. It was somewhat amusing as they kept refilling Erin’s glass. I really don’t like steak that much, but I do like filet and especially when it isn’t me cooking. Sadly, I couldn’t eat all of my steak nor could I finish my gorgonzola mac and cheese. Now that I think about it, I could have probably just had a slice of bread and a glass of water and just watched Erin eat, but I guess that would have been weird. I did enjoy myself and would definitely put it on my list of places to revisit if I want a nice dinner.
• I felt good for the last 50 minutes and that makes me happy.
• I think that my two favorite foods are vegetable lo mein and buffalo chicken cheesesteaks.
• Basil, and I imagine most plants, are interesting in that when they don’t get enough water they tend to shrivel up but give them a good watering and in no time things are back to normal.
• Last weekend I went back to my parent’s house for what I believe is our annual family gathering. Mark and Kara came down from Boston and Mike and Tayrn came from State College. We had lots of stimulating conversation, a potato chip tasting and a visit to Knoebel’s Grove Amusement Resort. It was fun going back to the park and riding many of the rides from my childhood. The stomach-emptying rush of Phoenix rollcoaster was as overwhelming as I remembered and the Haunted Mansion did surprise me too much but it was a ton of fun being there with family.
• If you’ve called or emailed me and I haven’t responded I will try to get in touch with you this week. I apologize for the delay.
• I just counted all of the beers I drank this week and it was 1/2. Not a half barrel but a half of one 12 ounce bottle. I must be sick. I can’t wait to get better so that I can responsibly enough a cold brew.
• I told my boss this week I will never participate in another project like the current one. He laughed. I’m serious. I must say that the experience I’m gaining is invaluable and if I can just get to January this will all be worth it.
• I haven’t gone running in 3 or 4 weeks now. The wonderful base I had from the spring is all gone I’m sure. I had hoped to charge right into an extended marathon training plan in July with the first major goal being a personal best in the September Philly Distance Run (half-marathon). I’ve decided that I will not run that race. It isn’t that I couldn’t get in shape in time, but rather that I won’t be able to set a personal best so I don’t even want to waste the money. I’m still leaning towards another marathon but it will need to be a late season one and I think Philadelphia again would be the choice.
• I believe I’m eligible for new glasses frames this fall and I think I’ll get rounder ones.
• There is a movie with Julie Kavner on TV and it is funny because I can’t stop picturing Marge Simpson.
• Next weekend I’m going to the annual poker picnic with my dad. This will be my 5th year in attendance. I look forward to it. The only downside is that I’ll miss Musikfest this year. Since I’ve been going I’ve only missed one other year. I could have gone today but didn’t really feel up to it. There is always next year I suppose.
• My favorite Christmas song is White Christmas.
• Putting cheese in/on things isn’t always good. I say that because most cheese is so subtle in taste that you don’t really get much taste contributed to the primary food. Even on pizza I don’t think you really get much cheese taste going on. It defintitely contributes to the mouthfeel of the food but that isn’t good enough for me.