One of those days!

I had been out of town for a conference (a gerontology meeting) and it went great! Lots of fun people, good information and networking. Great conference center, I will post a pic or 2 when I get home. It was located just outside of Washington, DC. Chantilly, VA to be exact.

You conferencing friends out there will understand this one - TPTB wanted it to be a 'working' conference...no sightseeing and shopping instead of going to meetings. So...the solution to this issue was to locate us far enough away from EVERYTHING that we never left the hotel. Just a trip to the local Target (because, I will never pay 2.00 for a diet coke or snack crackers) was 16.00 cab ride! So, we all stayed there - and made the best of it. It was a harsh conference schedule: Friday night 5pm-10pm, Sat and Sun 7:30am-9:30pm. There were breaks of course, and the evening included dinner and cocktails - but yikes!! I am conferenced out at this point.

You will see more about the place here. It is a lovely place and super comfy rooms, tasty affordable restaurant and coffee bar, fun spa and rec center and excellent service - so if you need to head to that area, I can highly recommend it. If I was going there for fun, I would certainly stay again.

So, I left this a.m. out of Dulles Airport - no probs there at all. Flew into Dallas and that is where the fun began today! We waited on the taxi-way for 30 or so minutes because there was a plane in our gate with mechanical problems. We finally were allowed to deplane - and got sent to the wrong gate. Ran to the right gate for the connecting flight to Austin and there was a very large crowd.

The flight attendant staff said there was a "weight issue" on the plane. Now, I don't know what that means, but it scared me. Was there too many passengers (it looked like it) - was there too much stuff on the plane? too much fuel? I didn't want to be in something too heavy to stay in the air - so....She asked for volunteers with flexible travel plans and said if we waited for the 6pm flight, she would give us a 300.00 travel voucher. Yay! Free travel, you would have done that too right...?

I got out of line, got my voucher, got some lunch and took the Sky Tram to the other side of the airport to do some work and wait for my flight. Internet is not free - so I decided to do the one day pass in the American Airlines Admiral's Club. Ordinarily, I am booked pretty tight between flights - so no time for chill. But I thought I might like it today. Boy was I right :) 

For my 50 bucks I got free internet, free drinks, free food and nice comfy chairs :) It was worth it to me - especially when I just found out that my 6pm flight is now cancelled and I *might* get to leave Dallas at 7pm! Ha! So much for giving up my seat.