On the Road Again

I've been traveling again for work! Unfortunately, it's not as often as I used to with my old job, but I appreciate the time I'm able to get away from the office (while still working) to my favorite... you know it... W Hotels and the like. : ) Lately, my travels have mostly involved visiting one of our printers in Minneapolis, MN. I have a cousin who lives in Minneapolis, but unfortunately, I haven't been able to reach out to meet up with her due to the always tight schedule. I hope I get a chance to see her soon! I tell you, lately it feels like Minneapolis is my home away from home.

My last few trips have been in January. Yes, January in Minnesota! A coworker called it "Minne-snow-ta" the other day. This year though, same as it's been in Northern California, they've also had a mild winter. During past trips to Minneapolis, I've experienced 19 below zero wind chill factor, it's not fun. This year the temperatures have been closer to the upper 30's, here is a photo from a recent trip. Only a few inches of snow, but white and chilly nevertheless.


I've been primarily staying at the W Minneapolis - The Foshay. One thing I've been doing differently lately is that I've been exploring the downtown Skyway system. Check it out, it's fascinating! Did you know, when you're staying or working in downtown Minneapolis, you can get almost anywhere without stepping foot outdoors into the frigid weather? I've heard people liken it to running around in hamster tunnels, but find it functional and necessary for certain parts of the year. I like the idea of being able to easily get to shopping, restaurants, and even a Timberwolves game without racing from the car to indoors to avoid the weather! So far, I've managed to navigate my way past banks and even advertising agencies, to the downtown Target and Macy's stores. In the morning, it's nice to find more than one Caribou Coffee via the skyway before I rush to the car taking me to our printer or to the airport. Very convenient, I like it.

Wordless Wednesday: I'm Going to Minneapolis Too!

Happy 2012!

Yep, yes, I know... It's been a very, very long time since I've blogged. Between the adjustment to my new job and wondering if anyone actually reads my blog (hi Mom and Dad), I took a break. I can't promise I'll be posting on a regular basis, but due to the fact it's a big New Year, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to jump on board again.

So, my new job is at Apple. That's all I can tell you about that. ; ) OK, OK, all I'll say at this point is that the commute from the city kinda sucks, but I like my job and the people I'm working along side. It also helps that I've always been a bit of an Apple geek. I think I've loved Apple since I sat in 3rd grade computer lab learning how to type commands on an Apple II computer. How far they've come!

Otherwise, I'm doing well. I'll try to post some updates on my knee and other things in life in the coming days. Hey, if you're out there... If anyone is reading this, can you post a comment and say hello? Yes, even you Mom and Dad. : ) Like I've mentioned in the past, my blog has ended up being more for me than anyone else, but if you're out there please let me know!

Last Day

Today was my last day with Gap Inc. It was bittersweet. I spent 4 years of my life working my butt off for Old Navy. Yes, sometimes it was stressful, I worked late nights and sometimes on weekends. Yet, I loved my job. Being laid off came as a shock and I still can't quite believe it happened.

As my colleague destroyed my employee discount card in front of me (nice, huh?), I took my first step into the next stage of my career. I've planned to take a week off before I embark on my new job with Apple Inc! Apple has hired me on as a Print Production contractor from mid-July until the end of November. The position is similar to the one I had at Old Navy, color retouching, negotiating with printers, press checks, etc. Instead of color retouching models and clothing, I'll be reviewing color for screens and hardware. As of now, the position is short-term, but we'll see what happens. I accepted the offer mainly for the opportunity to work for Apple, who wouldn't want that? But, the job also appeals to me because I've been told there is a possibility the position could be extended beyond November. It was an opportunity I couldn't refuse!

The only down side is the commute... 50 miles south to Cupertino, California. Ugh. That's over an hour of driving each way and my Jeep isn't the most gas-efficient vehicle. I'm planning to try the Apple coach buses from SF to Cupertino and see how that goes. Wish me luck!

Just a Hint

I have a new job!

A New Chapter

A week and half after I was told my job was going to be eliminated, I got a call. The call was from the Strategic Sourcing team at the corporate headquarters of my company. I worked with this team regularly in the past so when they heard about what happened, they thought of me.

A member of their team was going on maternity leave for about 5 months so they offered that I take her place while she is gone. I was skeptical at first. What about Print Production? The position with the Sourcing team is as an analyst. Me? An analyst? Luckily, when I met with the director of their team, he said the short-term position could be adjusted to fit my abilities. Nice. I won't go into great detail, but they went over and above and it was an offer I couldn't refuse! They understand I will be actively looking for a new print production position. Since it fills their needs and gives me some breathing room to find a new job, it's a win-win for everyone! This photo is the view from the building I'm working in now. Pretty cool, huh?

Shocked

You never think it's going to happen to you... until it does. There was no warning, even in hindsight I didn't see this coming. At the end of February, I got laid off my job. : (

Why me? I had given everything to my job as a Print Production Manager on windows and in-store Marketing. I loved working for this company more than any other job I've ever had. I can't say it was an easy job. I worked long hours, traveled quite a bit, and at times, brought work home over the weekend. Even so, I had finally made it to my dream job and was grateful every day to be working for one of the company's three retail brands. Over the last 4 years I received positive reviews and felt I was growing leaps and bounds as a manager and print buyer. Of course, I wasn't perfect, there is always room for improvement. I'm sure that is the case for just about everyone, right?

I was told over and over this wasn't a "performance-based" elimination. It was just business. The window marketing strategy had changed and the higher-ups in the department felt that due to this change, workload would be less. Since a large part of my job was the windows, my position had been eliminated. It was shocking and devastating. I kept thinking, why didn't this go some other way? There were 8 people on the print production team. Why me and not one of them? It's not always the last person hired, or the most junior level person. It became even more clear that sometimes, no matter how hard you work, each employee is just a number. A sad realization, but true.

I was told my last day with the company would be April 4, then I would receive several weeks severance pay. I don't know whether this was good, bad or average, but I was made to think that it was better than most. Good old HR language, I am sure. What I'm trying to keep in the forefront of my mind is one thing. More people than not have told me their lay-off experience took them to an even better place in life. I certainly hope it turns out that way for me!

They Like Me, They Really Like Me!

OK, they probably just like me for the money my company spends for me to stay there. Hey, as far as I'm concerned right now, it's a win-win! If you've read my blog in the past, you know that my current favorite place to stay when I travel to Los Angeles is W Hollywood. During my last few stays, I've had some unusual breakfast experiences. One time, I placed my order the night before (if you hang a your breakfast order on the handle outside your door by Midnight, your food will be delivered at the time you choose on the order form) and it never arrived. I was charged for it on my bill so before I left I noted this and they gave me a credit. The second time, since I now didn't trust that I would get my breakfast if I left my order on the door the night before, I called to place my order in the morning. The room service staff then told me they were very busy and I wouldn't be able to get breakfast for an hour. Forget that!

This is what showed up in my room during my recent stay. An apology note accompanied this lovely bowl of fruit and bottle of water! So nice of them.


Here are a couple of other photos from my stay:

Isn't it nice how they parked my silver SUV (glorified mini-van) next to the Lamborghini?

This is the view of the stairs from the Living Room I may not have shown in the past. It's a little gaudy, but so L.A. fabulous!

The Suite Life

I've been going to Los Angeles a lot for work lately. There a few more trips planned for early next year too, so I'm getting used to the "suite" life. Not always, but most of the time I've booked a room at the W Hollywood lately they've upgraded me to a suite! This is due to my Starwood Hotels Platinum level membership. It's taken me some time, but I finally made it! I think I may have mentioned this in a past post, but it's fun so humor me to read about it again. ; ) Whenever there is a suite available at one of the Starwood hotels (Westin, Sheraton, W Hotels, St. Regis, etc.), if you are at a Platinum level, you are supposed to get an upgrade. It's nice! That said, sometimes I think, "This whole place is just for lil' ol' me?" I feel like I should be calling everyone I know in the area and throwing a party! Alas, it's a work trip and I'm usually needed on press early each morning. It's hard to see color well with a headache, so I usually have mellow evenings... in a room that is bigger than my apartment in San Francisco!

The Fabulous Suite. Bedroom/Living Room separated by a curtain behind the couch.

If you want to watch TV in bed, simply slide the curtain around to one side of the couch!

The couch. I can't say it's all that comfy, but it looks good!

Flat screen TV and desk.

The bathroom. Yes, a tub AND a separate shower. I love the lighting around their mirrors,

it's set so you always look great! ; )

Snow and Prohibition

Ah, Minneapolis... One my work travel locations. I hadn't been there in a while, but I really enjoy the reps from the printing company I send work to there. They are just really down to earth, nice people. Not the shifty, sales-y people you run into most of the time. This trip was a little cold and snowy, but I missed the worst of the snow that hit a few days before I arrived. I was able to stay at the W Foshay, in downtown Minneapolis. I had only stayed there once before, but like it a lot since the hotel has some history. It was at one time the tallest skyscraper in Minneapolis. It wasn't a "W hotel" then, obviously, but when W took it over and renovated it, they did a great job in capturing the history. If you ride the elevator to the top, there is a viewing deck similar to the Empire State Building, but on a smaller scale. This time, I decided to pop into their bar called Prohibition for a martini before I called it a night.

Sorry it's a little small, I pulled this from the hotel website.

A downtown view from Prohibition. The lights inside were low and looked kinda purple in the photos!

I was trying to catch the snow outside on the ledge. Can you see it?

A Cosmo. I know, I know... but I really like them! This one actually wasn't very good, but it was pretty.

More from La La Land

Yep, another trip to Los Angeles and the W Hollywood Hotel. Since I'm now a Platinum level Starwoood Preferred Member, I got an upgrade to a "Marvelous Suite!" This room was waaay to big for one person!

The "Living Room"

With TV

Around the corner, the bedroom with TV

Shower and tub!

And a nice little bottle of water in my rental car when I left. : )

Wordless Wednesday: Sunset in Santa Monica

Chattanooga Choo Choo

During the second week of June I traveled to the state of Tennessee for the very first time! I went to Chattanooga, TN to print my company's upcoming school uniform display. The week I arrived (via a plane change in Charlotte, NC) there were limited hotel rooms available due to the upcoming weekend's River Bend Music Festival. My rep at the printer I was working with managed to find me a room at a bed & breakfast in Bluff View, the arts district of town.

The Charlotte, NC airport. It had been a long time since I had been here. I had forgotten all about the rocking chairs!

The Bluff View Inn. I was in the Highlander Room.

A way-finding sign nearby

The area turned out to be really quaint and quiet. The weather was hot and humid in the 90's and thunderstorms were expected. I was glad the storms didn't arrive until the second day I was there. The inn was right up from the Hunter Museum of American Art, which if I had more time, I would have liked to see. It was only a short walk to downtown Chattanooga and the river.

The Hunter Museum. A mix of old and new.

A view of the river. This bridge is for pedestrians only.

My favorite find in Chattanooga was Rembrandt's Coffee. My stay at the inn gave me a complimentary breakfast and coffee each morning at this lovely place. Besides coffee, they sold hand-dipped chocolates and served cafe style lunches and dinners. I ordered chicken-salad with fruit for dinner one night that was to die for! It was chicken-salad sandwich style (without the bread), but had a lovely mild Indian spice that made it just a little more special than typical chicken-salad. Rembrandt's was also a great place to bring my laptop and get online. It was a crazy week at work so I wasn't exactly relaxing in the evenings. The cafe had a wonderful atmosphere though and was great for people-watching. I hope to go back there sometime soon.

Indoor and patio seating at Rembrandt's.

A fruit, yogurt, and granola breakfast. My Mom would love this!

The Historic W Foshay

Continuing my obsession with W hotels, I was finally able to stay at the W Foshay in downtown Minneapolis, MN. The last time I tried to stay there was in the dead of Winter so the reps from the printer I work with in the Minneapolis area pleaded with me to not stay downtown. There happened to be a snow storm and it would have been a slow traffic-laden drive from downtown to the plant in the suburbs. OK... I agreed. Next time though!

The first week of June was "next time." I was not disappointed. I've stayed in some pretty great rooms in W hotels, but this one was really cool and historic. The Foshay building, completed in 1929, was originally an office building and was considered the "first skyscraper West of the Mississippi." The 32-floor building was modeled after the Washington Monument in D.C. In 2006 it was purchased and renovated into a W hotel which opened in 2008.

I loved it! My room was so quiet and comfortable. I wished I was going to be there more than one night. Here are some photos from my stay:

An artist's rendering of the 1929 Minneapolis skyline.

The view from the street 2010 (I pulled this photo from the website, it was not a sunny day when I arrived).

The observation deck on the 30th floor. It was like a mini-Empire State Building.

My corner room! Each floor only had 6-8 rooms.

The desk, TV and bar

Comfy bed

W Hollywood - The Scene

If you've ever read my blog, you know I have a bit of an obsession with W Hotels. Last year I learned that construction on a new W Hotel was underway in Hollywood and it would open in early 2010. Some W Hotel room rates, for whatever reason, are out of the Gap Inc. price range so I just waited patiently to find out what the going rate was for this new location.

Woo hoo! It fell within our price limit. I was very excited to check it out in late March. Most W's have a contemporary, modern decor and this one definitely fit the bill. I found my room a bit on the "too-white" side, a little sterile in my opinion, but comfortable nonetheless.



The funky music, hip employees, and time-of-day changing floor mats (Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Good Evening) near the elevators made me feel the usual W vibe. This hotel even had a little "bling" around the door peepholes. This must have been a nod to the glitter of Hollywood!


The night I spent at the W Hollywood was pleasant and great for people-watching. I could tell this was a growing "scene," if you know what I mean, and experienced it during a later visit. Let's just say Drai's Hollywood, the new "it" bar on the roof top of the hotel, was full of celebrity wanna-be's and look-how-important-I-am types. Ugh. As long as you don't take that too seriously, this is a fun place to stay. Oh, and I don't think I've ever seen such good looking valets. They must have had to submit head shots to get their jobs!

Hotlanta... Not So "Hot"

The weather during my trip to Atlanta was freezing! It actually snowed the second day. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon and after a long flight and shuttle ride from the airport (the driver was literally yelling out specific landmarks, we had no idea we would be getting an informal tour of the city!), I arrived at the W Hotel Midtown. It was great! As you all know, I'm a little obsessed with W Hotels. So far I haven't stayed at one I didn't like. I was given a "Spectacular" room on the 19th floor which was modern, yet comfortable. I always like that aspect of this hotel chain. Here are some photos:

The Entrance

My room

The view, day one

Thursday night, day two, a little snow

The snow the second day simply shut down the city on Friday. The experience reminded of me when I lived in Richmond, Virginia. Like Richmond, Atlanta just doesn't have equipment to remove snow from roads quickly and everyone simply panics. Schools where closed on Friday and all were discouraged from getting on the roads unless they really had to do so. Personally, I had to get to the printer. It turned out to be good that my ride was the printers plant operations manager, who was from Wisconsin. He was one of the few who understood driving on snow and ice. My press checks were slow-going on Friday due to employees arriving late to work because of the road conditions, but we made it through and accomplished what we needed to do by the end of the day. Whew... I was a little worried. Once the day was over I was on to a more enjoyable part of my trip, seeing some friends. More to come...

In-Flight Wireless

Right now, I am blogging in flight to Atlanta! This is the first flight I've been on that offers wireless onboard. So cool. I'm on my way to a few days of press checks, then a short visit to see my friend Liz who recently moved with her family from California to Atlanta, GA. I'm excited to be able to see them.

I'm staying at yet another W Hotel in Midtown Atlanta. Photos to come (if it's photo-worthy)! I better get off my webblog and actually get some work done on my laptop. Work is paying for this internet connection so I feel obligated to use it for something other than my personal blog. ;)

More Travels

In late November/early December, I was out of town for almost 2 weeks and away from the office for 3 weeks! As I previously posted, I was in Los Angeles the two days before Thanksgiving, I headed back to L.A. the first week of December and spent my birthday there.

It took me a while to decide what to pack for the trip. The plan was to spend Mon, Nov 31 - Fri, Dec 4 in L.A, then fly up to Spokane for my niece Morgan's 2nd birthday. Last, I went from Spokane to Minneapolis, MN on Dec 8 for more press checks. The weather in Los Angeles was to be much different than Spokane or Minneapolis, but I tried not to worry about bringing a heavy coat because my suitcase was heavy as it was! Well, it turned out I really needed that heavy coat. This was the weather when I flew into Minneapolis.


Yikes... I had planned to stay downtown, but the reps at the printing company I work with recommended I change my reservations to a hotel closer to their plant. Good call. I was in Minneapolis for 3 nights and each night I returned to my hotel room and cranked up the heat! This was the view from my hotel window:


Burr... you should have seen me the first morning I was there, trudging across the parking lot to my beloved Caribou Coffee in a winter jacket appropriate for San Francisco in the Fall. The guys from the printer called it a "windbreaker." Thank goodness one of their wives offered one of her winter coats for me to borrow. I figure the next trip I should take one of my winter coats with me from the time I lived in Salt Lake City and leave it there.

My next trip? Atlanta, GA in January.

A Quick Trip to L.A.

This week spent two days in L.A. for work. I flew down Sunday night in order to be at the printing plant for press checks early on Monday morning. When I booked my flight and hotel last week I figured I would stay at one of the 2 or 3 hotels I tend to frequent in the L.A. area. My company doesn't limit our lodging to particular hotels, but there are company "preferred" hotels that offer a special rate. I've also learned if we want to stay somewhere that is not a "preferred" hotel, as long as we keep within a reasonable rate (which varies depending on the city) we can stay wherever we please. Usually my business trips involve staying at hotels within the Starwood chain. I must earn my Starwood points! I have gotten myself to their "Gold" level status and am working towards "Platinum." My plan is to be able to use the points I'm earning towards a personal trip in the near future.

To get back to this trip, last week I was playing around with my SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) application on my iPhone and realized the W Los Angeles was offering a really good rate for the two days I needed to stay in LA. Yipee!! I love W hotels. Usually this particular W charges more than what I am comfortable paying for a work trip so I've stuck to the Sheraton or Westin hotels in the Starwood group which are nice, but do not generate excitement o my part. So, I was more than a little excited to be staying at the W Los Angeles. If you haven't been to or stayed at a W hotel, they are pretty swanky. Not "swanky" in the way that they are outrageously pretentious. They are modern contemporary, hip, and even a little eccentric. The music in the lobbies, bars, and elevators play an electronic edgy beat which I enjoy in the moment, but I'm never quite sure I'm cool enough to listen to regularly. Anyway, I rented my car and drove to Westwood on Sunday night (I skipped the W valet parking... ahem... $32 per night(!), and parked on the street in the UCLA neighborhood), walked into the hotel and up to the brushed stainless steel and glass reservations desk to check in. The nice gentleman at the desk gave me a free upgrade (Yay gold level!) to a Spectacular Suite. I was appreciative of the upgrade, but only half listened to the fact he called it a "suite." I rolled my bag to the elevator which, annoyingly, had a camera focused on me riding the elevator and a screen showing the images it was taking. Does my hair really look that bad? Hmm... when is the elevator going to get to the 10th floor?

I opened my door and walked into the coolest room! I wanted to live there, it was so great. Of course it wasn't as if they upgraded me to the best room in the hotel, but you see, I live in a studio apartment in San Francisco. When I travel for work I stay in hotels that are one room 99% of the time. This suite had a separate bedroom... with a door I could close! Hey, this is exciting for a small studio apartment dweller. Here are some photos from my trip. Oh, and the work part went well too. : )

The Living Room #1

The Living Room #2

Bedroom through the left door, bathroom to the right

The office and munchie bar to the right of the Living Room

The comfy bedroom

Another TV in the bedroom!

"The Backyard" as they called it.

The pool transformed into a skating rink for the Winter.