Travel Notes

I’m thinking about starting a new feature here involving hotel and restaurant reviews, given the amount that I’m travelling lately. Of course, the information contained herein would likely only be of use to folks travelling to Atlanta or various portions of North Carolina, but who knows, maybe somebody would find those scribbles useful. There’s certainly nothing to report on the poker front, since I haven’t played a hand of cards in weeks. I’ve got a seat at a new small buy-in tourney tonight, though, so we’ll see how that goes. This weekend might even see a return of the home game if I can make the schedule work. Summer’s tough for home games with people taking long vacations and other travel, not to mention my screwy work schedule.

So last week was spent mostly on the road. I drove to Atlanta Sunday afternoon to be there in time to do my scintillating recap of the Sunday Warm-Up for PokerStars, then was in Atlanta through Tuesday afternoon. Spent Tuesday night at home, then headed east on Wednesday morning. I went to Elizabeth City on Wednesday, then continued on to Manteo (home of the first honky child born in the US and the Lost Colony outdoor drama). From Manteo went back to Elizabeth City, then to Greenville, NC (NOT G-Vegas, dammit), then to Washington, NC (also the less interesting of two cities of the same name), then back home after a couple of meetings in Raleigh. That road trip sucked up 3 days and roughly eight or nine hundred miles. I typically stay in Marriott hotels when I travel, because I’m high on the rewards list with Marriott, and the rooms are typically harmless. I crashed in a nice Marriott in Atlanta, then a decent Fairfield in Elizabeth City.

FairField Inns are kinda hit or miss. As the entry-level hotel in the Marriott chain, the older ones are pretty dumpy, with exterior doors (a big negative on my travel requirements) and crappy beds. But some of them (like the one in Wytheville, VA) are pretty damn swank. The one in Elizabeth City was pretty nice. I sprung for the jacuzzi room upgrade, which turned into a suite, with a pair of LCD TVs and an iHome stereo rig. So I put the iPod on the stereo and settled in for a nice soak. Just what the Dr. ordered after a long day in the car.

Less impressive was the Courtyard in Greenville, NC. I’m always baffled by the fact that the Courtyard, which is designed for business travelers, is typically more expensive with fewer amenities than a Fairfield. Yes, it did have wireless internet while the Fairfield had wired internet, but that was the only upgrade. The bed was hard as a rock, and the shower head was located at about 5’5″ off the floor of the tub. I’m 6’1″, so this was an issue. I do not enjoy doing backbends in the shower in the morning. Any place with low-hanging shower heads goes on my “not again” list.

So I’ve been skewing my lodging choices to the ends of the spectrum, either hitting a full-scale Marriott, or trying to find a new or newly renovated Fairfield. The rooms (and bathrooms) in the Marriotts tend to be bigger and nicer, but the automatic inclusion of the mini-fridge in a Fairfield counts for a lot when I’m going to be in the town for several days.

Later on, we’ll talk about road food, when to explore and when to concentrate on getting something harmless that won’t have you doing unpleasant butt-clenches on the highway.

Freewrite 8/15/09

I’m sitting on a 3.99 plastic Wal-Mart chair
on a concrete balcony
on the third floor of a Courtyard motel
in Eastern North Carolina
watching rainbows smear the asphalt
across the parking lot
as oil and water play stubborn
through the summer thunderstorm.

I’m drinking a lukewarm Miller Lite trying not to notice
the fat woman testing the superstructure of her halter top
and the suspension of her ’93 Yellow Geo Tracker.
Her flip-flops thwack-splish thwack-splish
across the parking lot looking for a vacancy
and maybe a little shelter from the storm.

I put a little Jessica Lea Mayfield on the in-room iPod rig
and prop my bare feet up on the wet wrought iron railing,
letting the dog-daily 4 o’clock shower
wash 300 miles off my tired feet.

A dragonfly wanders by for a sip of my beer.
I share.
He doesn’t drink much, but it looks like enough
’cause he flies off in a meandering besotted path
beating his wings in time to the music
and dancing between the raindrops.

That’s kinda what the last half of my week was like. I put in somewhere around 1,500 miles from Sunday to Friday, and had more than one project crisis to deal with along the way. All in all it was the kind of week that you’re really happy to see the back side of. So now that I’m looking at the back side of it, we’ll see if there’s any ammunition for stories or poems in there.

Taking applications for wingman/woman

So last night I found myself in a somewhat familiar situation of late, I wanted to go see a concert and Suzy didn’t want to go with me. Since I don’t really have a designated wingman in these situations, I took the comp tickets I had to the Avett Brothers show and went by myself. I was pleasantly surprised when I got there to see that my free tickets were next to my friends Gillian and Douglas, so at least I had someone to chat with between sets.

BTW, I’m taking applications for wingman. There’s a lot of good music out there, and Suzy and my sister don’t always wanna go. Lemme know if you’re in.

Regardless, this was supposed to be the album release/homecoming party for the Avett Boys, but label things/tour and tweaking caused the record to be pushed back another month. So all the folks that bought tickets got a coupon for a free download of a live EP from the show and a free poster. The show didn’t sell out, looked like it was about 5,000 strong by the time the Avetts took the stage, but there were plenty of seats available. The boys had a good time, playing some old favorites and about half a dozen tracks off the new album, too.

This was the first time I’d seen the Avetts with a drummer. The drummer for the album came out and played on a bunch of the more rock n’ roll songs with them, and it added a ton to the sound. Having a full drum kit backing up the band was a huge adder in my opinion, and something I hope they will keep in the future.

I like everything I’ve heard off the new album, but I can see where some of the long-time fans are going to have issues. There’s a lot more straight-up rock songs, and the sound is a little more poppy. There’s a lot less of Scott on banjo in the new songs, and more electric bass and drums. I think it’s a good move, as it will broaden the band’s appeal to a wider audience, but it’s gonna piss off some people. Of course, it’s impossible to change anything without pissing somebody off, so fuck ’em. As long as the boys are having a good time and writing killer songs they’ll be just fine.

Anyway, the video below is from last night. I didn’t shoot it, just embedded off YouTube.

Vegas plans – December

Now that the lovely April has confirmed the annual degenerate’s poker tourney at Caesar’s Palace for 12/12/09, it’s time to lock in those Vegas plans! Now I booked a room for Suzy and I at the MGM Grand a while back, and got what I thought was a pretty good deal – $149/night with an all-day buffet pass for each person in the room. That works out to be at least $100/day worth of free food, so in essence we’re staying at the MGM Grand for $50/night!

I know, I won’t be eating all my meals there, but I can certainly schedule my life so that I’m eating most of them at the MGM buffet, and even if it just covers breakfast and one other meal for Suzy and I each day, that still covers at least $50-60 per day. Plus after our trip last December, we swore we weren’t staying at fleabags anymore. So sorry, IP, I must depart for softer beds and better food choices.

So we’re going to arrive on Thursday, party like rock stars for several days, and head back to the CLT on Monday. Now I had a crazy idea, or more to the point the vivacious Betty had an idea, that maybe we could find a place to set up tables and sell/sign our books at some point over the course of the weekend. Then I got to thinking, there have been a bunch of books published (or in the process of being published) by our blogger brethren and sistren over the past couple of years. So here’s the question – would any of the other bloggers that have published books in the past year or two like to go in on a reception area for a couple of hours? You know who you are, lemme know if you’re interested in a concerted joint book-pimpage.

Then afterwards we drink like college kids. Of course we do that anyway. See you in December!

Decisions, Decisions

I was at the beginning of a long, drawn-out post on whether or not to start writing chapters of a book on sales here or keep this as a more focused fiction/poetry blog, when I remembered something April once told me. I think her words were “It’s your blog. Fuck ’em if they don’t like it.”

See? We don’t just like her because she’s really cute. With good shoes.

So there will be some stuff coming in the next few weeks about how to sell things. If you like it, read it. If you sell stuff and find it helpful, great. If not, oh well, there will continue to be poetry, fiction and random stories from my life floating around as well.

And one day I might get the chance to play poker again and have something there worth writing about. Maybe.