do you know the way to...

I am in San Jose "on business" for the week... after a hellacious time getting out here which involved sitting on a lovely JetBlue plane in the Logan Airport terminal for 3 hours PRIOR to departing and THEN spending 6.5 hours in the air...

Next to a man with quite possibly the worst breath I had ever smelled! I could smell it when he didn't even have his mouth open. We spent 10 hours nestled closely together and I did not utter 2 words to him because I was afraid of what would come out if he DID open his mouth. AND - when we landed, he pulled out his backpack from under the seat and there, in plain view, a bright green pack of Orbit MINTY MINTASTIC gum. I can't imagine that he didn't even consider popping a piece of that stuff... based on the smell, his mouth HAD to have tasted like [insert your most favorite vulgar smelling/tasting noun here].

I, on the other hand, compensated for him and chewed about 37 pieces of Orbit White Bubblemint... because I was hoping there would be some power of suggestion each time I popped a new piece. No such luck. And I even gave him my endearing "I'll offer you a piece of gym if you look at me" glance... but he paid no attention.

And I spent 10 hours huddled in my sweatshirt.

Thank jebus for JetBlue's TV feature. It distracted me from most plane nuisances. I watched the pants off of HGTV. Property Virgins AND House Hunters. It was blissful.

BUT... BUT... JetBlue now charges $7 for a blanket. What gives? And, if you're not going to let me control my bodily temperature, you should at least give me access to the thermostat, dammit!

Anyway - I made it safely to San Jose. And got to bed at nearly 1am (4am my time... for those not so adept at time change math). Awesome. But I still scraped my ass out of bed early today to get in a run... I knew I'd need the adrenaline for the busy week we have at work.

I was really looking forward to Starbucks this morning... which is conveniently located right in my hotel and turns out to be worst Starbucks in history. (Not really, I am just overtired now... I love you Starbucks, really, I do.) The total for my order was $10.89. I handed the barista a $20 bill and did not think anything of it until she handed me my change back and said "$9.11... that is a horrible amount of change to receive"!

Who says that? Just give me my money. No $0.11 tip for you.

Good times... she also doubled as the hotel receptionist. A novel multitasking solution that I've never seen done before. Seems sort of cool, right? It was... until I ordered my grande skinny vanilla latte and she had to pull out the instruction book to concoct my oh-so standard Starbucks order. (I should have known I was doomed when she cocked her head when I said "skinny" in my coffee order.)

In good news, it is eternal sunshine out here... and I will spend my days cooped inside, with no access to windows (or air). But, hey, I am surrounded by great people and when you work from home, sometimes you just need human interaction.

Happy Monday...