New York

After extremely delayed flights, Scott and I arrived at the most disgusting crack house ever the hotel around 1 am on Wednesday morning.  In an effort to be price conscious, I had booked a discount hotel for our New York media trip… and immediatley felt unsure about the decision.  I’m not high maintenance when it comes to bucking up and trucking through undesirable situations.  I’ve lived in some pretty gnarly places all over the world.  Historically, I always included these environments as part of the adventure.   Unfortunately, I have seen my fair share of bed bugs and I’ve come to learn that there’s nothing a pair of industrial strength ear plugs can’t shut out from my dreamy slumber.

At around 1:03 am, I caved.   (But hey, no tears!)

Thank you, Priceline.   We booked a new hotel for the following evening.  Scott and I decided we could weather the storm and put on a happy face for the next few hours until our early morning appointment.  Luckily, we had about 12 pounds of packing wrap from all the samples we brought to use as body condoms- protecting us from the sheets, the flooring, the pillows, etc.  Really, what are the odds that we would be able to construct a little synthetic polymer fort in our hotel prison?   If suffocation wasn’t an inevitable effect, I would have wrapped my pouting (albeit tearless!) face.

Luckily, it was only the start of the trip that was bumpy.  Scott and I buzzed around the city like we knew where we were going.  Jumping from meetings at Rodale to Meredith to Wenner, it was a fast and fun ride.

Scott and I, coming from the eternally chillaxed state of Northern California, had to brush up on our NY state of mind.  We knew we had to talk faster, move quickly and get to the point.

We tried.  We really did.

But come on, nothing says “I’m out of place but clearly living a way better life than you people” like a soul surfer in a sea of suits.

Scott went with his ‘professional plaid’ ensemble.

You can take the guy out of San Francisco… but you’ll never kill the hippy.  How does that saying go again?  Whatever.  The point is, put Scott in a PR/sales meeting, and he will KILL it.  No sweat.  (*Disclaimer, he’s better with a little liquid courage to propel him through.  We all are.)

Clearly, I’m kidding.  We did not drink before the meetings.  We did, however, take some time to snap photos as we rushed between appointments.

Sidenote: When the heck did those wrinkles around my eyes pop up?  Ugh.  Gordon, if you are reading this, that whole baby thing might be coming sooner than we thought.  I’m visibly running out of time.

We came back this Monday to a bustling office- a healthy kick in the arse to jump-start an insanely busy week.  NY was actually the best preparation for the grind that has been the last 72 hours at the OPR World Headquarters.  This is the beauty of OPR… we inadvertently prepare ourselves for everything.  Even crack-houses.