Djan karet – “The hour that stretches.” I’m living that hour today. Eight of them, in fact. I’m in the office, at work, for 8 long, stretching hours. They’re stretching because at the end of them, on the other side, is 10 way-too-short days of this:

Curaçao. In the western Caribbean, just off the coast of Venezuela, with some of the best scuba diving around, it’s my favorite place in the world and I haven’t even been there yet. We’ll be there for ten days and we’re leaving tomorrow morning. It hurts me that I’m not there already.

Come on, clock. Move!

This lyrical joke is so obvious, I’m ashamed at myself for using it and I’m feeling actual physical pain over it — and yet I’m doing it anyway. Do you know the way to San Jose? I do: Drive to Burbank Airport and catch Southwest Flight #182. Easy-peasy.

Anyway… So yeah, I was in San Jose today. Just a quick one day up-and-back trip, but I’m still delivering for you readers with another View From Here installment. I didn’t stay in a hotel this time, but the client did have me wait in their conference room until they were ready for me. So here’s my “room” in San Jose:

And here’s the view from the conference room window:

And just for fun, here’s why I do everything I can to not fly Southwest:

Moooooo…….

If it’s Tuesday, it must be Longmont, Colorado. Ha.

I was in Longmont, CO in November, and here I am back in Longmont, CO again today. Same hotel, even. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Well, the view changed, at least. You can follow the link above for the view last time, and here’s the view this time around. First, my room, right next to the elevator because they cleverly ignored my routine request for a room away from the elevator:

And the view, this time looking off to the east:

The last time I was out here I got to have dinner with my half-sister, who lives in the next town over. I don’t have time to do that again this trip, but I’ll make time for a quick bite at the finest restaurant in all the land: Waffle House. Yes, Longmont has a Waffle House: Unit 1072. Can you believe Beth won’t consider moving here?

Greetings from yet another Hampton Inn & Suites hotel, this time in Calgary, AB in the Great White North, aka Canadia. What’s it look like in Calgary, you say? Just like this:

You can’t see it in the picture, but just out of frame on the right there’s a McDonald’s. Now, I don’t know if it’s just the McD’s I stopped at on the way here from the airport or if it’s all Canadian McD’s, but the one I went to didn’t have a Quarter Pounder with Cheese on the menu. WTF is up with that? No QP? Why, it’s unAmerican! I let them get away with it because this is Canadia, but I’ll be investigating this matter further. I see a trip through the parking lot in my near future. I’ll report back later.

And how’s the room? Remarkably similar to this:

And you can’t really see it in this picture, but just out of frame on the left is a wall, and if you put your nose right up against and look really really hard, you can almost see through it. Because the walls here are tissue-paper thin.

Which means I can hear everything my neighbors are doing (watching Still Standing on the TV right now, volume up high– shoot me now, please). And my neighbor is here with friends who are staying in rooms across the hall. And they’re all REALLY REALLY LOUD. And they keep calling each other on the phone to ask “WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW? HAHAHAHAHA! I’M WATCHING THAT TOO!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! NOW WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” And they keep shouting across the hall to each other “CALL ME ON THE PHONE!!!! NO, YOU CALL ME!!!! HANG ON, I THINK BRETT’S CALLING ME NOW!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!”

Grown men. Thrilled to the gills at staying in a hotel. I remember when staying in a hotel was that exciting to me. I was six.

Edit: Canadian McDonalds’ do carry the Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Whew. And my neighbors are still loud and obnoxious.

I’m taking Bob and Doug McKenzie‘s advice: I’m going to take off to the Great White North. It’s a beauty way to go, after all. I’m flying to Calgary Wednesday, and I’ll be there ’til Friday.

That’s one of the nice things about this job (aside from watching The Office at the office) — I’m still traveling but the trips are short. Instead of being stuck in a hotel room and away from Beth and Zoe for 10 days like I was for my last job, with this company it’s a 2 day quick in-and-out. I fly in the night before, train on-site for two days, then fly home the evening of the 2nd day. Nice.

This will be my second time going to Canadia, and each time has had something to like it for. The first time, in Vancouver, I enjoyed dirt cheap sushi. My boss and I feasted like kings for something like $11 US each. And Calgary has the Elbow River and Stampede casinos going for it, with poker rooms and blackjack and craps tables and everything else I love about a casino. I like Calgary already, and I haven’t even been there yet.

Koooo-loo-koo-koo-koo-loo-koo-koo!

Greetings from room 512 of the Hampton Inn in North Andover, MA. First the photos, then the complaining:

What a nice view!

What a nice room!

And now, let’s commence with the bitching. Oh. My. God. My trip out here was not fun At All. I left for the airport in L.A. at about 9:30 a.m and finally got to my room here at 2:30 a.m. the next day. Fun, it was not.

On second thought… Eh, who cares about the bitching. Here’s the short version: I had to wait several hours for a connecting flight at Dulles. Poor widdle me.

Anyway, I’m here now, and on tap for tonight is dinner with my former coworker Gavin. He lives about in Salem, about 20 minutes from my hotel. Small world, eh? I haven’t seen him since we both got laid off from the Evil Empire, and he’s now working for the San Francisco company I interviewed with a year ago that didn’t hire me because (I think) I held out for another $5k/year.

Maybe, if I’m lucky, he’ll take my picture at the Samantha “Bewitched” statue!

I’m back in my old stomping grounds: Longmont, Colorado, just outside of Berthoud and Loveland, where I lived during 8th grade. I’ve lived a lot of places around the US and Colorado certainly wasn’t one of the longer ones, but this area has always been where I’m “from” in my heart. It’s nice to be back.

Here’s the view from Room 204 of the Longmont, CO Hampton Inn. It had just started snowing when I shot this picture and the snow was gone within an hour.

And here’s how the room looked before I trashed the joint:

Guess who missed another flight home? So here I sit in a hotel in Chicago, on the stand-by list for a 6:20 a.m. flight tomorrow morning. It’s not like I’m new to this traveling thing. So what is it with me and missing my flights back home lately?

This time around I knew how to get to the airport and left in plenty of time (I thought) to get there, but Chicago traffic got in the way. Mapquest says the drive from Milwaukee to Chicago Midway airport should have taken 2 hours and 13 minutes, but Mapquest obviously wasn’t listening to the traffic report. For the last 35 miles, I was going between 3 and 10 miles per hour. I finally got to the airport four hours after I left Milwaukee — and 1 hour after my flight had left without me.

So here I am in room 114 of the Four Points Sheraton at Chicago Midway Airport, right next to the soda, snack and ice machines, which would be nice if they weren’t so fucking loud and the walls so thin. But at least I’ve got a view of the parking lot!

So here it is, the View From Chicago:

…and let’s not forget the Room in Here:

Holy smokes, I wrapped up work early enough to upload a View From Here picture while it’s still light out. So here ya go, the View From Milwaukee. Pretty good, doncha think?

And, of course, the Room In Here. Ladles and gentiemen, room 426 of the Milwaukee Amerisuites hotel.

I’m posting this from the Denver airport during a layover on my way to Chicago. I love the Denver airport because it has the fabulous Shibby internet kiosks, and posting entries from these things has become one of my traveling traditions. I took a picture of this Shibby before I began this entry so you too can marvel at the magnificence of the Shibby.

And now… I’m off to Gate A38 to catch Frontier flight 532. See ya…