I don't think I am a business road warrior, someone who can jump from plane to plane and make each hotel room his/her own home. Airports make me a little crazy, since I tend to have too many bags to keep track of and going anywhere, bathroom, newsstand, becomes a funny challenge. ("Ha, that girl has a laptop, messenger bag, pull carry-on luggage, winter coat, and bottle of water - and she thinks she's going get to the back of the newsstand for Cosmo.")
I've been staying at hotels near the airport (better to get to the next city, my dear), and they've been all right, but I'm spending the night in Chicago...but near O'Hare Airport. The Westin hotels have the "Heavenly Bed" which is a nice touch, but usually I am so tweaked out on all the candy the focus group facilities put in the dark back rooms, I can't totally appreciate the Heavenly Bed.
Focus group back rooms, where we observe the respondents, are dark, and by the third interview of twenty four, you start getting restless and reach for the M&Ms or Goldfish and chug a diet Coke in ten minutes. But it's fun to see how people will react differently to the same piece of work. ("I loved it!" "What was that? It was stupid - I don't care for it.")
As a warm-up, the moderator asks the respondents "Name two living people you would like to have dinner with." Inevitably people answer the President, Bill Gates, Michael Jordan, various celebrities of screen, sports, and business. Though it's crude, you do get a sense of a person by a cheap question like that. For me, right now, I think my two people would be William Grimes and Eric Rohmer.
As for my connectivity on the road, it sucks: it's dial-up. Hotels make out like bandits with the charges for local calls. Again, I'm so high and tweaked out from a day of crappy eating, I go totally insane. Yesterday, in Chicago, the electrical outlets near the desk weren't working, so I freaked out and called for extension cords and a power strip plus moved the desk around. I hate watching CNN and would prefer something like Comedy Central but most hotel rooms don't have it. I need a portable DVD player. I should probably learn to meditate. (By the way, that is me in the picture, though even my best friend couldn't recognize it as so.)
I decided to come home even if I have to go to Orlando tomorrow morning for two days. One evening of high speed internet access is worth it.
