Hobnobbing in Houston

So I have been in Houston since Wednesday morning. Jenny and I have been exchanging emails where I have been chronicling my adventures. So I am going to shamelessly steal from my communications with her to update the blog. I hope she doesn't mind!

Here goes...(please excuse typos as I am updating via iPad)

I have been busy busy busy here in Houston. First of all, I forgot how humid and warm it is here. Highs in the 70s each day and like 80 percent humidity. Wow!  I also forgot about all of the traffic. Yikes!  I also forgot about all of the great food too. I enjoyed some totally fantastic mango sorbet at dinner last night. Tracy and I as well as another colleague went to Mongolian BBQ. Total yum!  The mango sorbet was served right in the mango rind. Very cute and totally tasty. Then I was enjoying the fabulous pineapple and watermelon with my breakfast buffet this morning. They also had the best poultry sausage I have ever tasted. 

So last night Tracy and I got so caught up in food and talking and then a treadmill workout that we completely forgot to go shopping at Athleta (totally awesome athletic and casual clothing store that I am totally addicted to). That is ok as I really don't need any more clothes. But that store sure is fun. So, we will save that for another time. Of course, I will be coming back to Houston next week...

Jenny asked about what it was like to fly the company jet. It is cool, but totally not that posh. (Jenny asked if it had lounge seats and if we got food, etc). What she described sounds like what I envision our CEO's executive jet must be like, but I can only imagine as I have never seen it. The corporate jet is a smaller 39 seater ( or something like that- 2 seats on one side of the aisle and a single seat on the other). The seats are a bit more comfy (and definitely less nasty and squeaky) than commercial airlines. We have wifi on the plane as soon as we reach 10,000 ft. They have all sorts of beverages and snacks, and you can even pick more than one!  So, a very nice way to travel. No liquids restrictions in luggage either!

The trip down was a bit nuts as we were delayed an hour in the air due to fog. But that did not affect any of my planned meetings. It has been a whirl wind trip as usual. It has been great catching up with friends from my previous job. There are some things about the job and Houston that I do miss. Tonight there will be even more schmoozing as I have dinner with my boss and the other R&D managers. Then I need to come back and read like 10 promotion forms as well as my group's goals for the year (I have their performance meetings all scheduled for Monday when I am next in Ponca). Tracy and I worked out again this morning (2.5 mile runs last night - short because it was late) and then we did 3 miles on the elliptical machines this morning ( treadmills were full). Seriously, I am actually contemplating going to walk on the treadmills later tonight to decompress from this dinner meeting and all this schmoozing and of course procrastinate all of this reading. Ha!  Seriously though, if I wear my workout clothes for a third time in a row, they may eject me from the hotel due to stench!

... ... ...


So as a quick follow up. Dinner was really... Strange. The service was abysmal. It took forever to get drinks even though over half of us ( out of 15) ordered water. We didn't order dinner until after the appetizers came out and those took forever because the hotel was unaccustomed to making platters of appetizers. What?  This is a swanky hotel, with inferences, and functions, and weddings, etc. and the chef can't do platters?  Anyway, the appetizers took forever, but probably some of the best quesadillas EVER!  They also had "nachos" that were homemade potato chips covered in cheese and chili, tomatoes, salsa, guac, and sour cream. Weird but yummy!  So, we ate so many appetizers(cause the platters were HUGE) that no one was hungry for dinner. That's ok cause I got the chicken pot pie which was more like a cream of chicken soup with croutons thrown on top.  Plus they gave me nasty regular fries instead of the sweet potato fries that I ordered.

In the meantime, the executive Vice President for government affairs came in and crashed our party.  Which was great on the one hand because he told all sorts of interesting rid bits about the inauguration parties and events. However, with his arrival our relaxing dinner turned much more formal and businesslike, especially when we had to go around the table and introduce ourselves and describe what we and/or our groups do. Fun!

Anyway, dinner finally ended about 8:45 pm. Then I was convinced by two of my younger female workers to join them in the gym for a workout ( my second of the day). So, I logged 3 more running miles. It was fun catching up with them. They may be younger and less gray, but I am faster than them!  :)

Ok, time to hit the hay!