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!