Tarnished

One of the greatest yearly television events is the NCAA basketball tournament. CBS typically puts on a great show for every game, capturing the emotion an excitement of the tournament. The tournament itself is perfect. 65 teams playing to be the best. Are they the best 65 teams in the country? No. But the best teams that have a shot at winning the tournament are there.

There has been talk of expanding the tournament to 96 teams. This is a pure profit move. All they want to do is create more revenue. They're not interested in making a better tournament, or giving other teams a shot. It's a pure money grab. Think of the NCAA football mess. The reason they use to not have a tournament in that sport is that it would take the student-athletes away from class too much, and that they are students first. Never mind the fact that a football tournament would take place when most schools are on break. The student athletes are already missing potentially 3 weeks of classes during the hoops tournament. Adding another 32 teams makes that number 4 weeks.

If you want to add some more mid-majors, why not add 3 more teams. That would take care of most bubble teams that could possibly have a case. If you expand the tournament to 68 teams, you get an additional 3 games- all "opening round" games played on the Tuesday before the main tournament starts. This would determine who plays the number 1 seeds in each of the brackets.

As for CBS' "One Shining Moment", it too has been commercialized. This year they had Jennifer Hudson sing the song, and we were treated to video of her stylized singing during the video. Showing her of course means that there was less time to show the kids who were playing in the tournament.

Over the past few years, the quality of the final piece has steadily gone downhill. I had some people over a few years back to watch the final game, and we all had the same thought "Wow, that was bad". A few months later, I had some others over to watch NHL playoffs, and the subject came up, and it turns out that he was the one who edited the NCAA piece. I was shocked when he admitted to that. If I had done something that bad, I would never want my name associated with it. Needless to say, that was good compared to this years. That song is so perfect for the tournament, yet instead of seeing more shots of kids playing their hearts out, we get to see an artist trying to sell a new album on iTunes.

What was I thinking?

February is always the toughest month for me work wise. I am gone for 2 weeks working 16-18 hour days at the beginning of the month, fly home for less than a day and then fly out to the west coast. That alone is enough to take a toll on a person. What I've done to compound this and make it worse this year is to take a red-eye home from the west coast. Unfortunately I couldn't take a direct red-eye, so I'm currently waiting in Houston for my flight home to Newark.

I'm supposed to work first thing on Wednesday in Las Vegas, but that won't be happening. I'm taking a "me" day on Tuesday and flying out to Vegas on Wednesday morning. Crazy, I know. Next year I hope someone reminds me how I feel and tells me to take the extra day out west and just drive from Cali to Vegas. I'm sure I'll be much happier, even if it does mean fewer days at home.

Up in the Air

Since I first saw the previews for it, I've wanted to see Up in the Air since it had the potential to be very close to home for me. I wasn't disappointed. Warning, there is a SPOILER ALERT BELOW…. I don't want to ruin it for anyone- it's safe to read until you see the Spoiler alert. The movie was very good, and shows what life can be like on the road. While there are many similarities between the George Clooney character and I, there is one BIG difference. Once I get to a city, I am generally with people I know.

I think the biggest similarity I have with him (besides the requirement for Travelpro luggage (more on that later) is how empty our homes were. It took me about a month of living in my current apartment before I realized why I was so comfortable in it. My apartment feels like a hotel room. From the exterior hallway with it's rows of doors-



to the privacy latch and peep hole,




it feels like a hotel room. Generally my refrigerator is empty. Sure it may have leftover beer from my last party and 3 month old milk, but that classifies as empty to me.

Lots of people have asked me when will I get off the road and start having a normal life. What people don't understand is that this travel is my normal. I don't know anything else. I don't know if I can handle life off the road. After a stressful point in my life a bunch of years ago, I was comforted by sitting in an airplane seat. That is where everything felt right. I was at peace. Very few people I know have successfully made that transition. It's not an easy transition to make either way. Life on the road is very independent. Eating dinner by yourself in a restaurant isn't something that you get used to right away. Eating room service every night isn't practical. Eating fast food every night isn't healthy.

It is very difficult to have a successful relationship when life on the road is involved. Many years ago I was at a hotel outside of Philly while covering a Villanova basketball game and there was an very attractive young lady at the bar hitting on a slightly older guy. They were both business travelers, he run down, her full of energy. I recall they were both involved with other people, and this was seemingly a problem for him, but when she uttered the following "Don't you know the mantra of all young travelers?-- What goes on on the road stays on the road." he forgot about anything else and they started getting closer to each other, more flirting and eventually left the hotel bar together. To this day, I've never made a pick up on the road. I don't have that in me. I don't know if its catholic guilt or what. I see people I work with do it all the time, and I hear stories about when they were younger. I can only imagine how bad it was before they were married.

The other side of the relationship coin is for the one who isn't traveling. It's got to be tough for that person to stay faithful as well. While there may not be as many opportunities for infidelity, the time spent apart adds up and people have needs. Someone who is in a relationship with a traveller needs to be just as independent. They need to be able to function without their partner for long periods of times.
SPOILER BELOW











Getting back to the movie, it ends up showing all of this, although not quite directly. Assuming you have seen the movie- George Clooney is the person who doesn't know how to function not on the road. He has traveling down to a science. He knows his job in and out. For him, life on an island is best because the way he is wired, it is easiest. You do get weighed down by all those things in your life. One could argue that those which weigh you down also keep you grounded. I used to be great in keeping in touch with people and making sure that I would see everyone. Now I suck. If Isee my family maybe 6 times a year, talk to them 15 times I think that would be a lot. I went over a year without seeing a friend, and the way we knew is that her daughter had been pretty much a new born the last time I saw her and I was attending her 2nd birthday party.


We actually learn two things form the young woman who he is teaching how to travel. The first is from her boyfriend who we never meet. The partner of a traveller has to be strong. They can't be upset that the person is gone, and they have to be able to function on their own. In the young woman herself, you can see someone who just isn't cut out to do the travel. She is wide-eyed and eager, but the road (and her job) ends up wearing her down. She left for the job she was meant to do, unencumbered by her boyfriend. While on the subject, you have to make decisions for yourself and not for anyone else. Her going to Wichita because her boyfriend got accepted to some school there was asinine. She took a soul sucking job that she never could have been happy at for her partner. As soon as things started to go bad, he left her, and she was still in Wichita at a soul-sucking job. When I moved to be closer to C, I gave up the NY metropolitan area, but not much else. My job remained the same and I lost that what if factor. The character should have taken her dream job in San Francisco and dealt with the long distance relationship. She also had the same dream that I have had on occasion- How fun would it be to pack a suitcase and head to the airport and pick a destination to go to on the spot with Frequent Flier miles.

From George Clooney's love interest in the movie you see the worst. She goes on the road and lives by that same motto. When she is doing that she is not only endangering her own marriage and family, but taking advantage of other people as well. The Clooney character thought he had finally met his equal, his match and was starting to let her into his life. He brought her to his sisters wedding, let him into his very inner circle and was finally ready to settle down, only to have his hopes crushed. He was ready to give up everything he believed in. Being a member of the 10 million mile club really doesn't mean anything in the big picture. It would take someone years to recover from that if ever.

I am well on my way to 2 million miles currently. The funny thing is that when you travel so much to accumulate that many miles or hotel points the last thing you don't know what to do with them. I gift my miles more than I use them. I have used them to fly friends internationally, to send my parents on vacations, to help friends get to where they need to be in family emergencies.

For the Travelpro comment above- on my trip out to Minneapolis this past Thursday, my bag of 10 years finally broke. The handle came out from baggage claim locked in the up position. I couldn't get it down. The person next to me was shocked and questioned me when I didn't go to the Baggage office to complain. I told them that the bag had lasted me 10 years. It survived over 1000 flights. I think that I got my moneys worth out of the bag and it's time to replace it. If you're in the market for luggage, get the Travelpro Crew series. It's a little more expensive, but you won't be disappointed.

How 253 affects me (and other things)

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard about the Nigerian who tried to light an explosive during the descent of Delta Flight 253 into Detroit. I can't comprehend what drives a person to commit an act of mass destruction such as that. What I do know is this-- the actions of that one individual will seriously impact my life and many of those around me.

I like to spend as little time at the airport as possible. In the ideal world, I arrive at the airport and check my bag 45 minutes prior to departure, head right to security and then to the gate and get on the plane. I hate having to wait. I carry on lots of electronic gizmos. My laptop, cell phone, iPod, Kindle plus extra batteries, charges, headphones, etc to support them. The keyboard on my laptop suffered damage in June so the Y, H, M and 6 keys don't work. I was holding off replacing my laptop until the new ones came out (late January 2010) by traveling a full size USB keyboard with me. I ordered a replacement keyboard and will be installing this week when I get to Dallas. I don't want to have to spend any more time explaining things than I have to.

From what I heard form colleagues today -- security lines are longer than ever now, passengers had to be individually patted down, Passengers had to explain and turn on every electronic device they had with them. People who arrived a full 2 hours before their flights missed them today. I now fly out at 6:45am on Wednesday on a ticket that was purchased 2 hours ago. I'm trying to figure out what time I need to get to the airport now in order to make that flight. Typically I would have left my apartment at 5:15 and had plenty of time to spare. I'll let you know how that goes.

As for those I know in the airline industry -- I can't fathom what they're going through now. More and more pressure is being placed on flight crews to fill the holes that are left by TSA.

As for TSA -- Like security anywhere, it is just window dressing. It deters MOST sane people. If someone is really dead set to cause harm and willing to give their own life for it, the will succeed. Even though this person did not detonate their device, it has changed all of our lives forever. He won, much like the infamous 'shoe bomber' did.

Blast from the past...

If at anytime you doubt a vote for Obama, just watch this....

Dreams

A couple of weeks ago I had a weird dream. It was odd that I remembered it all. Typically I don't remember dreams, and this one was particularly vivid. In the dream, I was walking to the train station as I would be doing that day and saw someone drowning in the river. In my dream, I ran to the fence line, found a life saving ring and through it out towards the guy. I then put my bag down, took off my jacket, shoes and socks (weird, I know) and jumped in. I swam towards the victim, pushing the life saver to him, and then pulled him to the shore. By that time paramedics had arrived and as far as I know the guy survived.

That morning, I go about my day, and I walk past that area. What was weird was that it was exactly the same as it was in my dream. The Fireboat wasn't there (it usually is), the same boats were in the same position as they were in the dream. It was a little awkward but I went on thinking nothing of it.

Later on in the day, I get a text from one of the ex's I'm still friends with. She and I exchange messages often, so again, nothing unusual. She wasn't feeling well and thought she had the flu. Throughout the day, she continued to tell me through texts how bad she was feeling, etc. Through texts I was trying to get more information from her to try and help out. She figured it was food poisoning or the flu, but couldn't keep anything down, including water. She was throwing up every 30 minutes, almost as if on a schedule.

I was done working, and called her to see how she was doing. In talking to her, she sounded weird. Not weird as in sick, but just not there, as if something major was wrong. I started to go to her place to see if I could help. On my way, I started to use my Blackberry to do some research. An important piece I've left out so far is that she is a type 1 diabetic. She has been for 19 years and is well controlled. She switched to using an insulin pod over the summer and it has given her great freedoms. Searching diabetes and vomiting I found out about DKA- Diabetic Ketoacidosis.

DKA is caused when the body has little or no insulin to use. The blood glucose level keeps rising to dangerous levels. The body ends up building up acid in the blood as it is buring fat for energy now. I'm being over simplistic here, but DKA results in a dangerous cycle- the person isn't breaking down sugars, so they're feeling tired. The body tries to break down fats to sugars for energy, causing the glucose level to continue to rise, and then vomiting ensues, trying to keep numbers ok. Because of the vomiting a person becomes severely dehydrated. The person is feeling very lethargic, they have difficulties with thinking. This prevents the person from testing themselves. If a person were to test themselves, they'd realize that there was something wrong.

As I'm on my way over, I ask her to check her blood sugar. She's in the high 300's. In doing this quick research, I learned that when I diabetic person starts vomiting when their blood sugar is high, they should seek medical attention immediately. That started around 10am. It's now 8:30pm. We're 10 1/2 hours past that point. As I get there, I tell her all of this and tell her I'm taking her to the hospital. She looked awful, her eyes were almost recessed. She says lets wait for 30 minutes and I told her no, we're going now.

When we got to the ER, she was taken almost right away as this was recognized to be a serious medical situation. Long story short- the needle from her pod had back out of her skin and hadn't been delivering insulin for approximately 20 hours. Her blood sugar had been in the high 300's for over 20 hours. (Normal is 80-120). She was roughly 8 liters dehydrated. Her kidneys were with in hours of shutting down. She was only a few hours from going into a diabetic coma. She was so out of it, she didn't realize how bad she had gotten. She ended up in the hospital for 2 days and was released with a clean bill of health.

I don't know if there was any correlation between the dream and taking her to the hospital, but the doctor said she was in a life threatening condition when I brought her in. It was a very weird coincidence for sure.

Day 1 - Northern CA

After the disappointment of not having J coming on the trip (it was just 2 friends going on a trip together, but who knows where it might have lead), I drove up to the hotel, which was just a wee bit further than I thought it was. OK, it was a lot futher. It was close to 300 miles from SFO. It was a beautiful ride up Hwy 101, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and the road went on forever.


Finally around 10:15pm PT, nearly 22 hours after I left my apartment, I arrive at the hotel. This hotel was more like a trailer park. They had cabins, and I got a deliverance vibe as I pulled up. I found the place on the internet, and needless to say it didn't look nearly the same in person as it did on the website. Exhausted, I crawl into my cabin/trailer and go to sleep.

When I awoke, I went of exploring the town, and find that it's a small fishing community nestled in with the Redwoods.

I walked down to the water and found a beautiful little beach.
After an hour or so of walking around, I headed back to the trail, and off to the redwoods.