Back form DC

Friends:

Well I’ve been missing in action for a few days. Here’s the thing – I was traveling and didn’t want to post it on the web because bad people troll for that kind of info and use it to do bad things.

This was my first real business trip since I returned to work a scant 11 months ago. It was exhausting. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m still recovering or that I am 55, but jeepers creepers I was bone weary when I came home.

Part of it may be that I insist on take public transportation everywhere (not cabs) and hauling my luggage all over town because I had to change hotels mid-way through my trip. At one point I had to go from the Hilton to the other side of DC to the Melrose Hotel. Anyway, I had to walk 15 minutes to the DuPont Circle Metro station lugging my suit bag and computer backpack. I navigate the Metro, the transfer and end up at the Foggy Bottom station. Along the way I’ve lost the address, but I remember the Melrose is New Hampshire St. So I walk another 15 minutes to New Hampshire St.  NO hotel!

So I ask a cop on bicycle where the Melrose is and he shouts 24th  street, motions over his shoulder and pedals away. I walk seemingly forever. With every step my frustration grows, hands scream, and attitude plummets. I eventually end up in front of the West End Library and stop for a rest on the its wall with a bunch of rough and tumble customers who look at me not as a target, but more as an oddity.  Like a French Legionnaire trying to find an outpost in Algiers, I wander into the Hyatt, quite ready to say “fuck it” and spend the night there and regroup, but being the good steward of public funds I am, I ask the concierge where the Melrose is. She gives me a map and sends me on my way.

Another 15 minutes later I finally make it to the Hotel make it to my room and flop on the bed. It is all quite humiliating.

That was – by the way – my second long walk that day. I had walked 4 miles through one of DC’s wooded trails earlier as a workout. Yikes!

That’s it more to follow,

See you,

Bill