Note that this is Sioux City…not Des Moines which is where we were supposed to Be. Needless to say we were 3 hours off schedule.
Tag Archives: travel
Why I’m Looking for my Happy Place
On Thursday of this week I’m heading out-of-town to attend a work conference in Des Moines, IA. I know you’re all jealous. I had booked my hotel room months ago, when I still worked for my previous company. So the reservation is being held on a corporate card I no longer have. But the expense had been submitted and paid so I assumed I was covered. Still, I thought I should be prudent and check with the hotel to verify they still have the reservation. I didn’t think it would turn in to the huge ordeal but it did. Here’s how the drama unfolded for me today.
My first call, to check on the reservation and that it’s been paid.
- CSR Rep #1: Thank you for calling Sheraton West Des Moines, how can I help you?
- Me: Hi! I was just calling to verify a reservation for this Thursday.
- Rep #1: Ok, can you give me your last name?
- Me: Sure (I spelled it out for him)
- Rep: Yep, we have a reservation in here. You’re all set!
- Me: Great! And it’s paid for right?
- Rep: Um, no.
- Me: What?
- Rep: No, we have a card holding it but no charges have been filed yet.
Crap. Now I suddenly have to come up with $170 I wasn’t planning on before. The other thing is that I’m sharing the room with 2 other gals and had told them it was covered already. So I felt bad to have to take that back and ask for money.
I broke the news and they were cool about it. One of them suggested I ask if there was a discount on rooms for those attending the conference. So I called back and got a different person.
- CSR Rep #2: Thank you for calling Sheraton West Des Moines, how can I help you?
- Me: I have a question about a reservation. Do you know if there is a room discount being offered to those attending the IIBA conference on Friday.
- CSR Rep #2: Let me check…………..no it doesn’t look like there are any left.
- Me: So there was a discount?
- Rep #2: They had a block of rooms reserved and those are taken but I can get you a room without the discount.
- Me: I already have a room reserved. Can you just apply the discount to my room?
- Rep #2: There aren’t any rooms left.
- Me: I know. I already have a room. Can you just give me the discount?
- Rep #2: All the rooms are taken.
At that point I was ready to reach through the phone and strangle her. I stopped to take a deep breath and then told the gals that there was no conference discount.
What about a AAA discount? one of them asked. Ok, I can try that.
Before I called, I looked on AAA’s website and sure enough, that hotel has discounts for AAA members. Awesome! So I called back up.
- CSR Rep #3: Thank you for calling Starwood Hotels, how can I help you?
- Me: Hi! I was wondering if you could apply a AAA discount to a reservation I have.
- Rep #3: Let me pull up your reservation. What’s your last name?
- Me: [spelled it out for her]
- Rep: We don’t have a reservation under that name.
- Me: But I’ve called twice already today and they found it both times.
- Rep: Hmm….can you give me the confirmation number that was emailed with your original reservation?
- Me: No because I no longer have access to that email account.
- Rep: Oh. Can you give me the credit card number it’s being held under?
- Me: No, because I no longer have that card.
I’m sure by this point she had flagged me as suspicious and a problem customer.
- Rep: Well I can’t find the reservation using your name
- Me: How about my phone number?
- Rep: Sure we can try that. [She enters it in]. Um, nope, nothing
- Me: WELL WHAT THE HELL!!! [ok I didn’t say that but really wanted to]
- Rep: This is for the Sheraton in Iowa City right?
- Me: No, this is for the Sheraton in West Des Moines [and now I want to drop kick her]
- Rep: Oh, ok let me check that…..nope, still nothing. I’m going to give you the phone number for the hotel directly. They should be able to help you. [she gives me the number]
- Me: But this is the number I just called when I got you!
- Rep: Oh, well you got transferred to reservation. Try Front Desk next time.
So I hang up and immediately go in search of something I can kick or punch. Finding nothing, I throw myself on the ground and have a tantrum. I learned that from Isabella. It’s not real effective for her but maybe it would be for me.
Once I calm down, I call the number THAT I HAD ALREADY DIALED 3 TIMES TODAY and asked for the front desk.
- CSR Rep #4: Thank you for calling Sheraton West Des Moines, how can I help you?
- Me: Hi! I was wondering if you could apply a AAA discount to a reservation I have.
- Rep: Let me check…[he looks up the reservation, which he is able to find easily. Seriously, at this point they should have a hot key for me]. Um, it looks like there are no AAA discounts left for that night.
- Me: So you can only give away a certain number a day?
- Rep: Well it depends on how full we are and we’re booked up that night.
- Me: But why should that matter? Shouldn’t I get it no matter how full you are?
- Rep: Sorry, those are the rules.
- Me: Well is there a conference discount for IIBA attendees? [pretending I didn’t already know the answer]
- Rep: Let me look…um, no, no discount for that conference at all. But when you check in on Thursday ask again about AAA.
Oh sure, now he’s just teasing me. Whatevs. I’ve been beaten down by you people enough today.
At this point, I’ve about given up. My last attempt is to see if my new boss will pay for the hotel. $170 to this company is like pocket change for me. If I had pocket change, which I don’t because Isabella has it all in her piggy bank.
If she says no then I officially give up. But I tell you this, if I get to that conference on Friday and find out other people got a conference or AAA discount, HEADS ARE GOING TO ROLL!
And then I’m going to steal all the soaps, towels, paper, pens, toilet paper and shower caps I can find.
IN YOUR FACE STARWOOD HOTELS!
If you liked this, you might also like:
The Island
A few months ago, thanks to a co-worker, I discovered the Wall Street Journal House of the Day. I will admit to being a bit of a voyeur. Yep, guilty as charged. It’s why I love reading other people’s blogs and why I like to visit friend’s houses. I want to see what other people are like, and how they live.
Confession time – when driving around at night, I will look in to the windows of the houses I pass by. No, I’m not a perv. What I’m really looking at is the decor. I want to see how people decorate! What color of paint do they have on their walls? What kind of furniture? How do they have it arranged. I am endlessly fascinated by this and always looking for ideas. I probably should have been an interior designer or something instead of in technology. So I have to satisfy my need for all things design by looking into YOUR windows! 😉
That’s why the WSJ House of the Day was so much fun to me. Here was a chance to look inside million dollar (and in most cases, multi-million dollar) homes and see what they are like. The site runs the gamut from modern to traditional, Victorian to country and everything else you can think of.
They even had an island one time.
And on this island was an AMAZING house. To be honest, I don’t even remember what the house looked like or what made is so amazing. I just remember that I liked it so much, I forwarded the link to my best Skype bud, Rhonda. She thought it was awesome too and we immediately made plans to buy it.
(Source)
It’s totally doable. The plan is that we will each pay save up $2 a month until we have the $7.5 million dollars to pay for it! That’ll only take us, well, the rest of our lives to do.
Then after we made the original plan, I got a raise so now I give $4 a month. We’ll be there in no time!
Over the months we’ve added some nice features to the island. We each have our own house. Like, duh. There is also a separate house for the guys. Sure, they will probably live with us most of the time but let’s face it, we all need our own space now and again and this way they can have their man cave.
(Source)
Being the nice people that we are, we bought a separate house for the kids too. That one will be full of toysand junk food and absolutely no vegetables, naps or grown up stuff allowed!
(Source)
Now, it wouldn’t be a true island paradise without our pets. They have their own place too. The dogs will have to figure out which one of the three gets to be the alpha. My money is on Samson. Then again, Sammie is a feisty little thing and somehow the small dogs always end up ruling over the big ones. Why is that anyway?
(Source)
In addition to homes, the island has horses, pools, tennis courts, volleyball courts, a movie theatre, an awesome beach and our own private jet. We have to have someway to get back to the mainland right?
Sounds pretty frickin’ awesome doesn’t it?
Don’t worry, you can all come visit us anytime you want! After all, we have a killer guest house! The only thing we ask is that you donate $2 per week that you’re here. How else are we going to pay the gardener, pool boy, housekeepers, chefs, personal trainers, stylists, nannies and dog sitters?
If you liked this, you might also like:
Bucket List
In the last 2 days, I’ve either heard or read from several different sources that everyone should make a bucket list. That to really move forward in our lives and make it everything we dreamed of, we should create this list of things we want to do before we “kick the bucket.” I think that is a sign that I need to do this.
Believe it or not, I’ve created a bucket list before. Many years ago, after a painful break-up, I made a list of everything I wanted to do with my life. Some of it was crazy stuff like jump out of an airplane or travel around the world. Some of it was simple, like get married and have children. I don’t have that list anymore but I kind of wish I did. It would be interesting to look back and see how many of those dreams I have actually accomplished. Obviously I did get married and have a child. I have gone skydiving and I have traveled around the world. I also wonder which ones I have not accomplished and if they are still things I want to do.
My new bucket list will probably be pretty different from my old one, but that’s ok. I think it’s important to do this exercise regularly, to keep our dreams at the forefront of our mind and make sure we don’t have regrets later on. With that said, here’s my new bucket list (in no particular order other than how the thoughts pop up in my head):
-
This is not a new one but rather something I want to continue and refocus on. CJ and I were doing pretty well for a while, but then the baby came along and it slowed our travels way down. So far we’ve hit 10 of the 50 (Nebraska (duh!), Iowa, Kansas, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri). I’d like to get in at least one more capital this year and keep plugging away at it!
Minnesota State Capital
Travel to all 50 state capitals.
- Travel to all 7 continents. Obviously this one has come to a halt as well since our travel has been limited in the last couple years. So far I’ve been to 5 of the 7 (North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia), which is actually pretty good considering I’d hit those before I turned 30. Just have to get to South America and Antarctica and then I can cross off this one! Course that might take another 30 years!
- Have my writing published. The ultimate goal would be to publish a novel. I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. I’ve even started several different ones only to abandon them after a couple of chapters. I started a kids book too and never finished. This blog has lit the fire for this and I hope it leads me down the right path to develop more of a writing career. Guess we’ll see!
Zipline in Cancun
- Ride in a hot air balloon. Sounds pretty simple but I think it would be amazing to fly high over the Earth, with nothing between you and the sky. It’s so peaceful being up there among the birds and the clouds. Really puts life in perspective. I’ve done my share of adventurous stunts (skydiving, zip line, rock climbing, and parasailing) so this would be the next one on this list. I think I had bungee jumping on my original list but now that I have a child, I will remove that one.
- Find my dream house. The house that we live in now is comfortable and nice, but I’ve never really attached myself to it because I know it’s a temporary dwelling. I would love to someday find a house that will be our forever home. It doesn’t have to be anything huge or fancy, so long as it has a few of the basic things I want in a home. It definitely has to feel homey and comfortable. We are planning to move this summer so I sure hope we can find a place that will be this dream home (if not right away, then someday).
- Buy a massage chair. Ok, I know this sounds silly but I am dead serious. See, on one date night that CJ and I had several years ago, we ended up window shopping at The Sharper Image store in the mall. They had several massage chairs out on the floor that people could try, so we did. Oh. My. God. The chair I sat in was frickin’ awesome. It worked on everything from my feet up to my neck. It released tension I didn’t even know I had! Ever since then, I’ve vowed to some day get my own massage chair, if we ever had the extra money for it. If I ever do get a chair like that, good luck getting me out of the house… [after re-reading that, I realized it sounds dirty. No, it wasn’t that kind of massage…but hey, if it could do that too…then you’d really never get me out of the house!]
Have a photograph published in a magazine (specifically National Geographic but I’d settle for any magazine). For those of you who don’t know, my college degree is in Art, with an emphasis on Photography and Computer Graphics. I’ve done the computer thing (my career started out in web/graphic design before I moved on to become a Business Analyst and Project Manager) but I’ve never really pursued the photography path. When I first moved back to Omaha, I had a few photography shows at a local coffee shop, and sold several items, but I didn’t have the time or money to keep at it and with the business of life, it fell by the wayside. This blog has forced me to dust off some of those skills to try to get some interesting photos but I’d like to do more with it.- Travel to see the following specific places/sites: Spain (because of my heritage), Great Wall of China, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, African safari, the Taj Mahal and Paris. I’m sure more will be added to this list as time goes on!
Steelers/Chiefs game 11/09
- Go to a Super Bowl. It would be even better if the Steelers were in it!
- Have financial freedom. What I mean is that I want to get to a place where I am comfortable and have enough money to live and support the family, with enough left over to have fun too. I don’t need to be a millionaire or anything like that. I just don’t want to have to worry about money so much.
- Learn to swim. You read that right – I can’t swim. I’m actually terrified of drowning, which has limited me all through my life. CJ loves the beach and every summer you’ll find us out at Lake Manawa playing sand volleyball and swimming. Only, I don’t do the swimming part. I’ve tried. I took lessons 2 times as a kid and another 2 times as an adult, but can’t seem to get passed that fear. Yet. Someday I will.
- Learn to speak fluent Spanish. As mentioned in #8, my dad’s side of the family is from Spain. They are all fluent in Spanish yet I can’t speak a lick of it. I took lessons in high school but was never really taught how to speak it. All we learned was verb conjugation and vocab terms. Being able to converse with my aunts, uncles and dad in their native language would be so neat. It would be even better if Isabella could do it too!
- Meet and dance with Derek Hough. Ok, so I have a cougar crush. Derek Hough is one of the pros on Dancing with the Stars and I think he seems like such a fun and nice guy. Plus he’s really cute. He’s also an amazing choreographer and the dancer in me (took 10 years of lessons and have always loved to dance) would love for him to choreograph and teach me a dance. Then we could dance under the stars and…ehm…sorry, got carried away there. No worries, CJ knows that Derek is on my “freebie list“. 😉
- Attend the Olympic Games. Preferably the summer Olympics but either would do. I think it would be so cool to watch history being made right before your eyes, and to interact with so many different cultures from all over the world. And watching Olympic level volleyball? Hell yeah!
- Be the model for a magazine photo shoot. I don’t need to be a supermodel or anything, but I do think it would be fun to be the star of a photo shoot and have people do my hair/make-up, pick out an amazing outfit for me, and then shoot some awesome pictures. I’m already practicing my Tyra Banks “fierce” eyes.
Well that’s all I can think of right now. Reading back over it, I realize that this list is more “selfish” than my original list. Maybe that’s the difference between your 20’s and 30’s. In my 20’s I was all about others and how to make the world a better place. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to contribute to improving our world, but I also know that the best way to help others, is to be happy with your own life. I’ve done a lot of stuff for other people – almost too far to the extreme. Now it’s time to focus back on myself and what I want. Here’s hoping I can make some if not all of these items come true before I kick the bucket!!
What’s on your bucket list?
If you liked this, you might also like:
1 year later
Every year our extended family drives about 45 minutes south of Omaha to Nebraska City to pick pumpkins, get some apple cider, visit Arbor Lodge and just enjoy the small town life. Last year when we went, I was 3 weeks in to being a new mom and dealing with a brand new life. I was also desperately trying to lose the baby weight.
Here’s what I looked like then:
NE City 2009 - at about 165lbs.
I was bigger and Isabella was smaller. Here’s what we look like today:
NE City 2010 - 138 lbs
I look better, I feel better and am all around more comfortable in my skin. Today’s trip was much more relaxing than last year’s because I am settled in to my life and love every minute of it.
Happy Fall!
Team Trader Mom 