12.12.04
Got back from Atlanta, I think it was a good trip overall. Had some good food in between agency meetings, even the cafeteria was pretty nice as well. I suppose it is a southern town with a big city feel to it. A couple observations of Atlanta in general, the traffic was pretty brutal, I think the city is a prime example of how much Americans love their cars. Got to stay in the Westin Buckhead, which was pretty nice for a business trip, not to mention the reduced room rate.
Traveling for work is a different experience, I think in general it puts you on edge being that your boss and co-workers are right there with you the whole way, it adds a layer of stress in deciding where and when to stop for lunch, who drives, when to leave, etc. And when things don’t go quite as planned, then there is a mini crisis or two that come about. For me personally I’ve been kind of blah about a lot of this, I’ve gotten so used to travelling solo from Madison to Honolulu so many times that the layovers and delayed flights don’t faze me nearly as much as the average person.
Can’t say that I’m all too thrilled about work travel, although I think if I went to the private sector and could upgrade my seat to anything but coach, then maybe I would change my mind. The seats on delta really suck. One thing that I noticed is that the airline industry is not really customer-oriented. Given all the security demands and fuel costs one might be sympathetic to their challenges, but after reading up on some of their business practices I have to be a little skeptical.
I’ve been noticing the demographics of a lot of agencies that I’ve been visiting, along with the observations of the federal government as well. To be blunt, its surprisingly haole, in saying this I should mention that while I fully expected a majority, I didn’t think it would be at this level. I notice that aside from the few token minorities (including myself) most of the people of color are either custodial, security, or office supply support staff in most of the agencies.
Went to a row house party last night and off to U street to a place called Saint Ex. It was a standard DC bar/club with two floors featuring two different types of music and venues. The usual crowded fare with lots of dressed up 20-somethings and lots of smoke. Haven’t been out dancing in a while it was a change of pace for sure. The crowd I was with was a mix of professionals, another change of pace from the college/grad student fare. I noticed that I started to get a little winded by about 2am, I think working full time takes some of the energy out of you to party all night long.