Tracy Calabrese

I won’t be spending a full week in my office for the next three weeks.

Vacation day this Friday, off for Labor Day, vacation day the Tuesday after Labor Day and then spending a week traveling for work.

• The people here seem pretty friendly. Maybe Texas has rubbed off on me, but I sort of like that the people are friendly. But they are a different kind of friendly. They seem…happy. Even on a gloomy day, they seem happy.
• Side-note on the happy people - there seem to be a lot of young, homeless people. From what I can tell, they sort of seem happy too.
• I think the coffee tastes better. Or maybe it is just that this is such a coffee-centric town that they spend a little extra time to prepare it because it is their passion.
• It’s green. And there is water. And trees. And mountains. Oh my.
• I might be coming up here on a semi-regular basis, especially since my “boss” is based here and I have a new client here, so I need some Seattle friends. If anyone in my tumblr network knows anyone in Seattle that wouldn’t be creeped out by meeting someone from the interwebs, well, you know where to find me.

I was just planning out my travel calendar for the next few months and I am pretty darn busy. I have been traveling a lot this year, mostly to NYC, but the next few months have me all over the map.

• Seattle
• Cleveland (I am really going to Geneva, OH)
• New York City
• Austin
• San Francisco
• Napa

I am really looking forward to getting out to the West Coast. It feels like it has been forever since I have been out there. Maybe I will actually make it to Platinum status on American Airlines by the end of the year!

After spending almost 9 hours in the Las Vegas airport last weekend, I was pretty pissed. I went standby on a flight to get out the city earlier and home to get some sleep. The plane I flew standby on had mechanical issues. Something about a malfunctioning alarm. 

They kept pushing back the flight, so I called my travel agent and she rebooked me on the next available flight…which was 6:15pm the next day! Talk about unhappy. American Airlines finally found another plane to fly everyone back to Dallas. The bad news was that it left at 9:30pm, landing in Dallas at 2am. I know shit happens so I didn’t complain to American Airlines. I just rolled with the punches.

Today, I got a surprise in my inbox. American Airlines gave me 5,000 miles on my account! Kudos to them.

Booked…almost.

I reserved the ticket so I had some time to call my mom and let her know that I ended up getting on the same departing flight as my dad and the same return flight as both of them and now Continental won’t let me actually purchase the ticket. At least I have it on reserve for 24 hours, but I am going to have to call customer service in the morning. I despise dealing with customer service, especially when I have to call. Hopefully, it is painless since the ticket is technically just sitting there waiting for me to buy it.

The good news about having to deal with this…I had enough miles on Continental, which I never fly anymore since I moved to Dallas, from my trip to South Korea last year that I only had to pay the $5 fee for my ticket. And…since I didn’t use my American Airlines miles, I have tons of them to use either later in the year or save until next year and hopefully go on some amazing trip. Maybe Mexico…or back to Napa…or Aspen or Taos for a ski trip in the winter.

A real vacation would be nice, but for the time being, I am going to Las Vegas for work (and staying a few extra days for a mini-vacation) in March, possibly LA for work for a day or two in March and New Jersey in both April and May.

• I didn’t feel like I was getting sick.
• I didn’t get home from SD/LA/SF at 6am this morning.
• I didn’t spend 20 mins on the phone with AT&T customer service trying to get my air card to work again.
• I had some good food in my pantry/fridge.
• If the Cowboys weren’t losing right now. Pull it together boys,.

Off to San Diego tomorrow for CTIA IT & Entertainment. I feel like I just got home. Oh wait, I did!

I am looking forward to SD. It’s been well over a year since I have been there. My last trip was…100% opposite of this one, but it did introduce me to west coast beaches and In-N-Out Burger.

I am looking forward to exploring the city a little more in the limited amount of free time I have. I don’t think I will have time to head to PB (Pacific Beach) or go to the zoo, but I am sure there will be some interesting stops on this trip.

And I am off again!

I spent last week in South Korea for a work-related trip. Here are some random thoughts and observations from my trip:

• Seoul is like any other city. It reminded me a lot of LA, except about 10 times the size. It took me until the last night in Seoul to actually feel like I was in a foreign country.
• Apartment/condo buildings are what make up most of the skyline though out the Seoul metropolitan area. 50-story buildings with the same design in huge clusters are everywhere.
• I am NOT a fan of kimchee. I maybe like one or two types of kimchee, but the rest is pretty gross. By the end of the week, everything started tasting exactly the same.
• Soju is also gross. It tastes like a combination of vodka, sake and rubbing alcohol.
• The “hip-hop” brand Fubu is owned by Samsung. They also have shipyards, make cars and textiles. They have clothing stores as well.
• Almost everyone in Korea drives a Hyundai or Kia.
• The DMZ put me a little too close to North Korea, but it was pretty darn awesome. I bought some DMZ chocolate and a T-shirt.
• Most hotel bathroom and public restrooms in office buildings have heated toilet seats.
• People in South Korean speaking suprisingly good English.

For my first trip out of the country, it was fascinating and a lot of fun. Work dominated most of time in South Korea, but we did spend the last day sightseeing, so I was able to absorb some of the cultural aspects of Seoul. The jet lag sucks, but it was worth it.