where's waldo?

allow me..to share with you..my very unexpected day in the atlanta airport. i arrived in atl direct from clt already disappointed in my travel lady for a)a layover and b)a 3 hour layover. who is my travel lady anyway? oh that's right..me.

7:35am: "i love landing. it's my favorite." is the words i woke up to when we landed in atlanta. was i sitting next to "buddy" the elf? apparently, yes. ok, time for some coffee and breakfast. :here is where the day spun out of control: as i sat at chilis and choked down their version of egg whites my day was getting longer and longer and i didn't even realize it.

10:45am time to head to the plane. i am told that at some point..an elderly man (in my minds eye: hard of hearing, plagued with cataracts equipt with a walking cane and an :awooooga: horn) accidentally mistook my oakley, roller bag for one of his (probably american tourist) bags. which would mean he took two bags with him after only arriving with one (logic is silly..i know). once i realized the bag was missing i hustled off on a mission to find waldo..my bag.




12:05pm found waldo! at the usairways customer service center. once the usair lady finised telling me how irresponsible i was for leaving my bag unattended (focusing too much on breakfast i suppose) i set off to re-book my missed flight to phoenix. 9:00pm the airtran mr.man told me. i was very disappointed, angry and happy all at the same time. my day had been an emotional roller coaster and it was only lunch time.

1:00pm i passed the time by people watching and taking random photos like this one. it's amazing how after 12 plus hours of being in an airport you really kinda stop giving a shit about what people think. i will say that the airport becomes very  creepy and lonely.. kinda like the tom hanks movie "terminal." but i wasn't alone..justin beiber was there too. 



now..if there are no more blogs from me this evening you can assume i made it onto this flight and none of the wheels fell off.

"Waking up in Vegas"

:booong: The sound of stiff bodies begin to shuffle. The buzz of lost text messages and voice mails finally arriving to their recipients. The :click clack: of worthless seat belts being released. And finally, the plane door opens and the smell of dry desert air fills your nose. That's when you begin to hear it, :bing bing bing: the bells, the whistles, Welcome to Vegas, try your best to NOT die, but if you do, tell Elvis "Hello" for us.

For most, a trip to Vegas means leaving all of your morals, ambitions and budget plans behind and living for just a short time in the Fantasy Land of the here and now, because What Happens In Vegas, Stays In Vegas. Right..? Well, I was in Vegas for business. Eight whole days of business. :uggghhh:  It's the week of the SEMA show (a trade show based around automotive performance products, and in my case...brakes). Lucky for me, I had an entire pile of work, numerous meetings and a good book to armor myself from the bright tempting lights of Sin City.

First on my to do list was to install 3 of our upgrade kits on 3 Suburbans. That was easy enough considering my recent love affair with my job as a mechanic. Frankly, it felt awesome to have my hands dirty again. I must tell you, our strategy for selling these brake kits was quite the undertaking, here's a quick run down:

- Install Upgrade Brake Kits on 3 Suburbans
- Plot Out A Test Drive Route for Potential Buyers
- Ride Along On Test Drives
- Sell Brake Kits

Sounds simple right? In case you aren't paying attention, here is my version of what all of this means:

- "Borrow" 3 Suburbans
- Remove Stock Brake Kits, Install Our Mack Daddy Brake Kits
- Plot Out A Test Drive Route On Public Roads, In Downtown Vegas
- Allow Vegas Vacationers (those same What Happens In Vegas people that were taking down shots of straight Vodka on the plane, cause its VEGAS) to test drive the stopping power of the kits, while you ride along,
- And, oh yeah, try your very best to not shit your pants.

Once the kits were installed, it was time to ditch my wrenches and crew shirt, let my hair down, put on the heels and sell some brake kits. Every salesman saw the dynamic that the ride and drive program was giving the company. Nonetheless we had all considered the possible lawsuits that were surely lurking in the background, or in this case, city streets. We rolled the dice and the program went better than I anticipated. All things considered we returned with very little body damage, only a few tickets and no one died. A success if you ask me!

Now, it wasn't all business in Vegas. Outside of the trade show, the bright lights of the city strip drew us in like bugs to a porch light. Industry parties, open bar tabs, foreign super cars, brass poles, flashing lights, security run-ins, etc. What Happens In Vegas..

"Shut up and put your money where your mouth is,

That's what you get for waking up in Vegas." -Katy Perry