Minor update - I must have been really tired because I published this entry twice. I 'unpublished' one of them and some comments got 'unpublised' at the same time. I did get your comments, though. Also - I'm updating my little friend's name so it is spelled correctly.

Business travel is always full of interesting *cough cough* experiences. For some people that means drinking too much alcohol and drunk blogging. For me life is not so colorful.

For one thing, I always forget something and for another I get CNN disease and end up watching too much TV. And I never, ever get enough sleep.

Here are some highlights of my last 2 trips.

1). Last time I was on the road was when the Coulter/Edwards fracas was in full bloom. I was watching the news in my hotel room and discovered that what she was referring to was the Isaiah Washington/T R Knight dustup in which Washington hurled the 'f' word in Knight's direction and was ordered to check in to rehab. Oh - you hadn't made that connection? Neither had a single other person on the planet. Anney it really is time to STFU.

2). I shouldn't know stuff like that. I really shouldn't. It's a hotel room disease

3). When I checked in to my room last night I was greeted with a noise that sounded a lot like a cricket coming from the bathroom. It went on and on for a while and it was LOUD. I looked around and there was no bug and it only sounded sort of like a cricket. I called down to the desk to ask if I could be moved and the woman told me they were sold out. Exasperated, exhausted and terrified by visions of being woken up all night by this noise I replied with more cynicsm and anger than I should have, "are you trying to tell me this is the LAST room in this hotel? I just checked in 15 minutes ago." That went over well. She responded, "Ma'am I'll have to talk to my manager and get back to you and HUNG UP! I.was. steamed. The noise stopped and then started again so I pulled the phone into the bathroom, called down again, got a different person and said, "do you hear that?" and held out the phone. She didn't hear it. I explained the situation and she said she'd send someone right up. The engineer came in - 20 seconds after the noise stopped. I described it to him and said, "but I'm pretty sure it's the plumbing - I don't see a bug. But what can I say. There's no noise now". There was nothing he could do so he left. I called down again and asked to be moved and they were really not helpful. I was furious. I was writing a letter to Hilton corporate in my head that went something like, "I'd rather sleep in a muddy gutter than give your chain one more DIME of my business. I WILL NEVER STAY AT A HILTON AGAIN!!" It was 10:30 at night and I was really tired.

I went in the bathroom and lo and behold - who should saunter across the floor swinging his little umbrella and singing, "You've got to accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative Latch on to the affirmative Don't mess with Mister In-Between" but my buddy Jiminy Cricket. Holy crap - I really did have a cricket in my bathroom. I caught it in a glass, called the desk and reported my findings and they offered to send housekeeping up to fetch Jiminy and to comp me a breakfast. I ripped up the letter I had written in my head and hit the skids.

4). I got up at about 5:30 this morning to run and remembered it was too dark so I decided I'd go to the hotel gym. I opened my bag and got out my cool max shirt, my sports bra, my shoes and socks and...and... and..... no shorts. NO SHORTS! I momentarily envisioned myself on the dreadmill in jeans and then decided to stay in my room and do some crunches and stuff. It was a reminder that I need to memorize a few good core routines for just such emergencies. It wasn't much of a workout but it did confirm that I always forget something.

I have a long list of things I wanted to write about but alas it is 11:00 and I am blogging when I have to be dressed and on the way to my client site at 5 AM. Like I said, I never get enough sleep on these trips. I just hope you-know-who doesn't find me. I really need some shut eye.