Texas

Sorry for the posting hiatus. I just realized that my last post was in May...that seams like forever ago! I just got back from my first business trip. (Well, I technically went to Greensboro when I worked for Next Media Radio for a night, but that didn't involve flying, my own hotel room or company paid meals). I went to Houston to the ILTA Trade Show (http://www.ilta.org/). I've always thought it would be so official and important and career-like to go to a trade show. My brother-in-law has the opportunities quite often but he works for the surf industry, which is way cooler than the oil industry. It was OK...but better than my predictions, so it was a nice surprise to half-way enjoy myself.

First off, if you don't know (see previous posts), I work for a Honeywell-owned company that manufactures and sells products to oil companies. Yes, I know gas is crazy expensive and I agree that the oil mongols are the most corrupt business people in our country, and no...I can't do anything about that. I still have to pay for gas just like you do, there are no gas discounts at Honeywell. Besides, someone has to provide them with products that blend, inject, prove, gauge and make cleaner the gasoline that we all put in our cars everyday. And I support those involved in Sales and Marketing :).

I was pretty much in charge of our exhibit at this show. It was pretty great because all of the responsibilities were given to me about 5 months ago and my bosses just told me to run with it. I worked with one guy in our Houston office and two people in our Delft, Netherlands office to get everything together and it turned out swimmingly. Our booth looked awesome, we had a ton of traffic through, and I received great kudos from my employers. The Americas VP even said that he was considering sending me to Rio de Janerio to the Rio Oil & Gas show! I'm not holding my breath, but that would be an amazing opportunity.

The best part about this show is that there were people from all over the world there with us. We have 5 folks from the Netherlands (go Holland soccer team!!), one from Venezuela and one from England and I had the most fun with all of them. It is so humbling to be around people from other countries in the States because they always put us in our place. Darren, from the UK could not believe how big our American portions are at restaurants and how much we waste here. I could say nothing because he's spot on; in his words, "it's a bugger that you have so much and waste it". What can you say to that?

But, I was able to learn some Dutch, how much Europeans live, eat and drink soccer and how Holland beat Italy for the first time in 30 years at the Euro Cup. Let's just say there was a Heineken/Amstel Light celebration courtesy of my Dutch friends. I decided that Americans are missing out because we don't use the word "bloody" and "bugger". You should expect me to start using both in everyday vocabulary.

I came back Wednesday night through the terrible storms that passed through Atlanta. We were delayed 2 1/2 hours and then flew through a rain cloud, which was terribly frightening! By the time we finally landed, we taxied for 45 minutes to find a gate and then I took the 50 minute MARTA ride to the 'burbs to be graciously welcomed by Wes and the appropriately named Kiss 'n Ride parking lot at North Springs Transit Station.

I'm glad to be back in the ATL.