Last Day At Ameriprise

If I had two other co-workers walking out with me today, I would imagine our conversation going like this:

BRIAN
Wow, our last day at Ameriprise.

COWORKER1
I can't believe they had security escort us out. Not like we're gonna steal something.

COWORKER2
I stole something.

BRIAN
Oh yeah. I guess we all did.

COWORKER2
No, I stole something else.

COWORKER1
What did you steal?

PETER
We'll call it a going away present.

[Scene A field. They drop the printer. COWORKER1 stomps on it four times and BRIAN, eight times. COWORKER2 hands COWORKER1 a bat. He hits the printer twice and BRIAN takes over. He starts to punch it. COWORKER1 and COWORKER2 pull him away, but he runs back to destroy the evil printer.]

Upgrade odds

This has been the week full of upgrades. Typically whenever I fly NWA (the airline, not the rap group)... i get upgraded on my 6 am Tuesday flight (85% chance of upgrade). Yesterday I was upgraded and it felt great as usual.

Yesterday afternoon when i checked into my hotel... once again, upgraded to the executive floor. This tends to happen about 70% of these time since i'm a Diamond Hilton Member (AKA travel bad ass).

The week was topped off today when i checked my info for my return flight tomorrow, and what do you know... upgraded again. This odds of this are about 1% since it has only happened one time in the past 18 months. What a way to close out my traveling with two first class seats. Hopefully the food will be tasty on the flight home. That is the least they can do... right?

It's What It Do

The weekend went a little something like this... and that...

Friday night had to be low key,
So i started with a couple beers at the Stoneleigh P,
It started gettin dark,
So we headed to NorthPark,
Kona Grill had a wait longer than tower,
Lucky for us it was revers happy hour,
A few more drinks and then we got our table,
Ordered up a pizza that came from da stable.

Saturday started with the rents comin to town,
Fed them some grub and escorted them arown,
Fixed my sink and started watchin Borat.
The rents left and i headed to allen and stat,
Had a few beers and jetted for some mexican,
Lucky for me, it was great food man,
Idle Rich was next,
And you know it included car bombs and drunk texts,
Tribeca was last,
Don't even ask me cus i dont remember tha rast.

Sunday started with runnin to my car,
Followed by some trips to recover CCs at tha bar,
A movie with my roomie,
A beer a the gman with a buddy,
Hockey at night,
the weekend wasn't light,
but that's how it went down,
can't wait unitl next weekend comes around.

Peace.

The End of The Begining

Minneapolis is coming to an end, my time has expired and it is time for a drastic change in my lifestyle. The infamous in-town project. Something i haven't truly experienced in 18 months. No more frequent flyer miles, no more hotel points, my status is going to fall faster than a penny from the empire state building. My therapist says I just need to start breathing and i will make it through these rough times.

The following are events that took place in Minneapolis, that I won't forget:

1. Feeling stupid and knowing nothing about the financial services industry. Luckily I had a lot of great support that believed in my abilities.
2. Drinking Fat Cat beer. Don't do it. It tastes like shit. Even though their slogan is "It's really really good"... i promise, they are lying.
3. The apartment at Loring Park with the sweet view of some crazy church
4. Walking to work in the snow when it was -10 degrees outside and my hands and ears began hurting almost instantly.
5. Watching a dinner date vomit in a trash can.
6. Going on a date with a Minnesotan country girl who was very clueless and very strange
7. Getting drunk on Mardi Gras night at The Drink and taking shots of jager
8. Valentines Day in Minneapolis - Two male coworkers and myself wanted to go somewhere nice to eat. We walked in to a nice Italian restaurant, noticed that there were a lot of couples, and then realized... oh shit... it's Valentines day isn't it. From there we went to a bar and had burgers and beer. The waitress convinced us to go to the pajama party that was going on downstairs. One of my coworkers thought things were going well, so he went home and returned in his boxers and tshirt. He came back in the 15 degree weather and told us to come on in. Asked her to dance. She was too busy. It was fun as hell though either way. Walking home in the cold with him in his boxers was pretty funny too.
9. The night i got pretty damn wasted and decided to move and knock over construction cones at 2 am. Little did i know that the guy that set them up was watching me. He drove up next to me and asked why i did it... me being drunk and scared stood there and said nothing, my boy D stood up for me and basically told the guy to f' off. It was great.
10. My 25th Birthday -The team here in Minnesota made me a cake and had me blow out candles. So cute.
11. Going to the mall of America... borrrrrring.
12. Eating a Jucy Lucy... tasssssssssty.
13. Having a prostitute try and pick me up after my Montreal trip on my way home on hennepin ave.... good times.
14. Watching the Dallas Mavericks lose game 6 of the NBA finals in the NBA Bar with tons of Miami Heat fans... not so good.
15. Getting drunk at Key's bar... and then bar hopping in downtown with Ameriprise folks
16. Going to The Drink where they had free food buffet from 530-730 and happy hour. Spending our dinner per diem on drinks.
17. Eating the biggest (not best) burrito I've ever had a Chino Latino in Uptown.
18. Watching the Twins play in the toilet bowl
19. Running around the University of Minnesota and feeling like a college kid again.
20. Ice Fishing... wait, never made it that far
21. The frozen Mississippi
22. Two Words... Double Decker Skyway
23. Seeing Robert Earl Keen and Cross Canadian Ragweed play to a bunch of Minnesotans
24. Damian and Jim, the guys that work the bar at Zelo (the best Italian restaurant in DT Minneapolis). Jim always talking about football and the cowboys, and me acting like i care/know anything about it.
25. The peeps at the hotels that know me.



As of now i only have 8 days left including today... only a few more nights to make memorable things happen (three to be exact).

Weekend Wrap Up

The weekend was pretty nice and relaxing I guess one could say. Friday night consisted of me going out and have a good time with some work friends and some old friends from college. I stayed in reasonable Control. Saturday was all about the laundry and doing some initial cleaning. Also went to the Gingerman for a couple of beers which was nice. Saturday night consisted of Joe T's and a movie (analyze that). All very tasty and fun. I got home and was dead tired. Sunday involved more relaxation. All in all, it was some good mostly sober time. Great deal.

Got some pics from San Fran (In case you forgot when i went, it was about a month ago when i got drunk and woke up in San Fran... one of the most random trips ever).

Day 1 Morning: Anchor Steam Beer and a Chowder Bowl... tasty

Sitting in Forest Gump's shoes at Bubba and Gumps

Alcatraz is behind me... Holla Back Clint!

Golden Gate... it's what it do

Day 2: Winery Number One

Day Two: Winery Number Two - Notice How Red I am from the bike ride on golden gate the day before

Feeling good...

In the Gondola up to Winery 3

Winery 3 - Amazing view... shitty wine
Winery 3

Mountains + Casinos + Lake = Tahoe

Sunburn, hungover, and ready to go out in Tahoe

That's pretty much the trip. It was a great time and I am looking forward to going again.

Also, Congratulations to my sister and her man, they got engaged yesterday. Looks like I get to be an usher... wait for it.

Get Ready To Drive

Just found out that my new client will very likely be located in West Texas (AKA SW Fort Worth, Tx). This will be 46 miles one way from my place... so 92 miles a day round trip. I'll be burning about 3 gallons a day... 15 gallons a week...putting some hella miles on my Camry, but those things are built to last.

On the bright side, rumor has it that there is a Hooters close to the client's office. Chicken Wangs, Fries, and Beer are in the near future. I can just taste the fat at the tip of my tounge... mmmmm ... gross.

Long's Peak

Today I booked a flight to Colorado. My climbing buddy and I will be attempting to climb Longs Peak. From what I've read, it isn't that difficult, but from what I've heard, there are some difficult parts to the climb/hike. It should be a fun trip with stories I'm sure (assuming I make it back alive...jk)

Longs Peak stands at 14,259 feet. This will be my first Fourteener (Mountains above 14,000 feet). From there I want to attempt Mt. Whitney (14,497 ft) followed by Pico De Orizaba (18490 ft, 3rd highest in North America). Make it happen.

4 nights left in the great MSP

They say all good things have to come to an end, and my days of traveling are coming to an end. Here are the things I will miss:

- Getting in on Tuesday morning at 11:00 AM to the client
- Leaving on Thursday at 3:00 PM to catch my flight.
- The not so challenging less than 40 hours per week job
- The nice people I work with
- Free food and booze
- Hotel points/Status
- Airline miles/Status

Things I won't miss:
- Waking up at 6 am to catch my 740 flight on Tuesday morning
- Getting home at 9pm from my 520 flight on Thursday nights
- Sleeping in a nasty hotel bed
- Riding in the most uncomfortable seat next to big bertha on a flight to DFW

Going from a traveling project to an in town project can be explained best by this article.

I have four nights left in Minnesota including tonight... and here is what i expect to do:
TONIGHT: Eat at Fogo De Chao... i've never eaten there and I hear it is good. So i figure i should try it.
WEDNESDAY: See a show at the Orpheum. It's a famous theatre here and Mama Mia is playing (I have a feeling anything with that name I will hate, but I might give it a shot)
TUESDAY: One last run in Minnesota. Visit the U (University of Minnesota for those who don't know) and purchase a yellow University of Minnesota Hockey T shirt (Something I've always wanted).
WEDNESDAY: Going away party for me. Enough said.

As you can see, I'm going to experience what i can in my last four nights. I'll give a recap of the past 18 months that I've been here at some point in the next week. Just wait for it.

And... I'm back.

After over 125 flights in the past 18 months, I have only encountered about two delays and never had a flight cancelled. Since yesterday all that changed and all has gone down hill. After some crazy storms at DFW yesterday, my flight was cancelled after I got to sit in the airport for about three hours. Rebooking my flight to tonight was easy, they were able to get me a good seat on the 4:45 flight (being platinum is great and I'm going to miss it someday). Once again today, I was the lucky winner of a delayed flight. Although it was only delayed for an hour, but still, I spent about another two hours in the airport tonight.

With all these new things happening to me, I'm doing another first with my traveling experiences. Room service. In the past 18 months and who knows how many nights in a hotel room, I've never had room service up until about 5 minutes ago. I just ordered, so i have no idea how good/bad the food will be. The reason I've never done room service is that i like to make myself get up and walk around the city to find food. Tonight, I just felt different. Maybe it's because i only have 1-3 more weeks left of traveling and i felt like i have to do this now while i can... who knows.

In other news, I have left Sprint. They t'd me off the other day and now I'm going to show them. By leaving them. That will teach them to not listen to me and be helpful when i'm in a rough situation. I will be entering the world of T-Mobile with a Blackberry Pearl. I've heard good (and a few bad) things about this phone and look forward to putting it through the Gekius Test.

In other news... well... I actually don't think there is really any other news. It's Tuesday, 1020 PM and my room service just got here, so scoot along.

Oh yeah, if you are bored and like the movie Mary Poppins, check out this trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic