so, the week of 6/2 i went on my first company trip to orlando for sales training. i was supposed to be there until wednesday afternoon, but that didn't quite happen.
i flew down on united with my boss and everything went very smoothly. we got to the hotel - again easy. we checked in and then met up with fellow coworkers from around the east coast for some drinks. from there my team went to a sushi dinner that was yummy. on my team are my boss, me, another sales rep, and a marketing person. it was fun to meet the various sales people from around the country! one of them is a marathoner and so we talked and she gave me some good advice. on tuesday, the sales training started and it went all day. i won't bore you with the details... and then on tues night we all went out to dinner at a trendy spot called, hue. it was very good. there are probably 15-20 of us that do sales for what is the eastern half of the country. wednesday was more sales training and then we all left for the airport. we piled in to various coworkers cars who had driven from their respective cities (a few came from around fl and had driven). then we got to the airport, and hell started.
our flight had been delayed - my boss and i were on the same flights - so we milled around the airport which actually has quite a few shops (and no i didn't buy a thing!) and then went to sit in chili's. everytime we looked at the flight status board, our flight was delayed more and more. meanwhile, i'm getting nervous b/c my cousin was flying out and meeting me in chicago. we were supposed to have landed about the same time, but that wasn't going to happen now. so i talked to my aunt and uncle and after some annoying back and forths, they finally agreed to pick up my cousin caitlin and let her stay with them for the night since i wouldn't get back until late. yeah, it was late alright... but i'll get to that. so it's about 845 that night (we got there about 330) and we decide to go check with the counter agent b/c now our flight is showing as if it is ontime and that couldn't be right. well, the counter agent, margarita (like the drink she said) told us that our plane was in the air from dc on route to orlando. that plane had been super delayed due to bad weather. well, the kicker was that by the time the plane arrived, the pilots would be past their allowed flying hours. but, margarita said that since the pilots were based in chicago, they could wave that right. ummm, a little scary, but we wanted to go home. she said they wouldn't know anything til around 10. oh joy. around 945, margarita told us our flight had been officially cancelled. fantastic. so my boss arranged the rooms and we got in line to get our new flights. the problem was that we had a conference call that my boss had to lead and i needed to be on at 10am central time! there was no flight that could get us there early enough and the flight that we could reasonably make after that was at 220ish. arghh... so, off to the doubletree at the airport...
the doubletree only had 2 rooms. smoking rooms. it was about 1030 by this point and we are exhausted and so whatever, we took them. there weren't any other rooms bc my boss had checked at other hotels and apparently other people were stranded too. i went up to my room and opened the door and holy crap, the smoky nasty smell hit me like a ton of bricks. it was awful. i came home with smoky smelling clothes... ewww...
so back to the airport. our flight shows on time. we are both skeptical. but surprisingly they board us and push back. only to turn off the engines and sit on the runway for 30 mins. you've got to be kidding me at this point. and don't forget that i'm coming from orlando... home of disneyworld and every screaming crying kid on the plane that didn't want to go home. so then the flight finally takes off...yay! then we land. yay! and then, we sat on the runway for about another 30 mins b/c we had to wait for a gate. good grief somebody shoot me at this point...
well, finally we get off the plane and take the blue line home. my boss lives in bucktown so he took it all the way home. i got off at belmont and jumped in to a cab. and finally got home, where my cousin caitlin was awaiting my arrival. more on that weekend to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment