Lost in Alexandria

Okay it was an eventful weekend in case anyone give two shits. I left early Thursday morning to drive from PA down to Alexandria, VA. I had a 1:30pm appointment for an interview at my company's HQs. I applied to our "executive training" program which is where if they pick you you're basically trained and groomed over a 12-24 month period to become a lower-tiered executive (i.e. VP, area manager, site manager). You have to go down to HQ every few weeks for training and to work alongside the COO, current VPs, presidents, etc. Therefore, there's quite a bit at stake. If you get accepted you're in like a dirty shirt....if you don't then you just have to keep doing what you're doing and wait until next time they open it up to apply. Anyway, the trip down was boring and I got into town at about 11:30am. Of course nowadays you cannot check in to many hotels until 3pm....what the fuck is up with that? Then you have to check out by 11am or 12pm the next day? So basically I (my company) was paying $439.00 after tax for a hotel room for 20 hours max! What a bag of shit....anyway I digress.

I got to the hotel and told them to give me a temporary parking card since I couldn't check in yet which they did. Then I found a nice restaurant and ate lunch. Then I got my car back out and drove to HQ for my interview. Everything went extremely well and I will hear the results sometime this week. Although after the interview our HR manager pulled me aside and told me to expect to be accepted. That's great but I will wait to hear the official word before I get goosy.

So then I went back and checked in to my hotel and shit, showered and shaved....okay I didn't really shave. I then walked over to the chart house restairant on the potomac river. Great place...I go there every time I am in Alexandria. I ate crab cakes that were the best I have ever had and drank a beer....okay about 10 beers. I was there for a while meeting interesting characters at the bar and telling jokes and stuff....great time. So then I stumbled around Old Town Alexandria and hit a couple other bars. By the end of the night I had a crowd of like 10 people accompanying me as I continued my bar crawl. I don't know if it was because they took pity on me or if I was just amusing them with my jokes and wit. Yeah, probably the pity choice. So sue me....I was happy that things went well and wanted to celebrate!

So then I had enough drinking and decided to walk back to the hotel. The hotel is right there where all these bars and restaurants are. Well I am walking for what seems like an hour and I was like, "Wait a minute, where the fuck am I?" Somehow I got lost during my3 block walk back to the hotel. I looked around and couldn't find it for the life of me! So I had to wait until a taxi came and I hopped in and told the guy the name of my hotel. So he starts giggling and pulls around the corner and there it was! He didn't charge me but I gave "giggles" a couple bucks anyway....he looked like he could use it. Pretty sad, I used to be able to walk many miles through the woods in the middle of the night and find an orange metal pole in the pitch dark but I couldn't find a building the size of a city block from right around the fucking corner!

Then I slept and drove home Friday and relaxed. Saturday I woke up at 6am and went mountain biking. Poconos is excellent for mountain biking and I tried a new trail that kicked my ass badly. My legs still hurt but I had fun. Lots of stream crossings and cliffs and mud since it's been raining a lot. Plus there's hunters in the woods hunting turkey so there's always the risk of being shot which makes things interesting....and there was a ton of shooting going on. I did some grocery shopping and played with my dog and that's about it. I am pissed I couldn't go out on my boat because of the shit weather....but I will get out there this weekend. The best thing is that in a week I fly to Germany and get to see my girls! I am happy about that. Anyway, sorry this is so long. I will let you know what I hear about the interview.