note: I am writing this last night; you’ll see why eventually.

With the sporadic scheduling going on with this new project, I’m not really in a position to take a list of 30 weeks’ worth of reservations to a hotel general manager and set up a regular arrangment like I did on the last one. So, I’m limited to booking out based on what I know, and hopping hotels a bit.

This week, I’m in a hotel that I haven’t stayed at in over a year; I don’t recognize the place. They’ve done a complete remodel, and upgraded most of the furnishings, hardware, and amenities. The beds are still super-comfy, and the lady running the concierge lounge is still as friendly as ever, but the color scheme is just different, and feels, right now, a little “off”.

And, I don’t think their quite done with the upgrade…I’ve got a big, fancy 40 inch flat-panel HDTV in the room, but everything on it looks like streched, pixellated crap, because they’re still feeding it a degraded analog signal. Thankfully, I don’t watch much TV when I’m on the road. The sad part is, I’m pretty sure nobody else in the building notices what’s wrong.

Also, in switching hotels, I’m making a trade-off; lots of free food for no free internet. To get online without trying to scam off of a neighbor’s unsecure wireless router (and there aren’t any right now; that’s what I get for staying in a tech-saavy neighborhood), I have to drop 10 bucks a day; that’s too rich for me, except in a dire emergency…my webkinz garden will keep for a couple of days (yes, I have a webkinz account, what of it? That way I can feed and bankroll my kids so their virtual pets don’t starve).

However, my goal for Wednesday is to spend $0 on food and still eat well; I think I can manage, thanks to a backpack full of purloined fresh fruit for lunch, and assuming good favor from the menu gods for dinner. Everybody has to have a project.

With the new project, I also have a new office; it’s in the same building, but it’s quite an upgrade from the last one. I have a really nice chair, some room to stretch out, a window(!) and my cell phone actually gets reception somewhere besides the men’s toilet. The weird thing is that after spending 10 months in a tiny room with co-workers packed tightly on top of each other, things feel eerily quiet and secluded. I suppose I’ll get used to the luxury, but, like the hotel, it just feels kind of weird right now.

This has been a time-delayed window into Chuck’s mind. We now return you to your regularly scheduled internet.