Chapel Hill and Charlotte, 2010
I had a working trip to Chapel Hill with a fuzzy requirement for a
Saturday meeting, so I decided to plan a trip down to Charlotte after it
was done so that I could visit with Will and his new son.
Thursday Nov 4, 2010
I ended up grabbing a 6am Jet Blue flight for a bifecta of potential suck.
I hate 6am flights since they require an early taxi to get to the airport,
and getting up at 4am is never good. Luckily my flight didn't get
cancelled or significantly delayed or loose cabin pressure or anything,
and it was direct. I met up with my coworker Daniel and my boss Steve in
the departure lounge (with everyone ignoring the fire alarm), and they
ended up getting delayed boarding as they watched my stuff when I ran to
the bathroom and get some tea. Oops. We all got on board and the flight
was okay. We shared a taxi from RDU to Chapel Hill, going straight to the
meeting site at our sister company. They gave us temp badges and as soon
as everyone arrived, we dove right into the meeting. We went downstairs to
the organic market, Weaver St. Market, to get takeout food and eat in
their mini seating area for lunch. The company people joined us after a
while as they had a company meeting since the northern location CEO was
there. Back to work and knocked off at around 5pm I think. I checked in at
the Franklin Inn and then
walked a couple of blocks to Kildaire's Irish pub for
dinner. Lots of people, those who weren't even working with us met up with
us. I did my traditional work trip thing of not ordering alcohol with my
meal and getting a separate bill, in order to make the eventual expense
reporting easier. Figured out the room sound system so that I could play
my mp3s through the ceiling speakers, but was in bed fairly early, not
insinuating myself into the clubbing group.
Friday Nov 5, 2010
Walked back from my hotel to the meeting site for the 9am start. Work
work work. We walked out to a tiny hole in the wall for lunch, good food
and large pickles are all I remember. After we knocked off at around 5pm,
I took the bus back to the Franklin and did a quick change to a skirt and
headed back to meet up with Julien and JC for dinner. JC and I browsed the
outdoor clothing shop nearby waiting for Julien and JC's girlfriend. Then
we headed to the Spotted Dog for dinner. Wine and good pasta and a relaxed
atmosphere. Julien convinced me to join him and his room mate for a
concert at the university auditorium. Omara Portuondo was doing a concert
and his room mate got me a student priced ticket. She and I were a bit
dressed up, J was his usual casual programmer self. :) Awesome concert,
though my beginning Spanish lessons weren't very helpful. The acoustics
were great. It was raining a bit, we walked quickly back toward my hotel
and past it and they left me at the wonderful Lantern bar where I had a
drink and chatted with a fabulous couple of guys, Toby and Bart. They
recommended Bow Bar on Rosemary, for tomorrow after work. Thank goodness
for free water in my hotel room. :)
Saturday Nov 6, 2010
It was unclear if I had to be at the Algorithm core retreat at the
university, so I got up at around 9am and made my way over there after a
disappointing breakfast in the hotel. I found the room and my boss said
that I wasn't needed (apparently he met with people at 8am for breakfast).
I spent the day window shopping in Chapel Hill, ducking in and out of
stores as the rain got heavier. Found super cute kids store and got some
fire printed leggings for Will's son. Had a tea at an independent coffee
shop. Had lunch at a bar I'd seen near Weaver St. Market. Tried on some
dresses at one clothing store, but they weren't quite perfect, though the
kimono one was tempting. I'd gotten a text about meeting up with the local
people for dinner so I did that.
I had southern food at Crook's
Corner, amazing hot chocolate at the Chocolate Door, a glass of wurtz
at West End Wine Bar, and then peeled off from my co-workers and had a
mezcaltini at Bowbarr (it was
painfully hipsterish, I slid past having to buy a membership), and
orgasmic persimmon pudding and a milk of human kindness cocktail after
going back to Lantern. I talked with a cardiologist and a celtic guitarist
at Lantern, sitting at the bar by yourself is a very cool experience when
you can start random conversations!
Sunday Nov 7, 2010
Up with my phone alarm at 6am, the time change didn't bite me too
badly.
Ran down to get my zero balance receipt from the hotel desk and as I was
asking where the nearest ATM was, I spotted my taxi to the train station
in Durham. The desk clerk said that it would be $20-$25 and I had that
much with me, but I ran out and asked the driver if he took credit cards
anyway. Yup, so I jumped in, but when we arrived I had a bit of a surprise
when he called it in and got a quote of $35, I think the hotel clerk had
never done that route by taxi.
The train station vending machine wasn't taking my money, even when I
swapped a soft dollar bill for a crisp one at the ticket window. Once I
boarded the train, right on time at 7:22, there was no snack car, just a
free drink station, so I made myself sweet milky tea and tried to ignore
my empty stomach. The nausea kept me from doing much during the ride, I
dozed mostly. Saw kudzu starting to take over the trees by the tracks, but
the view rarely opened out. Will and Grayson were waiting for me when the
train pulled into Charlotte, we tried a few brunch places but had no luck
with lines - I needed to eat within a half hour and the waits were looking
to be a lot longer than that. We went back to his place and he made me
fried egg and cheese sandwiches and I came back to life. G napped for a
bit and I talked about game design and life in general with Will. Once G
woke up we all went out to the grocery store to get supper food. Only one
lady assumed he was my son - Will kinda floored me when he warned me it
would happen, but I was glad for the heads up as it would never have
occured to me and I'd have just blurted out someething inappropriate
otherwise. :) I tried to help keep G distracted as Will cooked supper and
we talked about recipes and cooking. He made a wonderful spiced chicken
breast dish, with asparagus and noodles and pesto. We also shared some red
wine and the conversation got sillier. :) Time was crunching a bit and I
couldn't wait until Christine made it home from work, so Will drove me to
the airport at around 4:30. Traffic plus a long security line had them
paging me as I dashed for my gate, but the lingering effects of the wine
kept me calm. :)
It was a quiet flight, again with the dozing but also a bit of reading. I
came out into the sleet in Boton to take the T home (shifting to stay
upwind of the smoker at the bus stop, no idea why someone designated that
area for both uses :/ ). Unpacked everything and gave Cris back his laptop
bag and was in bed by 11pm.
Back to my diary page.