The end of 2008

Well, I haven't posted anything here since July and when I went back to NJ for Christmas I was reminded of that fact. A lot has happened here since my last post. I moved into my apartment, still haven't sold my place in NJ, car died, bought new car, visited 2 state capitals (Raleigh & Columbia), met some new people and pissed off some friends.

All in all, 2008 was another bad year for me. Each time I felt that I was making a step forward in financial and personal issues - something would happen to cause me to take two steps back - or maybe to be somewhat optimistic, I should say for every 3 steps forward I made 2 steps back.

I've sat down a few times and started blog posts, but never got around to posting them. My New Year's resolution is to be more focused on these posts. If anything, they will help me say stuff out loud that I need to -- and it really is good for my family and friends to know that I am still alive and just haven't fallen off the face of the earth (although at times I have felt like that would be a good thing).

I'm sitting here at 11:35am on December 31, 2008 - getting ready to go to bed because I have to work today from 5:00 pm to 5:00 am due to turnover in my overnight staff. It is a perfect way to end 2008 -- working ... but I hope that going forward, 2009 will be a much better year.

Just as when any New Years holiday rolls around, we all will reflect of what we have done this past year -- are we better off than last 12/31? are we happier than the last 12/31? have we made any sort of impact on the world or others since the last 12/31? We would all love to say a resounding YES!! to all of those questions, but can we? I'm not sure I can say yes to any of them. So the next response would be ... there's always next year. . .

My plan for this year is to focus on my financial situation ... starting tomorrow all extra curricular spending will be restricted. Except for necessities, all income will go toward working on paying off my outstanding debt. When I can only have my rent and car payments left, then I can look at traveling again, going out on weekends and updating my furniture. This time next year I want to be able to say YES I am better off than I was last year, YES I am happier than I was last year and YES I have made an impact on others this year.

To anyone who reads this blog - I hope that you enjoyed the posts from the beginning of the year. I hope that you will continue to read as we go forward - I will try to bring everything current in the next month -- so it may be weird as you read about stuff that happened 6 months ago and then read about something happening this past week - but please bear with me on that.

Thank you for reading this blog and for putting up with my ramblings today. I close with the following statement:

As 2009 rolls in tonight - I will be looking forward and smiling at what is to come instead of looking back and crying over what has been. Happy New Year to all and to all a good night (afternoon).

Officially a Charlottean

Yesterday was a very big day in my move to Charlotte - I finally slept in my own apartment in my own bed! Since arriving in Charlotte on February 24th, I have been living in hotels - the reason for this is that I was unable to rent anything here until I was able to sell me co-op back in NJ. Well, the closing should be happening within the week, so I went apartment hunting in late May and chose an apartment in early June. After signing the lease, it was a waiting period until I was able to get my keys on July 3rd.

During that time I had to set up the utilities and planning the move from Jersey. More about the apartment later - but here's all you need to know about the move. On Saturday, June 29th I worked the morning shift then made the run to the airport to catch my flight at 5:55 pm to go back to NJ to meet the packers and movers. The relocation package included packing, moving and unpacking as well as the trip home to meet the movers and make the final move. I checked into my flight on-line the day before and noticed that the flight was only 1/2 full, so I was a little concerned that the flight would be cancelled in the current status of the airlines - but figured I'd deal with that as it happens. I got to the airport about 90 minutes before my flight time, I wasn't checking any bags, so I headed to the gate with my boarding pass and drivers license. Passed through security - only issue there was that someone else took my laptop off the belt, but we cleared that up quickly. As I was walking down to my gate, I checked the departure monitor to verify the same gate, and noticed that the flight was indeed cancelled! I made my way to the gate and there was another flight to Newark that was posted as "boarding". The woman at the gate first told me that the current flight had already left and they would put me on another airline. She then turned around and noticed that the plane was still there, she called to see if the door was closed because there was one empty seat on the plane - after some back and forth with the plane, she led me down the jetway and they reopened the door to the plane. The flight attendant informed us that he had 50 passengers on the plane and no empty seats - but the manifest only showed 49. I am assuming that the empty seat was filled with an airline employee, because a gentleman came forward and moved into the cockpit to sit on the jumper seat. So I got on an earlier flight, or so I thought! The door was closed again, we pulled away from the gate and started taxiing toward the runway, only to pull over because the air traffic in the New York area was full and we would have to wait. We ended up leaving at the same time my original flight would have left! I arrived in Newark, took the monorail to the car rental and got my Hyandai for the weekend. Then off to Tinton Falls to check into a hotel.

Saturday night I went out to Asbury Park hoping to see some of my friends on my last visit to NJ until at least October. Luckily I ran into a couple of friends, so it was a nice evening out, although I was a little off my game, since I didn't close the bar. (LOL)

On Sunday, I went over to my old co-op and made sure that I had it ready to be packed up on Monday. Did some work and made sure everything was ready. On Monday morning two gentlemen arrived to pack all my stuff up. It took several hours, but when they left, they had packed about 43 cartons - cleaning out all cabinets, closets and shelves as well all the pictures off the walls. As the pictures show, everything was packed up and ready for the movers to arrive on July 1st to pack everything into the truck. Four guys got there between 10 and 11 and after a quick tour of the co-op and letting them know what was going and what was staying, they started loading the truck. It took about 5 or 6 hours for them to get it all loaded - with another load in front of mine that was heading to Wilmington, NC after they make my delivery. Two of the guys that loaded the truck would be making the drive down to Charlotte and at that time they were unable to let me know when they would be arriving except to say that it would be the following week, due to the holiday on Friday (July 4th). With the truck loaded and having checked out of the hotel that morning, I headed up to Passaic County to visit my Mom and Sister before the "final move" to Charlotte. We had dinner and a nice visit and before it got too late, I headed down into Bergen County for the night. On Wednesday morning I was able to visit with a friend who used to work for me at a previous hotel and now she is the AGM of a new hotel. We hadn't seen each other in at least 4 years and it was really nice to catch up with each other. Then it was off to the airport to catch my flight back home! I joked all week that during this trip I was going "home" twice, once back to NJ and then back to Charlotte since that is now my new home.

More on the delivery and unpacking on the next post -- but the BIG NEWS is that for the first time in over four months, I was able to say, "I'm going home.", when I left work last night and woke up in my own bed this morning!!

Thanks for reading and hope all is well on your end!

Birthday Dinner

I'm a little bit behind in posting to the blog, and I appologize for that. But after heading up to Winston-Salem, the next big thing I was looking forward to was a visit from my best buddy (now) from Texas. He had to make a visit to Charlotte for business and we were able to get together for a couple of nights. Although there was some problems during my birthday, we were able to work those out and it was the highlight of a very busy week.

Saturday saw the Chairman and CEO of the company pay a visit to the hotel. The visit went really well and he actually didn't have any negative comments or recommendations to make about the hotel. On Sunday, I facilitated a training class, that should have had about 15 attendees, and only 2 showed up - but we still held the class and it was good because it was very hands on for the attendees. On Monday the Health Inspector showed up to inspect the hotel's food and beverage outlets - they passed with a score of 98 (in NC they post the actual score in the establishment) which is very good. Then later on Monday, the corporate auditor checked into the hotel - she was expected but it still is a very stressful time in the hotel. The audit takes place on the night of check-in and then during the following day. You get the score before the auditor leaves the building - and we improved over last year's score by 4 points! Small steps lead to greater things!

Right from getting the score I ran to the airort to pick up my buddy! His flight was running early so I headed out and sent a text message to call me when they touched down. The Charlotte Douglas Airport has a "Cell Lot" which is a lot you can park in while waiting for a plane to land to pick someone up. In the past at Newark, I've had to circle the airport over and over waiting for friends to get off the plane and pick up luggage. After a short wait he was ready and we headed back toward the SouthPark area. He was in town for two nights, and we planned to do a nice dinner for my birthday on the second night. So we checked him into the hotel and headed over to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner (even though i didn't have pizza). During dinner we looked over my reservations for next year's birthday trip - places ranging from Anchorage, Palm Desert and Orlando to Prague, Munich and Edinburgh - oh yeah, was also able to find some associate rates in Australia! My buddy seemed most interested in seeing what Anchorage would be like in June. So maybe I'll be returning to Alaska! It was great to spend some time with my buddy - after dinner it was back to the hotel to hang out for a while.

The following evening a bottle of wine, cheese and crackers were delivered to the room, which made for a nice warm up for dinner. Sitting on the balcony enjoying a little wine and a lot of cheese and crackers! Then after a little nap it was off to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. This was my first time going to a "real" steakhouse - and I enjoyed it! I'm not a big steak person because I'm very picky when it comes to meat. I have a problem with fat and grizzle and my Mom used to hate serving steak to me as a kid because I used to surgically disect the piece of meat cutting all the fat and grizzle off the steak before I'd eat it. But the difference here is that the steak is prime and I ordered filet mignon. But I get ahead here. The meal began with a bottle of Newcastle with Cesaer Salad - both were very good. Then another bottle of Newcastle and the Petite Filet with Shrimp, with sides of mashed potatoes and their famous creamed spinach - YUMMMMMMM! The only thing better than the meal was the company across the table! The steak was cooked just the way I liked it and just outright delicious. For desert it was a glass of port and Creme Brulee - which really is my favorite desert. Overall - this was a great birthday meal and it made up for some of the trials of the week of my actual birthday week.

Unfortunately the next day we had to say goodbye and not sure when we will see each other next. I'm hoping to make a trip down to Dallas/Fort Worth for the Labor Day weekend - I've booked a hotel and have the weekend off. Hopefully the trip will happen because with all the changes happening in both of our lives, we are sort of holding each other up - even with such a distance between us. It is always a very special time when we get together and I don't want either of us to miss out on it as often as we can.

Well, big news coming in the next post (hopefully tomorrow) and as always - thanks for reading and have a good night!

Winston-Salem

Work has been busy lately - with one supervisor out on a medical leave of absence and my other supervisor going on vacation. A supervisor from a hotel in South Carolina came to fill in the gap for nine days. Thursday the 19th was my only day off that week, so after work on Wednesday I decided to escape the hotel for at least a day to enjoy the day off. I was able to find the associate rate available in Winston-Salem and made the 90 minute drive north to historic W-S.

I didn't get into town until around 11:00 pm, so there wasn't much exploring to be done that night, but the next morning I decided to visit Bethabara Park just a couple of miles from the downtown area. The park is the site of the first Moravian settlement in North Carolina in 1753. The Moravians were a German speaking Protestant sect that predates the Lutherans. Bethabara ("House of Passage") was a center for religion, governance, trade, industry, culture, education, and the arts. The Moravians constructed over 75 buildings during the first 20 years of the settlement's existence. During the French and Indian War (1753-1762), Bethabara and its two forts served as defensive centers for regional settlers and a supply depot for the Catawba allies of the British.

Today the park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places with several original buildings still in existance. The most important one is the 1788 Gemeinhaus (church), uniquely the last remaining eighteenth-century German church with attached living quarters remaining in the United States, furnished with period furniture, some original to the building. Across the street from the Gemeinhaus is the house of the village's distiller and brewer. Behind the Gemeinhaus are several archeological digs that show the foundations and cellars for several other important buildings. The most notable are the apothecary and doctor's office. People would travel miles to visit the doctor - so much so, that outbuildings were also built to house the "strangers" who came to visit the community. Since all members of the community spoke German, one person who spoke English was chosen to be the greeter of visitors to Bethabara. Life of the community was very well documented, sketches of the buildings as well as a journal of daily life. Because of this they were able to reconstruct parts of the village as well. This journal also made it easier to determine where to dig for atrifacts and what they were finding when they did dig. I didn't take the tour this time around, but opted to roam around the site myself at my own pace. It was interesting to see the "walls" of the fort - the walls are comprised of tall wooden poles stuck into the ground very close together, nothing tying them together and able to be seen through - not exactly the image of forts that I had as a kid!

There are about 20 miles worth of trails that run through the park, originating at the historic area. They have maps the guide you throughout the park - there are two main trails that run at 10K if you take the full walk. I took the "lower trial" which runs along the creek to the site of the old mill then through the marsh to a beaver pond. They have piers that go out over the pond which was very relaxing to stand on. Near the beaver pond was a strip mall and the map recommended it was a good place to get water for the remainder of the walk. Since it was around 90 that day I decided it was a good thing to do as well. Well being hungry as well, I noticed a pizzeria/restaurant next to the Harris Teeter. I went in for some lunch and was pleasantly suprised to find a real italian menu offered. I went out on a limb and ordered a slice of pizza to start and eggplant parmesian for my meal. I was even more suprised to find that the pizza was good and the eggplant was VERY good (not as good as Mom's but still good). The eggplant was cut very thin and lot layered too thick nor over cooked or mushy. I left the restaurant very full and really not wanting to complete the walk back to the car, but I perservered and finished the walk.

Then it was time to travel back to Charlotte after a strenous but relaxing day in Winston-Salem.

Things to get used to...

Well, I've been here nearly 4 months now and there are a few things that I'm still not used to.

1. A major one that I do like is that you are able to make left turns here North Carolina. As the folks in NJ know, it is hard to find many places to make left turns especially on 4 lane roads. I haven't seen a single "jughandle" here in NC!
2. The next is the fact that you can make U-turns around medians at traffic lights here. A MAJOR offense across the state of NJ - I still find myself passing an intersection and trying to go around the block - which brings me to the next thing -
3. this section of Charlotte (SouthPark) is not laid out in a grid pattern which means if you miss a turn, it may take 5 or 10 minutes to get back to where you wanted to go - unless you make a U-turn!
4. You don't need to keep change in the car down here - I haven't seen a toll both since I've been here. Which I am not complaining about.
5. I miss 24 hour convience stores -- no WaWa's down here and hard to find a 7-11.
6. I'm undecided on pumping my own gas ... although it can be annoying, you get in and out a lot quicker!
7. And speaking of gas - get a load of the picture -- 100 octane gas sold at the Texaco station I usually go to --- sorry, I forgot to check on the price...

Well, I think I'm off to bed for tonight and should have a new post in the next couple of days to talk about my trip to Winston-Salem. Thanks for reading and blog to you soon!

The Birthday

So, here I am - a day after the rantings of my 43rd birthday. I decided to not spend the day doing laundry, but do something with the day.
I headed uptown Charlotte and checked into the hotel and got a room on the 16th floor with a nice view of an office building, a condo building and landscapes behind. Shortly thereafter I went for a walk to the Levine Museum of the New South. The museum looks at the history of Charlotte and the Piedmont Region from it's founding to today. Charlotte grew because it was at the crossroads of the two main Indian trading routes of the time which are now known as Tryon and Trade Streets. North Carolina was good for two different crops - cotton and tobacco. The environment around Charlotte was much better for cotton, so that became the crop of the region. After the Civil War, the business people in the region wondered why they were sending all the raw cotton to the textile mills of New England and began building their own mills. The mills would included villages of three or five room homes for the mill workers and their families. A company store, room for a garden, livestock, churches and schools were all part of these mills. More and more farmers came off the farms to the mill towns to work the mills because it was less backbreaking work. Cannon Mills and Springmaid are two of the mills that are still in existance today that started in this area during this era. As a matter of fact, the city of Kannapolis, NC was founded by Cannon Mills. Because of importance of cotton as the cash crop, Charlotte was an imporant city in the region, so as the textile businesses began to fade, then banking took over as the main industry of the city starting in the 70's. Many mills still exist but are being used for many other purposes. Today Greater Charlotte is the home of eight Fortune 500 companies: Bank of America, Lowe's, Wachovia, Duke Energy, Nucor, Sonic Automotive, Family Dollar, Goodrich and SPX - this ranks Charlotte #6 on the list of cities called home by the most Fortune 500 companies, tied with Philadelphia and Minneapolis. Of course, being the home of two of the three largest banks in the US - also makes Charlotte second only to NYC in importance in the financial world. It's a long way from a speech made by FDR in Charlotte where he called the South the largest economic concern of the country! The visit to the museum was very interesting and I learned a lot about my new home.

After the museum it was time for dinner - in the mood for seafood, I ventured out toward the Convention Center to dine at a restaurant named Aquavina. It is located on the second floor of one of Wachovia's office buildings in Uptown Charlotte. It was just a short 6 or 7 block walk from the hotel - and even though it was over 90 out, it was a nice walk along Tryon Street. Some interesting options on the menu and the presentation was gorgeous. I started my meal with a Peach Passion Martini (Stoli Peach, Blue Curacao and pineapple juice) which was very refreshing on such a hot day. For an appetizer I chose the Asian Pear Salad - greens wrapped in procuitto served on top of sliced pears with dressing on the side. Dinner was Surf & Turf Three Ways - when I read the menu it listed three ways the Surf & Turf is prepared. I thought that you choose which way you wanted it prepared, but it is served all three ways - three plates on a platter - each a miniture version of a full meal. It was very good and even cooked well done as I like! With dinner came the second martini - a Pom Pom which is Pomegranate Liqueur, Stoli, Triple Sec and Lemon Garniture - I enjoyed the Peach Passion better, but think of all the anti-oxidents I got in the Pomegranate Liqueur! Since it was my birthday I felt that desert was in order and had a Carmelized Banana and Chocolate Turnover with banana ice cream. Again, very good! Overall, a very enjoyable meal!

Just outside the restaurant is a little park called The Green that looks like it should be on the edge of a harbor or lake, but with no water in Charlotte, I knew that wasn't the case. In this park they put on Shakespeare plays on a small stage with a grassy area to sit. The whole park has a literary theme with pages out of books and directional signs that use city names to make literary names EMILY, Minnesota & BRONTE, Ontario.

It was then back to the hotel to rest a little while and then out to the bar for a couple of Newcastle's to end the night.

Other big news - I have signed a lease for an apartment - but more information on that in the next posting.

Thanks for reading and hope to hear from you soon!

June 9

Well, it's June 9 - the year is nearly 1/2 over - I'm still living in the hotel (at least 5 days a week) and it's forecasted to hit 99 today. Oh yeah, it's also my birthday.

I swore off birthdays a few years ago after several very poor birthday experiences. When I turned 40 I decided to go away for my birthday - that year I traveled to Toronto. I took myself out shopping and splurged at my favorite store up there buying myself some very nice stuff that I still wear today (you only turn 40 once!). The following year I had planned to travel to San Francisco for a week, but those plans were changed when I was asked to produce an event in Philadelphia - the only days that worked to have the event were June 9 & 10 - so my 41st birthday was spent in Philadelphia. Last year I returned to Canada but this time visited Ottawa and was able to have some great quality time with a friend up there. The usual routine is to spend the day by myself, have a really nice dinner then go out and if friends are out great - if not then it just goes with the rest of the day. This year I had made plans to spend my birthday in Atlanta at the Ritz Carlton - but some problems that popped up here at work have made me change those plans and I will stay here in Charlotte, but at a different hotel so I can have a change of scenery. I still plan to go out for a nice dinner, a couple of martini's and then see where it goes from there.

I've never been a fan of others calling the shots for me - those that know me are probably laughing because I also hate to make decisions. I had about five bad birthdays leading up to my 40th and that is why I decided to start taking my birthday on the road. I just consider age a number anyway - it doesn't mean a person is mature if they have a high number attached, it's all a state of mind. For that reason, it's not a big deal to celebrate a birthday for me. Yes, it's nice to get cards and a phone call wishing me a happy birthday - that people remember, but I don't like parties - I don't like being the center of attention. I usually don't even mention to people that it is my birthday - not wanting people to feel obligated to do something special or feel bad if they didn't. My reasons for this? It goes way back - I remember one birthday back in Bogota when my sister-in-law stopped by and didn't even remember it was my birthday. I wasn't saying anything, didn't want to make a big deal about it - but she found out and felt very, very bad about it. I felt worse that she felt bad, than her not remembering my birthday.

The final several years of my last relationship (years 7-11 probably) were not fun birthdays. Gifts that had no meaning or were just embarassing - half hearted attempts at making a celebration. My favorite was the birthday when I was driving back to Bergen County from the shore (just after we bought the deli) and for about 2o or 30 miles along the GS Parkway a person was hanging out the window of the car in front of me throwing up and it was splattering all over my car. It was lovely - a hot June Sunday afternoon in traffic on the GS Parkway and no way to get from behind that car. So I spent that night washing my car at the self carwash - the spouse down the shore and me at home.

So this year's plans had to be dashed - alternate plans made. Had to work a double shift (7am - 11pm) on both Saturday and Sunday. Get done last night with work, come to my room and log on. Get a great birthday wish from my best buddy in Texas. We start to chat and then after a comment that was meant in a joking manner he abruptly says good night and logs off. Then at 11:59 I recieve a text message calling me out for the comment I made after he was trying to make my birthday special. I sent an apology - no reply.

And so my cursed birthdays continue . . .

A note for next year for anyone who is reading this blog -- no cards, no gifts, no dinners on June 9th. If you want to call and say, "Hi, was thinking about you today and happy birthday" - that's great - but otherwise, just let this day be like any other on the calendar. I'm tired of it causing people harm. It's 10:20 am and I need to get out of bed, shower, check-out of the hotel and head off to spend my birthday doing laundry - just like any other day off.

Thank you for reading -

Memorial Day Weekend

The holiday weekend has come to an end. A big weekend here in Charlotte - it's the culmination of Race Week. It started last weekend with the Sprint All-Star race at the Lowe's Motor Speedway just north of Charlotte in Concord, NC. The track features a main oval of 1.5 miles and various smaller courses, dirt courses and a kart course on the infield. Built in 1959, the "Beast of the South East" can seat 167,000 with room for 50,000 more in the infield. Known as the Charlotte Motor Speedway, in 1999 Lowe's bought the name rights making it the first track in the country to have a corporate name.

During the end of the week they turn the Uptown area into "Speed Streets" which is a big street festival geared toward the NASCAR fans who come into the city. I worked the afternoon shift the whole weekend, so there wasn't a chance to head Uptown for the festivities, but from what I've been told, it's very crowded and I'm not really a crowd person. Concerts, food and vendors giving away free stuff. People walk away with shopping bags full of snacks, beverages food samples and just about anything else that's legal to give away. We had a few of the vendors staying in the hotel, so in the evening we got some care packages at the front desk ... most notably from Vitamin Water!

Sunday brings the Coca-Cola 600 race to LMS. This race is the longest race of the season at over 4 hours and the longest race of any kind on an oval track. The race which started in 1960 as the World 600 goes 400 laps around the track. NASCAR started this race to compete with the Indy 500 which also takes place on Memorial Day weekend - and in the past drivers have driven in both races, by flying from Indianapolis after the end of the Indy and racing at Charlotte - that's 1,100 miles of racing in one day! That's a lot of driving. With the timing of the races today and daylight savings time, there isn't enough of a gap between the races for anyone to accomplish this today. The race was won by Kasey Kahne - his first win of the season - although he also won the Sprint All-Star race last week!

Great news for the hotel as our Satisfaction Scores continue to go up - for our company, we are the highest scoring full-service hotel in North Carolina, #7 in our region and #31 in all of North America! Putting us in the Top 10 in all those rankings. We are also ranking in those zones for our service scores and the scores for our rooms and hallways!

I have a four day weekend coming up and my first thought was to venture toward the mountains and stay in Asheville, NC - the main purpose to visit the Biltmore Estate, the largest home in the United States. I booked my hotel room and when I was doing a little research, found out that a ticket to visit the grounds of the Biltmore costs over $50.00 - so I've decided to change those plans until after I sell my house and have a few bucks in the bank. My plan is to now visit Atlanta on Friday and Saturday adding another state capital to my list and pay a first visit to that city.

Getting late here - so I'll be logging off now and will be updating again soon - thanks for reading!

Another long wait...

OK, OK, OK -- I have to get better at putting some posts on here. It's been almost a month and I was about a month behind last time I posted, so this may be a long one. Still living in the hotel, but some good news is that I have had two offers on my house and one is under contract, the buyers have been approved by the co-op board and the first inspection has been done. From what I've heard so far, there are just some minor fixes to the heating system in the house. So, please keep your fingers crossed that by the end of June I will be moving into my own apartment!!

So, since I'm still living in the hotel, I'm sitting in another local hotel having a Newcastle (or two) while doing my laundry. A big, big storm is rolling through Charlotte - hopefully bringing some needed rain and not just passing over quickly. I'm not too concerned, since I just put my laundry in the dryer, so I have about 90 minutes before I have to venture outside. It's currently 7:00 pm and there is a tornado warning for the northern part of Charlotte until 7:15 pm - no windows in the bar and it's interior of the hotel, so this should be safe.

Anyway -- to fill you all in on what has been happening around here - my best buddy in NJ is now my best buddy in Texas! He's made the move to the Fort Worth area and ventured about 100 miles out of his way while driving down there to pay a visit to Hickory, NC, I ventured up that way so we could have a nice dinner (Carrabba's) and hang out a bit. It's hard to tell at this point when we will see each other again, but we are text messaging or chatting on line almost every day. I'm making plans to make my first visit to Texas (without just changing planes) for the Labor Day holiday this year. Hickory is a small town about an hour north of Charlotte, you drive out to Gastonia, make a right and head on up. It was funny while I was driving, I kept thinking about what a long drive it was, until I realized that my daily commute 4 months ago was about as long!! Funny how soon we forget those things! We had a good visit and he left in the morning for Arkansas and I did laundry. It was a nice visit.

The company had a Regional Town Hall meeting for the hotels in the Carolinas. I was chosen to be part of a small select group to sit with the EVP of the region and we were able to ask questions about the company, region, economy and stuff. Then we had our main meeting to learn what new and exciting things are happening along the eastern seaboard and company wide. A very nice reception followed and during this period the hotel was audited to see if we were in compliance to a new check-in policy we rolled out ... of course we were compliant and recieved a perfect score.

The first weekend of May I paid a surprise visit back home to NJ. After work on Wednesday evening I got on the road and drove up to Woodbridge, VA and stayed overnight. Then on Thursday had breakfast at the hotel and then drove up to Princeton. I decided to avoid the $9.00 it costs to drive 95 through Maryland and Delaware (I'm also sick of that drive) so I got onto US 1 just north of Baltimore and took that through rural Maryland and Pennsylvania - the big highlight was passing over a really neat dam that I was not able to find on a map as well as passing the headquarters of Wawa! (I really do miss Wawa down here - I haven't found anything that matches up).

I then stopped into my old hotel bringing a case of Cheerwine with me for the staff to enjoy. Cheerwine is a cherry flavored soda produced here in North Carolina. It has caffiene so I can't tell you how it tastes, but from what I've been told, it is VERY sweet. The website is very interesting and the company obviously has a great sense of humor. They only make this one flavor of soda as well as diet version and they have been around for over 90 years. The company started out making a mint flavored soda ... hmmm, I guess that was a great success!! LOL

The next day I went back to my old house and ... you guessed it ... did laundry. Chatted with the neighbors a bit about the new city and moving and such. Everything looked the same as when I left, but I was able to pick up some extra supplies so that I wouldn't have to be doing laundry quite as much as I was before. Then on Friday night I suprised all my buddies in Asbury Park by showing up for a bar night. No one knew I was in town, so it was fun to hang out without any expections - not much has changed there either, except a few new faces. On Saturday it was a trip to visit my Mom, Sister and Brother-in-Law up in Passaic County, NJ. For anyone who is unfamiliar with Passaic County, it runs the gambut from inner city living like the Cities of Passaic and Paterson to the rural lake living of Ringwood, Wanaque and West Milford. The lake areas are beautiful and there is where my sister and Mom are living now. My sister lives in a cabin like house that overlooks a lake from a high perch - very relaxing to sit on the deck and hear the sounds of nature and dogs barking. Besides getting to visit with family - I also had the first home cooked meal in months!! It was very good and appreciated. Then on Sunday it was back on the road for Charlotte stopping in Richmond at a hotel that has only been open since March. I was able to stay in the capital of Virginia for the first time! That makes 10 state capitals that I have stayed in during my lifetime ... of course the goal is to continue that list - at least with Raleigh, Columbia and Atlanta by the end of the year.

Things at the hotel are going well - our guest satisfaction scores are staying high and the hotel is ranked in the top 10 of the region and the has the highest overall satisfaction score of any full service hotel in our company in North Carolina!! We have a few areas that need improvement and we are working on them and are seeing some gains.

Well, laundry is done and it's time to head back to my hotel - so as usual thanks for reading and hope to hear from you all soon!

Too long a wait for more posts...

Sorry everyone - I know it's been a while since I've posted, so I'm going to try and throw a few out there to get everyone up to date on what I've been up to.

In the last post, I was in South Carolina visiting with a buddy from NJ. On the way back to Charlotte we stopped at the Revolutionary battleground at Cowpens. It was the site of a defining battle in which the American forces were able to double-back on the British and take 800 prisoners! This battle helped force the British troops north out of the Carolinas. Like most battleground sites, there is a lot of open land with some trees and pastures. They are working on making the site look just as it did 200 years ago when the battle took place. That would entail moving trees and such. From what I could make out the road in the picture was actually a main route through the area. But as you see it was beautiful day to stroll around the grounds reading the informational signs describing this battle as well as the methods of battle at the time. From here it was a drive back to Charlotte to get my buddy to the airport for a flight back to New Jersey. It was great to spend time together and at that point weren't able to make plans for the next opportunity to see each other.

We had a managers' outing at work the following week and went up to the Bobcat Arena to watch the Charlotte Checkers take on the Columbia Inferno. The Checkers is the New York Rangers farm team based in Charlotte. April 3rd was the 2nd to last home game of the season. Unfortunately they lost this game, but it was fun to watch the game from the Uptown Suite - free beer and snack foods! Of course I had to get over the fact that the team is part of the Rangers franchise, being a NJ Devils fan when it comes to hockey, but when 14 of the 21 players are Canadian and one of the US players hails from Rumson, I was able to chow done on some nachos, hot dogs and few Buds and enjoy the game. This was my first time at any farm league sporting event and it was interesting seeing the activities they use to keep the crowd entertained - I also didn't know they have hockey cheerleaders! They had a blimp floating around dropping Chick-fil-a coupons - a frozen t-shirt contest which pits 3 guys trying to get a cruppled up frozen t-shirt over their heads with arms through the quickest. They drive a Jeep around the ice and have fans throw soft yellow pucks at the car trying to get one to go through a small opening in the sunroom to win $500. The game had two good fights, one in the first few minutes and the other in the last couple of minutes. This might be something fun to do next year when the new season begins!

I've been continuing to spend one of my days off each week visiting another hotel in the area to do my laundry - and going out once or twice a week to the bar at which I have pretty much become a regular. We've also be getting some long awaited rain around here with some tornado warnings north and south of the city - so far no threatening storms coming directly over the city.

Well, time for bed here ... I will check my calendar tomorrow and see what else I have been up -- some upcoming highlights include a Regional Town Hall meeting, a trip to Hickory, NC, audits at work, staffing changes and the car hitting a new milestone! Until next time, thanks for reading!

A Trip to South Carolina

Well, it's been a while since my last post - and I apologize. A lot going on down here in Charlotte - I've been very busy at work, had a really nice visit from a Jersey buddy, spent a night across the border in Spartanburg (my first time sleeping in South Carolina), worked more, fought off a bit of a bug, went to a farm league hockey game and facilitated my first training class in the new hotel. So, this won't be a long post, I'll just make a few new posts here to update you all.

The recent highlight has been a visit from my best buddy in Jersey who visited for two days in March. I missed his birthday because I have moved down here, so after he took the train in from Raleigh, I treated him to a Sunday night birthday dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Yummm! Was waiting for a special occasion to make my first visit there and had a great time. On Monday morning it was breakfast at the Original Pancake House for a couple of 5 egg omelets with a side of pancakes, then off to South Carolina.

The first stop was the BMW Manufacturing plant located between Spartanburg and Greenville. There is a small museum on site that cronicles the history of BMW with cars and motorcycles from the 1920's on. We were unable to take a tour of the plant due to the fact that they are expanding the factory. Maybe that's a trip for another day when they are complete. Featured in the BMW Zentrum is the very first Z3 off the line which was hand built in Spartanburg as James Bond's first BMW. The 1,000,000th car to come off the assembly line is also on display.

After the museum it off to the hotel. We were treated to an upgrade at the hotel and given the Governor's Suite in the hotel. I later found out that this suite is the nicest in the hotel with 180 degree view of Spartanburg. The hotel is absolutely gorgeous and it was a nice suprise for my buddy to have such a nice room as part of his birthday celebration. We decided to stay in and have a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant. Dessert was a Southern take on a regular menu item, "Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding". Very sweet, as you'd expect, but very good as well. The picture to the right is of the lobby of the hotel, not the suite - although the suite seemed that big - LOL. We had a nice relaxing evening getting to catch up on what's been happening in Jersey while I've been gone. We were also able to discuss the job offer he recieved a couple of days before coming for the visit and I'm happy to say he accepted the job although that means a move to Texas. But that's a blog for another day.

I'll leave it here for tonight - I need to get some rest here and I thank you for taking the time to read my post. If there is anything else you'd like to know about my move - just let me know!

Uptown!

Well, I've been in Charlotte for three weeks now and decided it was time to venture into the Uptown section of the city. In most cities it would be called downtown, but I guess since the business area of the city with skyscrapers and such are in the northern part of the city, it is called Uptown. So this afternoon I drove over to the light rail station at Woodlawn. Bought my ticket and timing was on my side because a train pulled in as I got my ticket. The light rail is called Lynx and opened in November - so it's new, clean and wasn't crowded. It was a pleasant ride. You buy your ticket at a ticket machine and get on the train. The have police and ticket checkers on some trains and not all. They ask to see your ticket, if you don't have one with the proper date and time on it, then you are issued a $50.00 summons. On the ride Uptown they checked my ticket - on the ride back they didn't. So, I guess it is sort of the honor system - or like Russian Roulette with $50.00 summons instead of bullets - LOL.

I took the Lynx up to the Bobcat's Arena (soon to be the Time Warner Cable Arena) and walked around the main square area of Charlotte. Walked around the Bank of America Center which at 60 stories is the tallest building between Washington and Atlanta. (I forgot my camera today, so I don't have pictures). Strolling around the area it was easy to notice that the streets and sidewalks were clean. There is alot of construction going on of hotels and high-rise condo buildings all around the area. The Square is the intersection of Trade and Tryon Streets - all along Trade Street there were tulips around the trees. The tulips were potted but added a nice touch to the look of the street. While walking around (up and down a few hills) my right leg began to cramp up - so I headed back toward the Lynx after a couple of hours of walking around.

Had a nice ride back down to the car and from there went to check my mailbox in the Foxcroft Shopping Center. Deciding I needed some dinner I went to Brixx in the same shopping center. Ordered a pasta dish and then had a choice of 24 beers on tap! I like to try local brews when I can, so I had a pint of Highland Gaelic Ale (it is St. Patrick's Day after all). The ale turned out to be nice - had a sweet second taste to it. The Highland Brewery is in Asheville, North Carolina at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I plan to visit Asheville at some point during my stay in North Carolina - it is about a two hour drive from Charlotte. Deciding to treat myself for dessert I walked across the parking lot to Ben & Jerry's for a large cup of ice cream.

Then it was back to the hotel - leg still somewhat cramped up for a night of watching television in High Def! Good news for the day is that my best buddy from Jersey will be coming down for a visit next week. He'll be arriving on Sunday evening by train from Raleigh and flying back to Newark on Tuesday evening. Yesterday was his birthday and I wasn't able to celebrate with him, so next week we get to! Can't wait!!

Well, working at 7:00 in the morning, so it's time to sign off and get some sleep -- thanks for reading!

Dam, nice - Weather, bad

Had Friday and Saturday off this week. Slept in on Friday - then it was out to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner and the bar for a pint or two. Decided on Saturday to explore a little and headed north toward Cowan's Ford to see the dam that was built between 1959 and 1964 across the Catawba River to create Lake Norman, the largest man made lake in North Carolina. The dam is about a 15 mile drive north of Charlotte and is also a hydroelectric plant for Duke Energy providing "peak" power for the Charlotte area. Next to the dam is the McGuire Nuclear Power Plant generating 20% of the power that Duke Energy produces.

Cowan's Ford is also the site of a revolutionary battle between the armies of Lord Cornwallis and General William Lee Davidson who was killed during the battle. There is a monument to the battle which I was not able to make it to today.

My trip to the dam and historic site was cut short as thunder started rolling in and about five minutes after getting into my car and continuing along the highway the storms rolled in. These were the same storms that spurred the tornadoes in Atlanta yesterday. After turning around and heading back toward Charlotte the rain became heavier and bolts of lightening could be seen in the distance. Upon returning to the hotel, the local television stations were on alert due to tornado warnings in northern South Carolina, right over the border from Charlotte. At one point the NBC affiliate down here was reporting the touchdown of tornado about midway between Columbia, South Carolina and Charlotte. A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Charlotte for this area, but lifted around 6:00 pm. As I am writing this around 9:00 pm, the Weather Channel still has a tornado warning south and east of Charlotte until 1:00 am Sunday morning and several tornadoes were confirmed across South Carolina. The rain and thunder has subsided in this area - and all totalled at least 1.5 inches of rain fell today. Although every drop helps, it's still not enough to help with the drought in the area.

Tomorrow it is back to work - over 100 check-outs tomorrow as the ACC Basketball Tournament comes to a close. The team the hotel was housing lost in the first round and the the team whose fans were staying in the hotel lost in the second round - so not a good year for our hotel's guests in the tournament. The ACC will not be back in Charlotte for at least another eight or ten years because the Bobcat's Arena is too small for the tournament. Next up in a couple of weeks, Charlotte is hosting the Sweet 16 for the NCAA championships. So March has been a busy time here for college basketball.

That is all for today -- thank you for reading!

The Second Week

Well, I know it's been like a week since I last posted, but I have been busy. Work, socializing, exploring and normal everyday stuff. I worked a couple of AM shifts had a day off then a few PM shifts and a day off.

The weekend was busy at the hotel with the CIAA basketball tournament in town. Hotel was sold out and a lot of activity. We were mostly sold out all week, so it was busy as well. At least this past weekend was a little bit of a rest. So that was the business.

On the personal side, I worked the AM shift over the weekend and had Monday off. Relaxed most of the day and went to another hotel in the area to do my laundry. While the laundry was in the dryer I went back to my hotel to help roll out a new check-in process. Then back to pick up my laundry. I went out a few more times this week - getting to meet a few more people. Worked the PM shift Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with Friday off. Relaxed all day on Friday ... it was my first real day off without packing, driving or working in just about 2 weeks - so I slept until almost noon and just hung out until it was time for dinner.

So, a few firsts this week since I've been down here. I needed new dress socks, so it was off to Dillards at the mall. Even though Dillard's is one of the major chains in the US, I've never actually been to one. Staff was nice enough - and I found dress socks 50% off! I think that was Friday night -- then I finally broke down and headed to Burger King for dinner. That was a long stretch - hadn't been to Burger King since I left NJ. Today I ventured out to the nearest supermarket, Harris Teeter. For those back in Jersey and upstate NY - Harris Teeter is like Wegmans. But they have beer and wine too! Was really excited to find Entenmann's at Harris Teeter!! Was even able to find my favorite product.

Had a craving for ice cream and since I was already in the market went to the freezer section and found a local ice cream from High Point, NC. Denali flavors Moose Tracks ice cream. Of course I ate an entire pint of Malted Moose Tracks. Spend Sunday night in ... which brings me to start of my 3rd week in Charlotte.

On the home front in NJ -- still no offers on the co-op and we dropped the price again this week to $149,900. The realtor said that the feedback he is getting doesn't really help ... people don't anything negative to say about it, but also don't have anything positive to say either. UGH!!

Well, it's going to be a busy week this week -- and although this post was probably a bit boring, when something exciting happens, I'll let you know ... until then, Thanks for Reading!

The Deep Freeze

Wednesday night it dropped below freezing down here - so everyone was complaining about the 22 degrees it bottomed out over night. When I got to the lobby in the morning and looked outside, I noticed that the fountain in front of the hotel froze overnight! I got a picture as you can see.

Today I had to make a presentation to all the other managers and supervisors about a new lobby program. As my buddy put it - I had to jump in with both feet this week! A little bit of reluctance from a couple of people, but overall I think it went well. Now the test will be implimentation which begins on Monday. It's my day off, but I'll be out there to help roll the program out. Thursday night was uneventful and Friday morning I attended my first financial critique meeting at this hotel. One of the supervisors handled it this period, next period it will be up to me!

Working the evening shift Friday and then the morning shift on Saturday - so it's time to get ready for work. Thanks for reading and I'll tell you soon about my first weekend in Charlotte!

Venturing out on my own

Sorry for this post being late, but I did go out for some nightlife last night and got back late. . .

Another 60 degree day here - a little rain in the morning, but that's a good thing since the Southeast is in a drought situation. After work today I ventured out on my own to get a mailbox to start forwarding my mail down here. Having your mail forwarded to the hotel would seem like the easier thing to do, but it is very had to forward your mail from a commercial address to a residential address, so I felt this would be the easier thing to do. I mapped out the route from the hotel to the Foxcroft Shopping center and found it very easily. I bought a mailbox for six months at a UPS Store. I found my way from the UPS Store to the South Park Mall and found the Bath & Body Works so I could buy some hand soap for my room (not a fan of washing my hands with bar soap). Then I found my way back to the hotel! I am already starting to learn street names.

Since I didn't have to report for work until 1:00 pm on Wednesday, I decided that it would be a good night to go out and get the lay of the land for one of the bars. North Carolina liquor laws require bars to be "private clubs" and in order to go to the bar you need to be a member or be the guest of a member. I had applied for my membership on line before I came down because there is a three day waiting period between filling out your application and getting your membership card. It was a quiet night at the bar - being mid-week - but about 20 people maybe. Met the owner of the bar and chatted with him a little bit. He came to Charlotte about 12 years ago from Chicago and I learned a lot about the scene in Charlotte and where certain groups hang out and that the bars & clubs in this city are facing the same challenges as bars around the country. On tap was Blue Moon, Ice House and Yuengling - I've been suprised to see Yuengling a lot down here and I always thought it was a Pennsylvania & New Jersey thing! It was weird to smell cigarette smoke again in a bar!! I'm sure it will take a long time for smoking to be outlawed in NC - with it still being a big tobacco state - there weren't a lot of people smoking anyway. The bars close at 2:00 am and I think I left shortly before that time.

Well, time to get ready for work -- and thanks for reading!

First Day on the New Job

It was a foggy morning here in Charlotte - luckily that was outside, so my commute to work today was not impeded. The walk from my room to the front desk was easy to make. I spent the day getting information from the temporary manager about the hotel. I have a cubicle right now, but hopefully that will change after the next set of construction. Not much else to report today, except that it hit close to 60 degrees today.

For dinner i went to PF Chang's with the temp manager. It was my first time going to a PF Chang's and had the "ginger chicken over broccoli" with a pint of Strongarm on the side. For dessert they have these little mini deserts in shot glasses for $2.00 - I tried the S'mores - layers of chocolate, graham cracker crumbs and marshmellow fluff. It was good!

Caught "Little Shop of Horrors" on HDnet Movie channel -- I'm going to get spoiled with this HD television! LOL.

Time for bed now ... thanks for reading!

Made it to North Carolina

Well, I made it to Charlotte today. The drive from Richmond took about 4:45 minutes and went about 309 miles. Most of the drive was in nice sunny weather, but hit rain as I came into Charlotte, so didn't really get to see the skyline through the clouds.

The trip down for those interested started yesterday in Shrewsbury Twp, NJ -- I took a bunch of local streets to Route 34 south to Route 195 west. From there I took Route 295 to the Delaware Memorial Bridge. From there it was Route 95 south to Baltimore where I switched onto 295 into Washington, DC where I got onto Route 50 then Route 395 and back onto Route 95 to Richmond. Stayed overnight in Richmond - got up this morning and pumped my own gas for what will be a regular occurance and got back onto Route 95 to Petersburg, VA where I got onto Route 85 into Charlotte. Then took Route 77 south for a few exits and then local roads to my new job. Only took 10 hours and two tanks of gas to go about 625 miles! The drive along 85 in VA was nice -- two lanes tree lined on each side with a wide median between the north and south bound lanes. At one point in NC came across an area with grass and trees charred on both sides of the highway -- glad that wasn't today, I'd have to assume the road was closed for a long time!

The rain stopped before I reached the hotel. At least it washed some of the salt off of my car. It took two trips with a full bell cart to load my luggage and "stuff" into my room. Luckily they have me in a room on the first floor close to the lobby, so I didn't have to go far. I unpacked, found places to put everything. I brought a couple of things to make it feel more at home - the plant that my staff sent to me when I was in the hospital back in December and a ceramic dog that holds rings and stuff that used to be on my Dad's dresser when I was growing up. It was just last month that the dog and the dresser were reunited when my Mom moved the dresser was sent to me! They will hopefully be reunited again soon -- anyone looking to buy a 2 bedroom co-op in Shrewsbury Twp, NJ?? Let me know, I have one for sale!

After I unpacked I took a walk over to the South Park Mall (no, not that South Park) for dinner. As soon as I found out there was a CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) at the mall my mouth was watering and I planned on that being my first dinner when I got down here. Food was as good as it usually is -- but the difference of going to a CPK in Charlotte is that NASCAR was on the television and country music was playing on the sound system. I was actually watching the race!! I've realized that I will need to pay more attention and find out who the local favorites are -- I don't think they pick a favorite by who looks the hottest or has the car with the nicest color! LOL

Spent the evening chatting with old friends and maybe some new ones on line while the Oscars played in the background. It's currently 43 degrees outside and expecting a high tomorrow of 62! I'm not in Jersey anymore! LOL

Well, have to report for my first day on the job at 8:00 in the morning, so I am off to bed at about 11:30 here. Will keep you posted on my first day.

Thanks for reading!

My New Volume Opens

Well, today was the day that I started my move to Charlotte. Having lived in NJ for all but the first two years of my life, this is a very big move for me to take. Luckily my newest and best buddy was there to help me keep my head straight (so to speak) as i prepared to leave today. I usually overpack even when i go away for a weekend, but i was surprised that i was still able to see out the rear window of the Jeep for the drive to Richmond today and then onto Charlotte tomorrow.

The drive was uneventful - just hit a little traffic south of DC - but it took 5 hours 14 minutes to go the 313 miles to Glen Allen, VA. Staying overnight tonight at a SpringHill Suites - hotel #201 for me!

Well, hopefully i'll get in the habit of writing down what i've been discovering as a transplant to North Carolina - i also hope that it gets more interesting as we go along.

thanks for reading!