The Most Annoying Airport in the U.S. and My Southern Education

I just got back from a 2 day business trip in Pittsburgh. One of the largest vendors in my industry invited about 20 sales people from all over the country for a meet and greet. I knew most of the other sales people that were there. Really great group and the meeting went well. As the meeting was ending and people were getting ready to get rides to the airport, I started to talk to these 3 guys that were all from the South. I mean the SOUTH. Two of them were from Alabama and one from Mississippi. They were talking about going turkey hunting this weekend. Well, being that I've never gone hunting(never have held a gun in my life), I was more than curious about this. After about 20 minutes I learned a few things.



1) You shoot a turkey in the head(I kind of thought one sided-Wild Animal vs. hiding hunter with shotgun) so when you clean it(These guys all eat what they hunt)no shotgun pellets to remove.



2) One of the hunters was taking disabled children hunting. I thought this was unbelievably kind of this man but kind of thought to my self "How can we help a disabled child? Yep, have them fire a 357 shotgun and permanently disable an animal" All joking aside, i think this man is a wonderful compassionate person to do this.




3)If you go hunting in the morning and fishing in the evening it's called "Blast and Cast".


They all offered to take this Northerner hunting. I probably won't take them up but great guys and glad I know them.




So now I'm at the Pittsburgh airport waiting for my flight. I figure I will check e mails and make some phone calls. Well, sitting at the gate you couldn't help but notice that classical music was playing, actually blasting out of the PA system. I mean it was loud.(Van Halen concert loud) People that I was talking to on the phone made comments that they could hear the music. Now, I have no doubts that the airport's thought process was "Let's play soothing classical music to help stressed travelers relax" I understand this and I actually enjoy classical music but at this volume all I wanted to do was look for the closest sharpest object and run into it head first. Glad to be home

Wish I Had a Video of This One

Yesterday I had a meeting with a promotional products client of mine in the late afternoon. This happen to be a meeting where I was going to be showing a lot of items ranging from Hard Goods(clocks, pens, briefcases, desk sets, etc...) and Clothing. So, including my briefcase, I'm going to be schlepping a lot of stuff with me. Well, just so happens that on this fine March afternoon in Chicago, we had some beautiful weather. NOT!!!!! It's a raining really hard, about 40 degrees and the wind is blowing about 25 mph. Basically a really cold typhoon. I'm dreading the thought of having to carry all my stuff in from about 3oo yards( parking lot to office building) and praying( and I never pray) that somehow at minimum the rain will stop ( or least go from carwash pressure down to a drizzle). I can see this is not going to be my lucky day today. So I get out my umbrella( large golf umbrella) and start to load everything on me. I might as well have a been a pack mule getting packed up for a trip down the Grand Canyon with all the things that I had on me. Oh, by the way, I'm in a full suit(big mistake not having an overcoat on). I've loaded everything on me and trying to balance myself or imagine the guy on the Ed Sullivan Show trying to keep all the plates spinning on the sticks. Wind is blowing wickedly and with one mighty gust my umbrella explodes. It flips completely up and 2 of the little posts that hold the umbrellas material to the metal support system actually break off. Now I'm getting the full on impact of this arctic rain storm hitting me( rain was actually coming down sideways-not good!) and I'm holding an umbrella that is about as useful as trying to shovel snow with a rake. It also feels like the clothing isn't as heavy as I thought it would be( 8 shirts on hangers). That's because 2 of the shirt are lying in huge puddles at my feet. So, I throw the soaking wet shirts into my car along with the trashed umbrella and head into the building. I cannot believe how wet I got in a 30 second walk. It was the equivalent of being the only fire hydrant at a dog show. I get to my client's office and he says "You're kind of wet?" I felt like saying "No, kidding Einstein!" but I came back with "Yeah, I'm not too dry right now" The meeting went well and I got the sale. As I was walking back to my car(rain had subsided considerably), I thought, "I either need to get a new umbrella or move to San Diego!"