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!