Hotlanta

This past week was my second work trip to Atlanta.  I had hoped for a little more free time to check out the city, but sadly, this was not the case.  After landing on Wednesday night I grabbed a little dinner nearby the hotel.  When I asked for the wine list, the hostess actually carded me before she would hand it over, then when I order a glass the waiter wanted to check my ID again!  I guess it's nice for people to think I look so young.  My crabcake dinner was only so-so, but it was food and I was tired.

After dinner I checked into my hotel.  I had booked it through Dendreon's corporate travel agency which rated the place as 4 stars, but take my advice, don't ever stay at the Atlanta Airport Hilton!!!  The lobby was fine, but in the room the wallpaper was peeling off, the carpets were stained, there were bits of trash lying in the corners of the room, there was some sort of sticky residue on the desk, the thermostat didn't work, there were random hairs (not mine!) in the bathroom, the grout was so dirty it was almost black, and temperature of the water in the shower couldn't be adjusted.  I was so grossed out when I walked in the room I wanted to leave immediately, but it was 10:00pm and I didn't really know where else to go.  Since I was only staying two nights I figured I just had to suck it up and deal with it.  Obviously I survived; let's just hope that I don't come down with some sort of rash or bed bugs.

The beautiful airport view from my hotel window

The next morning I woke up early to head into work when I saw an email from some guy I'd never heard of.  Apparently he worked at Dendreon Atlanta and wanted to know when I would be training his crew.  The night crew.  They work from 10pm to 8am.  Uhhhh....  I knew that they had shifts running 24hrs, but no one ever mentioned that I'd have to be training them at night!  Since I was only in town for two days, I didn't really have a lot of options.  I called the guy back and arranged to come in that night to train his folks.  Meanwhile I still had the whole day shift to train.  I was in the office from 9am to 4pm (with no break for lunch), but at least everything went well.

Starving, and determined to do at least one cool, fun thing while I was in town I drove over to Flip Burger Boutique for dinner.  When Richard Blais from Top Chef lost his season, he partnered up to open this high-class burger joint.  Now that he's won Top Chef All Stars he's opening up a new "fine dining" establishment in Atlanta, so maybe I'll have to check that out next time.  The bartender said that Richard used to be in the restaurant all the time, but now he hasn't been around as much so I didn't get to meet him while I was there.  But I did get a Nutella and burnt marshmallow milkshake; a delicious burger with blue cheese, frisée, caramelized onion, and red wine jam; spicy bbq sweet potato tots; and a free shot of grand marnier from the cute bartender.

I tried to get a little rest before going back to work, but I just couldn't fall asleep at 7pm.  So, at 9:30pm I went back into work and didn't leave until after 5:00am.  By the time I got back to the hotel and showered and was ready for bed it was 6:30am.  Three and half hours later my alarm clock went off and it was time to check out of the hotel and head back into work until 3:00pm when I had to rush to the airport to catch my flight.  While waiting at the gate for my flight I was running on almost no sleep and hadn't eaten anything in almost 24hrs.  I was not a happy camper, but at least managed to get a little snack.  I had been hoping to catch some Zzzzz's on the ride home, but I was smushed in the middle seat between two big guys taking up too much space and I just couldn't get comfortable.

It was so wonderful to be back at home, in my bed that I went to sleep at 10:30pm and didn't get out of bed until almost 1:00 in the afternoon the next day.  Not wanting to waste the sunshine, I checked out a little seafood festival Saturday afternoon and then enjoyed the beautiful rooftop view of the sunset along with a nice glass of wine.  Tonight, I'm about to head out to a nice little cookout at a friend's house and then the work-week begins all over again.  Let's hope this week is a little calmer!