I am in Anaheim for the next 2 weeks. Sadly, it is going to be a busy trip and I don't know if I'll have a lot of time to see friends while I am here. I did have cocktails tonight with some pals from an old forum, which was lovely. So much fun to gossip about our mutual acquaintances.

Well, I am at home for another 12 hours. I've really had a lazy few days, not doing anything much that didn't appeal to me. (Which means that I did not get bills paid and I really need to see about that.) But I've had plenty of sleep and I have been indulging my night owl side - after all, this time tomorrow I will be on the west coast, so turning in at 3:00 am is really just getting me in line with the time change.

Los Angeles was really, really odd. I stayed in Montebello, which appears to be very upscale (at least enough for a country club) and, judging by the country club membership, mostly African-American. Our lab is in Pico Rivera, about 10 minutes away - very urban and judging by the signage there, mostly Hispanic. Ten minutes the other direction is San Gabriel, which is another culture entirely. Very urban but definitely different from the Hispanic areas, and entirely Asian. No matter where I went, I didn't speak the language.

Driving down to the lab in San Clemente was fun, although someone should have warned me about the Marine Layer. Was like driving into a fog bank - very cool, but a little unnerving.

The city areas around the office were odd. There seemed to be a "99 Cent Water Gourmet" on every corner. Also on every corner were bus benches, with no one sitting on them. It was too hot to sit in the sun; the bus patrons were sitting on the ground behind the benches in their scant shade, or standing next to some tree or building. It has certainly reinforced my status as a country girl.

Tomorrow, I'm flying into Orange County and staying in Anaheim. More new ground to cover.

Okay, there are some things that are just basic to a good hotel room. I've done a lot of business traveling in the last year, and I have a list:

1. I should be able to use the toilet and note have to watch myself in the mirror. Seriously - why do they do that? It's awful.

2. Good beds and pillows. We changed hotels - a corporate place we had been using for a long time - over bad bedding and pillows. When I travel for work I generally spend time in conference rooms and in bed. Conference room chairs are never comfortable, so my bed should be.

3. A mini-fridge. One of my favorite things about the hotel we use in Milwaukee is the little fridge-microwave set-up. Since this place didn't have a free breakfast, I stocked up on instant oatmeal, cereal and fruit and I was just fine. Which leads me to...

4. A good breakfast buffet. It needs to be fast and it needs to be free. There have to be some hot options - I don't need omelets cooked to order, but oatmeal, scrambled eggs and bacon will suffice.

5. INTERNET ACCESS! I am shocked at places that either don't have in-room access, don't include it free with your room and don't have good tech support for it. They should be out of business.

6. A desk with a chair you can actually work in. The one I'm sitting in right now is about 3" too low and there's no way to raise it.

7. An alarm clock that works. Really, that one's a no brainer.

8. A hair dryer. I was shocked to check into a hotel in Detroit and find out (the hard way, the next morning after my shower) that there was no hair dryer.

9. Good shampoo and shower gel. Do not try to buy me off with those cheap-ass bars of soap. Nobody uses those things. One of the places we use for work got me hooked on B&BW Coconu Lime Verbena. Marvelous stuff.

10. QUIET. Seriously, I am a working person. If you are going to have kids playing in a basketball tournament or some other crap staying here, put them all on one floor and respond PROMPTLY when I tell you they are having roller-chair races down the hallway or singing karaoke in the elevators.

That's not too much to ask, is it?

Well, I am home from Milwaukee. There shouldn't be any travel for the next several weeks and I am undeniably glad about that. Five weeks living out of a suitcase is enough. I need to spend some time with friends and family, do something other than hang around by myself and read, get acclimated to my house again.

Of course, this weekend hasn't been quite what I expected. I've spent most of the day on the couch, in the dark, with a headache. Not a migraine, but it might as well be. My head feels the way your head must after a bad fall that involves smacking it into the concrete. It might even be turning into a migraine, as the pain is working its way around the left side of my head. Let's say a little prayer for no nausea, shall we? And I am seeing the neurologist tomorrow, so maybe there is something else he can prescribe.

I'm also planning to talk to him about the sleep paralysis. I had a couple of minor incidents while I was in Milwaukee (strange hotel rooms and being overtired, I suppose), but it would be nice to have something to take to help me get back to sleep.

I'm going to sit here and have a nice cup of tea (sometimes the caffeine helps, even if it won't help me sleep) and hope to ease the ache a bit before I turn in. Going to be an early night tonight - I've got a lot to do tomorrow.

Yep. Here I am, back in Milwaukee. The project is...going. There are times when I am really enthusiastic, and there are times when I just can't imagine how this could possibly work. This software has some very serious issues - accounting functions that don't work the way an accountant would expect them to. Basic things that you would expect in a CRM system don't happen, or have to be forced to happen. It's really infuriating. I have no idea how this is going to turn out.

Here I am, back in Milwaukee. Tomorrow, I fly home to Cleveland and on Sunday, it's back to Milwaukee for at least 2 weeks. This is when the whole "I like business travel" gets tough.

I really do enjoy it, but I've been gone three weeks now and I am only halfway through this trip. At least the hardest part is over - my training is done and starting tomorrow, I'm just running the powerpoints.

I think the problem this week is that I am coming down sick. Why not? I've been locked in a training room with sick people all week. I'm really not surprised. I just want to get home, spend the weekend wrapped up in a blanket, sucking down hot tea and vitamin c. That will make everything much better.

I was thinking about Valentine's Day...

This year, I happen to be dateless (although it may work out that I am meeting a new internet boy for the first time). In the past, I have had casual dates, new boyfriends, and even a long stretch with a man I loved (at the time). But it occurred to me that Valentine's Day never really made me feel loved.

I didn't feel loved because a guy bought me a Valentine's Day card or sent me flowers - it was Valentine's Day! That's what he was supposed to do. There was absolutely nothing special about getting flowers on Valentine's Day. There was nothing special about getting a card or getting chocolates, because the tv and newspaper ads had been screaming at him for weeks that he had to get me something special.

I didn't feel loved no matter what he bought me - there was always someone who got more roses, bigger diamonds, better chocolates. And it occurs to me that the this is the crux of Valentine's Day - the competition, especially among the women. It's so much about being able to show off to the other women in the office how my man got me the best flowers...or being sadly out of the competition when there were no roses on my desk. It was all the speculation about who would get diamonds, who would get flowers, who would get engaged, and the aftermath, talking about where you went and what you did and knowing that your story would somehow never quite measure up. Even if I secretly suspected those other women were lying, I still couldn't manage to come up with the best lie.

I just don't buy it anymore. It's great to get flowers, but I would really, honestly prefer to get them on my birthday or our anniversary than to get them on some random day that the floral industry has designated as the right day to send them. (The right day to send roses in particular, which are out of season, all imported and at the height of their price.) Of course, when I say that, other women look at me and shake their heads sadly. Poor thing, they say to themselves, it's so sad that she doesn't have a man to send her roses.

Maybe next year, there will be some special man in my life. Either way, there will be no pressure for roses in my house.

It was a balmy 2 degrees when I got up this morning! A friend came up for the weekend, which was great. Lately, I have either been working at home (which leaves me feeling a little isolated) or chained to the company of my teammates on the road (which can be awkward and tedious), so having both Friday night out with friends and a gal-pal visiting for part of the weekend have left me feeling much more relaxed. Good to have smart girl-talk and not have to pretend I'm interested in talking about citrix issues and training plans.

I'm going to be in Milwaukee for all of February and the first week of March (I'm flying home for 2 weekends mid-month). It's a long time to be living out of a suitcase and eating restaurant food, but I am planning to take my workout dvd with me and see what I can do to keep from falling into a rut. There's a pool at the hotel and I need to check the hours, see if I can get in some swimming and hot tub time, too.

I'm also spending some time trying to get my financial affairs better organized. One of the things that has always been a problem for me is that I am a procrastinator - I have the money in the checking account, sometimes I have even written the check, it just takes a while to get it in the mail. In recognition of this, I am trying to get as many bills as I can on autopay, so I don't have to think about them. I paid off my car this month and I am down to just one credit card left with a balance - not bad, all things considered. I have upped the amount I am paying to the bank on my big loan, and I should be in a vastly better position by this time next year. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I really should make it simple, since I am so bad about posting on this journal. Maybe resolving to post once a month? I could probably manage that. And maybe to find a less provacative user pic. I've had this lovely redhead for a long time.

Right now, I'm working on an implementation and training at our lab in Florida. All in all, it's not a bad place to be in January. The only times I've been to Florida have been in January; it's sort of a pattern. It's been a pretty successful week, and the work and experimenting I've done here is really going to help in the planning I need to do for the big implementation coming up in Milwaukee. Still - I would love it if we could convince them to continue the project down here. Milwaukee isn't a friendly place to be, weather-wise, in February.

I don't think I posted about it here (since I'm pretty sporadic), but earlier this year I signed up for the "50 Book Challenge" on LibraryThing. I know I read a lot, but I wasn't really sure how much and I thought it would be a fun way to keep track. I also exchanged some email with author Joe Hill (Stephen King's son, who also has a library over at LT) about the way he tagged his books. He has categories for "Read in 200?", so he can keep track of when he read them. Seemed like a very cool idea, and as I was updating my challenge thread, I realized that I had hit my mark! I am currently at 53 books for the year - not quite on pace for 100, but still a respectable total, I think. I've been reading a lot more since I started my book blog, and I've been pickier about what I read - so many books, so little time. I decided against posting the list here (too much typing), but you can check the list and the mini reviews at the link to my challenge post. I just felt like giving myself a little pat on the back!

Well, the CT scan results were - I don't know what, really, since the doctor wouldn't give me info over the phone. I have an MRI scheduled for next week, which doesn't worry me so much. This just seems to be the natural order of things. If the CT scan results don't show something obvious, we'll do an MRI to look at the soft tissue. And if the CT scan results do look wonky, we'll do the MRI just to be sure. I won't worry until they schedule the angiogram. That means there is definitely something to look at and the procedure is scary as hell.

I am back from yet another trip to Milwaukee and I am exhausted. I seriously need a keeper to follow me around and make sure I'm eating right and getting some sleep. I am too worn down right now and not feeling good about it. I'm tired, so I'm not exercising or going to the grocery store and doing the housework, so my cupboards are empty, my house is a dusty, cluttered mess and I feel blah. And I go back to work on Monday, so I've got about 20 hours to turn it around.

Yesterday, I went in for a CT scan, see if we can find the source of my latest cluster of headaches. It's been bad lately - the last business trip, it was so bad one night that I got up and put on shorts and a t-shirt. All my pain-addled brain could work through was that if my head exploded in the middle of the night, I did not want someone coming in the next morning and finding me naked. Scarred for life, they'd be.

Part of me almost wishes they would find something in the scan - as long as it is something they can fix. A clear scan is good, except it means there's no easy cause for these headaches. The scan was pretty easy (literally 6 minutes is all it takes) but when they do the iodine for contrast, it's miserable. You suddenly feel like you're burning up from the inside, your mouth tastes like you've got a handful of dirty coins in there and you feel like you are about to piss yourself. It fades uickly, but the fading brought a headache. More fun.

So tomorrow I am off to Milwaukee again. I'm getting a little tired of Milwaukee and sick of the hemming and hawing about whether they are going to put me on this project full time. I would really like to come home from this trip with some answers.

I have been scheduling a couple of days a week to work from home on ERP stuff and boy, could I get used to this! I get up at about the same time every day, but after a quick shower and a cup of coffee, I am ready to start work about 6:00 am. I can knock off between 2:00 and 3:00 pm, since I got such an early start and I work through lunch. I can work in comfy clothes, I can listen to the radio or the tv while I'm working. I admit that it's sometimes hard to stay motivated, but then again, I have trouble staying motivated at the office, too. No money on gas, no money for lunch, this is the good life.

I got back from Milwaukee Friday night and it looks like the PTB have finally gotten around to doing what I have been praying for: making me full-time on the ERP project. I spent today training a couple of new finance team members, I'm spending tomorrow working from home on software testing and I'm spending Friday working from home writing work instructions. (I was supposed to be taking a vacation day on Friday, but I need at least 2 days of serious work on this and I have other things going on at work. At least working from home will sort of seem like a vacation day.)

I am back in Milwaukee the week of 9/7, again the week of 9/28, and again either the week of 10/13 or the week of 10/20. I'm sure it will be the first option - it would make 2 years in a row that I'm out of town for my birthday.

Okay, I am a bad LJer and I haven't posted in ages and ages. I have been swamped with other things and actually trying to spend a little time not parked in front of the computer, with questionable success). But there are a few interesting things that are going on:

Amsterdam was lovely. Photos are here. I didn't get to a lot of the museums because the weather was too freaking gorgeous. I'll go back sometime in the middle of winter and spend the whole trip stuck indoors.

There should be a change in my job description soon, as I have been asked to work full-time on the big ERP project. This means a break from the deadly-dull drivel that has been filling up my days.

My book blog is really taking off. I've gotten several solicitations from authors about reviewing their books, I'm getting a steadily increasing number of hits per day and I have gotten great feedback on my reviews. I even managed to get myself linked a few dozen places when I weighed in on first a very sexist review at the NYT and then on a stupid column over at Huffington Post. But good lord does it take a lot of work! I've got a pile of books to be reviewed that you would not believe and there are more showing up every day. I am pretty much calling a halt to new requests for a while, since I have got to get some of this caught up. My total "to-be-read" pile is now well over 100 books, and the pile that I am obligated to review is about 30. All this time I thought I had to buy books and it turns out all I had to do was ask people would send them to me for free. Who knew?

I am currently in Torchwood withdrawal and have been immersing myself in fanfiction and peripheral stuff. Broke my heart to see that James Marsters (Captain John) and Gareth David Lloyd (Ianto Jones) are putting on a private, intimate concert at DragonCon. If I were planning to be at DragonCon and didn't have to be out of town for work, I would sell plasma if necessary to afford it (tickets are $150), but I would pay twice that to hear Gareth read poetry to me in that lovely accent.

Well, I booked my ticket yesterday - 11 days in Amsterdam, courtesy of my company. Somehow, trading July 4th fireworks for a most-expenses-paid weekend in Amsterdam seemed like a good trade-off.

Things I am excited about:
* Never been to Amsterdam and I am always excited to trael somewhere new
* Being one of the only people at my lab to have visited the corporate headquarters
* Making my boss seethe with jealousy
* The Van Gogh Museum
* The Anne Frank House
* Tulips and windmills
* Being basically on my own in a foreign city

Things I am nervous about:
* Being basically on my own in a foreign city
* Logistics - getting from the airport to the hotel, getting back and forth to the office, finding my way to the touristy things I want to see
* Cell phone issues
* Lost luggage when I have days and days of meetings
* Food - I have been warned that the crowd at corporate is not big on good restaurants
* Getting lost. I get worried about getting lost when I'm 30 miles from home. This is going to be a challenge
* Not making a good impression at corporate.

Still, I am really looking forward to the trip. I'm not too freaked out about the long flight - it's mostly overnight and an Ambien and I should sleep like a baby. Of course, the plane lands at 7:00 am and I'll be going right into the office and that's going to suck, but I'll manage. I just have to make sure they put me up at the hotel downtown, not the one out at the airport. But still - AMSTERDAM!

Well, I'm still typing with my fingers crossed just in case, but it looks like I'm going to Amsterdam. Even better, it won't cost me a thing. Our company's corporate HQ is in Amsterdam and we have been trying to squeeze in an additional ERP session (big computer project I've been working on). The team leader suggested that since it's a small group (2 people, including me), we could do it in Amsterdam. We were having some trouble working out the dates, but I took one for the team and sacrificed - I offered to come over the week of July 4th, miss all the fireworks, and stay through the weekend. That way, we get all the computerish bits done July 1-4, I get a free weekend in Amsterdam, then 2 days of meetings and 2 days of travel the following week. Should be fabulous!

I have to admit to being a little nervous. All of our Dutch employees are tall and slender, which makes me feel even shorter and fatter than usual. I am a little concerned about getting around the city on my own - subways make me nervous and although I understand the last group rented scooters for trips around town, I've never ridden a scooter and I haven't been on a bike in years. However, I am far more excited about getting a chance to see a new city on someone else's dime and racking up some frequent flyer miles!

In book news, my latest review is up at my book blog. The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff is a fabulous book - the fastest 600 pages I've ever read - and I'm going to be recommending it to everyone I know.

Took a nice drive out to Hartville today to the 4th Annual Brigadoon and Beltaine Festival. Nice enough, but hardly worth the gas I spent getting there. There weren't a dozen booths and most of them were Scottish heritage booths - great if you want to look for a relative who was Clan MacDonald, but not much fun otherwise. A couple of booths of the usual RenFaire jewelry, and a nice stand selling pasties, meat pies, shepherds pie and shortbread. I got there right after the caber toss and before the hammer toss, but I had no great desire to hang around.

I did check out the Maize Valley Farm Market and Winery, where the event was held. I was disappointed that there was no corn wine, but I bought a couple of bottles, all the same. On the way home, I passed a sign for Viking Vineyards and Winery, figured it was a good day to explore. Turns out it's a charming little place on a private lake, with a nice patio for sitting outside with a bottle and a picnic. And all this time I never knew it was there.

It's funny that my last post at this journal was about books. I've been doing a lot of reading lately and I've been getting more serious about my book reviews. What started as little blurbs over at LibraryThing has become a full-fledged book blog. Minds Alive on the Shelves will have my book reviews, book signing adventures and other related book chat. I'm certainly finding the interface at Blogspot to be a lot more fun to work with than LiveJournal.

I thought I was heading to St Paul again in early June for more work stuff; instead, there's a chance I might be going to Amsterdam! Keep your fingers crossed and think Dutch thoughts for me.

Why is it when I have so much to do, I can't seem to motivate myself to do it? I have a stack of movies sitting here - netflix, library dvds, episodes of Torchwood, Blood Ties and Criminal Minds that I have downloaded - and I have not been able to sit down and concentrate on any of them. I also have a pile of books to be read - one that I need to finish up for Early Reviewers, one that was due back at the library yesterday (and they won't let me renew it because it's on hold), at least 4 that a friend in St Paul sent me - but I haven't been able to read more than a dozen pages without getting distracted. What is wrong with me???