Home, Sweet Home

My apologies for the radio silence of the last few days, but I was having too much fun in Chicago, Greencastle (Indiana), and Columbus to get to the blog. I made it home to West Chester, PA yesterday around 4pm.

Monday, June 15:


Tuesday, July 21:

Total Distance: 8,986!

I'm headed up to New York this morning to begin the apartment hunt -- seeing 5 places this afternoon! -- but I'll write more later with some fav photos from the trip, etc. In the meantime, Reva says hello.

Iowan and Indo'n

There are TWO Indian lunch buffets in downtown Iowa City, home of the
Univ of Iowa Hawkeyes. What's NOT to love about this place??

Room with a Two-Star View

Over the course of my trip, I've stayed in about 15 different hotels, including eight different hotel chains -- everything from Rodeway Inn (three times) to the W (New Orleans) to Spring Hill Suites (Louisville). My conclusion: the hotel star rating system is a sham.


My 2-star Econo Lodge in Pigeon Forge, TN was ten times nicer than my 2.5-star La Quinta Inn in Lubbock, TX, all of which wasn't THAT much worse than my 3.5-star Crowne Plaza in downtown Denver.

I booked tonight's stay in Omaha through Orbitz at a 2-star Holiday Inn Express, chosen mostly because it has laundry facilities. Laundry got done, but really, the hotel's best feature seems to be my room with a view.


Yes, that is just as it seems: doors next to the tub open directly into the bedroom so that you can watch TV while taking a bubble bath. Or talk to your loved one in bed while you sit on the crapper. Claaassy.

So, what's with the hotel star system? Apparently the star ratings are as squirrely as those of credit ratings agencies. As a lil' internet research revealed, a hotel's rating is simply determined by the organization that's rating it, be it Expedia, Frommer's, or AAA. Those ratings may not be updated regularly, nor is the scale consistent from one website from the next (4-star max vs. 5-star max), and most importantly, the criteria for reaching certain star levels vary. For people like me, who regularly book travel using multiple sites, this is just cruel.

As I see it, there are two solutions. 1) Use a travel website you trust, and use it consistently. Or, better yet, stick with Tripadvisor, the savior of the XXX-Country Tour. TripAdvisor aggregates user ratings and then gives me a certain number of thumbs up based on those ratings. Thus, I'm not dependent on one organization's star system, but the collective's.



Tonight I stay at the Majestic Hotel in Chicago. Hotels.com: 2.5 stars / Expedia: 3 stars / TripAdvisor: 4 thumbs up. I'm banking on the latter.

The Sounds of Sotomayor

Alas, I have little to show for my last couple of days except for over 1,000 miles of driving. Yesterday, I was so bored out of my mind between Reno and Salt Lake City that the highlight of the morning was successfully grabbing a stray gray hair (!) while driving over 85 MPH.


Even better, I managed this feat while subject to the guest DJing of Bjork on All Songs Considered. Most ... painful ... podcast ... ever.

Snoozefest seems to be the name of the game these days, especially if it involves a certain Supreme Court nominee and a certain legislative branch interrogating her. For me, there are but two exciting elements to all this:

1. Saying Sotomayor's name, which I like to intone as 'SONofabitch' (though without the negative associations). More like how you pronounce the name of my former salon in DC, Bang! (emphasis theirs), or like the fast food chain out here, Whataburger! (emphasis mine).
   
   
2. Guessing at how much reporters will reveal of their boredom with the hearings. Today's Nina Totenberg report was quite entertaining -- containing almost nothing of substance, focusing instead on one Senator's bathroom run-in with Sotomayor's mother -- and then was followed up by a four-minute interview about the Perry Mason Case that Al Franken asked Sotomayor about during the hearing. Apparently it was the only case that Perry Mason ever lost, and NPR felt it necessary to speak to Barbara Hale, who played Della Street on the show, about the case.
   
   Wow. Talk about a slow news day.

So, you ask, no bright spots to report from the last couple of days? Ok, a few.

1. I caught up with two good friends, Amanda and Tom, from business school. Haven't spoken to them in weeks, and it's great to hear their voices, even if the call does get dropped every 15 minutes.
2. The landscape just east of Salt Lake City. A combination of red rock, deep green foliage, and tasteful brown homes on lotsa land, it is perhaps my favorite landscape of the trip. Photo doesn't fully represent, but it's the best I got.
   
   
   
3. Bruno. I saw it last night in Salt Lake City (of course), and it cracked my shit up.
4. Dinner with my friend Kim tonight here in Denver.
5. Give Up by Postal Service. I forgot how adorable and sweet this album is.
   
6. Daydreams of a new home in Brooklyn -- only a week or so away. From the apartment hunting, that is.
   

Santa Rosa Sepulvedas

I'm happy to report that it was nothing but blue skies for Megan and Adam's beautiful wedding on Sunday. Once the mariachi band began to play, all worries of state furloughs, 24-hour bugs, and forgotten cuff links (woops) fell by the wayside.

I've finally gotten around to going through the 200+ photos taken over the weekend, and here are some of my favorites. For the full set, check out the Week 4 Photos link.


Aunt Jayne and Uncle Mike's backyard looked stunning. (And now I order all of my glasses of water with cucumber.)










Pink, sand (desert, beach, etc.), and purple were the day's colors. As for the sunglasses, the style was, well, big. As in, too big to fail.








Husband and Wife, Mr. and Mrs. Sepulveda, a.k.a. Adam and Megan . . .






And plenty of family to go around.










The afternoon ended with just enough time left to power nap before the evening party. Adam and Megan put away the pastels and broke out their 80s moves to celebrate.






And of course, no California wedding party would be complete without the taco truck.




Congrats, Megan and Adam. Thanks for an awesome weekend.

Wedding Crunch

It's bad enough here in California that state furloughs are adding extra hours to traffic jams and are keeping residents from renewing their driver licenses.


But then today, major portions of the wedding party, including Bride Megan, Dad Mike, Mom Jayne, and Grandmother Nona were taken out of commission by this:


Well, more specifically, this:


Yes, the 24-hour bug, as transported to the West Coast by Cousin Maureen and Kevin's (otherwise adorable) three children, struck picture-perfect wedding weekend here in Santa Rosa. Thankfully, the wedding isn't until tomorrow, and all victims seem to have recovered to about 75% by sundown tonight.


But it did mean that major wedding participants (and funders) missed out on some great Northern California wine-tasting and golfing today. (I'll post photos once I steal them from my cousin Andrew.)

Meanwhile, the troops rallied tonight to put the final touches on wedding preparations.






Others of us, on the other hand, just seemed to take it all in stride.


Speaking of strides, special thanks to Uncle Mike and the Fountaingrove Golf Club for helping to put some last-minute shine back in my shoes for tomorrow's event. You guys take IOUs for payment, right?

Tree Hugging

As found in Healdsburg, CA...

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful

Martinelli's Sparkling, roast beef on whole grain, and cool afternoon
breeze in downtown Santa Rosa. Hello, vacation.

Boom Boom Bao

Salon BaoBao in the Castro did the doo. Now off to Santa Rosa for
wedding weekend.

Cuteness Club

Sorry for the radio silence of the last couple days, but I've been busy conducting a cuteness competition on my road trip.

Contestant #1:
Chad and Jason's 5-month-old son, Colin, who is by far the best-behaved, smiliest (even without teeth), and most adorable thing this side of the Mississippi.


Colin is especially cute while napping along his late-afternoon Santa Monica beach walks (driven by Dad Chad).




Contestant #2:
Jon and Zack's cat, Lindsay, who takes a liking to morning naps atop my neoprene laptop case, cuddled under a blanket of hazy San Fran light. She is quite chatty, too.


Contestant #3:
This truck of fresh garlic as seen driving up I-5 (a.k.a. "The 5"), between LA and San Francisco yesterday. This contestant held major points until I realized that it also produced the light shower of white flakes blurring my vision of the road.


Contestant #4:
Beyonce, as found in ads all across Las Vegas.


America, you decide.